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DZTV: Earthquake Risks and Warning in Seattle

When will the Big One hit?

It was about two weeks ago that I recorded a Disaster Zone television program on the topic of earthquake risks and warning in Seattle.   Then the New Yorker article The Really Big One hit the web and will be in print in a few more days.

I didn't know about the New Yorker piece coming out, but the DZTV show covers more of the earthquake risks from all the seismic faults in the Puget Sound and West Coast region.  I think Bill Steele from the University of Washington Seismology Lab does a great job of describing the risks and giving a hint on what a seismic warning system might do once we have one in place.

As I note in the show, we'll have all the funding we need for this warning system right after the next big earthquake--that just seems to be how the political system works.  We can't bring ourselves to fund disaster mitigation until we have experienced a calamity.



Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.