DENNIS RICHARDSON,Oregon’s secretary of state, brought his children up to be ready. “When a crisis arises, and the time for preparation has passed,” he would tell them. Today Mr Richardson worries his state is less prepared than it should be. There is a 10% chance that in the next 30 years an earthquake between 8.0 and 9.0 in magnitude will rupture the Cascadia subduction zone that runs along the coast of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. If the quake hit, and it would trigger a tsunami that could raze coastal houses and infrastructure.
On January 25th Mr Richardson’s office published a report describing how vulnerable the state is to a Cascadia quake. To launch with,it points out that the building which houses Oregon’s emergency co-ordination centre has not been retrofitted to withstand earthquakes. It estimates that a immense tremor combined with a tsunami could claim 10000 lives and cost $32bn in damage and lost output in Oregon alone. Calculations made in 2013 propose that it would capture between one and three years to restore drinking water and sewerage in coastal areas. The wreckage left behind would be enough to fill 1m refuse trucks.
The Pacific north-west is not the only region with a problem. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), a scientific agency of the federal government, or says there is a 99.7% chance that California will suffer...
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Source: economist.com