In just the last two years, federal earthquake scientists have completed analysis of the Tacoma Fault. As it turns out, the Tacoma Fault actually runs directly across the center of Vashon, the community that could be most affected if it ruptures. The latest computer analysis indicates that shaking from the fault could be as severe as the recent earthquakes in Christchurch and Sendai. That makes it doubly or even triply important for all of us to be prepared to sustain ourselves for as long as 10 days at home until help can arrive.

The keynote speaker for the VashonBePrepared annual community meeting on Wednesday, April 13th will be Thomas Miner, an expert on disaster response who has helped conduct search and rescue operations at most of the major catastrophic events affecting the U.S. in the last several decades. He wrote the federal practice exercise scenario for the Tacoma Fault.

Miner recently retired from the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management as a program manager for the Washington Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, on call for dispatch nationwide to major emergencies. Prior to that, he was a major in the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He’ll be talking about lessons learned while organizing communities to respond to disasters, chasing hurricanes and finding missing persons.

There will be plenty of opportunity to ask Miner questions. Refreshments will be served from 6:30 PM on at the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, 10014 SW Bank Rd. All are welcome to come learn about this vital information.

Caption: Earthquake scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey use computers to generate “shake maps” like this one. The stripe in the center of the shake map, colored red, shows where the most intense shaking would occur in a hypothetical 7.1 magnitude earthquake on the Tacoma Fault. Geological evidence indicates a similar earthquake last occurred about 1,100 years ago. More details of the Tacoma Fault Scenario study can be seen at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3023/.