In the July 20, 2015, issue of The New Yorker, Kathryn Schulz, who lives in New York and summers in Oregon, wrote an article called “The Really Big One.” It was about the little known but very dangerous Cascadia fault line that may devastate the American Northwest someday.

            Most people are far more familiar with the famed San Andreas Fault that threatens California, but the Cascadia subduction zone, as it is more properly titled, is a 700-mile-long natural disaster waiting to happen. The last time it slipped was 415 years ago — January 26, 1700 — long before Americans of European descent moved into the area.

            When the earthquake hits, it is believed that over a million buildings from Vancouver, British Columbia, down through Washington and Oregon may collapse, including 3,000 schools. But that’s not the worst of it.

            No matter what time of the day or night this earthquake occurs, people will have 15 minutes to find higher ground before a 700-mile-long wall of water five stories high sweeps everyone away.

            Children, the disabled and senior citizens will be especially vulnerable. It is believed that at least 13,000 people will die in the disaster. And with roads, bridges and hospitals destroyed, it may be weeks or even months before some people receive help.

            Schulz, a book critic for The New Yorker, wasn’t prepared for the fear her article inspired throughout the Northwest, so a week and a half later she wrote another article for the magazine’s website titled “How to Stay Safe When the Big One Comes.”¹ She pointed out two equal mistakes —

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