The Mission
The mission of Cascadia Prepared’s Lifeline Resilience Teams is to safeguard and sustain the economy of the Pacific Northwest by making our infrastructure lifelines more resilient to the next Cascadia Subduction Zone Megaquake.
` For more information see: Lifeline Resilience Team Project Overview
` For more information see: Lifeline Resilience Team Project Overview
What is a Lifeline?
Lifelines are critical infrastructure systems that provide essential resources and services to homes and businesses. Of the identified lifelines, these are considered the most critical:
- Transportation – Roadways & Bridges, Airports, Railways, and Ocean Ports
- Electricity – Generation facilities and distribution networks (Transmission lines, substations, and transformers)
- Communication – Internet, Cellular Networks, Ham Radio, and Satellite Phones
- Liquid Fuel – Gasoline and Diesel storage and distribution
- Water & Wastewater – Drinking water sources, treatment facilities, and distribution pipelines; Wastewater sewer systems and treatment plants
The Urgent Need to Make Our Lifelines More Resilient
The economy of the Pacific Northwest, including every farm, small business, bank, and corporation, depends on these interdependent lifelines. All will suffer major damage during the next Cascadia Subduction Zone Megaquake.
Estimates are that over half the bridges in the Pacific Northwest will collapse or become impassable. Landslides will block highways. Ground movement and liquefaction will displace whole sections of highways and railways, and create deep cracks, fissures, and sinkholes on airport runways and roadways. Electrical transmission towers and electrical poles will fall, and substations and transformers will suffer major damage. Internet and cellular transmission and their distribution systems will fail. Water and wastewater pipes will break. Underground and above ground fuel storage tanks will be ruptured, and service stations that can continue to operate will quickly run out of fuel.
Of our critical lifelines, Transportation presents the greatest post-quake concern. Currently, even the repair, re-routing, or replacement of even short sections of our highways can take months; bridges even longer. The next Cascadia Subduction Zone will damage hundreds of miles of Interstate and local roadways and bridges, with repair and replacement taking years. This makes transporting repair crews, materials, and supplies to our other damaged lifelines extremely difficult. Compounding this issue, the distribution of food, water, and medical supplies, also highly dependent on a functioning Transportation Lifeline, will be just as difficult, bringing with it the potential for additional loss of life, water-borne diseases, and civil unrest.
Without fully functioning lifelines, large sections of our Pacific Northwest economy are at risk of collapsing, impacting our families, friends, and neighbors. Without the means to generate revenue, businesses would be forced to close, creating significant loss of jobs. Full recovery could take years, leaving no other choice for many but to to relocate to other areas of the country to seek and find work.
In short, to preserve our economy and way of life, we must take urgent and decisive action now to make our critical infrastructure lifelines more resilient.
Estimates are that over half the bridges in the Pacific Northwest will collapse or become impassable. Landslides will block highways. Ground movement and liquefaction will displace whole sections of highways and railways, and create deep cracks, fissures, and sinkholes on airport runways and roadways. Electrical transmission towers and electrical poles will fall, and substations and transformers will suffer major damage. Internet and cellular transmission and their distribution systems will fail. Water and wastewater pipes will break. Underground and above ground fuel storage tanks will be ruptured, and service stations that can continue to operate will quickly run out of fuel.
Of our critical lifelines, Transportation presents the greatest post-quake concern. Currently, even the repair, re-routing, or replacement of even short sections of our highways can take months; bridges even longer. The next Cascadia Subduction Zone will damage hundreds of miles of Interstate and local roadways and bridges, with repair and replacement taking years. This makes transporting repair crews, materials, and supplies to our other damaged lifelines extremely difficult. Compounding this issue, the distribution of food, water, and medical supplies, also highly dependent on a functioning Transportation Lifeline, will be just as difficult, bringing with it the potential for additional loss of life, water-borne diseases, and civil unrest.
Without fully functioning lifelines, large sections of our Pacific Northwest economy are at risk of collapsing, impacting our families, friends, and neighbors. Without the means to generate revenue, businesses would be forced to close, creating significant loss of jobs. Full recovery could take years, leaving no other choice for many but to to relocate to other areas of the country to seek and find work.
In short, to preserve our economy and way of life, we must take urgent and decisive action now to make our critical infrastructure lifelines more resilient.
What Will Be the Cost?
One of the tasks facing the Lifeline Resilience Teams is to determine the costs and the sources of funding for such improvements. We know that the dollars involved will be considerable, but the costs of inaction, both human and economic, far outweigh the costs of improving the resilience of our lifelines.
