Did Seattle earthquake report finally trigger an appropriate response?

The fervor over an impending earthquake in Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest is far from cooled off, after a report from The New Yorker.

Cities and agencies on the West Coast and around the Puget Sound region and state are increasing their efforts to prepare for a natural disaster that could devastate the area.

The Washington National Guard is developing a new response plan, with a focus on earthquake and tsunamis. The National Guard is holding workshops, which will eventually lead to a four-day exercise called “Cascadia Rising” in June 2016, the Peninsula Daily News reports.

Still in development, the state will be divided into nine regions. There will be about 40,000 rescue personnel working in the event of a major disaster. A hierarchy of military and local emergency responders would be put in place.

Concern of a deadly quake and tsunami continue to follow the ripples of fear The New Yorker article produced in July. Though local scientists said there’s no reason to panic as long as people are prepared, it hasn’t squelched residents’ worries. That might be for good reason.

A major earthquake might not kill 13,0000 people as estimated in The New Yorker article, but it’s still going to change a good amount of lives, at least for several days or weeks.

“All the things” in people’s day-to-day lives will be “gone for a while,” Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management Program Manager Bob Hamlin told the Peninsula Daily News. Most resources would be dedicated to areas with large populations, which means more rural places could be on their own for a longer period of time.

Emergency preparedness isn’t only being done at the state level. At least one small town is pumping money into an emergency center. GeekWire reports that Westport, a coastal town of about 2,000 people, is building a $13 million tsunami shelter in the town’s elementary school.

Westport is surrounded by water. Residents will reportedly have about 20 minutes before water covers the city in the event of a tsunami.

The timing of Westport’s project is a coincidence, however. The project began in November, using research from the 2011 earthquake in Japan, GeekWire reports.

In larger cities such as Seattle, preparing for a quake and its aftermath isn’t as simple as constructing a single building. Not only will people have to worry about surviving the days and weeks after a catastrophic event without the usual amenities, they will have to worry about where they are during the event. The Seattle Times reports there are more than 800 buildings that could collapse during an earthquake. Most of those unsafe buildings are brick. The number of people occupying those buildings is estimated between 17,000 to 58,000, according to the Times.

Unfortunately, the cost for retrofitting masonry buildings is high. At $20 to $60 per square foot, the question now is who should pay for such a costly endeavor?