[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 28, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H8538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DEPLOY AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM FOR EARTHQUAKES

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to 
direct the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to 
fund the purchase, installation, and activation of an early warning 
system on the Cascadia subduction zone off the Pacific Northwest.
  The Cascadia fault has the prospect of unleashing a quake at any 
point that actually could exceed that off of Japan. As we know, in 
Japan, 15,000 people died, $300 billion in damages. In Oregon, our 
State expects thousands of deaths, $32 billion in infrastructure.
  If the United States of America would deploy, like Japan and other 
countries are doing, an early warning system, thousands of lives could 
be saved.
  Inland we could evacuate schools that are going to collapse. Up in 
Portland they could suspend the MAX service and get people off the 
bridges that are going to collapse. Manufacturing operations that are 
critical could be suspended.
  We have the potential to save thousands of lives, tens of millions, 
billions, of dollars in excess damages, and it would just require the 
United States of America to do what other countries are doing: deploy 
an early warning system off the Pacific coast.
  The technology is known. We just lack the will to fund it. So I am 
directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy such a 
system in the near future.

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