Preparing for EarthQuakes with Hardhats and Crowbars

On January 16, 2004, a 3.6 earthquake hit the Bremerton area, 19 miles west of Seattle, Wa. According to the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, on 1/15/04, there was also a 2.4 quake in Tacoma, and a 2.4 quake in Poulsbo, to the northwest, across the Puget Sound, from Seattle. And we all remember the 6.8 quake that hit the Seattle area, with an Olympia epicenter on February 28, 2001. Olympia also had a 3.6 quake in July 2001, and Poulsbo's last quake close to the recent quake was a 3.6 in October 2000. We had a few scary quakes we could feel in Seattle in 1997 also. As a person who has been through an abnormal amount of earthquake activity this lifetime, I can tell you that quakes under 4.0 are rarely felt. You can see glass ripple in store windows with 3.0 quakes and above. But things just rattle a bit with most 3.5 quakes. When you get into 5.0+ quakes, you usually notice them, and by the time you get to 6.0+, things can start looking like a disaster, depending on the ground composition, length of shaking, etc...I have lived through the incredible aftermath of a 6.8 quake in Los Angeles in 1971, a 7.1 quake in Santa Cruz in 1989, a 6.8 in Northridge in 1994, and also, the 6.8 in Seattle in 2001.

And we all know Seattle is overdue for a killer earthquake. These quakes we have had in the last few years truly are a joke, as far as real earthquakes go. The mildness of the recent quakes in Seattle, and the lack of violent aftershocks, have given us a false sense of earthquake preparedness. We think we made it through the last few quakes, we will make it through the next ones. We think that our Alaskan Way Viaduct somehow will not collapse, and pin people inside cars to their death, like the exact same kind of freeway did to people in Oakland in October 1989, and then in Kobe, Japan, after that. But that is faulty thinking, because we are overdue for a "BIG ONE." Magnitude 6.0 - 7.5 quakes are expected every 30-50 years here. In 1949, Olympia had a 7.1 quake. In 1965, Seatte had a 6.5 quake that killed 7 people. The 2001 quake was on that same faultline and measured a 6.8, although that is deceiving, as it was a mild quake on the surface. 5.0 quakes are equal to a blast from approximately 12 million tons of TNT. 7.0 quakes are equal to a blast from approximately 37 million tons of TNT, more shaking than an atomic bomb creates. The 7.1 quake I experienced in the 1994 Northridge was like a bombing. That little thing in Seattle in 2001 was nothing.

Not only is Seattle on the Ring of Fire, ripe for the "Big One," but the city of Seattle, itself, is on bad landfill. The worst place to be in an earthquake is on landfill or sandy soil. Sand liquifies, and landfill has no stability to hold buildings upright. The worst damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake was in the landfill areas of Oakland, and on the sandy flats of downtown Santa Cruz. If you have ever been on Seattle's Underground Tour, you have heard them talk of how early downtown Seattle was marshy land, so they filled it in with all the sawdust from the timber industry. A friend of mine worked on the construction of the Metro bus tunnels. She said they kept hitting pockets of methane gas that had to be bled, in the land under Seattle, during construction. The scary thing is it SEEMS that Seattle was built on landfill, then Seattle burned down, and we built a new city on top of the unstable ruins of an old city, and now that sawdust is turning into methane gas, and so downtown Seattle is a powderkeg waiting to go off! I look at the Courthouse downtown and shudder to think of the people trying to get out of those dark, crumbling hallways in a "Big One." I get sick thinking of those incarcerated in the jail as it collapses in a "Big One." I look at all those unreinforced brick hotels downtown and I know they are potential death traps. I look up at the skyscrapers, and remember hearing that the streets will be full of 5 feet of glass in a minute under them in a "Big One." Japanese legend says the NEXT Big Earthquake comes as soon as the LAST Big One is forgotten. A Japanese legend says a catfish named Namazu causes earthquakes, so courtesans and jesters attack him with knives, knitting needles, etc. But Namazu is rescued by his friends, the profit-minded carpenters and masons!

You probably think I am crazy to even think about this. But, I have been at the epicenter of the last 3 most expensive earthquakes in American history. In 1971, I lived through the Sylmar Earthquake, which broke the Van Norman Dam and caused 80,000 people to be evacuated from the San Fernando Valley floor immediately. The National Guard had to bring gas in on tankers to get people out. 64 people died, 44 of those died in a collapsed Veteran's Hospital. In 1989, I was in Santa Cruz for the Loma Prieta quake, which measured 7.1, and collapsed nearly every chimney and plate glass window in town. Liquor ran out of liquor store doors in rivers that stank in the gutter, waiting for a flicked cigarette butt to ignite it all. Natural gas fizzled under cracks in the street, as we were evacuated. Then I moved to Northridge, just in time for the 1994 Northridge quake. That quake broke gas mains, that caught on fire, and shot balls of flames from under the pavement, as water mains broke and water flowed in raging rivers OVER the flame balls! My apartment building collapsed and was red tagged the next day, so we only had what we left with, on our backs, at 4 a.m., that night. The Red Cross had to buy us clothing, food, and plane tickets back to Seattle. It CAN happen here. Seattle has not had a truly devastating quake. I have seen three of them. And those quakes occurred in warm climates. We were able to stand outside at night in Northridge in shorts and a t-shirt without getting hypothermia. Seattle is wet and cold, and it is not as easy to evacuate, all night, on a street, in winter, here.

My advice is borne of experience. If I worked in ANY building downtown, I would keep a hardhat, a whistle, a crowbar, work gloves, a flashlight, a coat, and dust masks at my desk. I would also keep a backpack with a wind-up transistor radio, food, water, shoes, raincoat, blanket, paper, marker pen, map, socks, first aid kit, toilet paper, an extra pair of glasses, house and car keys, medications, and cash. You may be digging your way out of your building, as it collapses around you, prying open jammed fire doors with crow bars to get out, as parts of the ceiling falls around you in the dark, and you may end up with the only flashlight! You have no idea how happy you will be to have these items if you really need them. No harm done if you don't! Once out of your building, you may still need to wade through devastation all around you. Honestly, seeing the collapse of the World Trade Center gave me flashbacks of earthquakes, with everyone running for their lives in chaos, as buildings came down around them. Every car should have an earthquake kit of blankets, water, food, shoes and coats, candles, medications, maps, and a gas can, for an evacuation or an emergency rerouting also. If you live in an apartment, store tent, tarps, water, toilet paper, food, bleach, sleeping bags, clothes and games for kids, etc. in the car, as this may be all you have left after your building collapses. (My apartment building in Northridge was only 3 stories high and the quake that collapsed it lasted 16 seconds). And every house should store supplies in the garage, in a waterproof garbage can. And if you do only one thing I tell you in this article, let it be to take a whistle and flashlight to your workplace. You may be able to whistle when you cannot speak. And shining a light through debris could save your life too.

Kirsten Anderberg. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint/publish, please contact Kirsten at kirstena@resist.ca.

Thank you to Resist.ca for hosting this website!

Return to Home Page