Multnomah County is preparing for a major earthquake

2020 could also be the year of the Cascadia Subduction Earthquake.

Last week, Multnomah County received recommendations from the community to replace the seismically intact Burnside Bridge as part of the county project to prepare Portland for the possibility of a massive earthquake.

The Oregon Bureau of Energy Management stated, “Oregon has the potential for an earthquake of magnitude 9.0+ on the Richter scale resulting from the Cascadia subduction zone.” “At the moment, scientists predict that there is a 37% chance of a massive earthquake … in the next 50 years.”

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is produced by the Juan de Fuca plate located in the Pacific Ocean, which reaches North America. It stretches from northern California to Vancouver Island in Canada, and lies anywhere from 70 to 100 miles of coastline.

About 80 miles off the coast, Portland is in the middle of the subduction zone. Even during a global pandemic and civil unrest, Multnomah County has not forgotten this potential natural disaster and is pushing ahead with preparations to mitigate the damage.

So, how does Multnomah County plan to make the Burnside Bridge seismically sound enough to survive? According to Diane Mog and noted Khsravivar, a professor of geotechnical engineering in Portland, one of the key aspects is liquefaction.

Liquefaction occurs when an earthquake turns soil into soft and broth. The easy way to understand liquefaction, Khasravivar said, is to close your eyes and imagine you are at the coast.

“When you walk on the beach, the soil under your feet – the saturated sand – is very hard,” Khasravivar said. “It can bear your weight. But then, if you start moving back and forth and jumping up and down, the soil starts to get really soft and looks like it bleeds out of the water. This is a liquefaction. This is a repetitive load – what an earthquake does to the soil. So, all of a sudden, it has become.” Soil that was qualified enough to withstand your load is really loose. ”

Liquefiable soils are usually found alongside rivers, such as Willamette and Columbia. “Anywhere you go in the world where you have two components – major rivers that deposit really loose soil or material and active fault – when you have these two components together, there is a real risk of liquefaction,” Khasravivar said.

Multnomah County officials want to make sure that a single bridge spanning the Willamette River into Portland will not be subject to liquefaction during the massive earthquake in the Cascadia region.

“[Liquefaction] It’s really a big part of what guides the design of the new bridge, “Moog explained. They wanted to move the foundation away from the weak soil that would be subject to liquefaction. They would place the bridge piers in the middle of the river, where the likelihood of soil liquefaction is less.”

Moog and Khosravivar are currently looking for ways to ease liquefaction along the Willamette River in northwest Portland, where the center of critical energy infrastructure is located, and around Portland Airport runways near the Columbia River.

As the county continues to prepare the main infrastructure for the major earthquake, residents are asking themselves what they can do to help prepare themselves and their community.

There are some simple things we can all do now to prepare for a potential future disaster, says Yu Xiao, a Portland State professor whose research focuses on disaster management and community resilience.

“The best way to prepare is to take care of yourself first,” said Xiao. “You don’t want to be a responsibility to someone else. So, first pay attention to your basic needs. Then help others.”

Xiao warned that this is not a call to stockpile of huge reserves of toilet paper, as seen at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think water is the most important thing,” said Xiao. I suggested investing in a water purifier, which you can also use while hiking or camping. She also said residents should have non-perishable food for two weeks on hand.

Finally, Xiao emphasized the importance of having the digital resources available in physical form. “Back up your documents. Make copies of your important files. Keep them together and put them in a bag. “If an earthquake happened, you want to be able to grab it and leave,” said Xiao.

Although the thought of a massive earthquake amid all the other challenges that 2020 brought to Portland could be frightening, Xiao remained optimistic.

“Keep your mind positive and adapt,” said Xiao. “Adaptation – this is the key word. We can only adapt to changes.”

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