THE US military is preparing for what is expected to be the most devastating earthquake tsunami to strike its west coast. In just a few days major rehearsals will take place by disaster officials, the emergency services, and military, in a bid to face what will happen when an overdue major earthquake strikes. The massive earthquake and tsunami readiness drill has been developed by the US government, military, and state and local emergency managers over several years to test if they are ready for what is expected to be the country's worst ever natural disaster when it comes. And it is a case of when, not if. The exercise from June 7 to 10 is called Cascadia Rising or even the "Doomsday Drill". This is in reference to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 600-mile-long fault line off the west coast from Northern California to British Columbia. Scientists agree that the area is due major seismic activity and that a "big one" magnitude eight or greater earthquake is overdue by about 80 years. Lt