Tsunami Threat Looms Over Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest needs to brace itself for a massive tsunami that will likely destroy homes, hurl cars against buildings, and threaten the lives of tens of thousands of people, experts say.

The northwest is due for a big earthquake-generated tsunami, just like the waves that slammed Samoa last month and the Indian Ocean in 2004.However, the region hasn’t adequately prepared for the deluge, said geotechnical engineer Yumei Wang, of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland.

Her proposal: Build a series of tsunami evacuation buildings up and down the coast.Wang has helped design a prototype for Cannon Beach, Ore., which is seriously considering building the first tsunami refuge in the United States.

via Tsunami Threat Looms Over Pacific Northwest : Discovery News.

Tsunami Strikes American Samoa After 8.3-Magnitude Quake

A tsunami swept into Pago Pago, American Samoa, shortly after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.3 erupted in the area. There were no immediate reports of injuries or structural damage Tuesday.

Fili Sagapolutele, who works at the Samoa News, says the water flowed inland about 100 yards before receding, leaving some cars stuck in the mud.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu issued a tsunami warning for American Samoa and other areas of the Pacific, including New Zealand. A tsunami watch was posted for other areas, including Hawaii and the Marshall Islands.

There are reports that some beaches in Hawaii are being closed as a precaution. Police are at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to offer protection and assistance in the event that a large wave forms.

American Samoa, a group of islands, is a U.S. territory located in the South Pacific, about 2,300 miles south of Hawaii. American Samoa is slightly larger than Washington, D.C., with a population of 65,628. The population of Pago Pago is approximately 11,000.

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LA Beach Signs Warn of Tsunami Threat

Like many Californians who put down roots in earthquake country, Robin Rudisill knows the “Big One” could strike without warning. Yet from her Venice beachfront duplex, Rudisill worries about a different massive blow from Mother Nature — a tsunami.

Her 1950s-era home — with its cool ocean breeze and golden sunsets — sits smack in the heart of a potentially deadly tsunami zone. If that big one ever came ashore, scientists say, it could raze the landscape from the sun-kissed beach to about a mile inland.

To alert homeowners and beachgoers that they are in tsunami territory, the city of Los Angeles has begun posting blue and white “TSUNAMI HAZARD ZONE” signs with an image of ominous-looking waves. The signs, which have surfaced in beach parking lots and at major intersections in Venice and other low-lying communities, also point out evacuation routes.

“It makes it clear that we are in an inundation zone, which most people did not previously, and many still do not, know,” said Rudisill, who pushed for the signs.

While a tsunami threat to the Golden State is real, the potential for killer waves is far less likely than the earthquakes, wildfires, landslides and floods that plague the nation’s most populous state.

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