Before, during and after the distant Kamchatka tsunami propelled 1-foot waves to Washington state, coastal communities here have been preparing for our own Big Rip someday.
For instance, Westport, Grays Harbor County, is back on track to construct its second tsunami refuge structure by late 2027, next to the marina.
Tribes and towns throughout the coastline are designing defenses and scrambling for cash. Washington state lawmakers answered this year with $152 million to relocate schools in the North Beach (Ocean Shores), Taholah (Quinault Indian Nation) and Cape Flattery (Makah Tribe) areas to higher ground.
Tuesday's quake in the Russian Far East adds motivation, as another shake-up in the so-called Ring of Fire" offshore from four continents.
The magnitude 8.8 quake was among the strongest in measured history, and the most powerful in the Pacific Rim since Japan's 2011 tsunami that flooded cities and the Fukushima nuclear plant, said Harold Tobin, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
"It's been a long time, but we need these reminders, we need to be prepared," Tobin said.
Approximately 175,000 people in Washington live in tsunami hazard zones, according to the Washington State Emergency Management Division. To evacuate everyone from a catastrophic event, there should be at least 58 refuge structures along the coasts, the division says.
If the worst-case Washington state quake occurred, a magnitude 9.0 event in the Cascadia Subduction Zone offshore, the coast could be flooded with 50 feet of seawater. Native peoples experienced such a quake in 1700.
Preparations for a future tsunami are moving briskly in Westport, population 2,200 and a mecca for seafood, charter-boat fishing excursions and surfing.
The city is forging ahead with design work to build its second tsunami evacuation tower by late 2027, next to the marina, City Administrator Thomas Cappa said.
Westport built the nation's first such refuge in 2016, on the roof of Ocosta Elementary School. Another 13 miles south in Tokeland, the Shoalwater Bay Tribe dedicated its own 50-foot-high tower in 2022.
Westport's plan for a second refuge was briefly knocked off its moorings this spring, when the Trump administration sought to end a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster-resilience program because of "waste, fraud and abuse."
But then in June, FEMA sent an approval letter restoring a $15.1 million offer toward Westport's $16.8 million estimated cost.
The new structure, overlooking boat docks and Grays Harbor, would be about five stories high and hold as many as 2,000 people, according to state emergency preparedness staff.
Farther east, Aberdeen and Hoquiam are seeking $97.5 million in federal aid to help construct harbor levees, the federal project list says. Governments in Washington state have proposed 27 projects that could get a combined $169 million in U.S. aid for seismic, climate and disaster resilience.
The coastal Shoalwater Bay, Quinault and Quileute tribes have built new housing above their flood-vulnerable shoreside towns, a long-term "Move to Higher Ground" effort. A new Quileute K-12 school opened uphill in 2022, and the tribe's tsunami plan also calls for hill climb trails and structures to protect its fishing fleet in La Push, Clallam County.
The Makah Tribe, who have lived at the northwest corner of the continental U.S. since time immemorial, designated five higher-elevation refuge areas around the low-lying town of Neah Bay and held public walks to familiarize residents with escape routes.
Westport aspires to build a third or even fourth tsunami refuge, so people midtown can walk to safety in 15 minutes, instead of a longer distance to the school site in the south end or to the 2027 marina site in the north, Cappa said.
Small waves, for now
The Kamchatka undersea quake generated a half-foot observed sea rise at Westport, 1.3 feet at La Push and 1.2 feet at Port Angeles, some 3,400 miles across the sea. The effects were less noticeable because tsunami waves arrived during low tide overnight.
The peak impacts, at 4 feet, reached Crescent City, Calif., and Hawaii.
None of Washington state's 121 tsunami sirens, nor its handful of evacuation sites, were activated overnight. Water movement never approached the "warning" stage of approximately 3 feet that would prompt alarms, said Karina Shagren, spokesperson for state emergency management.
The meek impact resulted from several possible factors, Tobin explained.
First, the 9.0 Big Rip scenario familiar to Washingtonians is double an 8.8-magnitude event, because of the logarithmic scale of seismic ratings.
Also, the global location of Kamchatka propagates waves southeasterly, so the vanguard of the tsunami arrived first and hardest near Crescent City. Meanwhile, the deep Mendocino Fracture Zone there "concentrates the energy into the wave above it," Tobin said.
Tobin said if the shallow, 9.0-magnitude Fukushima quake had been "an even bigger event," it would have transmitted damaging waves all the way to the Pacific Northwest. But the Kamchatka quake began too deep beneath the seafloor to generate maximum long-distance waves, he said.
"Each earthquake is unique," he said.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., spoke in congressional committee Wednesday to praise "the incredible work of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and emergency responders to ensure coastal communities in Washington, Hawaii, Alaska, California and Oregon received tsunami advisories many hours in advance — saying it's another reason to strengthen U.S. weather science.
A catastrophic subduction quake off the Olympic Peninsula has perhaps a 15% to 20% chance of occurring in the next 50 years, said Tobin, and a 100% chance to hit eventually.
On the other hand, Tobin said, this week's Russian quake doesn't portend an imminent disaster here.
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