Disaster potential is on our minds

Officials in California worry about the collapse of aging levees in the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, which might allow surging seawater to contaminate much of the state's drinking water supply.

A major concern in Seattle is the seismic vulnerability of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, a busy elevated highway in such peril that weight and lane restrictions were imposed on buses and trucks.

In Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, there is the recurring danger of a volcanic eruption at Yellowstone National Park, while in Florida, attention has turned anew to cleaning up Lake Okeechobee, which sends polluted water into nearby rivers during heavy rains and floods.

While the problems are mostly well known, the devastation from the Gulf Coast hurricanes is serving as a strong reminder that possible disasters could lay waste to cities and states across the country. People are calling government offices about emergency preparedness, long-forgotten plans are being dusted off and reassessed, and lawmakers are holding hearings about vulnerabilities and whether efforts to address them go far enough.

In some places like Utah, where a $200 million project is under way to mount the state Capitol on cylindrical bearings to reduce the shaking during an earthquake, officials said the hurricanes' destruction was a reminder that expensive disaster preparedness programs needed to stay on track.

Scientists at the University of Utah estimate there is a one in four chance that a major earthquake will rock the Wasatch fault in the state in the next 40 years, with the Capitol among the buildings most in jeopardy. Similarly, seismologists in Washington have said that the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which suffered severe cracking in an earthquake several years ago, will not survive a major quake, and efforts are under way to replace it with a tunnel.

Maj. Scott J. Smith of the Montana National Guard said officials there were looking anew at the problems that a major earthquake -- and a possible resulting volcanic eruption at Yellowstone, where the caldera is classified as a "high threat" by the U.S. Geological Survey -- would pose in assembling troops. The experience in Louisiana, Smith said, had illustrated that many of the people who would be called upon to deal with a disaster might also be among its victims.

National park administrators at Yellowstone and elsewhere have been instructed to review their emergency plans with the lessons of the hurricanes in mind.

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