Oregon warns residents to prepare for two weeks, yet its fuel system relies on a fragile three-day buffer concentrated in Portland’s earthquake-prone infrastructure. As Cascadia risk grows, leaders chase climate targets while delaying hardened storage, alternate supply routes, and real resilience. Families must prepare—and demand accountability now before disaster.
Oregon is reducing energy security to address future climate fears while neglecting the earthquake and infrastructure collapse scientists know will come.
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake off Vancouver Island on July 19 was not a prediction of the next Cascadia earthquake. Scientists cannot tell us whether the “Big One” will strike next week, next year or decades from now. What they can tell us is that the Cascadia Subduction Zone has produced devastating earthquakes before and will eventually do so again.
The last full-margin Cascadia earthquake occurred on January 26, 1700. Geological evidence shows the Pacific Northwest has repeatedly experienced magnitude 8 and 9 earthquakes, accompanied by prolonged shaking, landslides, liquefaction and destructive tsunamis. The U.S. Geological Survey currently estimates roughly a 10% to 15% chance of a full-margin magnitude 9 event within the next 50 years, with a higher probability of a major partial rupture in southern Cascadia…