Have your heard or read about the big earthquake in Anchorage last week? Like Anchorage, our region is parked on the edge of the “Ring of Fire,” seismic zones that circle the Pacific Ocean. Our fault line, a major one, is called the Cascadia, the only significant fault line on the Ring of Fire without a major quake in the last 50 years. Actually, the last big one was 318 years ago. Core samples showing 10,000 years of the Cascadia’s history record major quakes 41 times in the 8 and 9 point seismic range (Anchorage was 7.2). Our community is attempting to prepare for a potential 9.2-9.3 quake, 100 times the size of the recent one in Anchorage. We had a community meeting in our neighborhood yesterday to learn and strategize. The Cascadia is overdue for a quake and emergency service agencies have been studying and planning in attempt to increase survivability. It’s not hyperbole.
We are remote and the region is connected by over 100 bridges and culvert bridges, none of which are expected to survive a quake of the magnitude expected. Our roads will also be largely impassible, creating islands of communities between our rivers and culverts. Our electrical grid may be down up to a year.
Our meeting focused on necessary survival strategies and reality checks, planning, and community organizing. It was a sobering meeting about a reality many of us would prefer to never face.
Very frightening Kay. I guess the only advantage is that you can prepare in case.. but let’s hope it doesn’t eventuate ✨
I do know quite a bit about the Cascadia zone, from lectures and documentaries about that part of the Ring. When the next big one comes, it’s going to be bad.
When we lived in Fairbanks, we experienced an earthquake that registered 7.9 back in 2002. It was scary but we had no damage and no one was injured. Our house swayed back and forth for what seemed forever. I think it was about a couple of minutes and then the aftershocks kept going on. We were just talking about this after we heard about the current earthquake last week. It’s great that your community got together and reviewed its plan because you never know when it will happen. There are no warnings, it just happens.
Wow – you have to be prepared to be self-sufficient for possibly a long time.
When I went to Tokyo years ago the TV in the hotel room kept on giving instructions on what to do in an earthquake because they were expecting trouble there someday too. It was enough to freak me out, especially as there were earth tremors which I understand are reasonably frequent. I would not want to live in such a zone.
Although it is scary and the unpredictability of quakes is worrisome (to say the least!), it is so good that your community is preparing its citizens. You took good notes and know what to expect. Then, it is up to fate and nature. Here’s hoping that it will NOT come to pass!