Just to let folks know, this will probably be an unusual and off the wall thread and it requires a bit of back story, so here goes...

Pretty much the dumbest thing I've done in my life to date was to buy a house in an earthquake prone area, in a tsunami hazard zone and on a peninsula that is pretty much nothing but a sand bar. The quake zone is the Washington coast, which gets hit with massive quakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the resulting tsunami's every three to six hundred years. With my usual luck, we're already past the 300 year mark since the last big one in 1700. Yeah, like I said, dumbest thing to date.

The town I live in is on a 5 mile long sand bar that sticks out between the Pacific Ocean and Grays Harbor and the ground is guaranteed to liquify during anything more than 7.3 quake (they're predicting between 8.0 and 9.0, or even above). Unfortunately, this means the roads are most likely to subside and develop some large cracks and steep drops, possibly more than 2 or 3 feet, that would make them impassable by my 4WD Dodge Durango. With no high ground within a 15 to 20 minute walk, which is how long it will take a tsunami to reach my town (depending on exactly where along the Cascadia fault the quake takes place), that pretty much leaves me a sitting duck for the 30 foot plus tsunami they're predicting when the Cascadia fault breaks loose. I figure a quad ATV would at least have a snowball's chance of getting me out, so long as I can go around the biggest cracks, but I'd still be facing some pretty extreme driving conditions.

This leads to the main question: wheels or tracks?

Yes, I do know that it's unlikely that we'll actually have that quake within my lifetime, but the way my life tends to work is that if I don't have something, I will need it and vice versa.

 

Though the tracks would sound to be a good choice. They are only going to work if you are in mud,snow and sand better than the tires. With that said,if you plan on climbing up and over "road debris",then the tracks may leave you stranded and working much harder. Since the tracks are larger and heavier, they will not turn easily on pavement and they will not climb up a 14" brick wall all the time. They tend to push down under obstacles sometimes which could leave you stranded anyway. So id say tires,maybe 28" tires that will be easier to roll over obstacles and you can back up,turn,snap the throttle to pop up on something if needed alot quicker. A super large tire like 30-32" could just snap an axle(unless you upgrade your axles right away)I own a set of tracks, and its recommended you take two 2x6 boards about 2ft long incase I get hung up on a log. The front track usually makes it but the rear tracks sometimes get hung under the log. So you build a bridge with the 2x6 board to walk over the trees.

What kind of atv do you have? If your planning for the worse,i hope it has a differential locker on the front. You may need ALL 4 tires pulling at some point to keep you from getting hung up.

 

Thanks, Mudslingingfool! It sounds like I will definitely be going with larger tires and heavier, reinforced axles and larger tires as an add-on when I buy.

As for a current ATV, I don't have one. After reading several threads in this general topic, I will definitely be looking for an ATV that has the ability to lock the front differential and become a true 4x4, just because I'll be almost guaranteed to be going over some crazy-bad ground. It also sounds like I'll be going with either a Can Am or Polaris with a decent sized motor and heavy duty carrying capacity, as I'll most likely be taking a neighbor's daughter out with me and neither of us are petite little gals, plus we'll have her dogs and my two cats in crates strapped into the cargo areas. Thankfully, our evacuation destination will have all of the emergency supplies. We'll only have to go 4 miles as the crow flies, but that's going to be a very rough 4 miles.

 

Just moved away 1 1/2 years ago from the north OR coast, Warrenton to be specific. I know your concerns all too well, we were 2 blocks east of the ocean at about 40ft sea level. I had a few very tall Sitka spruce and to be honest with you, thought that would be the only realistic escape plan for my family...but even that would have been a stretch.

Not to sound too much a pessimist, and I have been to Ocean Shores and also surfed many times at Westport and know the area, your best bet for an escape plan would be a hot air balloon. You know as well as I do that the predictions are if the Cascadia zone did go, expectations are it would be centered ~ 35 miles off the coast of OR/WA allowing maybe 20 minutes to evacuate to ground higher than 80 ft...if you are lucky and don't need to go higher. Ocean Shores is about the worst case scenario to evac assuming there would even be a clear path and I am not referring to roads...the roads will probably all be swallowed up in one way or another since you live on sand. Not to mention complete pandemonium of other survivors.

