Underground carbon dioxide storage would result in earthquakes
June 21, 2012Cancel another innovative idea. According to a commentary published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, storing harmful carbon dioxide gas underground is not practical. Why? Because it would cause earthquakes!
Read MoreBeachcomber Assesses Operation Lifeline Portion of the Evergreen Quake Exercise
June 15, 2012
The Vashon Beachcomber has done a nice article on a key aspect of last week’s 2012 Evergreen Quake exercise. Entitled, “Emergency drill shows a marine lifeline could be established for Vashon”, Editor and author Leslie Brown included a number of great quotes from islanders and county officials and crew. She noted key advances such as actually testing gurneys with the boat to be aware of potential issues ahead of time.
King County tests disaster response with regional earthquake exercise
June 7, 2012Drill includes delivering critical supplies to Vashon Island by boat
Read MoreWashington State Geologic Information Portal
June 7, 2012If you like maps and haven’t checked out the Washington State Geologic Information Portal, it is a wealth of useful information! More than just interactive maps, they also have geoscience data and collections and links to other earth science information sites.
Read More1st WA DNR Study of Rainier Lahar Damage-- up to $40 Billion
June 7, 2012
Every 500-1000 years the slopes of Mount Rainier produce liquefied mud flows called lahars that can flow like rivers but have a density similar to liquid concrete. Based on the last Electron Mudflow ~550 years ago, and using HAZUS software, the DNR released a new report that estimates potential damage to property (but not life) based on these lahars for the first time.
Historic 2012 Evergreen Quake Exercise
June 5, 2012
Washington Emergency Management Division is working with FEMA and a slew of local partners in the Puget Sound region to conduct the state's largest (i.e., most coordinated) earthquake exercise ever: Evergreen Quake 2012™.
Tsunami & Earthquake Games!
June 5, 2012
A few months back I notices an exciting new source of disaster preparedness info: Sesame Street! Yep, FEMA apparently hired them to start educating tots early – in a variety of languages too. Fun! (I wish I had received that contract.)
ShakeOut Finally Reaches Washington State
June 5, 2012
The ShakeOut™ moniker started a couple years back in California I believe – which perhaps accounts for it’s subsequent adoption thought the galaxy, and soon in Washington too! I’m a bit jaded about such marketing obviously, but it has generated LOTS of publicity and made many aware that otherwise wouldn’t have a clue.
WA Emergency Management Division–What’ve they done?
June 5, 2012
Quite a bit apparently! They don’t crow about it much, but they are fairly consistently busy apparently with some 4372 state-wide incidents to track last year! They only activated 14 times, but obviously spent a lot of time tracking activities throughout the state, but especially olde King County – with 865 of those 4372 incidents: 670 of our county’s incidents were Hazmat, 121 Search & Rescue, 73 Other & 1 Fire incident.