PRESTOPUNDIT

THE PACIFIC AND ATLANTIC COAST are vulnerable to an Indian Ocean size tsunami says the director of the International Tsunami Information Center. Quotable:

The best [warning] system may be based on old air-alert sirens, said Timothy Walsh of the Washington Dept. of Natural Resources. He foresees a system of loudspeakers on poles hooked directly into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's weather warning system.

Many communities will have to be evacuated within half an hour or less of a big quake in the Northwest's Cascadia subduction zone, but roads could be damaged. "The evacuation will have to be made by foot and right away," said Walsh.

It might also be possible to build earthquake- and tsunami-proof buildings, tall enough to survive inundation and strong enough to survive the battering they would take.

And here's AP's version of the story. Posted by Greg Ransom