Burke: How dumb will we look after The Big One hits?

By Tom Burke

All the words describing hurricanes are … gone. There ain’t no more, the quota’s been filled, and the dictionary is as empty as a south Florida gas station. Besides, Harvey and Irma’s destruction transcends vocabulary; what can possibly be said about such devastation, such tragedy?

As an ex-East Coaster, I weathered a half-dozen hurricanes, which, except for Sandy (67 dead, $50 billion in damage, and 651,000 ruined homes), were just AA-ball weather. Harvey and Irma are the bigs.

But with hurricanes, at least, you know they’re coming. So there’s time to prep, flee or make the generally insane decision to ride it out somewhere stupid.

Since moving here I sometimes think, “Lucky us. We ain’t got hurricanes, or tornadoes, Santa Anna winds, cyclones, monsoons, typhoons, nor’easters or chinooks.

Nope, all we got is earthquakes. Or volcanoes. OK, earthquakes and volcanoes.

And that concerns me more than any hurricane ever did.

‘Cause I don’t know when the fault will slip, or how much it will displace, or if it’ll be a 2 or 9 on the Richter scale. What I do know is that even if I’m ready, government isn’t.

I’ve written about disaster prep using an Aesop fable. But I see now I only considered the protagonists: the ant, who was ready; and the grasshopper, who wasn’t.

What I forgot was Aesop, the author, who really decided who suffered and who didn’t.

In Western Washington, just like in Houston and Florida, it’s government deciding who suffers and how much.

In Houston “government” decided zoning was for suckers, was anti-growth, anti-business, and who needs it? So there was none. And the state decided there was no need to tell people about the chemicals produced at the plant next door. (Think Bluebonnet Bhopal.)

So what if someone builds a chemical plant in a residential neighborhood (someone did, it exploded three times); or builds houses in flood retention reservoirs (they did, and thousands watched the water pour in their windows), or site 7,000-plus homes in a 100-year floodplain (which flooded in 2015, 2016 and 2017).

Houston’s citizens, developers, builders, politicians and businesses supported this “wild west zoning.” They voted for greed and avarice and said to hell with safety and consequences. So tens of thousands suffered, lives were lost, dreams destroyed, and hope snuffed out because government put bid’ness first.

Florida was better with lessons learned from Andrew. But government still allowed people to build luxury homes on the cutting edge of disaster, at the shoreline, thanks to taxpayer-funded federal flood insurance.

One couple made CNN when their house, destroyed last year by Hurricane Matthew, was rebuilt (probably on our dime), then was totaled again by Irma. They talked about being traumatized and their raw emotion made great television. But the reporter never asked why they rebuilt on ground zero in a state hit by more than 500 tropical/subtropical cyclones.

Which brings us to our “ground zero.”

Here we live, in the shadow of volcanoes, atop the Cascadia Fault. I hope no one asks me, “What were you thinking, living there?”

I’m not sure I have a cogent answer.

I know government has, for decades, ignored the potential for disaster. The story of our elected representatives’ woeful unpreparedness has consumed millions of trees for newsprint and tanker-trucks of ink dedicated to exposes.

After the Big One, the Washington Post and the Times (New York) will write how Seattle did little to earthquake-proof schools and old buildings. They’ll report how houses and apartments were built on steep slopes (whadda view!); transportation plans never implemented, building codes never updated and all in the name of growth or “no new taxes.”

I also know I’m pretty ready for whatever comes (assuming I live through it). Got food, water, medical supplies, etc. for a month or three. My neighbors, not so much, I fear.

But answering, “What were you thinking?” We’re thinking about being near our family; the feeling of “It can’t happen to me,” enough uncertainty about “when;” and maybe, just maybe, living here is worth the risk.

There’s “Western Washington” because people took risks and came west. There’s a United States because people took risks and declared themselves free. And, one might posit, there’s us because an ancestor took a risk and climbed down out of a tree.

So, we’ve decided we can live with nature’s risk, it’s worth it. But I resent risking death because government won’t risk reelection to fund earthquake preparedness or risk being branded “anti-business” by requiring building upgrades.

I think, if the Big One hits, we’ll suffer three shocks. The first when the Cascadia Fault slips, the second when we discover it’s worse than anyone imagined, and the third that we were so unprepared. Just like Houston. Roll the video tape, please.

Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.