By Gordon McCraw, Tillamook County Emergency Manager
So, I know there are some folks wondering, are all these earthquakes, including the two large ones in southern California, the 6.4 and 7.1 this past week, a precursor to warn us that the “Big One” is about to fire off? Good news, these events, nor the other large ones around the globe, are not related.
While the earthquakes down near Ridgecrest,CA were the largest quakes in about the last 20 years, they are on a totally different faultline that sees a regular number of quakes, usually smaller in magnitude though. It is known that these larger quakes can trigger other earthquakes on separate a faultline, they are usually in close proximity to the origin. These California earthquakes are not going to trigger earthquakes on the Oregon or Washington faults.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone quake is still considered to be inevitable; we are just not sure if it will release this week, this month or even this century. The odds have not increased because of the recent California quakes.
If you have NOT developed an Emergency Plan, including a Family Communications Plan, now is a good time to develop one. Ready.gov is a great resource to help you with this. It even offers ideas for your Emergency Kit. Don’t forget, you can also participate in the largest Earthquake Drill to be held on October 17. Visit Shakeout.org for more information.