'Oregon faces significant earthquake risk in the next fifty years,' the governor's office said
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) - Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed an executive order on Monday aiming to help the state prepare for earthquakes.
Executive Order 25-22 directs Oregon's Department of Administrative Services to create a plan ensuring new state buildings that are over 10,000 square feet meet the highest seismic safety standards.
Announcing the order in a press release, the governor's office noted that state buildings serve as essential staging areas and workspaces for emergency response crews, adding that state employees must be able to safely evacuate buildings to provide services and help communities recover after a disaster.
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"When a devastating earthquake hits Oregon, we need to be able to show up for Oregonians," Governor Kotek said. "State employees are the backbone of emergency response, and they need safe places as they help families and communities recover. We cannot waver from this responsibility."
The executive order also prioritizes seismic improvements to buildings under the state continuity of operations plans, office buildings over 50,000 square feet, facilities supporting first responders, institutional housing and strategic regional locations. Additionally, the order directs the state to improve all facilities where employees work to have, at minimum, building safety standards for life safety.
Highlighting the need for earthquake prep, the order states, "Oregon faces a significant risk of major earthquake, with a 16-22% chance that a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake of magnitude 8.7+ will occur in Oregon in the next 50 years, a 42% chance that a partial rupture of the Cascadia fault will result in an earthquake of magnitude 7.4+, and a 100% likelihood that a major earthquake will occur in the future."
"Preparing our state for an earthquake is a long game," Governor Kotek added. "Protecting Oregonians when disaster strikes is too important to delay. We must start now and stay committed to this work for decades to come."
"Oregon is setting an example for how to start building resiliency to large earthquakes," explained Dr. Chris Goldfinger, professor emeritus at the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. "An M8-9 earthquake in our future is inevitable, and seismically sound state buildings will be crucial. This is the kind of proactive action Oregon needs."
The executive order comes as a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake is looming in the Pacific Northwest.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a 700-mile fault spanning northern California to British Columbia, according to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, noting, the fault is about 70-100 miles off the Pacific Coast.
Major earthquakes are expected to strike the Cascadia Subduction Zone every 300-500 years, according to researchers. January 2025 marked the 325th anniversary since the last quake in the zone.
In the year 1700, a magnitude 9 quake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone stretched from northern California to British Columbia and sent a tsunami to Japan, researchers have found.
Diego Melgar, director of University of Oregon's Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center previously told KOIN 6 News that modern earthquakes -- such as the 9.1 quake in Indonesia in 2004 and the magnitude 9 quake that struck Japan in 2011 -- tell scientists what to expect when "the big one" hits the Pacific Northwest.
"We're looking at big tsunamis, lots of strong shaking, and the shaking goes on for a really long time. That's something that's really different about these events. Yes, it's strong shaking, it can last minutes. So, imagine not being able to stand for three, four, five minutes and imagine the forces that our buildings, and bridges, and dams have to put up with in order to weather that event," Melgar said.
Small 0.5 and 1 magnitude earthquakes rattle the Pacific Northwest "all the time," Melgar says.
"They're there to remind us that we live in an earthquake country, so to speak," Melgar explained. "Thankfully, big earthquakes, like the 1700 events, are very few and far between. We think they happen every 300-500 years."
It's possible that the next big earthquake will be a smaller magnitude than the 1700 tremor, but Melgar warns that a seven or eight-magnitude earthquake could still be damaging.
"While we can't tell you what day, what time the earthquake is going to happen, we can still give a lot of useful information so that when it does happen, our society is ready, our buildings remain standing, our bridges remain upright, our power plants remain operating. That's really what we want," Melgar previously told KOIN 6.
As pressure builds between the Juan de Fuca plate and the North American Plate, Oregon's Office of Emergency Management says there's about a 37% chance of a megathrust earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the next 50 years.
The office warns "With the current preparedness levels of Oregon, we can anticipate being without services and assistance for at least two weeks, if not longer, when the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake occurs.