The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 14, 2025, proclaimed Oct. 16, 2025, to be Great ShakeOut Day and encouraged residents, businesses and schools to practice earthquake safety drills.

The proclamation followed a presentation by Jen Munson, Clatsop County Emergency Management community engagement coordinator, and Laura Gable, coastal geologist with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI), who reviewed DOGAMI’s work with the county on tsunami and earthquake preparedness.

DOGAMI’s Laura Gable said the agency has focused on tsunami preparedness while recognizing the inseparability of tsunami and earthquake hazards on the coast. “We cannot predict when the next earthquake and tsunami will happen, but we know when it does, the earth will shake for several minutes and a tsunami will be generated 70 miles offshore of Clatsop County reaching your beaches in about 20 to 25 minutes,” Gable said. She described a list of collaborative work, including a 2006–07 seismic safety survey of about 40 critical facilities, multiple tsunami evacuation maps and a phone app, funding and placement of wayfinding and evacuation signs, and detailed evacuation analyses for Seaside and Cannon Beach that prompted infrastructure priorities such as bridge retrofits.

The county’s proclamation cites the county’s vulnerability to seismic shaking and tsunami hazards because of its proximity to the Cascadia subduction zone and encourages citizens to develop preparedness plans and be self-sufficient for at least two weeks after a disaster.

The board approved the proclamation by voice vote; the motion carried.

County emergency management noted the Great ShakeOut drill will coincide with a statewide alert test at 10:16 a.m. on Oct. 16 and urged broad participation to improve preparedness and to test alert systems.