Rethinking “Drop, cover, Hold”

The year a building was completed largely determines the occupant’s safety during the next big earthquake, and MHCC finished building its Gresham campus in the 1970s, well before the implementation of seismic codes or the discovery of the Cascadia subduction zone in 1988.

But Mt. Hood isn’t alone, in this regard. According to a 2022 video from PBS, which ran a special on Oregon’s buildings and seismic safety, 70% of the built infrastructure in West Coast U.S. cities is not up to modern standards. This means a lot of bridges, freeways, and hospitals might collapse – not just in Portland, but also in Northern California, all of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, too. 

And if you are in one of those buildings when the shaking starts? Even the earthquake response saying many students may be familiar with, “Drop, Cover, and Hold!” is also outdated and not practical for our region’s earthquake.

“Turns out there is no scientific literature outlining normal safety measures,” says Chris Goldfinger, a professor of earth science at Oregon State University and a renowned expert on the Cascadia subduction zone. He’s featured in that PBS video from 2022, and has been looking into why we are advised to drop and cover. Chris says that U.S. civil defense videos from the 1950s were the first to mention students getting under desks – a mitigation effort against a potential nuclear attack – and somehow that message simply from nuclear defense to other threats.

Goldfinger emphasizes that older buildings (brick-and-mortar types, and built pre-1990s) should be quickly evacuated due to higher potential of collapse, while newer or reinforced buildings can better withstand shaking (and are where a duck-and-cover maneuver may protect you from falling objects).

Improving your chances of surviving our big earthquake isn’t just dependent on building years or materials, however. Before any of the shaking begins, we might be receiving an invaluable moment’s notice of a big shake.

In order to understand why, let’s have a small geology lesson!

The Pacific Northwest is adjacent to an earthquake subduction zone, an area where one chunk of land (tectonic plates) slides under another – in a line running north/south far beneath the Pacific Ocean. This creates tension, but when the tension releases, we should feel a warning: For about a minute, our earthquake will send us smaller shakes before the bigger ones show up.

This gives us all crucial seconds to respond. And Oregon has been building a modern warning system for these crucial seconds: ShakeAlert.

ShakeAlert relies on a dense network of seismic and geodetic stations to feel those smaller shakes, called P-waves, and alert people before they feel the shaking themselves. This network expands across California, Oregon, and Washington. Chances are that your cell phone already receives emergency alerts, but read the University of Oregon ShakeAlert website to be sure.

We know now that newer buildings are more safe than others. Scientific research for the Cascadia subduction zone wasn’t considered until the late 1990s, and again after 2010. We also know our earthquake will send out smaller shakes before the big ones show up. 

Despite the fact modern buildings are better able to withstand strong earthquakes and we have vastly improved warnings systems, why do we, as individuals, generally feel so unprepared?

(It’s not that everyone is in the dark: Take a look at CRESCENT, also known as Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center. This is a team of scientists from all of the affected region who are combining their research and working with city planners to make sure communities as small as coastal towns and as large as Seattle are making decisions that are backed by scientists who specialize in their region’s earth science.)

Fine and good – but what does this newer knowledge and strategy all mean for students and staff at MHCC?

There are three specific sites on the Gresham campus – noted in a previous Advocate article on the May 20 bond measure just approved by voters and improvements that may follow – that Charles George, facilities director for MHCC, is focused on. 

One of them is the campus library, where many students spend time studying on their own, or with academic tutors.

“[In] Building 13 where the library is, between the second and third floors, there is a shear wall… that has been pointed out by the architects and engineers [as where] we need to rebuild and fortify to let the building have a better survival rate during a seismic event,” George explained last month.

Now that the $136 million bond measure has passed, MHCC is planning to make seismic retrofits to areas like this one, and other crucial spots. Specific plans details are sure to be covered by The Advocate in the future.

Preparation doesn’t stop here on campus. Knowing where you may be during the quake is the first step. What year was your house built? Is your apartment made of brick? Buildings in downtown Portland are starting to display the fragility of their structures with small signs announcing their unreinforced masonry.

Begin to notice, and form a plan. Remember: Sign up for Oregon’s ShakeAlert system. CRESCENT scientists, meantime, are contributing to efforts like these, and adding their knowledge to planing for replacing Portland’s century-old Burnside Bridge with a new, stronger span (currently projected to be completed by 2030).

We are not alone in the Pacific Northwest. Subduction zone earthquakes occur over much of the world – for example, the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011, and that creating the devastating Thailand tsunami in 2004. All of these were megathrust earthquakes, and the Pacific Northwest is expected to experience the next one. Safer buildings will save lives, and early alerts make a difference.

And if there’s anything Mt. Hood geology instructor Daina Hardisty suggests to motivate the entire MHCC community to act, including students, it’s to watch OPB’s video, titled “Unprepared: An Oregon Field Guide Special.” This is important for all Oregonians, Portland residents, and MHCC students, she stressed.

“This [video] is the Portland thing,” Hardisty says. “Getting people to realize where we are at will be everything.”