Unique Sound Systems

Video Tour of St. Williams Catholic Church - Sound System Design

A guided tour of the Church Sound System installation for St. Williams Catholic Church, Fridley MN, This AVE installation is the long version ...

Unshaken complacency: Unprepared for quake

People often remember the calm, the quiet, how normal everything seemed before a disaster.

In Clark County, they might remember grabbing a cup of coffee at Starbucks by Esther Short Park, hanging out on the patio at Beaches by the waterfront, taking a bike ride along the Salmon Creek Trail -- before the shaking started.

During the long seconds of a magnitude 9.0 Cascadia earthquake, the soft loose soils along the Columbia River could quickly convert to the consistency of liquid or quicksand.

Beaches, Who Song & Larry's, Joe's Crab Shack and other establishments could jiggle, shift and sink lopsided into the ground by a few inches or a few feet.

Buried water mains and sewer lines could crack, separate, or float to the surface, spilling their contents across roads, landscapes and waterways. Downtown, older brick-and-mortar buildings could shift and shake, shedding bricks and rooftops in piles of debris.

In the flash of a few minutes, pretty much all of Clark County would be likely to find itself without power, without reliable roads and without safe water. And it could stay that way for months.