Steven Eberlein works for the American Red Cross Cascades Region -- encouraging people to prepare for disasters, especially earthquakes. His experience of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami left him grappling with this question: can a society adapt to a risk that it has never experienced before?
He thinks so. His mission is to spark a preparedness movement in the Pacific Northwest that will save lives in the event of a Cascadia Subduction Zone 9M earthquake. Steven Eberlein was chosen from 254 applicants from the first ever TEDxPortland Ideas Booth. He had one week to prepare his talk before 3000+ people. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
