Area likely to feel the most intense effects of an earthquake shaded in red.

Disaster relief practice in Volunteer Park (Image via twitter @merlinrain)

The recent New Yorker article about how “toast” the Pacific Northwest will be after the big one hits wasn’t exactly earth shattering news in Seattle. Some were even quick to point out that the Cascadia Fault earthquake fretted about in the article isn’t even the worse earthquake scenario, as a Seattle Fault earthquake may pose a far greater risk.

Still, it was a chilling reminder of the geological forces beneath the city’s surface, as well as the importance of community emergency preparedness. In many ways, Capitol Hill has been better prepared than it stands today.

In June, the group Capitol Hill Prepares announced it would dissolving its earthquake preparedness activities as a city-identified “Hub” and shutting down its website and social media accounts, which were the most active in the neighborhood. In a message announcing the group’s suspension, organizers Karin Baer and Jessica Coleman encouraged residents to continue to “plan for emergencies, to develop community self sufficiency, and to coordinate a way to communicate in times of disaster or emergency when normal communication means are unavailable.”

Neighborhood Hubs and Seattle Neighborhood’s Activly Prepare groups are intended to be the main units of organizing emergency preparedness in the city, developed by the Office of Emergency Management. Hubs are organized around pre-determined locations where neighbors agree to meet to share information and resources. SNAP groups are typically at the block level and lead by a person who’s taken the city’s SNAP training — oftentimes a block watch captain. The idea is to practice how to divvy up responsibilities and conduct tasks in an emergency situation so that residents can react quicker when the time comes for the real thing.

Currently Capitol Hill has no active Hubs or SNAP groups mostly due to a lack of involvement, according to OEM’s community planning organizer Debbie Goetz. There were three Hub locations active on Capitol Hill according to the volunteer run Hub map — Cal Anderson Park, Volunteer Park, and Miller Playfield — but there are no longer groups actively associated with the sites after volunteers with Capitol Hill Prepares stepped down. Additionally, only two people have identified themselves as SNAP organizers in the neighborhood, according to the city’s map.

Goetz said OEM does coordinate volunteers to do Hub and SNAP trainings with interested groups of neighbors and encouraged anyone on Capitol Hill interested in re-starting the Hubs to contact her here. However, the city has no budget for supporting the programs. OEM also stopped offering its Community Emergency Response Team trainings this year, a well known emergency planning training. Still, Goetz said people have shown time and again that they do cooperate in major disasters with or without formal training. “People do naturally come together. It’s going to happen,” she said.

Capitol Hill is a mixed bag when it comes to geological vulnerabilities. The neighborhood is mostly covered in very dense and compact till, sand, and gravel (shown in purple on the map below). Those areas are relatively safe. On the steeper edges of the neighborhood, bands of looser outwash pose a much higher risk of sliding in an earthquake. By far the most vulnerable parts of the city are the in-fill tide flats around downtown and SODO, said geologist and author David Williams. 

Capitol Hill also lies just north of the Seattle Fault zone, shown by the red hatching in the USGS map.

One positive note from the development boom is Seattle and Capitol Hill are making strides in retrofitting at-risk buildings and tearing down many of the most at-risk structures. However, the Central Area still contains one of the largest concentrations of unreinforced masonry structures in the city.

Many neighborhood residents are also active in Seattle’s Auxiliary Communications Service — a group of licensed amateur radio operators that support the emergency communications mission of the City. It’s likely that cell service and other modes of communication will go down in the event of a major earthquake, leaving amateur radio as a crucial form of keeping different parts of the city connected and sharing information. The ACS organizes classes and trainings throughout the year.

Meanwhile, Washington’s congressional delegation continues its efforts to fund a early earthquake warning system for the West Coast. By giving as much as a minute notice, surgeries could be stopped, trains could be halted, and people could seek appropriate shelter.

You can learn more here about building emergency kits and preparing your home in the case of a disaster.