Cape Meares Earthquake and Tsunami Preparedness
2024
compiled by Pete Steen

“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
Wm. Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor 

Introduction

When the next Cascadian subduction zone earthquake occurs off our coast, it will be seven to nine on the Richter scale. You will feel up to five minutes of such intense shaking that you will unlikely be able to stay on your feet. It will be the most frightening thing most of you will ever experience. When the earthquake subsides, the coastline will have dropped three to six feet in elevation. 

Within 10 to 15 minutes, the first tsunami will reach our beach. It will be a surge of water as high as 30 feet (a three-story building), possibly higher. Within a half-hour or less, another surge will arrive, and more after that. Some of these successive waves can be higher than the first.

If you are home at the time of this earthquake, you could be injured by broken glass, a falling roof beam, a tree falling on your house, a refrigerator or large bookcase falling over, or burned by fire from a toppled woodstove or burning firewood literally bounced out of your fireplace onto your floor.

If your home is in the tsunami hazard zone, roughly 70 feet elevation or lower, you will have to flee to higher ground as soon as the shaking eases enough for you to be able to get moving, in order to avoid the coming series of tsunamis. You should not return to your home for at least 12 hours or more to avoid subsequent tsunamis and you can expect aftershock quakes for the net few days.

We will not get to choose the time this catastrophe occurs. We know it will happen; we just don’t know when. The last one occurred in the dark of a January night. Our next one could occur at night or in daylight. It could occur during a howling sleet storm with 60 mph winds in the middle of the night. It could occur during freezing weather, with temperatures in the teens. It could occur during a sunny community 4^th of July barbecue. 

If you are at home in the tsunami zone, you may have to spend 12 hours or more away from your house, so you will need a “Grab & Go” bag to take with you. The contents of a Grab & Go bag will be covered in section I. This will be helpful even if you find refuge with a neighbor. It is essential if you are spending the 12 hours in the woods in inclement weather.

Section II will discuss the earthquake occurring while you are at home in Cape Meares. 

Section III will cover those of you whose house is within the tsunami inundation zone (50 feet elevation or less).

Section IV tells you how to prepare for the earthquake occurring while you are driving in your car.

Section V gives you information on what to do if you are away from home or car on a hike.

It is essential that you understand that after the quake, there will be no electricity, piped- in water, cell or landline phone service, The only possible communications will be by GMRS hand held radios (line of sight only), subscription satellite phones and ham radios. All roads out of our community will be blocked by fallen trees, power poles, collapsed bridges and landslides.

Section I: The Grab & Go Bag

The Grab & Go bag is essential to your safety when the earthquake occurs. If you must leave your house or are stuck somewhere in your car, you will need these items to get you through the hours or days before you find a safe haven. You should have a bag for each person or one bag could be packed for two people. You will need to keep a Grab & Go bag in your house and one in each of your vehicles at all times.  Below is a list of suggested contents for your Grab & Go bag:

• Medications (rotate each time you get refills)
• Eyeglasses (spare prescription or reading glasses) 
• Hand sanitizers
• Drinking water purification tablets (can get at REI)
• First-aid kit
• Couple of bottles of water
• Small portable water filter, e. g. Lifestraw
• Steel cup
• Cocoa mix, tea, coffee
• Snack bars
• A roll of duct tape
• Facial tissues (4 small packs)
• Aluminum foil
• Rubber gloves
• Cotton gloves
• Fire starters/tinder
• Storm-proof matches
• Metal match (ferrocerium rod)
• Cigarette lighter (e, g. Bic)
• Dental floss (for cordage)
• Space blankets
• Large plastic garbage bags
• Flashlights (keychain flashlight on zipper pull and small flashlight with batteries (check batteries every quarter and replace when needed.)
• Pencil and pad
• List of financial information
• Pocket knife
• Small folding saw
• Jelly beans (don’t spoil; provide a quick energy boost and needed calories)

Your objective is to be able to grab your pack and be able to travel and survive for up to three days to get from your stranded vehicle or ruined home to a place of safety. In a generalized disaster, such as an earthquake, other people will not be able to look for you. You will be on your own. Grab your pack and get to a place of safety!

Section II: If You Are at Home

You can expect the following hazards if you are at home during the coming earthquake:

• Falling masonry (fireplaces, chimneys, retaining walls, stem walls—especially stone, brick or concrete block)
• Falling center beams
• Broken glass (windows, light fixtures, dishes, framed pictures, mirrors, etc.)
• Falling furniture (refrigerators, tall bookcases, sideboards, armoires (some of these can be prevented from falling by fastening them securely to the wall)
• Falling trees (less likely)
• Falling utility poles
• Landslides
• Fire caused by a toppling woodstove or burning material bouncing out of your fireplace

1. If your home is in the tsunami zone, leave immediately for higher ground and your designated assembly area. Take your Grab & Go bag with you.
   1. Help the injured (as much as you can without endangering yourself) to higher ground. Remember, this scenario may be happening in a storm and/or at night. 
   2. Be prepared to spend at least 12 hours or more away from your home. Successive waves can come for several hours and some can be larger than the first one. Seek shelter with a high-ground neighbor, if available, or be prepared to find or make shelter on the nearby high ground. Your Grab & Go bag is essential to carry you through this harrowing time.
   3. Expect significant aftershocks over the next few days.

