Important Notices

The Big One: A Northwest Earthquake Survival Guide

The Cascadia Subduction Quake is coming. How bad will it be? According to "The BIG One: A Survival Guide" by Randy Gragg, perhaps the worst natural disaster in U.S. history!  When the next Big One does happen, a 700-mile chunk of tectonic plate known as the Juan de Fuca, stretching from British Columbia to Northern California will slide beneath the North American plate, causing the entire Northwest coastline to sink by up to 6.6 feet. The resulting quake won’t be a California-style short blast of energy along a fault line in the earth’s upper crustal zone. It will be bigger, deeper, and longer: 3–4 minutes, with potentially dozens of aftershocks, some very powerful, for days, even months, later.  Hillsides will slide. Buildings will collapse. Roads will buckle. Bridges will crack. Some will fall. Pipes will snap. Within 20 minutes, the first of several 40-foot tsunami waves will wash over the Oregon Coast’s low-lying towns.  But, there are crucial steps we can take as individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities.  Preparation may mean the difference between finding your loved ones or not; between sleeping inside your mildly damaged house or on a cot in a refugee center; between going hungry and thirsty for days or managing until supplies arrive.  Recently, scientists, engineers, and infrastructure managers have collaborated to develop the Oregon Resiliency Plan, a blueprint for averting the worst scenarios and to achieve a quicker recovery.  With these recommendations in mind, a FREE guide is available to explain what’s being done and what all of us should do to prepare for the Big One – whether it happens today or 50 years from now.  You may download the free guide from: http://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/article/504516.