by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Wednesday, October 17 ~ BC. On Thursday, October 18 is your chance this year to practice your earthquake readiness with others around BC. The big moment is set for 10:18 am.
You can practice your skills to Drop, Cover and Hold On at any time. But doing it each year as part of ShakeOutBC is a way to raise awareness — your own and among others — about emergency preparedness for a large earthquake.
‘The Big One’ is expected to be 9.0 Magnitude or greater. To register for #ShakeoutBC go to www.shakeoutbc.ca/register and then Drop, Cover and Hold On at 10:18 am. It’s all about ‘muscle memory’. If you practice this even once a year, it will help you respond in a real emergency. It’s also a good time to check and further build your emergency kits (home, car and office or school).
Over 870,000 people have registered for ShakeOutBC in BC to date (9:15 pm on Wed October 17). There were over 890,000 registered participants in 2017. Over 59 million people worldwide take part in this drill.
On the www.shakeoutbc.ca website are some videos and Fact Sheet PDF’s about preparing for the earthquake and the real thing.
The threat of the big one happening in Western Canada has been looming for years. Experts say a powerful magnitude 9.0 earthquake could impact large areas of the Pacific coastal region, in some areas causing tsunami waves up to 20 metres high. Anyone at sea level will want to move to higher ground (on Vancouver Island that includes Tofino, and areas around Sooke and some parts of the Greater Victoria shoreline area. Maps are available on the www.prepareyourself.ca website, with tsunami info (including tsunami-area modelling) specifically at https://www.crd.bc.ca/prepare-yourself/hazards-in-our-region/tsunamis
The last destructive earthquake of that magnitude happened on January 27, 1700, and due to pressures and the action of tectonic plates, experts say it is “inevitable” that another one will hit the coast. The expected magnitude-9.0 earthquake will happen along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 1,000 km fault line that runs from northern Vancouver Island to Northern California.
The fault is a boundary between two tectonic plates: the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the North American plate (that we live on). The Juan de Fuca plate moves toward and eventually is shoved beneath the North American plate. It’s become stuck for three centuries now, building up stress. When the plates move past each other along the fault, it will cause a megathrust quake.
Geological evidence shows that high-magnitude earthquakes have occurred at least seven times in the last 3,500 years, a return interval of 400 to 600 years. Seismologists say there is 12% probability that a Cascadia megathrust earthquake will occur in the next 50 years, according to the Office of the Auditor General of B.C. Other experts believe the chance of it happening in the next five decades are actually one in three, according to the New York Post.
Predictions for BC and the U.S. estimate that the death toll could be over 10,000 people with another 26,000 injured. All of this will put a strain on health and emergency services, which is why it’s important to do as much self-preparation as you can. Services like electricity, water, gas, roads, and food supply will be impacted to varying degrees throughout the BC coastal region.
Various levels of government used to say to be self-sufficient for 72 hours after a wake. In recent years — especially on the west side of Vancouver Island and more remote areas — emergency management officials have been saying 7 days of readiness is more wise. One seismic specialist herself says she will prepare for 14 days or more.
~ Mary Brooke has followed emergency preparedness public education trends for 10 years in the Sooke/west shore area.