New modeling by the University of Washington of the impacts of a major Cascadia earthquake offers a less dire picture of the aftermath of the so-called "Big One" — specifically when it comes to highway bridges.Read More
A huge dress rehearsal for regional earthquake disaster relief was supposed to happen next week until the ongoing pandemic forced its cancellation. The scrubbed Cascadia Rising exercise would have involved more than 22,000 participants – chiefly U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen as well as state, local and tribal emergency planners. Some smaller drills are going ahead this Read More
Close to 200 federal, state and tribal emergency preparedness planners gathered around a giant map of the Pacific Northwest this week to rehearse and critique the federal response plan for "The Big One." The three-day Cascadia earthquake discussion exercise partially replaced a much bigger planned dress rehearsal that was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.Read More
Smartphone users who opted in to a test of the West Coast earthquake early warning system got an early taste on Thursday of what is to come. Mobile phones from Seattle to Olympia blared with an alarm for imaginary incoming shaking. The earthquake warning system -- already operational in California -- will launch for the general public in Oregon on March 11 and statewide in Read More
Scientists found nine to eleven instances over roughly the last 3,000 years where a Cascadia earthquake seems to have triggered a San Andreas quake. The vast majority of great Cascadia quakes during that period have a correlation on the San Andreas Fault. Read More
The state of Oregon is pushing the community hospitals along the Oregon Coast to improve their earthquake resilience. This comes after a state report predicted none of them would be able to sustain operations after the feared Big One -- a magnitude 9 offshore Cascadia earthquake and tsunami.Read More
The Earthquake Preparedness Roadshow will start in Walla Walla on Sept. 29 with stops during the week in Pullman, Spokane, Grant County, Toppenish and Richland.Read More
People visiting or living along the Pacific Northwest coast may be completely cut off after "The Big One" —the feared magnitude 9.0 Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. For that reason, the U.S. Navy has been scouting landing sites along the coast for disaster relief delivery by sea. The quake preparations ticked up a notch on Monday, with a practice delivery of supplies using Read More
It's not something we typically discuss in polite company, but disaster planners say that when water and sewage service fails, finding a place to poop is a big deal.Read More
Statewide disaster preparedness messaging aimed at households and businesses calls for one gallon per person per day as the goal for emergency drinking water. Scooping water out of a creek or pond is dicey because of the widespread giardia parasite, aka "beaver fever." So inventive residents on Washington's Olympic Peninsula got creative.Read More
When The Big One happens, emergency planners and geologists expect the vast majority of us will survive. But a magnitude 9 rupture on the Cascadia earthquake fault will likely cut electricity, running water and sewer for weeks—or even months afterwards.Read More
No one can say when exactly the next Cascadia megaquake will strike other than there's a fair chance it'll happen in our lifetimes. A new study of likely earthquake impacts in the Greater Portland region finds the exact timing and season make a big difference when it comes to casualties and damage.Read More
Planned student walkouts this week bring attention to reducing the threat of school shootings. One group of Northwest parents is pushing schools to prepare better for another kind of disaster: a major earthquake. Read More
The report cards are in and it’s not pretty if you worry about how you’ll fare after a magnitude 9 Cascadia megaquake and tsunami. Washington and Oregon’s emergency management divisions […]Read More
When COVID-19 reached the inland Northwest two years ago, more people took to the great outdoors. The number of visitors to Elk River skyrocketed, and many residents became nervous about exposure to the virus.Read More
Earthquake researchers are eager to dig into a trove of new data about the offshore Cascadia fault zone. When Cascadia ruptures, it can trigger a megaquake known as "the Big One." The valuable new imaging of the geology off the Oregon, Washington and British Columbia coasts comes from a specialized research vessel.Read More
It was almost a year ago that Athena Fitness in Olympia was facing financial doom. The women-owned business had opened just before the pandemic struck. In August of last year, new COVID restrictions threatened to put the owners out of business. So, what’s happened since?Read More
Easterday Ranches and Easterday Farms has provided beef, potatoes, onions and produce to dinner tables for more than three generations. Now in bankruptcy, many of the family’s key properties will be sold to repay debts. It’s one of the largest sales of prime water-rich agricultural lands in the Columbia Basin in recent history. Read More
The starting point of a Northwest-based saga of alleged invented cattle, a multi-million dollar lawsuit and two bankruptcies may lie in a short handwritten list of numbers scrawled on a lined sheet of three-hole punch paper that purports to show Cody Easterday’s annual losses from speculating on the cattle futures market.Read More
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 10% — its biggest one-day drop since 1987 — as the coronavirus pandemic continued to rattle markets. Trading was temporarily halted earlier in the day.Read More
NPR Music staffers Marissa Lorusso and Tom Huizenga give out superlatives for the best moments in music this past year, including a single breath of operatic singing and an epic guitar solo.Read More
Rosetta Tharpe was a huge star in her era and set the template for rock and roll. So why was she absent from popular consciousness after her death — and why did it take decades to revive her legacy?Read More
