It's due, but not just that, it's overdue. When it does finally happen, it's going to be big, but not just that, it's going to be colossal.
Those that live anywhere from Cape Mendocino, California to Northern Vancouver Island should fear for their lives. This stretch of land is a fault called the Cascadia Subduction Zone and it's length travels an entire 1,000km. The Juan de Fuca plate and the North American plate come together to form this fault, thus when the two plates move toward each other, one is pushed beneath the other. The plates drift often, however they move slowly and can hardly be identified.
Seismologists, on the other hand, are predicting that the pressure between the two plates will soon be too much to handle, and the results will be catastrophic. When this happens, an estimated magnitude of 8.7 to 9.2 will be the outcome.
Not only are the Northwestern states completely and ultimately unprepared for the massive quake that is sure to ensue, but they are also unprepared for the the after effects. A large portion of the shift of plates will occur beneath the ocean, therefore releasing an upsurge of water compiling into one massive wall. It will then collapse and send a seven-hundred-mile high tsunami across the entire region. After the shaking ceases, the water is slowed, and the destruction is done, the Pacific Northwest will be absolutely unrecognizable.
We are unprepared as a country. People will have no where to turn when the event finally happens. No food. No water. No shelter. Everything will be wiped by flooding water and houses will be buried in rubble and high waters. There will be fires, mud slides, and hazardous-waste spills. Buildings that do happen to stay standing during the quake will collapse once the rapid waters use their force to take them down. I predict that Seattle will drown in the wreckage. Nothing will be left. Bridges throughout Portland will be destroyed and there will be no way to avoid the mass destruction. The death toll will reach astronomical numbers.
It will take decades to restore everything, but it will never be the same. We won't be able to drive anywhere because the roads will be in ruins. Electricity will be unobtainable. There will be no sewer systems and no clean drinking water. Shelter will take years to rebuild. There will be no hospitals. The costs to repair will be monumental.
Those that survive will want to flee. The Pacific Northwest will become a ghost town. The longer the wait, the larger the catastrophe will be.