2. If your home is above the tsunami zone (above 70 feet elevation), keep an eye out for an especially high wave which could reach your elevation and be ready to go higher yet with your Grab & Go bag.
   1. Don shoes to protect against broken glass.
   2. Aid people pinned under fallen beams, furniture, etc. in your own house. Free them carefully.
   3. Extinguish any fires started by burning materials shaken out of fireplaces or woodstoves.
   4. Give first aid to injured householders.
   5. Go to your neighborhood assembly area and be prepared to help and give first aid to neighbors and others fleeing the tsunami zone.
   6. Assess the damage to your home. Is it still a place where you can safely shelter? If not, evacuate to a neighbor’s house. Otherwise, secure your house against weather and stabilize structures. 

3. Supplies to have on hand, in your house, before the quake:
   1. Grab & Go bags.
   2. Fire extinguishers (three on each level) get the ones that can be recharged.
   3. Twenty-five to 50 gallons of potable water and (for when you run out) a good water filter and water purification tablets. Also, buckets to carry water. We have several year-round creeks in our community providing water which can be filtered or purified for drinking.
   4. Sufficient medical supplies and first-aid materials for your household plus the neighbors you may be sheltering.
   5. Propane, butane and/or white gas camp stoves (don’t cook indoors!) and a two-week or more supply of fuel.
   6. A generator (dual-fuel propane/gasoline is the most practical) and several gallons of fuel to run it (don’t overlook the fuel in your vehicles). Add fuel stabilizer to stored gas and never let your vehicle fuel tanks get below half full! Don’t run your generator in an enclosed space. Store fuel outside the house. Rotate stored gasoline.
   7. Food storage; at least a four weeks’ supply, preferably more (remember, you may have refugee neighbors in your house with you).
   8. Canned and some dried food can last for years. Have a surplus food area set aside and rotate groceries through it to keep a fresh supply. Put dates on food so you use the oldest first.
   9. Canning supplies: It will be possible, if you have a propane crab cooker or camp stove and a pressure cooker, to can food from your freezer before it spoils.
   10. Home repair supplies: Hammers, nails, screwdrivers, screws, handsaws, hand drills, wrecking bars, pry bars, chisels, awls, scrapers, putty, caulking, insulation, sheets of plywood, a few eight-foot 4”x4”and 2”x2”pieces of lumber, hydraulic jacks, extra-large garbage bags, several rolls of duct tape, waterproof adhesive, a large roll of plastic sheeting (4 to 6 mil.), a half-dozen tarps of various sizes, at least two shovels, a pick-mattock, splitting maul, wedges, an ax, a hatchet, 100-200 feet of stout rope, roof patching tar, brooms, buckets, plastic pipe the same diameter as your waste line to the septic tank, one or two gallons of household bleach (rotate stored bleach because it loses effectiveness over time).

4. Maintaining until outside helps arrives: Remember Hurricane Katrina in 2005? Don’t expect outside help for at least two weeks, and it may be much longer. Portland, Salem, Eugene, Vancouver, Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle—all will be devastated. Many people in those cities will be killed by the quake and thousands will be injured. Rescuers will go there first. If you want to last until help does come, you should be thinking about keeping safe.

At the Cape Meares community level, we can form mutual aid plans before the quake occurs. For example, we now have supply sheds in three neighborhoods containing emergency and medical supplies We can make a list of generator owners and some people have specialized skills, such as construction, plumbing, medicine, carpentry, hunting, fishing, and wild foraging in which they may offer to instruct others. Holding emergency preparedness seminars for community members, on a regular basis, is helpful.

In New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina, the people who fared the best were those who relied on themselves first, then worked cooperatively with their neighbors. People who waited for “the government” to help them fared poorly.

