Rising above the risk: Westport breaks ground on Washington’s newest tsunami refuge

The city of Westport broke ground Saturday on what will become Washington state’s latest tsunami-safe location: a new vertical evacuation tower.

The new tower will stand on what is now a grassy field just a few hundred feet south of the Westport Marina.

Construction will involve driving large pilings into the ground to keep the structure secure against tsunami-force waves and any debris they might bring ashore.

It’s the third tsunami tower to be built in the Westport area.

The $13.7 million tower will hold about a thousand people.

Construction is scheduled to be finished by the end of next summer.

An artist’s rendering of the new Vertical Evacuation Tower to be built in Westport. (Graphic courtesy Degenkolb Engineers, Rice Fergus Miller, and Robert Hutchison Architects)

The project is getting underway after years of planning and efforts in the coastal community to improve tsunami safety.

Experts say a tsunami caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone could reach Westport within 15 minutes.

Local and state leaders broke ground on the project Saturday morning.

The new tower follows Ocosta Elementary School’s completion of the state’s first tsunami tower a decade ago, about four miles south of the new tower site.

The school district completed that tower in 2016.

Further south, near Tokeland, the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe built its freestanding Auntie Lee Vertical Evacuation Tower in 2022.

“This is an exciting milestone for Westport and the result of years of dedication, collaboration, and hard work,” said Danté DiSabatino, the new tower’s Project Manager for the Washington Emergency Management Division, in a released statement.

The majority of the funding comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  FEMA awarded the project a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant in 2020.

The City of Westport provided $763,000.

Washington’s Disaster Response Account added another $763,000 in matching funds.

Construction crews will build the tower on city-owned property.

The structure will also serve as a public viewing tower.

“Westport is showing what’s possible when an entire community comes together to design and build these lifesaving tsunami vertical evacuation structures,” DiSabatino said in the statement.  “There is still more work to do across Washington.  In communities where natural high ground cannot be reached in time before a tsunami hits, we must build it to save lives.”

An image of the new tower is superimposed over a photo of the grassy field where it will be located. (Graphic courtesy: Degenkolb Engineers, Rice Fergus Miller, and Robert Hutchison Architecture)

State officials say that even with the new evacuation tower, our state still needs more.

Officials used a 2025 Washington Emergency Management study of possible losses from a significant tsunami on the Washington coast to support Westport’s FEMA application.

It estimated approximately 6,075 casualties from a Cascadia Subduction Zone-created tsunami.

The study’s authors suggest additional vertical evacuation structures can provide high ground for people who may not be able to evacuate beyond the tsunami inundation zone in time.

Emergency officials say, statewide, Washington needs at least 58 vertical evacuation structures in key coastal locations to address that evacuation gap.