Quick! Plant a Redwood Tree (Sequoia Sempervirens) in your backyard -- NOW!!

Recent Seismological "events" in the Upper Northwest Corner of the US

Horrific earthquakes and tsunamis in Haiti and Chile (not accounting for recent such events in Japan and Taiwan) ought to be a reminder that apocalyptic events don't just take place on the Discovery and National Geographic Channels on your television sets. The current death toll from the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile has left about 800 dead, and the 7.0 quake in Haiti is estimated to have killed between 100,000 and 200,000 people.

Western Washington—and particularly low-lying oceanside places like North Ocean Shores, West Ocean Shores, East Ocean Shores, South Ocean Shores and Central Ocean Shores are not immune from major geologic events including volcanoes, earthquakes and (shudder) tsunamis. The ground upon which my kitties and I live has moved many times and our proximity to the Juan De Fuca subduction zone, about 60 to 125 miles from the coast, assures more “events” in the future.

In fact, we’re due!!

And the highest point in our peninsula is roughly twenty feet from sea level.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports an average of more than one major earthquake or tsunami every 550 years or so. Grays Harbor County (Ocean Shores is the tiny peninsula in Grays Harbor County’s westernmost edge—on the ocean as its name suggests) will eventually be shaken by a major quake -- a megaquake -- or be inundated by a massive (50 feet high waves) — just as it has been in previous centuries.

And we can forget emergency services; even well-trained and coordinated disaster response experts can’t outrun a tsunami racing to shore from about fifty miles out at the speed of sound. But of course, we've replaced our only four-way stop on the way off of the peninsula with a confusing round-a-bout to make evacuating Ocean Shores at least more entertaining.

In a word, you need to be prepared to take care of yourself.

Thus, I will be planting a Redwood Tree (Sequoia sempervirens) next weekend in my back yard for my cats and I to climb when

the big one hits!

Now, all I have to do is wait for my Sequoia Sempervirens to grow to 150 feet or so.

Mediawingnuts ain’t gonna be caught with his pants down! Nosiree!

"X" Marks the Spot! (Ocean Shores, Washington)