Credit Tsunami.gov
# 8400
Thursday of this week marks the 50th anniversary of the biggest earthquake ever recorded in America’s history – the 1964 `Good Friday’ Alaskan quake, which registered a 9.2 magnitude. The resultant tsunami not only affected the Alaskan coastline, but that of Western Canada and the West Coast of the United States.
Tsunami effects were felt as far away as Hawaii and (to a far lesser extent) Japan. The following 4 minute video from the USGS illustrates the power and effect of this great quake.
While great quakes and Tsunamis don’t happen often, they are a very real hazard, and so each year we observe Tsunami Preparedness Week.
While primarily thought of as a West Coast, or Pacific Ocean hazard, Tsunamis have also swept across the Atlantic and Caribbean basin as well, something we looked at in depth a couple of months ago in The Caribbean’s Hidden Tsunami Potential.
Last year the USGS released a report detailing the likely West Coast impact of a tsunami generated by a 9.1 Alaskan earthquake – and the numbers are sobering.
This from the USGS news release Experts Team Up on Tsunami Resilience in California:
In this scenario approximately 750,000 people would need to be evacuated, with 90,000 of those being tourists and visitors. Additionally, one-third of the boats in California's marinas could be damaged or completely sunk, resulting in $700 million in losses. It was concluded that neither of California's nuclear power plants would likely be damaged by this particular event.
The study (link) also estimates damage to marinas, businesses and homes range between $3.5 billion and $6 billion, and as many as 8,500 could be left homeless.
An even greater threat lurks along the Cascadia Fault line, which runs parallel to the Pacific Northwest Coastline and has a long history of a producing major earthquakes and tsunamis, the last one in the year 1700.
The geological record indicates massive quakes have struck the region at least 7 times over the past 3500 years. Given enough time, another is sure to strike again. We looked at the threats posed by this particular fault line back in 2011 in Just A Matter Of Time.
You can access current Tsunami warnings and arrival times at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
As far as what to do before a tsunami threatens, READY.GOV has a Tsunami Awareness Page with helpful hints.
Before a Tsunami
The following are things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your property from the effects of a tsunami:
- To begin preparing, you should build an emergency kit and make a family communications plan.
- Talk to everyone in your household about what to do if a tsunami occurs. Create and practice an evacuation plan for your family. Familiarity may save your life. Be able to follow your escape route at night and during inclement weather. You should be able to reach your safe location on foot within 15 minutes. Practicing your plan makes the appropriate response more of a reaction, requiring less thinking during an actual emergency.
- If the school evacuation plan requires you to pick your children up from school or from another location. Be aware telephone lines during a tsunami watch or warning may be overloaded and routes to and from schools may be jammed.
- Knowing your community's warning systems and disaster plans, including evacuation routes.
- Know the height of your street above sea level and the distance of your street from the coast or other high-risk waters. Evacuation orders may be based on these numbers.
- If you are a tourist, familiarize yourself with local tsunami evacuation protocols. You may be able to safely evacuate to the third floor and higher in reinforced concrete hotel structures.
- If an earthquake occurs and you are in a coastal area, turn on your radio to learn if there is a tsunami warning.
While it may seem unlikely that a tsunami will affect you or your region - this is just one of many potential hazards that may threaten you and your community - and they all require similar preparedness steps.
Knowing your local threats, whether they be tsunamis, forest fires, floods, earthquakes or hurricanes . . . and then becoming prepared to deal with them, will provide you and your family the best safety insurance available.
For more information I would encourage you to visit:
FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm
READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/
AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/
A few of my (many) blogs on disaster preparedness include:
In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back? When 72 Hours Isn’t Enough When Evacuation Is The Better Part Of Valor
