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Any structure made from masonry (i.e., all the gorgeous old apt houses & office bldgs in Portland, if they haven't undergone a renovation in the last 10-15 years) will collapse into rubble. Think Kobe in Japan. So if you live or work in one of these, that's something to think about.

The Portland School District's renovations of school buildings of late have all included reinforcing the brick walls with rebar, to hold the roof up so kids will have time to get out.

(But many old historic buildings haven't had the same attention, because of lack of money. Union Station in downtown Portland--which the city owns now--will be rubble, because the city hasn't found any money to fix it.)

posted 3 years, 1 month ago
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The best preparation tips I ever received, from a CalTech geophysicist, Lucy Jones:
1. keep closed-toed shoes like sneakers by your bedside. There will be glass everywhere if the quake happens in middle of the night. You'll be hampered from the first minute after a big quake if your feet are all cut up.

2. Don't hang a picture, mirror or other heavy object over your bed. It will fall on your head.

3. If you commute to work by car, keep a napsack in your trunk containing good walking shoes, Power bar type snacks, and a few water bottles. To get home (or to find your kids at their school), you'll have to WALK there.

4. Keep an emergency fund of CASH, in small bills, in your emergency kit. ATMs won't work after a disaster happens. And people selling things you need on street corners won't make change. (This is one I learned not from Lucy Jones, but from being in S.Fla. after Hurricane Andrew.)

posted 3 years, 1 month ago
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True, it wasn't till 1990 that officials acknowledge the quake risk in Portland. But, while at the science section at The Oregonian in the mid-1980s, I wrote quite a lot about the USGeological Survey's efforts to convince OR/Wash officials to take their heads out of the sand.
First, Brian Atwater found the "ghost trees" in Willapa Bay (Wash.). Then Thomas Heaton (in the article referred to below) worked with a Japanese geophysicist to uncover the historical records of a Japanese tsunami, which gave the USGS scientists the EXACT day of the last huge subduction quake in the  Pacific NW quake.

Here's info about a 1987 Oregonian article (accessible via MultcoLibrary):  Dec. 17, 1987 Author: LINDA ROACH MONROE -- GREAT NW QUAKE: FUTURE OR FANTASY? \

Scientists have uncovered a steadily growing body of evidence that has turned ``the great Northwest earthquake'' from a scientific musing to one of the hottest topics in seismology.

Just two years after first focusing serious attention on the idea, researchers gathered at an American Geophysical Union conference last week to hear about whether the Pacific Northwest has a huge earthquake in its future.

Muddy marsh banks, land deformation, computer models and statistics all suggest that the Northwest should prepare for a big jolt, they were told.......

posted 3 years, 1 month ago
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