Post drill, we talked about what might happen next, and how if it is the Seattle Fault earthquake, which runs through Elliott Bay, it will produce a tsunami or more accurately a seiche. I explained how rapidly the seiche will form and how there will be no time to evacuate and move uphill, since we are right on the water, being located at the World Trade Center in Seattle which is on Alaskan Way.
Some staff were not familiar with these circumstances/events and so I sent them today this Tsunami Inundation Of Seattle (2007 NOAA Simulation). The simulation is in real time, so you can see how rapidly the wave forms and the areas it engulfs in only two minutes.
I mention this to you here again, since I know I've blogged on this simulation before, but there are hundreds of people moving to Washington state every month and people come not knowing about the earthquake or tsunami risks for the new place they are choosing to live and call home.
Please share this blog post with those you think may not know of the hazard and what to do, or not do. Unlike the Washington Coast, there is no time to get to higher ground.
Lastly I tell people the worst place to be in a Seattle Fault is on Harbor Island. If you know where that is on the video. There are shipping terminals there and large oil and gasoline storage tanks. Of course, the land is all fill, so the shaking and liquefaction is going to be huge.
