Schools on Pacific Coast Prepare for Tsunamis

Some of the most somber reactions to the tsunami that pounded coastal areas across a huge swath of the Indian Ocean occurred in American schools located in low-lying “tsunami inundation zones” along the U.S. mainland’s Pacific coast and in Hawaii.

Those areas are a focus of federal and state government “tsunami hazard mitigation” efforts, because of the fault zone that runs from northern California into British Columbia, Canada, and similar faults off coastal Alaska, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.

For example, four of the five schools in the 1,700-student Seaside, Ore., district are in tsunami-inundation zones, according to Doug Dougherty, the district superintendent. Playground bins at the district’s Cannon Beach Elementary School still bear scars from being struck by logs during a 1964 tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake off the coast of Alaska. That tsunami brought deadly waves that also hit...