1. Be prepared to share your house with some people. Be prepared for the fact that some people may come to you who are injured, in shock, disoriented, or hysterical. Guide them to the closest assembly area, where they may get more help.
2. After your house is stabilized, make it weather-tight with the tools and materials you have stockpiled in anticipation of this emergency. This could include covering holes in your roof, covering broken windows and jacking up and supporting portions of your house.
3. Take steps to maintain your body heat. Have plenty of clothing and blankets. Inspect your woodstove or fireplace for damage to stove pipes and flue liners. You may still be able to use these. But be aware of the danger of fire or carbon monoxide.
4. Assess your water supply. Store as much as you have room for. Rotate annually. Rainwater harvesting is very helpful. Water can be hauled from creeks and purified by filtering, boiling or chemicals (e.g., bleach: 1/8 tsp per gallon).
5. Determine if the waste line from your house to your septic tank is still intact. If so, you can still use the toilets in your house by pouring water in to flush them. If the line is broken, repair it using the pipe you have stockpiled for this purpose. After the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011, sewer systems failed but many septic systems remained useable in the rural areas.
6. If your septic system has been destroyed, be prepared to bury human waste and possibly build an outhouse. Take care that this is not near a stream.
7. Shut off power at the breaker panel against the day when power will be restored.
8. Shut off your large propane tank until you’re sure your system is not leaking.
9. Be prepared to help rescue and care for injured and sick neighbors. Get your Red Cross training updated.  Especially useful will be the Red Cross Wilderness and Remote first-aid course as well as CERT training.
10. Be prepared to help recover and bury the dead. Make sure the burials are clearly marked and identified for subsequent removal by authorities.
11. Be prepared for the remote possibility of looters or roving gangs of thugs from outside the community who come to take advantage of the disaster.
12. We live in an area rich in natural resources. You can prepare yourself by learning to get food from fish, game and wild plants.

Section III:  If Your House Is low (30 feet or less) in the Inundation Zone

It makes little sense to stockpile a lot of supplies if your house is likely to be swept away by the tsunami which will follow the quake in a few minutes. You may have to depend on community stored supplies if you can’t salvage yours after the tsunami. But saving non-perishables (e.g. canned foods) may offer you the opportunity to return to your damaged home to salvage food and supplies.

Section IV: If You Are in a Vehicle

If you are traveling anywhere in your car during the quake, watch out for falling buildings, utility poles, and trees; landslides; collapsed bridges, tunnels and overpasses. If in a tsunami zone, head for higher ground. You may have to take your Grab & Go bag and leave your car to do so. 

If you are not in danger from a tsunami, head for shelter but watch out for damaged buildings that may collapse in after-shocks. Decide if you are close enough to home to walk there. Decide ahead of time where you would go if the quake hit during any of several points on your journey. Be thinking ahead. Always have a Grab & Go bag in your vehicle.

Section V: If You Are on Foot

Most areas you could be hiking are close to high ground. Watch for landslides and falling trees.

If you are hiking the beach out on Bayocean Spit, you should try to reach the big hill on the spit. You’ll have 10-15 minutes to get up that hill. Carry in a small knapsack (or in your pockets) a space blanket, water, energy bars, and fire-making materials.  Be prepared to spend up to 12 hours on the hill while waiting for the series of tsunamis to subside. You may have to stay longer if the spit is breached at the south end.

Appendix 1

Suggestions for your medical kits:

Basic Kit

Disposable gloves, sterile gauze pads, rolled gauze bandages, tincture of benzoin, Steri-Strip wound closure strips, butterfly bandages, nonstick dressings (Telfa), Spenco 2^nd Skin, assorted sizes of Band-Aids, QuikClot Sport Silver advanced clotting sponge, Polysporin antibiotic ointment, splint materials, rolled elastic bandage (Ace wrap), triangular bandage, adhesive tape, duct tape, cold packs, eye wash, dental first-aid kit, tweezers, bandage scissors, pain/fever medication (aspirin, ibuprofen, Tylenol), anti-diarrheal (Imodium or Lomotil), anti-nausea (Pepto-Bismol, Mylanta), syrup of ipecac, Benadryl tablets, hydrocortisone cream, cough medicine, earache drops, eye drops, over-the-counter medicines your household uses, prescription medications.

Additions to create your large kit

Thermometer, antifungal medication, burn medication such as Burn Free, oral electrolytes, pack or roll of sterile cotton, alcohol, oral antibiotics/sulfas, injectable antibiotics/sulfas, injectable epinephrine (for shock as in drug allergy), injectable antihistamine, surgical instruments (forceps, needle holder, scalpel w/blades, scissors, assorted sizes of absorbable suture material), body stapler kit, stethoscope, sterile needles and syringes, sterile IV kit (requires experience), IV electrolytes. 

Appendix 2

Materials and equipment that could be supplied and stored in emergency storage sheds by the community as a whole to benefit residents:

• Sleeping bags
• Large Berkey water filter
• Antibiotics and other medical supplies
• Dehydrated food buckets (available from Costco.com or Emergency Essentials)
• Toilet paper
• Blankets
• Satellite phone 
• Berkey water filter

Please call me with additions and corrections.  Here’s to being “too soon” rather than “too late.”

Thanks,

Pete Steen

(503) 312-4216