OREGON SEISMIC GRANT FUNDING ROUND 2

NEWS RELEASE
June 25, 2010


MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jennifer Bailey,
OEM Public Affairs Coordinator
503-750-8308
503-378-2911 Ext. 22294


Applications taken July 15 - Oct. 15

SALEM, Ore – Oregon Emergency Management (OEM) announced today that grants are again being made available for eligible applicants for seismic rehabilitation projects. Grant applications will be accepted effective July 15 through October 15, 2010. Information regarding eligibility and grant information can be located on OEM’s website: http://www.oregon.go/OMD/OEM/index.shtml.

In round 1, fourteen public education buildings and eleven emergency services facilities were awarded funds totaling $15 million dollars. The Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program (SRGP) provides reimbursement funds to strengthen public school and emergency service buildings to ensure the safety of students and staff in the event of an earthquake and allow emergency service facilities to remain functional.

Senate President Peter Courtney has been instrumental in sponsoring legislation to provide the means to begin these projects. Approximately $30 million included in the 2009-11 Governor’s Recommended Budget to fund this program received approval by the Legislative Assembly during the 2009 Legislative Session.

“This shows that we take our responsibility to keep Oregonians as safe as possible seriously”, Senator Peter Courtney said. “I am very happy to see this program moving forward.”

A 2007 report from Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries shows over 1,000 school and emergency services buildings at high or very high risk for collapse during an earthquake such as the predicted Cascadia Subduction Zone quake off the Oregon Coast. A quake that size would result in damage at approximately $12 billion in property damage and nearly 1,000 deaths in the region, which includes Yamhill, Marion, Polk, Benton, Linn, and Lane Counties.


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Alaska Quake Tsunami Could Devastate West Coast

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
SciTech webpage

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534260,00.html

The threat of a devastating tsunami hitting the U.S. West Coast might be higher than previously thought, scientists say, based on a new study of earthquake faults off the coast of Alaska.

Tsunamis are often triggered by earthquakes, as was the case with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which was sparked by the 9.3-magnitude Sumatra-Andaman subduction quake in the same ocean. The tsunami killed nearly a quarter of a million people.

The new research suggests that future tsunamis could reach a scale far beyond that suffered in a 1964 tsunami generated by the great 9.2-magnitude Alaskan earthquake — "the most devastating seismic sea wave to impact the northwestern coast of the U.S. in historical time," said study team member Ron Bruhn, a geologist at the University of Utah.

That tsunami killed about 130 people, according to official records: 114 in Alaska and 16 in Oregon and California, including several who heard it was coming and went down to the coast to watch.

Click on link above to read complete article.