The Big One Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

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

By Tom Banse May 5, 2022

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

Are You ‘Two Weeks Ready’ For Post-Quake Survival? WA And OR Say You Should Be

By Tom Banse September 9, 2021

State emergency management websites have tips for what to include in your emergency kit. CREDIT: KUOW PHOTO/KJERSTIN WOOD

The state of Oregon has set an ambitious goal to prepare more families in earthquake country to be "two weeks ready" after a disaster. Washington's emergency management agency is also seeking more funding to prepare people in a similar way. Read More

Seismic Research Ship Goes Boom-Boom To Seek Answers At Origin Of The Next Big One

By Tom Banse July 14, 2021

The vessel Marcus Langseth in Washington state.

Earthquake researchers are eager to dig into a trove of new data about the offshore Cascadia fault zone. When Cascadia ruptures, it can trigger a megaquake known as "the Big One." The valuable new imaging of the geology off the Oregon, Washington and British Columbia coasts comes from a specialized research vessel.Read More

The Big One — And Another One. Research Shows Cascadia Quakes Sometimes Trigger San Andreas

By Tom Banse December 3, 2019

The Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coast of North America can produce earthquakes as large as Magnitude 9 and corresponding tsunamis. MUSTAFA LAZKANI / FEMA

Scientists found nine to eleven instances over roughly the last 3,000 years where a Cascadia earthquake seems to have triggered a San Andreas quake. The vast majority of great Cascadia quakes during that period have a correlation on the San Andreas Fault. Read More

Prepping For ‘The Big One’: Coastal Hospitals Get Creative With Disaster Planning

By Tom Banse October 17, 2019

Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital facilities director Chris Lemar shows flexible piping designed to withstand earthquake shaking in the new hospital. CREDIT: Tom Banse/N3

The state of Oregon is pushing the community hospitals along the Oregon Coast to improve their earthquake resilience. This comes after a state report predicted none of them would be able to sustain operations after the feared Big One -- a magnitude 9 offshore Cascadia earthquake and tsunami.Read More

Wildfire Lessons Teach Counties How To Communicate With Spanish Speakers In Other Disasters

By Enrique Pérez de la Rosa October 17, 2019

About 20 homes burned in this Pateros neighborhood, which included the mayor at the time, Libby Harrison, and her mom’s home behind her. The community church behind it survived, but the pastor’s home next door burned. CREDIT: Scott A. Leadingham

Communication is key in emergencies. That’s especially true when the people you’re working to protect don’t speak English. That’s why Washington emergency management offices are working on their language skills — whether for a fire, earthquake or any emergency.Read More

Central And Eastern Washington Have A Lot Of Dams. How Will They Fare In An Earthquake?

By Courtney Flatt October 16, 2019

Grand Coulee Dam File Photo - CREDIT Bureau of Reclamation

If you live at the foot of a dam – or downriver – you may wonder what could happen if an earthquake rumbled nearby. Dam managers say it’s something they’re constantly watching, but major shaking east of the Cascades shouldn’t cause too much damage. Read More

Emergency Managers Stress Need For Earthquake Preparation East Of Cascades

By Cameron Sheppard October 15, 2019

Road damage due to liquefaction from the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake in Thurston County, Washington. Liquefaction is when the soil turns to jello during intense shaking.

Emergency managers say a lot of the burden for eastern Washington and Inland Northwest communities will come from having to help house and provide services for people who will be displaced from western Washington following the aftermath of a potential large-scale earthquake. Read More

Get Ready To Shake Out Thursday, October 17

By Sueann Ramella October 14, 2019

Information on earthquake drill set for October 17, 2019 at 10:17am. Also how to prepare emergency kits. Read More

Practice Drill For ‘The Big One’ Earthquake With NWPB

By Sueann Ramella October 13, 2019

The Earthquake Preparedness Roadshow will start in Walla Walla on Sept. 29 with stops during the week in Pullman, Spokane, Grant County, Toppenish and Richland.Read More

Scientists Look To The Shaky Future By Probing Lakes To Learn From Great Quakes Of The Past

By Tom Banse September 19, 2019

On Leland Lake near Quilcene, Washington, the researchers pulled cores by hand from the lake bottom working from an improvised raft rig. CREDIT: CHRIS GOLDFINGER / OSU

Multiple teams of earthquake researchers are looking in what may seem like an unlikely place to figure out how strongly the Northwest shook during great quakes in the past.They're poking around the bottom of lakes in Western Washington and Oregon. It turns out lakes preserve a nifty earthquake record that can shed light on the next "Really Big One."Read More

Thousands Of Unfelt Tremors In Northwest Quake Zone Mean Something — But What?

