Last year's tsunami in Southeast Asia was a wakeup call for those of us here in the Northwest.
We are overdue for a huge earthquake and a tsunami just as big as the one that killed thousands in southeast Asia on December 26, 2004.
Now the race is on to prepare people along the Northwest coast, especially since geologists say we are due for a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.
Early last year, KATU spent two months uncovering serious danger zones. In the investigation, we found broken sirens, emergency management officials in denial and huge communities that did not know where to go.
For example, while Seaside and Lincoln City had detailed evacuation maps, Astoria and Warrenton did not and as far as tourists go, many hotels provided no information at all about what to do in the event of a tsunami.
A year later, things have changed along the coast, where in a town like Seaside, a 100-foot tall tsunami could slam into town less than 20 minutes after a big earthquake.
However, Seaside is so big that it would take longer than 20 minutes to get from the downtown area to an area where there is high ground at about 75 feet above sea level.
Right now, two warning centers send out alerts if an earthquake off the coast might cause a tsunami.
If an earthquake strikes in Alaska or Japan, people would have several hours to evacuate before the wave hits.
However, an earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone off the Oregon coast would hit in just minutes.
Right now, two buoys that warn the West Coast of approaching tsunamis are broken and have been for a year. One of them is 200 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River…
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