In case you've forgotten that Seattle is expected to experience a devastating earthquake, oh, any day now, Andrew Sullivan offers this reminder:

A reader writes:

Another headline you won't see: "Millions saved in Seattle by good engineering and government building codes". California is thought to be safe from >8.0 earthquakes (but even 6.x quakes do quite a bit of damage). The Pacific Northwest, on the other hand:

A magnitude 9.0 or above quake in the Pacific Northwest is expected. Those quakes, which are the product of vast and deep faults, are characterized by their severity and the duration of shaking when they strike. ... A quake in the 9.0 range occurs in the Pacific Northwest region every 300 - 500 years. The last one was in 1700, which scientists know because of a tsunami that was recorded in Japan at the time.

Current Seattle building codes are probably pretty good, but older buildings - and there are more than in Japan because the city hasn't ever been hit by a devastating quake or war - are at heavy risk.

The estimated damage:

A study from 2008 indicates that as many as 1,000 buildings in Seattle could fall down in a strong earthquake. In that study engineers looked at 575 buildings from the outside and further that estimated 850 to 1,000 old brick buildings that date back to the 1930s would be at risk if a 6.7-magnitude earthquake occurred on the Seattle fault, which runs through the center of Seattle and Bellevue.

Also check out this terrifying tsunami simulation from NOAA.