By now, our concerns about earthquakes, specifically “The Really Big One” discussed in the New Yorker article of the same name from July, may have moved to the back of our minds. (You may remember a FEMA official saying in that article “everything west of I-5 would be toast” after a magnitude 8.0 to 9.2 quake along the Cascadia subduction zone.)

Our concerns resurface when quakes strike elsewhere in the world, such as the deadly temblor that hit Taiwan on Feb. 13. But the inherent unpredictability of earthquakes can make it difficult to focus concern and preparation efforts.

Continuing efforts at the state and federal level have kept their focus and require continued funding and support.

As part of the state Department of Natural Resources’ supplemental budget request, Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark is seeking $547,000 to map earthquake and tsunami hazards and provide that information to the public and communities to help prepare.

Under the proposal, two additional department geologists and an IT specialist would be hired to educate the public on earthquake hazards; analyze the seismic safety of schools and recommend ways to strengthen them; provide information to assist in community disaster plans; map liquefaction hazards in population centers; create tsunami models to show where waves might hit; help communities identify tsunami evacuation routes; and assist communities with tsunami planning and preparedness.

On the federal level, President Obama seeks $8 million to continue work and begin to implement an early earthquake warning system called ShakeAlert. That’s joined by earlier announced efforts to increase the nation’s resilience to earthquakes.

Previously, $13 million in federal funding has gone toward ShakeAlert. While the $8 million in the president’s budget still has to move through a Republican-controlled Congress, a spokeswoman for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said that its inclusion provides a starting point for Murray, who sits on the Senate’s appropriations committee, to go to bat for the program as have other West Coast members of Congress.

Scientists believe the Cascadia fault averages a significant quake about once every 243 years. With its last quake pinpointed to 1700, we’re about 70 years past the average. The seismologists in the New Yorker article estimated the chances for a quake up to a magnitude 8.6 in the next 50 years are 1 in 3 — and 1 in 10 for a quake up to 9.2.

Anything we can do now to prepare can limit damage and save lives.