Originally Posted By: Pete
The RESULT of the study is this - IF EVERYONE starts walking towards high ground immediately after the earthquake happens, then no-one should be killed by the tsunami.
Pete, I think you are somewhat misunderstanding the implications of the study. It basically said that if everyone walked faster, then fewer people would die. It certainly does not say that "no-one should be killed by the tsunami."

See Don't drive, walk faster to survive Pacific coast tsunami
Quote:
Geographers estimated 21,562 residents would not make it to safety if they walk slowly -- at about 2.5 mph. But if they walk faster, at about 3.5 mph, the death toll drops to 15,970. About 70 percent of them would be in Washington, nearly 30 percent in Oregon and only 4 percent in California.


Note that in some towns in Oregon and Washington, there are large numbers of people living in areas where there is little or no safe high ground that could be walked to in the 20 minutes or so they would have to escape a tsunami from a Cascadia earthquake. There have been proposals to build berms or other structures to provide "vertical evacuation" locations in a few of these areas. However, this would be very expensive, and is still just a proposal. See 'Vertical' escape routes from a tsunami proposed on Long Beach peninsula .
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