Life or death: National Guard prepares for disaster 'like nothing we have ever seen'

SHELTON, Wash. -- On land that was once the Mason County Fairgrounds, hundreds of Washington National Guard soldiers and airmen prepared themselves for the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Soldiers erected medical tents and makeshift trauma centers. Chinook Helicopters dropped supplies and paratroopers into a nearby clearing at Sanderson Field.

The troops are part of an unprecedented disaster preparedness drill called “Cascadia Rising” – an exercise in anticipation of a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Q13 News got a tour of operations at the location, where roughly 700 soldiers and airmen are staged this week.

While it has yet to happen, a slip of the Cascadia Subduction Zone – which stretches from Vancouver, Canada, to Northern California, could come at any time. The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that the quake and resulting tsunami would leave at least 8,400 people dead, more than 12,000 injured, 500,000 residential buildings damaged, and would force the evacuation of nearly 90,000 hospital patients.

"When the Cascadia Subduction Zone does rupture, it will result in a catastrophe like nothing we have ever seen,” said Major Gen. Bret Daugherty, the head of the Washington National Guard. “It's expected to be the worst natural disaster ever in the United States."

According to FEMA, among the heaviest hit counties in Washington will be Grays Harbor, Pacific, Thurston, Mason, and Lewis.

Troops staged at the old fairgrounds in Shelton because it borders Sanderson Field, which the National Guard believes will be the closest airstrip to the coast that will not be destroyed.