By Tom Banse August 27, 2019

Dots represent slow-slip tremors detected between Aug. 13 and Aug. 27. PNSN

The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network has detected more than 4,500 tremors over the past two weeks deep beneath the Olympic Peninsula and southern Vancouver Island and from another swarm stretching from Eugene to the Siskiyou Mountains.Read More

Navy Hovercrafts Could Be Hulking Lifesavers After ‘The Big One’ Hits Northwest

By Tom Banse June 4, 2019

The Navy hovercraft involved in Monday's demonstration are known as LCACs in military lingo. CREDIT: TOM BANSE / NORTHWEST NEWS NETWORK

People visiting or living along the Pacific Northwest coast may be completely cut off after "The Big One" —the feared magnitude 9.0 Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. For that reason, the U.S. Navy has been scouting landing sites along the coast for disaster relief delivery by sea. The quake preparations ticked up a notch on Monday, with a practice delivery of supplies using Read More

The Oral History Wasn’t A Myth. Tsunamis Hit This Tribal Village Five Times, Study Shows

By Tom Banse May 7, 2019

A mural in Port Angeles shows Klallam plank houses, as they might have looked after being rebuilt following a long-ago tsunami. CREDIT: SARAH STERLING / PSU

A legend about a great flood has been passed down through the centuries among the Klallam people on the north side of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. As re-told by Klallam elder Ed Sampson on a recording preserved by a University of North Texas linguist, the people noticed the fresh water turning salty -- a detail from which we infer a tsunami. Read More

How The Northwest Can Learn From Indonesia’s 2018 Earthquake

By Tom Banse April 19, 2019

Damage at the toe of a landslide triggered by the Sept. 2018 Palu-Donggala earthquake. CREDIT: DANIEL HUTABARAT / GEER

Last September, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake followed by a tsunami devastated a region of Indonesia, killing more than 4,300 people. Two Oregon State and University of Washington professors who surveyed the aftermath say the far-away disaster should elevate attention to quake-induced landslide risks here at home in the Pacific Northwest.Read More

This Old Ship Could Help Clear The Way For Relief After A Cascadia Megaquake

By Tom Banse April 2, 2019

The Salvage Chief is moored at Tongue Point South, Astoria. CREDIT: COLIN MURPHEY / DAILY ASTORIAN

A former Navy landing ship commissioned during World War II could come to the rescue when a big Cascadia earthquake hits someday. A group based in Astoria, Oregon, envisions a new role in disaster relief for the storied vessel Salvage Chief.Read More

‘Bowl Of Jello Effect’ Raises Risk Of Tall Buildings Collapsing In Cascadia Quake, Scientists Say

By Tom Banse March 13, 2019

Skyscrapers in downtown Seattle and other Northwest city centers could sway more than anticipated in The Big One, according to research presented this week. CREDIT: TOM BANSE / NW NEWS NETWORK

A research project to model the effects from a Cascadia megaquake found higher risk of collapse for modern tall buildings than previously thought.Read More

Nearly 4,500 Older Brick Buildings In Washington Could Be Dangerous In Quake, New Report Says

By Tom Banse March 10, 2019

Damage from fallen bricks in Seattle's Pioneer Square district after the 2001 Nisqually Quake. CREDIT: KEVIN GALVIN / FEMA NEWS

The State of Washington has completed its first statewide inventory of buildings prone to crumble or collapse in an earthquake. The bottom line: There are an awful lot of unreinforced, old brick or stone buildings that could be dangerous — a similar number to estimates in Oregon.Read More

Bricks Could Rain Down On Your Head During The Next Major Quake. These Proposals Want To Fix That

By Tom Banse February 22, 2019

Brick or unreinforced concrete buildings could crumble in an earthquake, like this one in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011. CREDIT: SCHWEDE66 VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS - TINYURL.COM/YCFSUL7Z

Thousands of old brick, stone and concrete buildings in the Pacific Northwest could crumble in the next strong earthquake. To face that challenge, measures pending in the Oregon and Washington legislatures would set up grant programs to help owners of dangerous buildings make seismic safety upgrades.Read More

There Were Few Major Pacific Northwest Earthquakes Over The Past Decade. What Does That Mean?