The other consideration you will have is once you reach higher ground, the forests get very thick with lots of down wood, remember the Dec '07 winter storm that leveled entire forest areas in SW Washington/NW Oregon?

Truth be told, one of the main reasons we ended up moving back to CO after 9 years on the OR coast is my wife was done with being inundated with earthquake horror stories in the news media. So now we live in the middle of a dry forest. :-/

However, don't let my views change your plans as having an ATV will be a lot of fun too. If you see yourself using it for escape and will have an additional passenger, consider a 2-up or UTV.

 

Precisely!

Sorry to hear that you gave up your place in Warrenton, that is a beautiful area. But Colorado is gorgeous too and dry forest is better than no forest, though I'm very partial to our rain forests up here.

Dude, seriously, I am not going to forget the December storms of 2007 unless I develop a serious case of Alzheimers or dementia. We were without power for over a week and access off the Pt Brown Peninsula was blocked to anything but 4WD for 3 days (which is why I bought my Dodge Durango 4WD and have some good on/off road tires on it and a 6" lift kit). Unfortunately, there were also so many downed trees along Highway 109 that there was no getting into the Aberdeen-Hoquiam area for 4 days.

You're likely right about the hot air balloon, though there may be enough open area to allow me a snowball's chance of getting off the peninsula on an ATV since I live on the east side close to the harbor, near the airfield. One possible evacuation route for me is the pole line road that runs between Rain St and Damon Rd. Another is to go all the way up Duck Lake Dr and cut across the two properties of open meadow that lie between it and Damon Rd, and I've already got permission from the two property owners to cross their land in the event of an emergency. The third option is to take Duck Lake Dr, then drive along the edge of the harbor until I get to the access road that goes through Patrick Hogan's property and up onto Hale Ave in Hogan's corner, which is where my evacuation destination is (4 miles as the crow flies). My fourth option is to go up the airfield and then drive along the harbor to that access road. Actually, I should have listed those in reverse order, since my folks' place in Hogan's Corner is out of the inundation zone for a 50 foot tsunami, so all I have to do is get from the area around the Ocean Shores airfield up to Hogan's Corner.

All in all, I'd say the existence of the possibility is worth the cost of the ATV and one of those tent-like 'instant garage' shelters to keep it in. No way I'd keep it in the garage, as I'd never get the door open after the quake. Yeah, I may be up to my chin in de Nile, but the pyramids look fine! And you're right, I would probably enjoy the ATV, especially if we can get them allowed on Forest Service roads. One of the things I love about my Durango is that it does pretty well on the rutted, rocky roads up in the Olympic and Gifford Pinchot National Forests and I get a kick out of going up there with my camera gear and a picnic lunch.

By the way, one of the things I have seriously considered is putting sealed 30 gallon plastic drums (or some other flotation device) up in my attic in strong netting securely attached to the roof beams. I've already got one of those Little Giant ladders that would allow me to get the cats and myself up onto the roof fairly easily and, hopefully, the roof would stay afloat when the rest of the house gets swept away. I know they picked up several people floating around on rooftops in Japan. My biggest problem with this possible 'vertical evacuation' scenario is that I don't know how far into the sand my house will sink during the quake and the roof may very well be below the level of the water sweeping in across the peninsula.

