One year later: Local researchers warn of lessons learned from Japan quake and tsunami
Mar 7, 2012, 6:28 PM | Updated: Mar 9, 2012, 7:17 am
When University of Washington tsunami expert Jody
Bourgeois was doing research in Japan, she never imagined
she’d be at ground zero for the biggest disaster in that
country’s history. The UW professor of Earth and Space
Sciences was about 300 miles away from the epicenter. But
it was enough to make her sick.
“The shaking there lasted three minutes,” she says. “I
got seasick.”
What really made her sick was seeing the devastation.
Over 16,000 killed, thousand more missing or injured and
billions of dollars in damage left behind.
But Bourgeois says it could have been even worse. She
credits Japan’s extensive disaster preparedness system,
and says it’s an important lesson for us.
“Everybody knows they should move to high ground and to a
safe place and that’s what saved so many lives in Japan.”
Bourgeois says coastal towns in Washington state are
equally vulnerable, and credits communities with improving
their tsunami preparedness. But she says much more needs
to be done.
While the quake wasn’t a surprise, the magnitude was. UW
professor John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest
Seismic Network, says it has shaken the confidence of
researchers to predict impending earthquakes.
It’s a big concern here in the fault laden Puget Sound
area, where Vidale says it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but
‘when’ a
massive quake will strike.
“The plates are moving and they don’t go a thousand years
without an earthquake, at least on the coast,” says
Vidale.
He is leading efforts to develop an earthquake early
warning system in Washington, where sensors would detect
motion and trigger alarms. A similar system was effective
in saving many lives in Japan. But the seismic expert
says a similar system is still years away here in the
Northwest.
Given the strong possibility of a massive quake and
tsunami hitting our region during our lifetimes, the
professors agree the biggest lesson learned from Japan is
to be prepared.
People are interpreting that as a once every thousand year
event. But it did happen. “And it can happen,” Bourgeois
says.