It's the bear body-positive competition you didn't know you needed. The results are in. And this year's winner in Katmai National Park and Reserve's annual "fattest bear" contest is 409 Beadnose.Read More
Tumbleweeds are torched at the Hanford cleanup site in southeast Washington in the early part of this year. (Credit: U.S. Department of Energy) Listen (Runtime 4:35) Read Fire Chief Nickolus […]Read More
KPAC and BookPeople presents ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST as part of our new Movie Book Club series. In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal […]Read More
Elaine Harvey, Jeremy Takala, Simone Anter. J.D. Reeves/High Country News Read B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster | High Country News This story was originally published by High Country News. When Yakima Nation leaders […]Read More
For the past 25 years, Greg Patton has spent at least a few moments each month jumping in the Columbia River. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / Northwest News Network) Listen (Runtime […]Read More
By: Jeanie Lindsay, Northwest News Network People running for office in Washington will begin submitting official paperwork next week to get on the ballot – and an unusually high number […]Read More
By: Jeanie Lindsay, Northwest News Network Washington’s 60-day legislative session has ended. Spirits were high in Olympia Thursday as lawmakers adjourned “sine die.” Many legislators donned sequin or sparkly accessories, […]Read More
By: Jeanie Lindsay, Northwest News Network During the penultimate week of Washington’s 2024 legislative session, lawmakers left behind some major bills, committees held public hearings and voted on some high-profile […]Read More
Contractor crews working to remove more of the eastbound lane concrete panels. (Credit: WSDOT) Listen Read (Runtime 1:02) The major failing irrigation culverts that run under Interstate-82 between Yakima and […]Read More
The Confluence Rotary Club has partnered with the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center for a screening of the award-nominated documentary “The Smell of Money,” followed by a Q&A discussion […]Read More
The sound of Rodney Marsalis’s trumpet has reverberated throughout the world, and the Philadelphia Big Brass is America’s premier large brass ensemble. This diverse group is dedicated to the notion […]Read More
Sergio Madrigal and his wife, Rosa, stand outside the farm they owned, until recently, near Sunnyside, Washington. (Courtesy: Anna King / Northwest News Network) Listen (Runtime 2:56) Read It has […]Read More
Terrence Woods went missing in October 2018 near Orogrande, Idaho while filming with a British TV crew from Raw TV. The wilderness of Idaho County (pictured here) is some of […]Read More
Potatoes, fresh from the field, bump onto a belt before being transferred to a storage shed outside of Boardman, Oregon. (Credit: Anna King / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 1:10) Read About […]Read More
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists Rochelle Labiosa (right) and Lil Herger examine the Columbia River for toxic algae as Jason Pappani leans over to reach into the water. (Credit: Rajah […]Read More
Snap your fingers and move your feet to the jazz and swing sounds of the Yakima Valley Big Band. We’re back for a 2nd year – we must have done […]Read More
Employees at Cornerstone Cottage alerted state officials to the dangers, only to be fired themselves Cornerstone Cottage opened in 2016 in Post Falls, Idaho, a booming bedroom community 25 miles […]Read More
The steins of beer. The plates of roast pork and chicken, sausages and dumplings. The brass bands. The throngs of people, many of them in traditional Bavarian dress. Dirndls or lederhosen, anyone? That’s how you probably identify Oktoberfest today. However, in the beginning, it had a very different feel.Read More
Yakama Nation biologist Dave’y Lumley shows Aleeyah McJoe, 7, an adult lamprey at the Yakama Nation’s Willamette Falls Lamprey Celebration. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / Northwest News Network) Listen (Runtime 0:59) […]Read More
Visible from the smoke they’re emitting, seven fires are burning within the wilderness of Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula. Lightning strikes ignited the fires Aug. 28 and all were burning relatively small until this past weekend, when the Delabarre fire took advantage of hot, dry conditions and took off like a bandit, growing to over 3,500 acres. Read More
After the Vogt family toured sites Maui Monday, they headed back to their resort – and traffic stopped. Flames jumped the highway, said mom, Kara Vogt. (Courtesy of Ryan Vogt) […]Read More
Cosmic Crisp apples on the Mother Tree near Wenatchee Washington. (Credit: Bob Hubner / Washington State University) Listen (Runtime 1:06) Read Known for its crunch and sweet taste, the Cosmic […]Read More
Holstein dairy cattle loaf in their pens at Threemile Canyon Farms. New regulations adopted by Oregon seek to tighten cattle watering regulations. (Photo: Courtesy of Friends of Family Farmers.) Read […]Read More
A year into recovery from opioid addiction, one Lewiston woman says compassion from strangers — and learning to accept help — allowed her to turn a corner over decade after she started usingRead More
The Big Y is an intellectual and earthy exploration of land, love, life and death that delights the senses and delivers an unforgettable temporal experience… When one woman unexpectedly goes […]Read More
Director Dan Merchant signals to actors on set during a “Going Home” scene filmed in Rosalia, Washington. (Credit: D.S. Schaefer / Outlier Imaging) Listen (Runtime 1:02) Read While the writer’s […]Read More
We heard a rumor that Paula Poundstone was heading to our neck of the woods, so NWPB's Thom Kokenge caught up with her to find out what she's up to. Read More
When Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) laments to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) that “you’re playing four-sided chess with an algorithm,” his character couldn’t possibly have appreciated the irony of his words. The seventh and latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise has burst onto theatrical screens just as the actor-members of SAG-AFTRA have gone on strike. The Read More
