March 2, 2021 at 10:59 am Then Washington Governor Gary Locke inspects a severe crack in Deschutes Parkway in Olympia after the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually quake in 2001. Worse damage is likely the next time the Cascadia fault ruptures off the Pacific coast. (AP archive photo by Lauren McFalls) Last week, Washington Emergency Management posted a warning to Twitter, saying that “there is an 84% chance we will have a Nisqually-style 6.8 earthquake hit Western Washington, like what happened 20 years ago this month.” After a flood of concerned replies where many interpreted that to mean there’s a frighteningly significant likelihood that a large quake is highly probable any day now, Pacific Northwest Seismic Network seismologist Bill Steele spoke to MyNorthwest to put minds at ease, and provide some added context behind that statistic.