The Nisqually Quake.
On February 28, 2001 at 10:54 am in the Puget sound region for 40 seconds, a 7.8 earthquake happened. It caused so much damage it cost 2 - 4 billion dollars. There was a lot of physical damage. About 400 people were injured, Sea-tac airport was damaged, and almost all the buildings all round Seattle. I guess this event was by surprised because they didn't know that they were going to have a earthquake. It was just a matter of time.