Aug. 23, 2018
A poster for an event seen at the bulletin board at Gordon's. Local real estate people and the Chamber of Commerce will not like this blogpost.
This poster advertises a talk by Charles Wallace, aka Chuck Wallace, Deputy Director of Grays Harbor Emergency Management. It is sort of unsettling the event is set for the date of Sept. 11th.
Anyway, Mr. Wallace has been working hard around the county in presentations attempting to inform people about our inevitable disaster when, not if,
when the Cascadia Subduction Fault decides to unzip.
The last time this baby became undone was in Jan. 1700. The next cyclical geological shift in these plates could happen at any time-- five minutes, five hours, five days, five decades. We don't know. When it does happen it will be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
Imagine a 9 point or so quake where the epicenter moves offshore from Cape Mendocino up to Vancouver Island, lasting about five or more minutes. The coast will drop around six feet, followed by a giant tsunami where the effect will reach clear to Montesano.
Goodbye Ocean Shores, Westport, Long Beach, Seaview, Tokeland, Oysterville, Moclips. Adios to downtown Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosmopolis.
McCleary will only drop about a foot, meaning most of the century old plus dwellings in town will collapse, like mine. But our town will probably serve as a refugee station, with air supplies landing at Sanderson Field in Shelton.
Our current federal government's response to the Puerto Rico disaster after Hurricane Maria does not exactly inspire confidence in depending on outside help after the Cascadia unzipping takes place. I think Mr. Wallace is trying to let us know we need to be responsible for ourselves and prepare for the worst.
Check out Kathryn Schulz "The Really Big One" (2015) in the
New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
