News

Is your Seattle home at risk if an earthquake hits? Take a look at this map

A new online mapping tool lets Seattle residents search zoom in on the natural hazards that threaten their homes or workplaces.

Users can find out whether their office or apartment building sits on soil that will turn to goo in a major earthquake. Other overlays show areas vulnerable to flooding, landslides and quake-triggered tsunamis. Click here for a larger version of the interactive map.

The project is an indirect spinoff from this summer's gripping New Yorker article, "The Really Big One," according to the Seattle Times.

>> SLIDESHOW: Geologic illustrations explain the Cascadia subduction

New Yorker writer Kathryn Schulz reported in July that she stands by the FEMA statement that "everything west of I-5 will be toast" as the official who said it anticipates the region will be in grave shape in the aftermath.

"If the entire [Cascade Subduction] zone gives way at once, an event that seismologists call a full-margin rupture, the magnitude will be somewhere between 8.7 and 9.2," wrote Kathyrn Schulz. "That’s the very big one."

After the article went viral, people called into the Seattle Emergency Management Office asking what they can do -- and if Seattle is prepared. Click here to read advice on how to prepare.

"The idea is to take the information and make it more accessible — and hopefully get people thinking about preparedness as well," Matt Auflick, outreach coordinator for emergency management told the Times.

For earthquakes, the Seattle Natural Hazard Explorer relies on U.S. Geological Survey modeling of how the earth will shake in different parts of the city based on the underlying geology.

Emergency managers say the information may help people get prepared for natural disasters.

Want to talk about the news of the day? Watch free streaming video on the KIRO 7 mobile app and iPad app, and join us here on Facebook.