Emergency officials prepare Lewis County for the 9.0 كاس Cascadia earthquake

June 15 — If humans can see the future, the West Coast will likely spend every moment from now until its arrival preparing for the impending Cascadia 9.0 earthquake.

Off the coast, the Jaun De Fuca and North American tectonic plates – huge portions of Earth’s upper crust – are currently trapped in an arm-wrestling match that stretches for centuries along the 700-mile-wide subduction zone.

Eventually, it would give off a fault line, causing a 9.0-magnitude earthquake. Geologists call this catastrophe the “giant confidence”. According to researchers from the University of Washington, a gigantic force of 9.0 on the Richter scale is the greatest threat to life as people know it in the Pacific Northwest: worse than floods, volcanic activity, landslides, or a tsunami. In fact, a large earthquake can cause all of these disasters at once.

Is Lewis County ready?

That’s what the Lewis County Department of Emergency Management (DEM) is trying to find out this week. At workshops across the county, department staff introduces community members to an earthquake preparedness tabletop exercise along with other agencies across the state and the Northwest.

Throughout the week, discussion groups are broken down by communities. Held Monday at Baw Faw Grange for residents of Boistfort, Adna, Doty and Pe Ell. The workshop was held Tuesday at the Salvation Army in Centralia, with a focus on communities in the Twin Cities. On Wednesday, the event was scheduled to take place at the Wenlock Senior Center for South Lewis County Communities. On Thursday, the Bob Lyle Community Center in Morton will be the venue for discussions in East Louis County communities.

The department also has various earthquake preparedness resources on its website which can be accessed free of charge.

As stated in a video presented by DEM on Monday, the probability of such an earthquake ripping the region in the next 50 years is about 30%.

The probability of an earthquake is very similar to 100%.

The story continues

When that happens, it will almost certainly change the landscape forever and reorganize the way society as a whole operates. Normal life lines will be cut in daily life, including access to communications, hospitals, groceries, electricity and drinking water. After an earthquake, weeks may pass before any lifelines are restored.

Ross McDowell, deputy director of DEM, said Lewis County has about 96 bridges. In an earthquake of magnitude 9.0, it is very likely that you will collapse. The water from the many tsunamis on the coast has to go somewhere, McDowell said, creating the possibility that the Chehalis River is “flowing backwards” from Grace Harbor upstream. There will also be landslides all over the area.

Combined, these factors will separate Lewis County into dozens of isolated areas between which members of the community cannot travel by standard transportation.

Erica Kat of DEM showed a map on Monday with the different isolation areas represented in different colours.

“It’s a very colorful map,” Kat said. “That’s not a good thing. I like beautiful maps, but it’s scary.”

But that’s exactly why DEM is showing it on the road to communities across the county. In the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, communities on each isolated island will have to fend for themselves while broader government services and disaster responders are overburdened. Therefore, the staff said, it is important to think about the resources that are in one’s community now, before a disaster strikes.

The workshop encourages communities to create a meeting point and resource group. DEM also stressed the importance of understanding what you have to offer and what your neighbor has to offer. Perhaps a neighbor owns a four-wheeled cart, which can provide transportation. Maybe someone else has a radio, who can provide the connection. Only by gathering and planning quietly can isolated groups put all of these things together.

“For the assets that we have here in your community, this is probably one of the best communities that existed during the 2007 and 2008 floods for various reasons. One of them is self-sufficiency,” McDowell said, adding, “Here, there’s no water that doesn’t come out of the tap, You’re like, “Okay, let me get my tools.” That kind of situation, that’s a survivor’s attitude.

The tabletop scenario assumes that 96 hours ago, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake shook the Cascadia Subduction for five minutes, causing a tsunami on the coast between 12 and 80 feet within the next hour. Additional tsunami and aftershocks continued for at least 24 hours. Local life lines will be affected as follows:

Health and medicine: More than 1,000 survivors with varying degrees of injuries have tried to reach hospitals. Most hospitals sustained moderate damage, resulting in the loss of approximately 40 beds at Providence Central Hospital and 20 beds at Arbor Health Morton Hospital. Countywide, there have been more than 300 deaths.

Safety and Security: Government services were overburdened after the earthquake. Impacts on all other life lines hamper agencies’ ability to provide essential life-saving services such as firefighting.

Food, Water and Shelter: More than 7,000 IDP survivors are in dire need of short-term shelter, and more than 25,000 people are in need of nutrition and water for themselves and their pets. More than 3,000 buildings were severely damaged and considered unusable for shelter including many schools and churches, which are usually used for shelter purposes. Over 89% of drinking water facilities experienced moderate to high damage.

—Power (Power and Fuel): Most of Lewis County faces conditions of complete blackout. The power infrastructure at the county level has sustained moderate to high damage.

Transportation: Over 1,000 miles of state, county, and special roads have moderate to high damage or are inaccessible, requiring repair or removal. 90% of the bridges have also been damaged, collapsed or in imminent danger of collapse.

Communications: More than 65,000 people lost access to standard communications services in the aftermath of the earthquake. Lack of communication networks limits ongoing status assessments.

Hazardous Substances: More than 100 facilities in Lewis County containing highly hazardous materials have released chemicals, with nearly 300 individuals exposed. 88% of Lewis County sanitation facilities experienced moderate to high damage.

Ninety-six hours later, additional energy sources such as generators begin to run out of fuel, and even if survivors find their way to a gas station, there is no certainty that the station has the electricity to pump the fuel.

With infrastructure severely damaged, travel to and from anywhere will be slow, but after 96 hours, people who have evacuated the coast and more tsunami-prone areas including Seattle and Portland will begin to slowly arrive in the county, perhaps first from neighboring Pacific County.

While in this state, resources would be stretched minimally to support local residents and visitors, McDowell was sure this area was ready and self-sufficient enough to be such a haven. Talk about people stranded in Boistfort and its surroundings during the 2007 flood who were greeted by outsiders and are still welcome.

“We’re going to do what we need to do to help our community and anyone who comes through and needs our help, because that’s the kind of people that are here guys,” he said. “That’s the kind of people that are in Lewis County.”

Visit https://lewiscountywa.gov/departments/em Emergency-management/ for more information or to register for the Cascadia Rising event in Morton on Thursday.

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