How long it will take to walk to safety before a tsunami hits?
When the big one hits, would you know how much time you have to evacuate before a tsunami strikes? State officials hope a new set of maps will help give you an estimate.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources released tsunami evacuation walk time maps Friday for Port Angeles, Bellingham, Anacortes, and Aberdeen, Hoquiam, and Cosmopolis. The maps show how long it would take the average pedestrian to get to safe ground in the event of a major tsunami.
The maps are modeled based on a magnitude 9 earthquake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which runs off the coast from Vancouver Island down to northern California. The last time it went off was over 300 years ago.
Walk time is based on a slow pace of about 24 minutes per mile, which is the same pace thats used to model crosswalk timing.
The amount of time it will take a tsunami to reach these communities varies drastically. For example, a tsunami could reach Hoquiam in just 50 minutes, but it could take nearly two and a half hours to get to Anacortes. Its also important to note that DNR calculated these estimates based on when the earthquake shaking starts, not when it ends.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/how-long-it-will-take-to-walk-to-safety-before-a-tsunami-hits/ar-BBVGskK