Washington Emergency preparedness for "The Big one" Cascadia Subdution zone earthquake

The Big one. That is the name that has been given to the next Cascadia subduction zone(CSZ) earthquake. This earthquake is predicted to be a magnitude 9 quake. Any earthquake of this magnitude would have catastrophic effects on the people and infrastructure of the place hit, but if the place hit has no early warning system, if the place hit is unprepared. Then without warning a crisis will hit and hit hard.
In "Unprepared" a documentary published on September 8th, 2015 by OPB Chris Goldfinger a paleoseismologist from Oregon State University and one of the leading experts on the Cascadia subduction zone had this say "...Japan can be considered somewhat of a success story in a lot of ways. In Sumatra, we lost a quarter of a million people in a similar sized earthquake in a similar sized tsunami. Japan on the other side was extremely prepared. This house is gone but right over there the bridge is still operating right behind us is a paper mill that is still running...In Oregon, we are at a bit of a crossroads. We are completely unprepared..." The 2011 earthquake, Japan’s Tohoku earthquake is like a mirror image of the what "The Big one" is predicted to look like. Scientists have realized this but little has been done by the states that lay along the CSZ to prepare for the incoming earthquake. In Washington State’s plan for megaquake ‘grossly inadequate’ review finds an article published by the Seattle times on October 22ed 2016 says “[In] The largest disaster drill ever conducted in the Pacific Northwest found that, despite decades of warnings, the region remains dangerously unprepared to deal with a Cascadia megaquake and tsunami. During the four-day ‘Cascadia Rising’ exercise in June, 23,000 participants grappled with a hypothetical catastrophe that knocked out power, roads and communications and left communities battered, isolated, and with no hope of quick relief.” ‘Cascadia Rising’
Lasted from June 7th to June 10th of 2016 and was the single biggest simulation for “The Big one”. It showed that many branches of our emergency relief agencies are already under stress and it would be a miracle if they were able to continue to service the community in the aftermath of “The Big one”. Lots of the agencies that are responsible for disaster relief management are often underfunded and understaffed. Along with pointing out holes in the agencies that our-our first line of defense it also painted a picture of the destruction. According to Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) estimates 7,000 highway bridges and over 16,000 miles of road would be destroyed. This is not even accounting for the actual cost of “The Big one”. “The Big one” is estimated to cost upward of several billion dollars. The human toll will also be extremely high an estimated 17,000 will be killed and 30,000 injured.
The possible casualties and destruction can be prevented. We have done virtually nothing to prepare and as such we are almost completely unprepared but there are steps we can take. First and foremost we need to raise our seismic code to where the majority of buildings now don't. Secondly we also need to make an emergency response a priority. Thirdly we need to create a plan of action for the high-risk places such as power plants when the earthquake occurs if we don't want a disaster such as the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. We need to have an implementation date for an early warning system like the one in japan.