THE BIG ONE - REALISTIC OFFICIAL WARNINGS OF LONG-TERM SCARCITY AND BROKEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Starvation, roads unusable for years, ground liquefaction, landslides, and more are possible in this realistic assessment of what a major earthquake could cause to the Pacific Northwest.

 

A major earthquake would cripple transportation on Interstate 5 as bridges and overpasses collapse from two to four minutes of ground shaking, possible very severe, with stressful aftershocks for weeks. 

Althea Rizzo, geology hazard coordinator for Oregon Office of Energy and Management offered her scientific assessment.  

 

“Single-family homes will bounce off their foundations.  Landslides will cause transportation between I-5 and (Highway) 101 on the coast to be cut off for three to five years.”

 

A big quake will cause liquefaction, in which the ground, if saturated with water, will “turn to pudding,” causing hardware, such as sewer systems, septic lines and gas tanks, to rise up out of the earth.

 

Lines from Washington state gasoline refineries cross 15 rivers, leaving them vulnerable to quake tremors, she says.   Most of these were built in the mid-20th century, with no thought to making them quake-resistant, she says, adding that they would be offline for at least six months.

 

Electrical power would be down from one to three months until transformers and the electrical grid get going again, she says.

 

A region’s markets have food enough for only three days, so families should store at least three weeks of nonperishable food and other necessities.

 

The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs 600 miles from about Eureka, Calif., to the north end of Vancouver Island. The North American tectonic plate, on which the Rogue Valley rests, is moving southwesterly a couple of inches a year, overriding oceanic plates and building up tension.

 

When the tension is released, she said, it causes far-reaching land quakes and lifts an enormous amount of sea water, which will slam the Oregon Coast with tsunamis.

Read more - http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/oregonians-warned-to-prepare-for-big-one-roads-cut-off-for-5-years-no-electricity-for-3-months-no-gas-for-6-months/

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