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ByTerrencePetty TheAssociatedPress PORTLAND, ORE. Bracing for a tsunami like the one that devastated Japanese communities during a 2011 mega-earthquake, coastal communities from British Columbia to California have been grappling with how to protect people from a simi- lar catastrophe. One of those towns is constructing the nation's first structure built as a ver- tical tsunami refuge. Two years ago, voters in Westport, Washington, and other communities in the school district approved a $13.8 million bond to build a new elementary school that would be reinforced to withstand a big earthquake and have a tsunami evacua- tion area on the gym's roof- top. "We have no natural high ground," said Paula Aker- lund, superintendent of the Ocosta School District, lo- cated on a peninsula, not- ing that they have 20-30 minutes between a quake and a tsunami to get to higher ground. That's "im- possible." The new school is be- ing built on a small ridge, which will put the rein- forced roof of the gym above the highest tsunami surge expected by scien- tists. It is expected to be completed in March. The devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan was a reminder of a mirror-image threat lurking just off the Pacific North- west coast: a 600-mile-long fault that has not produced a major quake since 1700 but could do so any time. The fault is called the Cas- cadia Subduction Zone. Progress has been in- cremental in the region as communities seek funding for expensive projects, ex- amine the most effective means of protecting people and ponder how much they are willing to spend to pre- pare for a disaster. A study by the U.S. Geo- logical Survey and univer- sity researchers that was published this year shows that of the 94,870 peo- ple living in tsunami haz- ard zones in northern Cal- ifornia, Oregon and Wash- ington state, about 21,500 would not have time to reach higher ground if they walk slowly. That goes down to 16,000 if they walk quickly. Nearly 70 percent of the residents at highest risk are in Washington state com- munities, followed by Or- egon with 29 percent and California with 4 percent. The state of Washing- ton has identified the need for 55 vertical evacua- tion structures in low-ly- ing coastal areas in three counties. The school gym in Westport will be the first to be built. The next may be a manmade berm in Long Beach capable of giving ref- uge to 800 people. Emergency planners in California are looking into creating some sort of vertical evacuation struc- ture on its northern coast — building a berm or per- haps fortifying an existing tall structure to withstand a big quake and serve as a tsunami refuge. A building would have to be on soil that would not be in dan- ger of liquefying during a major earthquake. Up and down the coast, officials have been trying to ensure that residents and tourists know how to quickly get to high ground by using designated tsu- nami evacuation routes. Newport, on Oregon's central coast, is turning a 90-foot-tall forested hill into a tsunami evacuation area. "Safe Haven Hill," as its being called, will have lighted walkways to the top so evacuees can find their way at night. Seaside, on Oregon's northern coast, has some natural high ground for evacuees but it also has bridges likely to collapse during a big earthquake, cutting off escape to thou- sands of people. Many coastal communi- ties are strapped for cash, a factor in planning. Even though Seaside is one of the most vulnerable communities on the Oregon coast, voters rejected a $129 million bond to move three schools to safer ground. Federal money helped move high school students out of the tsunami zone in Waldport, on Oregon's cen- tral coast, into a new school on high ground. The old school was "smack dab" in the tsunami zone and "had some quake safety issues," said Dennis Sigrist, Ore- gon's hazard mitigation of- ficer. In Curry County, on Or- egon's border with Califor- nia, voters two years ago ap- proved a $10 million bond issue to replace an aging hospital that faced closure. The new hospital is going up on the same lot as the old one, in the city of Gold Beach. Maps dating from the 1990s put the lot outside the projected tsunami zone. But newer maps show it could be swamped by a tsunami, depending on the severity and proximity of the off- shore quake. State emergency manag- ers were alarmed by the site choice. Jodi Fritts, city adminis- trator for Gold Beach, said alternative sites on high ground are prone to land- slides and costs would be prohibitive for putting in roads, sidewalks, and wa- ter and sewer lines, espe- cially in a county as poor as Curry. Fritts argued that with no one able to predict with certainty when the big quake and tsunami will come and how far the tsu- nami waters will reach, and with the community in des- perate need of a modern hospital, going ahead was the right choice. Chris Goldfinger, author of a study that concluded there is a 37 percent chance of the Cascadia Subduction Zone rupturing in the next 50 years, said he wishes de- cision-makers "would con- sider buying an airplane ticket to Japan and take a walk around the tsunami zone." "You have to go there ... to really capture what de- structive power means," said Goldfinger, a professor of geology and geophysics at Oregon State University. TSUNAMI PREP Vulnerable towns make plans to save lives PHOTOSBYTEDS.WARREN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A sign in front of a new elementary school being built next to the Ocosta Junior-Senior High School touts preparedness as an aspect of school pride in Westport, Washington. The new elementary school will serve a second role as a tsunami shelter, because Westport currently has no ground high enough to protect people from the high waters and debris that could come from an earthquake-generated tsunami. A sign designates a tsunami evacuation route. By Michelle Faul The Associated Press LAGOS, NIGERIA Lions, that symbol of Africa's wild beauty, power and freedom, no longer roam in Mali. Or in Ivory Coast or Ghana or war-shattered eastern Congo. Or most of the rest of West Africa. Three years of search- ing and no sight of a lion for Philipp Henschel, lion survey coordinator for the New York-based Panthera conservation group. Then he saw it, his first lion in West Africa. And in of all places, Nigeria. "It came as a big sur- prise because Nigeria has by far the biggest human population on the con- tinent, and the national parks are fairly small com- pared to others in West Af- rica that already have lost their lions," Henschel told The Associated Press. "Everyone was excited, including rangers from Ni- geria's National Park Ser- vice — it was the first time they had seen one too." That was in 2009. The count was depressing: 25 to 30 lions left in Kai- nji Lake National Park in west-central Nigeria and only about five in the east- central Yankari National Park. Three years earlier, Nigerian conservationists had reported lions present in six protected areas, but they had apparently dis- appeared in four of them, Henschel said. Henschel has gone on to survey all 21 protected ar- eas believed to harbor li- ons in West Africa. He has seen only nine lions in four reserves, including Sen- egal's Niokolo-Koba Na- tional Park and the trans- frontier Pendjari and Arli National Parks of Benin and Burkina Faso. His research, published last year, reported that li- ons no longer exist in 99 percent of their historic range in West Africa — a finding that prompted the International Union for Conservation of Nature to put the lions of West Africa on its Red List as critically endangered. The situation is dire in much of Africa. New research published Monday shows sharp de- clines since 1990 in nearly all lion populations in West and Central Africa, and that both regions risk los- ing half their lions within the next two decades. East Africa stands a 37 percent chance of halving its lion population over the same period, according to the survey published in the Proceedings of the U.S. Na- tional Academy of Sciences and written by researchers including Henschel. Lion populations are increasing in only four southern African nations: Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, where most lions are in fenced reserves, the sur- vey found. With the international spotlight on lion conserva- tion intensified by outrage over the killing this year of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe by an American hunter, Henschel's Panthera group hopes to attract funding from conservation agen- cies and Nigerian philan- thropists to make sure li- ons do not disappear here. SHARP DECLINES PHILIPP HENSCHEL — PANTHERA VIA AP This male lion cub is one of a few remaining in Nigeria's Yankari National Park. New research published Monday shows sharp declines since 1990in nearly all lion populations in West and Central Africa, and that both regions risk losing half their lions within the next two decades. 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