It may come like it did the last time, in the middle of a cold and blustery January night. Suddenly the ground will begin to shake, windows will shatter, bridges collapse, the electricity will go out and parents will frantically try to find a flashlight and dig sleepy kids out of bed, ignore everything else and run – because they know they only have minutes before the water arrives.
This summer will take the Oregon State University athlete, a junior in bioengineering and the University Honors College, further than she has ever gone, at a pace that surprises even her.
We’re overdue. If the Cascadia subduction zone behaves as it has in the past, an 8.0 to 8.5 earthquake and a resulting tsunami have a good chance of striking the Pacific Northwest in the next 50 years.
Ashford and Corcoran are among more than a dozen OSU faculty who are sharing their expertise in engineering, geology, communications and marine sciences with Chilean colleagues.
Since 1919, when Oregon became the first state in the nation to levy a gas tax, the revenue stream has been as reliable as winter rain in Portland. Today, it generates about $400 million annually, but in the near future, with the push for energy independence and electric cars in particular, paying for pavement may become more difficult.
An innovative tax credit program aimed at fast-tracking commercialization of university research stands as a bright spot in Oregon’s sputtering economy.