Voters in the Washington state community of Ocean Shores will decide today on a measure that would install a pair of tsunami towers that can hold up to 800 people. Residents in the immediate shoreline region would have only ten minutes to escape potentially 100-foot waves propelled by a quake in the shallow offshore Cascadia subduction zone. The state estimates that around 70,000 people would be trapped in low-lying areas that have no bluffs or tall buildings which can be used as an escape. 

The elevated steel platforms can be placed on top of parking garages, schools, and other structures to achieve a safe vertical distance from the inundation, although many such buildings in the area are not sufficiently seismic-ready to withstand magnitude 9.0 tremors. Washington has proposed 58 such towers, which cost around $3 million each to construct. To date, only two structures have been completed: one at a facility operated by Oregon State University, and the other, at Ocosta Elementary School in Washington, which was the first in the nation. A third recently broke ground in Tokeland, Washington, courtesy of the local Shoalwater Bay Tribe.

“The tribe considers itself to be a good neighbor, and we know that resources are scarce in the area, so we make sure that the surrounding community members are always included and informed of impending Emergency Management issues,” Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe Emergency Manager Lee Shipman said in a statement published by FEMA. “We feel strongly that we are all in this together.”