Planning ahead for massive earthquake in the Northwest

Rebekah Paci-Green, an earthquake-damage expert at Western Washington University, says emergency-response experts in the U.S. have worried most about two scenarios.

One was a major hurricane hitting New Orleans. Check that one off the list, although it could happen again.

Earthquake-damage expert Rebekah Paci-Green is an assistant professor of environmental studies and director of the Resilience Institute at Western Washington University.
Earthquake-damage expert Rebekah Paci-Green is an assistant professor of environmental studies and director of the Resilience Institute at Western Washington University. Rhys Logan/Western Washington University Courtesy to The Bellingham Herald
The other scenario? A massive earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the 700-mile fault off the Northwest coast from Northern California to the northern part of Vancouver Island.