Anyone considering voting no on Resolution 4-185 — to build a new earthquake- and tsunami-safe school campus serving the children of Cannon Beach, Seaside and Gearhart — must not have seen the photo I saw, in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, of a drift line of colorful children’s backpacks in Hello Kitty and Superman themes, sparkling with seawater. They were left on the hillside in a curving line after the tsunami that killed those children receded. At Ookawa Elementary School, the children had drilled many times about what to do in an earthquake, but when 10 of the school’s 13 teachers were killed in the quake, it’s no wonder the kids didn’t have the leadership to make it to high enough ground before the tsunami that killed them struck.

We now know that it’s only a matter of time before a quake and tsunami of similar magnitude strikes the Oregon Coast. The geological evidence, first discovered only 30 years ago and a surprise to all of us, is now very clear. This will not be a tsunami of the size some coastal residents remember from 1964, caused by a quake more than 1,000 miles away in Alaska. This will be a tsunami generated by an earthquake along a fault line just off the Oregon. It will flatten buildings all over Oregon—on the coast in particular—including aging schools throughout the state. Minutes later, what’s left of the houses and schools in towns like Seaside and Gearhart will be washed away by a tsunami equivalent to the one that killed thousands of people in Japan in 2011.

We don’t know if the next such quake will strike the Oregon coast in the next few years or in a few hundred years. But geologists tell us there is a high likelihood of it happening within the next 50 years. We know we are in the window. It is time to get ready.

The Seaside School District is one of the last two districts on the Oregon Coast with schools still in the tsunami inundation zone. Lincoln City has moved all its schools to high ground. Waldport has relocated its high school from the mouth of the river to a nearby ridgetop. Neahkahnie High School is in the tsunami zone, but unlike Seaside High School, Neahkahnie High School has a solid rock hillside right outside the building where students can evacuate.

The challenges for the Seaside School District are unique. No other school district in Oregon — in fact, in the entire country — has three schools located in the tsunami inundation zone. Relocating the schools here is an expensive proposition—and there’s no getting around it.

The need to relocate the schools in the Seaside School District cannot be disputed. It has to happen, and the sooner the better. The sticking point, naturally, is the cost, which is not insignificant. To be clear, I do not own property in the Seaside School District; I will not be affected by a property tax increase. But I want to point out some important facts to those who do.

The district has brought the price down about as low as it can go. After the first attempt at a school relocation levy failed in 2013, the district managed to get the land for the campus donated by Weyerhaeuser. They made a plan to hold off building an auditorium and other “extras” until the existing school properties sell. In the process, they brought the price down by more than one-third. They’ve also put the District in line to receive $4 million in state funding if the levy passes. It is a solid plan, about as good as it’s going to get, and it’s time to approve it and start building.

In an ideal world, the Seaside School District would get more funding from the federal and state government, but it’s clear that’s not going to happen. The District has left no stone unturned looking from financial help outside the District itself over the past decade, and it’s just not forthcoming. Federal emergency response dollars will one day pour into this region after what will be the country’s biggest-ever natural disaster; you would think that some of that money might be provided in advance, to help prepare and to save lives rather than to compensate the region for its losses after the fact. But that’s not how government works. It’s not going to happen.

It’s a lot of money—$99 million—but if you break it down, it’s doable. For someone who owns a $250,000 house, that’s less than $1 a day. Is there not something you could give up in exchange for such peace of mind, knowing that the children of Arch Cape and Cannon Beach, Seaside, and Gearhart will be in the safest possible spot should the quake strike during a school day, and knowing that all of us will have a solid, safe place to shelter in the days and weeks after the quake? Could it be done more cheaply? Maybe a few details could be downgraded here or there. But it’s time to stop quibbling over whether the cost should be 90 cents a day or 88 cents and put shovels in the ground.

The location of the schools in the Seaside School District is one of the key factors that makes this perhaps the most vulnerable community on the Oregon Coast, in terms of quake and tsunami risk. Moving the schools is not the only pressing need. Seaside, in particular, must start rebuilding some of its bridges to ensure that citizens fleeing the tsunami will be able to reach high ground. But these are not competing priorities. They both need to be done. Right now, the proposal on the table is to relocate the schools. I urge you to vote yes on Resolution 4-185.

Bonnie Henderson is the author of “The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast.”