SEATTLE — Though it’s still months away, officials in Washington are preparing for a massive, four-day earthquake and tsunami drill in June.
The Seattle Times reports that nearly 6,000 emergency and military personnel will pretend the ground is shaking on June 7 to test response to a massive seismic event. The simulation will test responses to an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.
During the exercise, emergency managers will try to handle the theoretical catastrophe in hopes of identifying problems and improving response if the real event occurs.
The last damaging earthquake in the Pacific Northwest was in February 2001 when the Nisqually quake measured a magnitude of 6.8.
