Seattle residents don't have much to worry about in the way of earthquakes, do they?
Events like the Nisqually earthquake only occur every 30 years or so, and it just happened... Has it been 10 years already!?
Yep. It may seem like yesterday, but that 6.8 quake shook things up way back on February 28, 2001.

Of course, earthquakes of that variety, deep slab events, aren't usually terribly destructive quakes despite their relative frequency. Fortunately our other, much larger events occur quite a bit less often. For instance, a destructive shaker on the Seattle Fault zone (similar to 2010's Haiti earthquake and the recent 6.3 event in New Zealand) is only expected every 1,000 years or so. Problem is, the last one was 1,100 years ago, according to geologists. And we are also due for a subduction zone "mega quake" like Chile experienced last year as well. They happen here every 300-600 years, and the last one was in the year 1700.

Seattle readiness experts are hoping that the anniversary can serve as a reminder that the time is right to prepare for the inevitable. When another major earthquake occurs, it will be too late to plan, to gather emergency supplies, or to prepare your home.

The Cascadia Region Earthquake Workshop (CREW) published a frightening scenario of what Seattle might look like after a 6.7 magnitude event on the Seattle Fault Zone. Utilities and highways will be useless; meaning no food, now water, and no rescue anytime soon. And some 134,000 buildings in the Seattle area, most of them single family homes, will suffer significant damage. Shelters will be impossibly full of citizens whose houses are unsafe to enter.

There are many ways to prepare for disaster, and many sources of information. www.3days3ways.org is a good place to start learning. Put away a supply of drinking water, food, and other emergency supplies. Make a plan for your family. If your home was built before 1980, a seismic retrofit can greatly increase the chances that your family will still have a roof over their heads.

Leif Jackson
Owner of Sound Seismic
leif@soundseismic.com