Emergency response to megaquake, tsunami to be tested
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is planning to simulate a devastating earthquake and tsunami in the Pacific Northwest — and response to these potential disasters — this June.
On June 7, thousands of emergency personnel from around the U.S. will gather to participate in a four-day exercise that will emulate a huge Pacific Northwest megaquake and the effects it would have on the region.
Cascadia Rising, coming soon to the PNW
Known as “Cascadia Rising,” the exercise will be [link url=”http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/preparing-for-the-really-big-one-cascadia-earthquake-tsunami-drill/” title=”the biggest ever conducted in the Pacific Northwest“]. Upwards of 6,000 emergency and military personnel will likely take part in the exercise.
Emergency personnel are preparing for a future, massive Cascadia earthquake. https://t.co/UtCmfYsj1R pic.twitter.com/Z8NkNSvnVv
— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) February 28, 2016
Nisqually quake, 15 years later
Just over 15 years ago, on February 28, 2001, the devastating [link url=”http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3039″ title=”Nisqually earthquake“] struck the Puget Sound region. That quake measured at 6.8 on the revised Richter Scale and injured at least 200 people while causing more than $1 billion in damage to buildings and roads.
Cascadia Rising will simulate an event much larger than the Nisqually quake. The exercise will test response to a magnitude 8.0 to 9.0 earthquake that occurs in the Pacific Northwest once every 200 to 500 years. According to FEMA, the last megaquake of this magnitude [link url=”http://community.fema.govdelivery.com/connect.ti/cascadiarising2016/view?objectId=3233584″ title=”occurred more than 300 years ago“].
The overall goal of the staged catastrophe is to identify problems and discover ways improve response when real disaster strikes.
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