Tsunami preparedness brochure available online

Posted on May 19, 2011 by kightp

“Three Things You Need to Know About Tsunamis,” a new, easy-to-use brochure designed for Oregon coast residents and visitors, is available online from Oregon Sea Grant.

Written by Patrick Corcoran, Sea Grant Extension’s coastal hazards specialist, the handy, printable brochure covers three essential facts about preparing for a tsunami:

The difference between local and distant tsunamis, and what that means to people trying to escape the potentially devastating inundation
Which coastal areas are likely to be unsafe should a tsunami strike
What people can do in advance to be prepared

Marine scientists say the Oregon Coast is overdue for the sort of high-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck Japan in March. Even if “the Big One” doesn’t strike, many coastal areas are vulnerable to tsunamis generated by distant quakes in other parts of the Pacific Rim.

Corcoran, based in Astoria, works with coastal communities and state and federal agencies to increase public awareness of the risks, and make people better prepared to deal with disaster when it strikes.

The new brochure carries the same message as his community talks and a previously released Sea Grant video on the subject: It’s not a matter of “if,” but “when.”

The largest earthquakes on earth happen along the Cascadia subduction zone, at regular geologic intervals.” As Corcoran writes, “The last Big One was in 1700 AD. Given historic averages, we are about due. We need to prepare for this inevitability.”

Designed by Sea Grant artist Patricia Andersson, the new brochure is intended for wide distribution. Coastal families can use them, along with maps of local evacuation routes, to develop their own tsunami preparedness and evacuation plans. Motels, visitor attractions and other coastal businesses can make them available to visitors. And local emergency preparedness groups can use them as guides for community presentations.

The brochure is available for free download from Oregon Sea Grant, both as a full-color, printable .pdf and in an accessible plain-text version.

Information about single-copy and bulk orders of the brochure will be added soon to the Sea Grant Web site. In the meantime, queries can be sent to sea.grant.communications@oregonstate.edu

More information: Watch the three-minute video, The Three Things You Need To Know (Flash required)

Oregon tsunami preparedness work hits NOAA spotlight

Posted on May 13, 2011 by kightp

This month’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Research Spotlight” features the tsunami preparedness research and public outreach efforts of Oregon Sea Grant, along with its sister programs in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

The article notes that “hazard resilient coastal communities” is a major focus area for NOAA Sea Grant, which has university-based research and outreach programs in 32 ocean and Great Lakes states.

Oregon is cited for its ongoing efforts to prepare the state’s coastal communities for the inevitability of an earthquake and/or tsunami. The state’s coastline is on the Cascadia subduction zone – a 600 mile long fault line similar to the one whose fracture in March caused a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

With scientists saying the Pacific Northwest is overdue for a high-magnitude quake, Oregon Sea Grant has worked for years with state agencies and local communities on everything from developing inundation maps, evacuation routes and signs to teaching people easy-to-remember steps for disaster preparation.

Read the NOAA Spotlight article …

Can warning systems save lives in near-shore tsunamis?

Posted on April 14, 2011 by kightp

Oregon State University’s Chris Goldfinger has doubts. “The earthquake is the warning,” said Goldfinger, a marine quake expert who happened to be in Japan when last month’s devastating quake and the ensuing tsunami struck.

But physicist Jörn Lauterjung, who has been working on such systems since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, believes Japan’s history of seismic preparedness – including warning systems – prevented even more lives from being lost.

Near-shore quakes pose very different risks than distant ones, and the March 11 disaster illustrated the point. Despite tsunami warnings that went out within three minutes of the quake, coastal Japanese had only about 10 minutes to get to higher ground – and in some cases, that wasn’t high enough to escape the onrushing water. Coastal Oregonians, by contrast, had hours after being warned to evacuate, and by the time the wave made its way across the Pacific, it was small enough to do damage only to selected harbors.

Reverse the situation, though, and the US coast could have as little time to react as did the Japanese. Tsunami preparedness educators emphasize that point: If you’re on the coast and the ground shakes, don’t wait for a warning – or anything else – before moving to higher ground.

Read more about the issues and technology in Scientific American: Make Or Breaker: Can a Tsunami Warning System Save Lives During An Earthquake?

Tsunami-proof building plans raise questions, stir debate

Posted on March 31, 2011 by kightp

CANNON BEACH, Ore. – It would cost twice as much and there’s no precedent anywhere in the United States for how to fund such a structure. Everyone agrees it would save lives. There’s not much doubt about that. And in light of the tragedy unfolding in Japan, it seems to make perfect sense.

It would be a new city hall, a very rugged building on concrete stilts. But it still hasn’t been built.

This debate and quandary raises awkward questions, such as how many people would die in a tsunami, how much it would cost to prevent that, what approaches would work best and who should pay for them. The debate centers on what would be the nation’s first structure designed to survive a tsunami and serve as a refuge people could run to on short notice, to get above the deadly waves.

Some would be local residents in Cannon Beach, Ore. Many others saved might be tourists from all over the nation who flock to its scenic beauty – in the recent Chilean earthquake and tsunami many of those who died were tourists.

And researchers at Oregon State University say they hope the events now taking place across the Pacific Ocean will raise new awareness about these issues and help point the way to a solution.

“We’ve been struggling with this for several years now,” said Harry Yeh, a professor of coastal engineering at OSU, international expert on tsunamis and one of the people helping community leaders in Cannon Beach to make progress toward this new building. It’s a concept that, once created, might form a model for many more such structures from Northern California to British Columbia.

