Great Cascadian Earthquake (World in Crisis)

The Great Cascadian Earthquake was an earthquake that occurred on September 10, 2058, with an epicentre off the coast of Northern Oregon. It was an undersea earthquake that registered a magnitude of 9.1-9.4, becoming among the strongest earthquakes in world history. A series of large tsunamis up to 28 meters high were created by the underwater seismic activity. Small cities and towns along Washington, Oregon, and North California were seriously damaged, as well as major cities that were largely inundated. The earthquake is the deadliest natural disaster in recorded United States modern history.

Earthquake
The earthquake struck approximately around 9:32 AM, off the coast of Northern Oregon, several miles west of Newport, Oregon. The city of Salem was the nearest major city to the earthquake. The main earthquake wasn't preceded by a major foreshock, except for a 6.2 during August 28. Two aftershocks, both at intensity 7, were reported minutes after the earthquake. The main earthquake was felt as far as San Francisco in California. The earthquake lasted for 2 minutes.

As a background, many of the large buildings and highrises like Space Needle have been demolished in the Pacific Northwest and anywhere else during the climate crisis, lessening the threat of tall structures collapsing on people. However, many of the homes, midrise apartment blocks and road infrastructure are not built to withstand such a huge scale of earthquakes. The dome of the Oregon State Capitol partly collapsed and trees, homes and debris fell everywhere. In Portland, there were barely any skyscrapers to be collapsed by the quake, however much of downtown had been severely damaged.

The power grid immediately went out in most small towns and cities including Portland, Eugene, Salem, Olympia, Seattle and Bend. At 9:42 AM, a severe tsunami warning was issued by the USGS for the entire Cascadian coast as well as portions of Northern California and South Alaska. They also issued the warning for British Columbia.

Tsunami
With owning a vehicle being not frequent in the Northwest and many other parts of the world, many were forced to joyride or ride buses, or well, run for their lives.