By Tom Banse February 16, 2019

File photo. The joke around the PNSN office is that recently departed director John Vidale (left) did a good job suppressing earthquakes for the past decade. TOM BANSE / N3

Most people in the Pacific Northwest know we live in earthquake country. A new analysis published this week, however, notes that major quakes in the region have gone on a puzzling hiatus over the last decade.Read More

Reunification 101: Some Northwest Schools Moving Beyond Emergency Drills And Toward Aftermath

By Tom Banse October 15, 2018

Teacher Jeremy Thomas holds up an all-accounted-for sign after the school evacuation. CREDIT: TOM BANSE / N3

It's a sad fact of life that K-12 students must practice for calamities such as earthquakes, fires, lockdowns or active shooters. Now a few public schools in the region are roping in parents and guardians to practice for the aftermath.Read More

Have You Planned For Number Two After ‘The Big One’?

By Tom Banse August 29, 2018

Sue Mohnkern of Washington County Public Health (Oregon) spearheaded the Emergency Toilet Project. CREDIT: TOM BANSE

It's not something we typically discuss in polite company, but disaster planners say that when water and sewage service fails, finding a place to poop is a big deal.Read More

Portland Closer To Mandating Earthquake Retrofits For Older Buildings

By Deborah Wang June 14, 2018

File photo of an unreinforced masonry (URM) building in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake.

After years of debate, the Portland City Council has taken a big step toward making the city’s old brick buildings more earthquake-safe. The Council voted unanimously June 13 for a resolution that would require owners of unreinforced masonry buildings to retrofit their properties. Those buildings, nicknamed URM's, are at high risk of collapse in an earthquake.Read More

Prep For ‘The Big One’: Building Water Treatment Rigs To Use After Major Northwest Quake

By Tom Banse March 30, 2018

Jim Buck of Joyce, Washington, shows off the community's portable water filtration unit for use in case of a major earthquake. CREDIT: TOM BANSE/N3

Statewide disaster preparedness messaging aimed at households and businesses calls for one gallon per person per day as the goal for emergency drinking water. Scooping water out of a creek or pond is dicey because of the widespread giardia parasite, aka "beaver fever." So inventive residents on Washington's Olympic Peninsula got creative.Read More

New Tsunami Maps For Southwest Washington Coast Have ‘Shocking’ Flooding

By Tom Banse March 28, 2018

An aerial view of Ishinomaki, Japan, on March 18, 2011, one week after a devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami. CREDIT: LANCE CPL. ETHAN JOHNSON / U.S. MARINE CORPS - TINYURL.COM/Y76P2EO9

The worst case scenario for flooding from a tsunami along the Pacific Northwest coast just got even worse. Washington's Department of Natural Resources with federal help remapped the maximum tsunami threat from Grays Harbor down to the Columbia River mouth. Chief Hazard Geologist Corina Forson says updated science about the offshore Cascadia fault zone produces a bigger Read More

Camping At Home? Preparing For ‘The Big One’ Cascadia Quake In The Northwest

By Tom Banse March 28, 2018

Pitching a tent indoors may seem weird, but after an earthquake your body heat could make it warmer in there than in a larger, unheated room. CREDIT: TOM BANSE

When The Big One happens, emergency planners and geologists expect the vast majority of us will survive. But a magnitude 9 rupture on the Cascadia earthquake fault will likely cut electricity, running water and sewer for weeks—or even months afterwards.Read More

Earthquake Early Warning Gets Big Boost In New Federal Budget

By Tom Banse March 23, 2018

This USGS image shows how earthquake early warning systems--like ShakeAlert--work. CREDIT: ERIN BURKETT

An earthquake early warning system under development for the West Coast gets a major boost in the new federal budget that President Donald Trump signed into law Friday.Read More

How Will ‘The Big One’ Earthquake Affect Portland And SW Washington? New Study Estimates

By Tom Banse March 17, 2018

No one can say when exactly the next Cascadia megaquake will strike other than there's a fair chance it'll happen in our lifetimes. A new study of likely earthquake impacts in the Greater Portland region finds the exact timing and season make a big difference when it comes to casualties and damage.Read More