There are more than 850 buildings across Spokane County that could be unstable in the event of an earthquake because of how they were built. This is compared to nearly 1,500 in King County.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington state leaders are using a new tool to track down buildings unable to withstand earthquakes.

According to the new interactive database, there are more than 850 buildings across Spokane County that could be unstable in the event of an earthquake because of how they were built.

The database determines how many potential unreinforced masonry buildings there are across the state by city, county and legislative district.

King County in western Washington sits at nearly 1,500 unreinforced masonry buildings.

"They are the older type of buildings that are brick built, and they were not built to withstand earthquakes because there wasn't a good understanding when they were built of how earthquakes happen," said Gerry Bozarth, the mitigation and disaster recovery specialist with Greater Spokane Emergency Management.

"In the future we will be looking at grant funding to see how we can help building owners and city buildings and that sort of thing to actually retrofit those buildings over time," he added.

Bozarth said it is unknown by emergency management how many buildings in Spokane County have been retrofitted but some of them have.

According to Bozarth, there is an 80 percent chance Seattle will experience a large magnitude earthquake within the next 50 years, but it is unknown how this will affect Spokane County hundreds of miles away due to little research.

Spokane County does have a FEMA approved debris management plan, which was heavily utilized during the 2015 windstorm.

This would also be applied in the event of a large earthquake in Spokane County.

Bozarth added that he does not want to worry Spokane County residents about an earthquake risk since we don't know what the risk is, but it's always a good idea to be prepared.