CHAPTER 14
Willa watched as Jason pressed a button on his remote. The video of Dolphin Beach started to shake. Buildings shattered and fell into jagged piles of debris. Nothing remained standing. Willa heard audible gasps from the audience as they reacted much the same way she did when she viewed the presentation privately earlier that morning. Her heart was urging her to tell everybody that what they had just seen was on its way in reality, but her mind held tight to the commitment she had made to keep that knowledge to herself.
Jason paused the video. “I have compressed the time factor to twenty seconds so you will get a feel for what we are facing,” Jason said. “What have you been told to do in case of an earthquake?”
“Duck and cover,” a man from the front row said.
“And that places you inside your building in most cases,” Jason replied. “You know where you live in Dolphin Beach. What does your house look like on the screen?”
Willa’s heart went out to her friends and neighbors in the auditorium as she watched the horror and shock in their faces. Willa had lived her whole live in Dolphin Beach and felt devastated at the prospect that it would all be destroyed.
“Duck and cover is an effective strategy for earthquakes in the 6.5 to 8.0 Magnitude range,” Jason said. “Anyone know what magnitude a Subduction Zone earthquake is likely to be?” No one ventured a guess. “Nine point zero or above. That’s ten times bigger than an 8.0 Magnitude and one hundred times bigger than a 7.0 Magnitude. What Dolphin Beach is facing is not a single disaster, but two disasters, back to back.”
Jason walked calmly across the stage. “Just so you will know what to expect, I’ve added sound and slowed the video to normal speed. This is how it will happen.” Jason pressed the button on his remote. Dolphin Beach appeared whole and complete again, viewed from the ocean. The time-lapse appeared in the lower right-hand corner of the video in red numbers, shown in increments of one tenth of a second. The reverberation started from the theater speakers and began increasing in intensity as the quake began. The older buildings fractured and splintered first, then the newer buildings. One by one, each building gave way, disintegrating first into a stack of rubble, then shifting and expanding, filling existing spaces and spilling into the streets. The excruciating cacophony seemed to continue forever as the devastation spread throughout Dolphin Beach. Eventually the cataclysm weakened and stopped. Jason paused the video.
“How many of you have actually been in an earthquake of any size?” he asked. Eight people raised their hands. “How long did the earthquake you were in last?”
“Five to ten seconds,” one lady said.
“Yeah, maybe twenty seconds,” a man said.
“Forty seconds,” another man said.
“That must have been a major earthquake,” Jason said, pointing to the man.
“Yes, it was,” the man replied.
“Because of the length of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, what Dolphin Beach is looking at is a 9.0 earthquake that will last for 4 to 6 minutes. Duck and cover will get you trapped in your house, buried under a ton of debris. Twenty minutes later, this will happen.” Jason pressed the button on his remote. This time a giant tsunami rose from the ocean. The impact swallowed up Dolphin Beach with the giant wave, washing the massive pile of debris up the side of the hill and then back out into the ocean.
“If you are trapped in your house, there will not be time to rescue you. The tsunami will wash you out to sea. Your chance of survival is zero,” Jason said. The audience erupted in conversation. Jason waited for the alarmed voices to calm some before continuing. “The real question is what can we do to improve your chance for survival?” He pushed the button on his remote again. Dolphin Beach appeared whole once more. Then the rattling started followed by the violent tremors. Jason stopped the video at the ten second mark.
“Which buildings are the most damaged?” Jason asked.
“My house,” a man stated sadly.
“How old is your house?” Jason asked.
“Built in 1938, by my grandfather.”
“Okay,” Jason said. “Here’s the rule — the older your house is, the less time you have to get out of it. For older buildings you have less than ten seconds to get out. The ground will be moving — hard. You will not be able to walk. You will have to crawl out. If you are on the second floor you will not be able to use the stairs. You will have to go out a window. Keep a two foot length of steel pipe below each window and a chain ladder in a box. If the window is not yet broken, break the window. Use the pipe to clear the broken glass from the window frame. Hook the chain ladder to the window sill, toss the ladder out and climb down. Whatever it takes, get out of your house.”
“What about single story houses?” a woman asked.
“If it’s an older house, keep a two-foot section of steel pipe under each window. Clear the broken glass and get out. Meet with everyone in your family in the street in front of your house. Don’t try to save anything other than your life. You don’t have time.”
The audience sat in bewildered silence. Willa asked, “What comes next?”
Jason used his remote: The street layout of Dolphin Beach as seen from above appeared on the theater screen. Blue arrows were on the streets pointing the way for evacuation. “Many of the ways you would normally go will be blocked by debris. Don’t get trapped in a dead end. This is the way to safety. I have individual sheets printed out with the new evacuation route marked in blue arrows. The old safety zone was up on Promontory Point, which will probably survive the first tsunami. The new safety zone is up here on the other side of Highway 101. You will have more than one tsunami. Based on the shape of the ocean bottom and the placement of the Subduction Zone, you will probably have four Tsunamis. The first one will not be the largest; the fourth one will be, which can arrive up to two hours after the first one. Once you are in the safety place, stay there. Do not go back into town.”
Willa stood and faced the audience. “I know you have questions; I certainly do. Jason will be here as long as it takes to get all of your questions answered. DVDs will be available at the city offices starting Monday, for free, with Jason’s video on them along with his complete presentation and answers to all of your questions.
Individual questions took up the next two hours as Jason patiently went over and over all of the information with everyone who wanted to know more. When the last person had left, Willa approached Jason. “That was overwhelming,” she said.
“This is nothing compared to actually being in one,” Jason replied.
“Well, at least this is done. Now what?” she asked.
“Now I have a huge request,” Jason replied.
CHAPTER 15
Senator Bechtel sat across from Bob Schwartz in the small coffee shop on H Street.
“What I’ve got are rumors, gossip, innuendos and suspicions. Nothing official,” Bob said.
“I didn’t think there would be anything official, this is Washington, after all.”
Bob smiled and continued, “There’s a connection with the HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska and several earthquakes around the globe. I’ve had a physicist friend of mine run some calculations. He doesn’t think the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project in Gakona has enough power to do anything like generate an earthquake. The place is supposed to be civilian in nature, for research only, but it’s funded and jointly run by the Air Force and the Office of Naval Research.”