All of the above said, I could just tell the bank to take the darned house and take a hit with foreclosure in order to move, but that thought just sticks in my craw and I'm not going to do it. Selling is really no option at this point, since I bought the place just before the dratted market crashed and my mortgage is seriously under water, despite the fact that I've been paying extra on the premium every month and have taken nearly 10 years off the length of the mortgage in 7 years. And even Short Sales out here have been sitting on the market for years. *facepalms* /rant

 

Yup. I actually bit the bullet and bought a generator the spring previous because of the 5 days we were without power near Thanskgiving of '06 because of a bad winter storm. So, when those 3 powerful storms converged Dec '07, I already had my generator and about 15 gallons of fuel, prepared for another long electrical outage. Where I lived, we were told an outage for up to 3 weeks although we had power in 6 1/2 days. Once the roads were cleared, we drove into Longview and purchased more fuel containers and filled up, shopped for other supplies and made phone calls to work.

Towards the end of the storm, I went and help our friends, who owned the Warrenton Suzuki dealership as their business building lost its entire metal roof and all of their important computer/electronics were getting soaked/destroyed.


I have a friend up in Hood Canal and he is big into ATV'ing...although sport. He knows a lot of areas open to ATVs. You won't be disappointed.


Sorry to hear of that. Keep your chin up...this was a hard situation for many people. We were able to get our house sold in summer of '12. We did sell above our purchase price from 9 years earlier, but we put a lot of money into it and it had tremendous curb appeal...sold it in 3 weeks. Although we sold above the purchase price, so many items had to be fixed during our ownership, I figure we lost $120K after it was all said and done.

Keep in mind you live in a very desirable and beautiful area...somewhere that feels like you live in a national park. I always tried to convince my wife to not be burdened with the potential for tsunami, just to live our lives and be happy.

But, she's a chick

 

Oh, and don't get me wrong. I love CO, just no ocean or surfing here. We do have sun though

 

It's great that you got your generator before that storm! Sad to say, I got mine after.

Yowch! I seriously hope your friend's business had sufficient insurance to cover all of the damage. It's a good thing he had friends willing to go out into that mess and lend a hand; you're a good guy.

Down $120k is so not of the good, but I'm glad you didn't take the full force of the hit and have to sell for less than you originally paid. And I am not going to go into my rant about the whole bank/economy debacle...

There are going to be natural disasters of one sort or another, no matter where you live in this world. Crazy weather (wind storms, the rare ice storm, frequent flooding) and earthquakes are what we have up here in Western Washington (Oregon and Northern California too, for that matter), particularly on the coast, where we have the added 'bonus' of possible tsunamis. I know all of this logically, but the thought of being caught up in a tsunami actually terrifies me more than the thought of death itself. Unfortunately, when I moved out here, I hadn't consciously taken into account the damage that would be done by an earthquake, which definitely limits the potential of evacuation from tsunamis. Until I can move at least a little bit inland (the higher points of Hogan's Corner would do fine for me), I want to make the best of my options to get the frell out of Dodge if/when necessary.

If I do manage to get an ATV, I will definitely be looking into scenic trails with good views and will have to remember to ask to be put into contact with your friend. Hood Canal is another beautiful area with great potential for some good photos.

Hey, chick here too, smarty alec (though I'm quite sure you know that). Well, more of an old hen, but that's beside the point. And sunshine is definitely over rated!

 

And you're right, the Washington coast is one of the most beautiful places on the planet! Which is exactly why I moved out here to begin with.

 

Been following this thread. Scary situation. While we get the ice storms that knock out power for a week every 10 years or so, we don't have to deal with the threat of tsunamis as much as you guys do out there. (Unless a certain island off the West Coast of Africa slides into the ocean.) I'm in New England and have been thinking about what would work best. With a regular quad we've been able to climb near vertical rocks up to about 3 feet tall. Can't be any taller than that because the front tires have to get over the obstacle as you'll lose traction if all four tires are climbing near vertical. As far as downed trees go, we've been able to go over about 18" with stock 25" tires. That's about max from my experience.

So, my thought is something like this: IN-STOCK 2014 HDI 8X8 CAMO #RTS 35384 With a full length track it could crawl over obstacles better than a tire and there wouldn't be a separate rear track to get hung up. Only thing I don't like is that the top speed is 17 mph or so. I think I'd rather be going a lot faster in your scenario.