Great BC ShakeOut drill aims to prepare public for earthquakes

Organizations across the province participated in the annual Great BC ShakeOut event at 10:17 a.m. Thursday.

Event organizers say over 800,000 people across the province took part in this year’s event.

The annual event gives everyone that opportunity to “drop, cover, and hold on.”

“If you are prepared for an earthquake, you are prepared for any emergency,” BC Earthquake Alliance president Naomi Yamamoto said.

“We want to make sure that we build a muscle memory, minimize injuries, and prevent death when that big one does strike.”

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim — along with the BC Earthquake Alliance — spoke about the importance of being prepared in case an earthquake hits.

“This is not going to be a black swan event when there’s an earthquake in Vancouver. It’s probable, we are due for a big earthquake,” he said.

“It’s incumbent upon all of us to really get our acts together to prepare.”

There are more than 4,000 recorded earthquakes in B.C. each year. While most of them are minor, such as the recent 3.8 quake centred near Tsawwassen earlier this month, experts are warning us all to take personal responsibility in the event of “The Big One.”

Alison Bird, a seismologies with Natural Resources Canada, says the more people are prepared, the more resilient their community will be.

“It would be an over 9 magnitude earthquake, so we could expect strong shaking for 3-5 minutes, and we would definitely get a tsunami also,” Bird said.

“When a major earthquake happens, a lot of people need help, and there just aren’t enough first responders to help everyone.”

Another way to stay prepared is packing an emergency go-bag and coming up with a household emergency plan.