Tsunami coming? This small Washington town will climb a tower to safety

Tokeland might be the last place anyone would want to be if a tsunami hits Washington. The small community occupies a thin peninsula that faces the Pacific Ocean on one side and Willapa Bay on the other.

A tsunami would probably wash right over and keep going.

Now, the residents of the community, many who are members of the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe, are on track to get an evacuation tower that might save them when the big one hits.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is providing $2.2 million to build a vertical evacuation shelter — essentially a high tower. The funding will provide 90 percent of the total $2.5 million cost. The tribe has the rest.

The project should be completed within three years, said Lee Shipman, the tribe's emergency management director.

It's estimated that a tsunami generated by a major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake would reach the coast in 22 minutes, leaving little time for residents to evacuate.

The 50-foot-high tower will have two refuge platforms above the predicted tsunami height. The useable area of 3,400 square feet will accommodate 386 people.

The structure will be built on tribal property in Tokeland.

"We put it at the very end of our property so the people in Tokeland can benefit from that," Shipman said.