November 27, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A Tsunami awareness meeting focuses on hospitality By Cynthia Washicko EO Media Group The emphasis was on com- munication at a meeting for hospitality business owners and employees on keeping visitors to the coast of Oregon informed about the dangers of a tsunami. The Nov. 2 meeting, host- ed by Karen Parmelee, Geo- Hazards Awareness Coordi- nator for the Oregon Of¿ce of Emergency Management, is part the OEM’s newly launched “Tsunami Safe: Hospitality Begins with Safe- ty” program. Jon Rahl, assis- tant general manager for the City of Seaside Visitors Bu- reau, and Planning Director Kevin Cupples were among those in attendance. The program calls for training for management and staff, tsunami awareness ed- ucation for employees and the dissemination of tsuna- mi awareness information to guests in order to prepare workers and visitors for a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and possible tsu- nami. So far around 30 hotels along the Oregon coast are participating in the program, Parmelee said. “The big thing really is, just open that dialogue. As there’s even more talk about Cascadia, the reality is more people are aware of it so our visitors to our coast are going to say, ‘Do you guys know what to do?’” Parmelee said. Preparing hotels The roughly 600-mile long Cascadia Subduction Zone runs from British Columbia down to Northern California, and lies about 70 to 100 miles off the Oregon coast. The zone is capable of producing large-magnitude earthquakes — possibly more than a mag- nitude 9.0 — and the shaking from those earthquakes could produce a tsunami similar to the one that hit the coast of Ja- pan in 2011. There is a 37 per- cent chance that a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake will occur in the next 50 years, according to the presentation. The presentation included advice for hospitality business owners and staff on how to communicate necessary infor- mation to their guests about what to do and where to go if &