Harry Yeh’s current Sea Grant-supported tsunami research

More tsunami preparedness resources

Posted on March 11, 2011 by kightp

In a news conference this morning, Oregon State Geologist Vicki McConnell pointed out that tsunamis generated by earthquakes on the other side of the Pacific give Oregonians plenty of time to evacuate – but a similar quake off the Oregon coast, which geologists believe is inevitable, might come with as little as 15 minutes’ warning.

Nonetheless, McConnell said, coastal response to today’s devastating Japanese earthquake provides communities and emergency preparedness officials with a valuable rehearsal for something worse. Generally, officials said, warnings and evacuation went well on the coast; in the few cases where automatic warning sirens failed to trigger, emergency officials were able to manually trigger them immediately.

McConnell’s agency, the Department Of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI), has some great online resources for learning about, and preparing for, coastal earthquakes and tsunamis.

Pacific Tsunami Reminds Oregon to be Prepared

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Stevon Roberts

Tsunami alerts were triggered up and down the Oregon Coast this morning, following a deadly 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan. Reverse 911 calls and emergency sirens alerted Oregon coastal residents to potentially dangerous tsunami waves created by the distant quake, and the National Weather Service has issued a tsunami advisory. Oregon Sea Grant features a short film on tsunami preparedness: “Reaching Higher Ground: The 3 Things You Need to Know” (3:09).

To learn more about what causes a tsunami, check out our longer film, “Reaching Higher Ground” (14:02).

Tsunami structure gets its test – in miniature

Posted on May 25, 2010 by kightp

Officials from the coastal Oregon town of Cannon Beach visited Oregon State University’s Hinsdale Wave Research Center this week to get a first-hand look at how a proposed new city hall and tsunami survival center might work.

Researcher Dan Cox showed off a scale model of the structure – and all of downtown Cannon Beach – and then pounded it with scale-model waves in one of the Hinsdale Center’s massive wave-generating tanks.

Cannon Beach is one of many coastal communities trying to come up with plans to save lives and property should the Oregon Coast be struck by a tsunami. Scientists say it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when” – and recent studies suggest that the region is overdue.

Along with warning systems, evacuation routes and public education, Cannon Beach is hoping to get federal funds to build a new, $4 million city hall that would stand on 15-foot-high tsunami-resistant pilings and provide safe refuge for people unable to evacuate the downtown area. Their hope is that by putting city services in a building that can survive a tsunami, they would be better prepared to manage the emergency response to such a disaster.

It would be the first such structure in the United States; the Japanese have built similar structures, but none has yet been tested in an actual tsunami.

Accompanying the Cannon Beach delegation to OSU was Patrick Corcoran, Oregon Sea Grant’s coastal hazards specialist, who has been working with coastal communities to help them develop and improve tsunami disaster planning.

“Every community from Cape Mendocino in California to Vancouver Island in Canada is vulnerable to some extent to the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake and tsunamis,” said Corcoran, “This is arguably the greatest recurring natural hazard in the lower 48 states. Our cities are not engineered to deal with it and our residents are not prepared for it. We need evacuation routes, assembly sites, public education and outreach. And in some places, we need vertical evacuation structures. The only way to potentially save thousands of lives is through more education and better engineering.”

Sea Grant has supported a number of research projects at the Hinsdale Center, including a current effort by civil engineering professor Dr. Harry Yeh to better understand how the shape of the seafloor immediately offshore can amplify the effects of big waves on specific communities.

Oregon Sea Grant’s Pat Corcoran quoted in NY Times article on tsunamis

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Rick Cooper

Pat Corcoran, hazards outreach specialist for Oregon Sea Grant, was quoted in an article that appeared in the February 28, 2010, NY Times, “Chilean Quake a Warning to U.S. Northwest“:

“The release of pressure between two overlapping tectonic plates along the subduction zone regularly generates massive 9.0 magnitude earthquakes –- including five over the last 1,400 years. The last ‘Big One’ was 309 years ago. We are in a geologic time when we can expect another ‘Big One,’ either in our lives or those of our children. Prudence dictates that we overcome our human tendencies to ignore this inevitability.”

He was also quoted extensively in an Associated Press article appearing in the Feb. 27 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among other places. (“Tsunami barely registers in Pacific Northwest“).

Corcoran appears in an Oregon Sea Grant video about tsunami preparedness called Three Things You Need to Know. You can view the 3-minute video here. Oregon Sea Grant also has a 14-minute video about tsunami preparedness called Reaching Higher Ground. Watch it here.

New publication reveals perceptions and opinions of climate change

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Rick Cooper

A new publication from Oregon Sea Grant, An Analysis of a Survey of Oregon Coast Decision Makers Regarding Climate Change, reveals that

• most people are concerned about climate change and how it may affect the Oregon coast
• the most frequently cited risks associated with effects of climate change on the Oregon coast involved physical processes such as sea-level rise and erosion
• few are ready now to respond to climate change
• people would be willing to take action in work if there were compelling information, new funding, and a sense of local urgency
• coastal professionals have needs for assistance regarding climate change, particularly credible, relevant information to provide the public
• coastal professionals have low amounts of information on climate change topics they consider important for the performance of their work

You can order this 20-page publication (color cover, B&W insides) for $3.50 plus shipping and handling by calling 541-737-4849 or e-mailing sea.grant.communications@oregonstate.edu. You may also download it from http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/onlinepubs.html#socialsci

Breaking Waves

Oregon Sea Grant: Coastal science serving Oregon

Category Archives: tsunami