Acehtsunami

Coastal areas in the Cascadia Region are at risk for tsunamis – like the tsunami that ravaged communities around the Indian Ocean after a great earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004. Tsunamis on Cascadia are not recurrent but could arise either from a large earthquake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, or from a distant earthquake strong enough to send a tsunami across the ocean. Tsunami Escape Route signs have been mounted on the coasts of Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and California.

Although tsunamis do not occur frequently, they can cause a tremendous amount of damage in coastal areas when they do occur. The National Tsunami Mitigation Program offers a coordinated national effort to assess tsunami threat, prepare community response, issue timely and effective warnings, and mitigate damage. Tsunami Warnings for the Cascadia coast are spawned by the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

Every state in the Cascadia Region has issued a brochure warning people of the danger of tsunamis and what they can do to avoid being killed by one. These brochures are connected in the mitigation section of this site. Some useful information about tsunamis is available from the Oregon State brochure about tsunamis and is reproduced below. This information applies to all coastal areas in the Cascadia Region. Surviving a Tsunami—Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan is a USGS pamphlet about well-documented tsunami events in numerous countries.