The increasing risk of flooding

By Lauren Gallup
Aerial photo of flooding on the Skagit River in Nov. 2021. // Courtesy Brandon Parsons, with aerial support by LightHawk.
Jason Vander Kooy said the potential for flooding weighs on his mind every November. Vander Kooy is a dairy farmer — one of many in northwestern Washington. Two years ago, some farmers there dealt with flooding that killed livestock, damaged fields, and overtopped manure lagoons — meaning the basins that store cow waste filled with water and, like a bathtub too full, Read More

By Air And By Bike, Civilian Pilots And Cyclists Rehearse Delivering Aid After ‘The Big One’

By Tom Banse
Private pilots and cyclists will separately take to the air and the streets this month to practice delivering relief supplies after a catastrophic earthquake.
A huge dress rehearsal for regional earthquake disaster relief was supposed to happen next week until the ongoing pandemic forced its cancellation. The scrubbed Cascadia Rising exercise would have involved more than 22,000 participants – chiefly U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen as well as state, local and tribal emergency planners. Some smaller drills are going ahead this Read More

Rehearsing For ‘The Big One’ On A Room-Sized Chess Board

By Tom Banse
Emergency planners could move pins representing earthquake response resources during an exercise at Camp Murray, Washington, on May 4.
Close to 200 federal, state and tribal emergency preparedness planners gathered around a giant map of the Pacific Northwest this week to rehearse and critique the federal response plan for "The Big One." The three-day Cascadia earthquake discussion exercise partially replaced a much bigger planned dress rehearsal that was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.Read More

Washington State And Oregon Considering More Tsunami Refuge Facilities Along Pacific Coast Following New Study

By Tom Banse
A tsunami of local origin leaves precious little time for people to move to higher ground along the Pacific coast.
If you are on the Pacific Northwest Coast when the next Cascadia megaquake strikes — also known as "The Big One"— the standard advice is to run for higher ground as soon as the shaking stops. But in some low-lying places such as Ocean Shores and Long Beach, Washington, and Warrenton and Seaside, Oregon, the closest high ground could be a long walk away over buckled roads.Read More

When ‘The Big One’ Hits The Northwest, What Could You Do With A Few Seconds Warning?

By Tom Banse
A cracked road from an earthquake
Smartphone users who opted in to a test of the West Coast earthquake early warning system got an early taste on Thursday of what is to come. Mobile phones from Seattle to Olympia blared with an alarm for imaginary incoming shaking. The earthquake warning system -- already operational in California -- will launch for the general public in Oregon on March 11 and statewide in Read More

In Southeastern Washington, Geologists Dig Into The Past To Find Fault Signs Of Future Shaking

By Courtney Flatt
USGS volunteer John Lasher helps dig volcanic ash out of the trench in this dig area southeast of Pasco. CREDIT: Courtney Flatt/NWPB
Unlike the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the faults in eastern Washington are in the upper crust, (the outermost layer of the earth). That means they’re closer to the surface and to communities. They may not produce as large of an earthquake as the subduction zone off the coast, but the earthquakes these inland faults can produce could significantly damage infrastructure in Read More
Load More