Originally Posted By: Susan

I drive from Centralia, WA to Seattle (85 mi) or down to Portland, OR (95 mi) regularly, and as driving entertainment, I think about what I would do if a large earthquake hit.


That's funny. I work downtown Seattle, and that is my primary planning scenario. :-)

Quote:
If I were in Seattle when the same quake hit, I'm afraid that I would be SOL for seeing home soon. It would probably take me at least ten days to get there, or even more if I had to do much backtracking. And youbetcha, it would have to be on foot. Downed overpasses, abandoned vehicles, tons of fallen debris... yuck!


Indeed. The windstorm of 2006 gave a good preview of how transportation really gets honked up when you throw in a little debris. I had to traverse the east side that day and while it is a bit less urban there, it was still a mess. The 520 bridge was closed, but I had no way to know. News was... well, less than helpful. I ended up traversing a bunch of places I wasn't familiar with. The GPS was very helpful. And the kicker is.. just a *little* bit worse and it would have gotten real interesting... As it stood, I could still *drive* (with some backtracking and routing around).


[out and about in Bellevue]