Preparing for the Next Megaquake
Posted by Sandi Doughton, June 11, 2013 2:00 pm
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Filed under: Original Essays.
When my editor at Sasquatch Books pitched Full Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest to higher-ups in the publishing world, they weren't enthusiastic.
"Is there anything positive in it?" they asked with dismay.
It's a good question. Who wants to read a depressing litany of the ways in which we are doomed?
As I see it, though, the story is a hopeful one.
Knowledge is power, and thanks to the work of a generation of geologists, we finally know our region's true seismic nature.
Less than 30 years ago, no one could have imagined that Oregon, Washington, Northern California, and British Columbia face the same type of monster quake and tsunami that slammed Japan in 2011. Today, governments, businesses, schools, and utilities are making upgrades and mapping out what still needs to be done to ensure that the region will be able to bounce back from a catastrophe that is inevitable.
"We cannot avoid the future earthquake, but we can choose either a future in which the earthquake results in grim damage and losses and a society diminished for a generation, or a future in which the earthquake is ...
