The earthquake is coming. Is old Seattle worth saving? Joshua McNichols August 06, 2025 / 5:30 pm

Seattle’s unreinforced brick buildings are a disaster waiting to happen—and the cash to fix them isn’t there.

It's been almost 25 years since the Nisqually earthquake. That's the last significant quake to hit Seattle.

Leslie Morishita remembers it like it was yesterday.

“We got out of there and did not dare go back inside. And we were all saying ‘Are you okay? Are you okay?'" Morishita said. "There were bricks on the sidewalks. I think a car got smooshed.’”

NOTE: This story comes from KUOW's economics podcast, " Booming ."

Luckily, no one died during the Nisqually quake.

But the quake did over $2 billion of damage to buildings in the region.

And it offers a hint at what could

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