well ... if that was me in Coos Bay i would have a plan to get to high ground FAST. You will definitely feel the magnitude 8-9 earthquake before the tsunami hits. the important thing is that your whole family needs to know exactly where they are going, and they must react straight away. now is a really good time to work out those details.

when the Japanese tsunami hit there was a very interesting story about an old woman who fled the tsunami on a bicycle. I know you are thinking this sounds ridiculous - but she actually did it. of course, an old woman cannot ride faster than a tidal wave. BUT what she did - was to get going immediately when she felt the quake. so she had some lead time, and it was just enough to get her to safe ground.

having a plan, and executing it when you really need to, can be a lifesaver :-)
A good lesson for all of us.

Pete2

I think these warning stones are an interesting feature of the Japanese landscape - some of them 600 years old, reading:

"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."

...
Hundreds of such markers dot the coastline, some more than 600 years old. Collectively they form a crude warning system for Japan, whose long coasts along major fault lines have made it a repeated target of earthquakes and tsunamis over the centuries.

The markers don't all indicate where it's safe to build. Some simply stand – or stood, until they were washed away by the tsunami – as daily reminders of the risk. "If an earthquake comes, beware of tsunamis," reads one. In the bustle of modern life, many forgot.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/06/japan-tsunami-warnings-fr_n_845818.html

It probably only sounds ridiculous to us car-centric Yanks. It's quite common for seniors--many very old--to ride bicycles in Japan as their main form of transportation. Maybe not so much in the crowded urban areas (heck, bicycles have all but disappeared from the streets of big cities in China now, too) but certainly in more rural areas like where the tsunami hit.

Actually, having a bicycle handy may make a lot of sense for a quick get away to higher ground depending on one's situation. Takes up relatively little space, don't have to worry about gasoline going bad in storage, roads and bridges may be jammed with traffic, much faster than being on foot, etc.