We live in one of
the most seismically active areas in the world and in the future we will
experience a major earthquake. Coastal First Nations oral histories recount the
devastating impact of the Cascadia mega-quake that took place in 1700. These
stories describe entire coastal villages being destroyed by Tsunami waves and
canoes ending up in trees. These stories have been passed down through seven
generations and have provided warning that we live in an area that is dangerous.
The difficult truth that we must all remember is that we are overdue for a
very large subduction zone earthquake. It is predicted that this type of
earthquakes has a return period of 250 years. The last earthquake occurred in
1700, which is 315 years ago. This is bad news, as the longer it takes to
release the built up tension, the greater the magnitude of the next earthquake.
October 20 is the province-wide ShakeOut British Columbia Earthquake drill.
This drill is an opportunity to practice the very simple drill of “drop, cover
and hold on” and to also take the time to consider how prepared we are for
earthquake events and other emergency/disaster type events.
We
encourage everyone to take part in this important drill!
Emergency and disaster preparedness is often the item that falls to the
bottom of the chore list. It is something that we think we can do some other
time and that we simply need to find a way to get through the “must be done”
list (i.e. groceries, laundry, cooking). However, if we never take the time to
be prepared, we will never be prepared.
My simple advice is to think of
emergency preparedness as getting prepared for a bad camping-staycation close to
home. Think about what makes camping easy: shelter, food, water, lights,
toiletries, first aid supplies, etc. These are the items you will want for your
kit.
To watch a great video on packing an emergency kit, head to CBC's
youtube channel here:
You may have heard this last year and the year before… are you prepared yet
this year? Some resources are below for you to create an emergency kit and find
additional info on the ShakeOut exercise:
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/emergency-preparedness-response-recovery
http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/ep-wk/index-eng.aspx
http://shakeoutbc.ca/
