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ncies, the military, nonprofits, series of lessons ummer their homes. And the toll could be much worse if the quake occurred during the summer, when tourists crowd the beaches of the West Coast. To test how ready the Pacific Northwest is for the really big one, the federal government oversees a series of periodic full-scale exercises known as Cascadia Rising. The 2016 exercise involved thousands of people2 from dozens of government agencies, the military, nonprofits, and businesses.3 A lengthy after-action report detailed the results and issued a series of lessons learned during this real-life exercise. Among other things, the report noted, "Catastrophic response requirements are fundamentally different than any response we have seen before. . . . A massive response will be required." Another Cascadia Rising exercise is scheduled for summer 2022. I wish I could report that Cascadia Rising has led to major changes and the Pacific Northwest is now as ready as it can be for a catastrophic quake. Unfortunately, that's not the case. For one thing, retrofitting the region's buildings to make them seismically sound would be prohibitively expensive. But the exercises are still worthwhile. At least the government is trying to get people to focus on the problem. *** We tend to use words like "drill" and "exercise" interchangeably, but in the world of disaster preparation, they don't mean the same thing at all. <~?~Insert art 034_Gate_9780593534489_art_r1> <~?~NO CAPTION FOR THIS ILLUSTRATION (Illustration showing the types of simulations governments can use to prepare for a pandemic.)>