(That’s the same risk level it assigns to ice storms at Lahaina.) It finds a “very low” risk from strong wind and a “low” risk from wildfire for the late, lamented Maui town of Lahaina, which a wind-driven wildfire largely destroyed on Aug. That’s not the only mind-blowing case of underestimation in the NRI. “In terms of overall loss of life from a Cascadia tsunami, is ground zero.” “A ‘moderate’ tsunami risk for Long Beach - that blows my mind!” says Hannah Cleverly, the deputy emergency management director in neighboring Grays Harbor County. are consigned to “low” or “extremely low” tsunami risk. Most of the tracts along the Strait of Juan de Fuca - where POLITICO Magazine previously revealed how Even more surprisingly, it finds only a “low” tsunami risk for the Hoh Tribe, which faces the highest projected waves. Likewise for the more densely populated Long Beach Peninsula, a 28-mile sandspit at the state’s southwest corner - think Cape Cod, only flatter - that will be cut off from the mainland by an earthquake and tsunami. It will be buried under 30 to 50 feet of water. , assigns only a “relatively moderate” tsunami risk to the Quinault Indian Nation, even though the Washington State Geological Survey There’s just one problem: the online tool the federal government has built for mapping and gauging disaster risks is oblivious to dangers along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The program’s aim is to allocate federal aid to prepare for disaster before it happens. “It’s going to devastate our community,” says Tinker Lucas, emergency management coordinator for the Makah Tribe at the lonely tip of the Olympic Peninsula, which is expected to drop 12 feet into the sea when the shaking starts.Īll this might seem to make Washington’s tsunami coast a perfect candidate for an ambitious new federal effort to proactively identify the communities most exposed to natural hazards and least able to handle them on their own.
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