Coastal quake will be felt here
Editor’s note: This story is not real. The earthquake didn’t happen — not yet, anyway. But experts say it’s only a matter of time until the Cascadia Fault sets off a disaster of historic proportions on the coast that will also have a dramatic impact throughout the Northwest, including in North Idaho. Over the next four days, numerous agencies will be responding to the fictional disaster in one of the most detailed, large-scale training exercises in the region’s history. The Hagadone News Network will be treating it as an actual news event to try to relay the urgency of efficient and effective response.
By BRIAN WALKER
Hagadone News Network
COEUR d'ALENE — The earthquake and tsunami that rocked the West Coast on Tuesday morning is expected to have a powerful ripple effect on North Idaho.
A conference call will be held this afternoon with local officials to discuss potential impacts the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami will have on Kootenai County, said Sandy Von Behren, the county's Office of Emergency Management director.
Von Behren said she and other county disaster planners were informed by the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security at 8 a.m. on Tuesday that the center of the earthquake was 95 miles east of Eugene, Ore.
"Shaking occurred throughout most of Oregon and Washington and as far north as British Columbia and as far south as northern California," Von Behren said, adding that no residents reported shaking here.
She said the quake occurred in the 700-mile Cascadia subduction zone, also known as the Cascadia fault, which stretches from northern California to British Columbia.
Emergency agencies have recently been preparing for Cascadia Rising, but the disaster striking on Tuesday was still bone-chilling, Kootenai County Sheriff's Office Lt. Stu Miller said.
"What the experts have been preparing for has come to fruition," Miller said. "This is an unfortunate tragedy for the folks in the Northwest that will have untold lasting effects."
Bill Steele, a seismology lab coordinator at the University of Washington, told The Press in a Feb. 21 story on Cascadia Rising that 9.0-magnitude earthquakes have re-occurred every 200 to 1,000 years over the past 10,000 years with an average re-occurrence rate of one every 500 years. The last such earthquake in a Cascadia subduction zone occurred on Jan. 26, 1700.
While scientists discovered the quake potential about 30 years ago and emergency responders were aware that the threat was real, agencies have now found that what they've been practicing for has become reality.
With the devastation on the coast, evacuees might flee here and to other Idaho counties to seek services and medical assistance, Lt. Miller said. He said he has not heard a report on the number of deaths or injuries.
Emergency personnel, government officials, business owners and others have been invited to today's conference call to discuss how to handle the influx of people coming here. Von Behren said it's possible American Red Cross shelters could be set up in the region to assist evacuees.
"We need to collaborate to discuss how this could impact us in Kootenai County," she said. "We want to prepare for the worst."