Surviving A Tsunami: If the big one hits Oregon, experts say you´re on your own

By Bob Keefer
The Register-Guard

Don´t expect to hear a siren. For the most part, there are no sirens, except for a few in scattered communities, and certainly none along the miles and miles of empty coastline that tourists come to Oregon to enjoy every year.

If a tsunami strikes Oregon, the only warning you may get is the violent shaking of the ground from a massive earthquake just offshore. And if that happens, experts say, the moment the ground stops shaking you must run for your life to high ground.

Then, when the waters subside, you may be on your own to find food, water and shelter for the next few days or weeks.

That assessment comes from a variety of state and local emergency officials, who say the best thing Oregonians can do to prepare for a tsunami is to educate themselves.

Getting ready for a tsunami in Oregon means planning for two quite different kinds of disasters.

In one case, a distant earthquake - perhaps in Alaska´s Aleutian chain, or even as far away as Japan - triggers a tsunami that is detected by remote buoys as it crosses the northern Pacific Ocean on its way to Oregon. The waves will take hours to reach the Northwest, meaning there is time for official warnings, whether by sirens or other methods. People on the Oregon Coast should have ample time to round up their families, pack their cars and follow marked evacuation routes to higher ground.

The second case happens much faster.

In that scenario, a major earthquake strikes the Cascadia subduction zone, an active earthquake fault within 200 miles of the Oregon Coast. The massive quake, which is strong enough to destroy some buildings, will have barely stopped shaking when the tsunami strikes.

There is no time for an alarm, no time for orderly evacuation, no time to find family and friends, and no time to drive a car over roads and bridges that already may be destroyed. The waves could hit some places as soon as 10 minutes after the quake.

The advice for people on the Oregon Coast in this case is simple and straightforward: As soon as the ground stops shaking, drop everything and run to high ground. Try to reach 100 feet above sea level. Don´t wait a second before fleeing.

"It´s not a very pretty picture," says Jay Wilson, tsunami and earthquake coordinator for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. "The buoy system that will give us notice for long-range tsunamis will do us no good in a short-range tsunami. The earthquake will be our warning. And minutes all are very critical."

The only real preparedness for this second kind of tsunami, the experts say, is public education. The more people who understand how quickly they need to flee, the more will survive.

That message is echoed by Linda Cook, emergency manager for the Lane County sheriff´s office.

Cook´s office has done little to prepare specifically for a tsunami. "We have more of an earthquake preparedness plan," she says. "We really approach it as an earthquake. I wouldn´t say we have anything specific to tsunamis."

Lane County´s focus, she says, is on "all hazards."

"Many of the protocols and procedures are the same regardless of the type of disaster."

Last week, emergency managers from the coast gathered in Salem to prioritize their most pressing needs and figure out what parts of the coast are "tsunami-ready."

The consensus: not much. They need more stockpiles of emergency supplies, a way to reach outsiders once electricity and cell phone communication are disrupted and, most importantly, a culture of awareness among residents and businesses along the coast about what to do if a tsunami strikes.