The town of Westport has broken ground on an evacuation tower capable of holding more than 1,000 people in the event of a devastating tsunami.
Officials in the small coastal town in Grays Harbor County have worked for years to secure funding for the tower, but the project was thrown into doubt in 2025 after the Trump administration abruptly cut a key federal grant.
Supporters of the $15 million project rallied, securing federal and state funding. The 45-foot tower is meant to provide a safe haven in the event of a tsunami that could quickly flood the community after a major earthquake.
The tower will be located on city property near the town’s marina and seafood canneries. In the event of a tsunami warning, nearby residents will be able to reach the tower within 15 minutes.
“So the folks coming here, living here, working here are all going to have safe refuge that they can get to, to survive. That’s massive,” said Maximilian Dixon, a supervisor with the state Emergency Management Division, at a groundbreaking event Saturday.
Westport, with about 2,200 residents plus tourists drawn by sandy beaches and fresh seafood, sits on a low-lying peninsula putting it at particular risk of an earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, an offshore fault line where shaking from an earthquake could propel giant tsunami waves swiftly into the town.
Scientific estimates used to support Westport’s FEMA-grant application projected more than 6,000 casualties could result from tsunami waves after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.
Construction is slated to finish in summer 2027. The tower will serve as a public viewing platform when not needed for emergencies.
The Westport tower will be the third vertical tsunami evacuation structure in Washington, according to the state. Ocosta Elementary School completed one in 2016 just south of Westport, followed by the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe’s freestanding Auntie Lee Vertical Evacuation Tower in 2022.
Across Grays Harbor, a tsunami tower project next to Ocean Shores Elementary School received $8.2 million from the state Legislature in 2025.
