Lets not panic...

I'm glad I live in Canada.  I'm even more glad that I live in Vancouver, even if we are scheduled for a devastating Earthquake sometime this century. 

There is an average of one earthquake in southwest B.C. every day. Nearly all are too small to be felt, but a damaging earthquake occurs somewhere in the region about once every 20 years. The largest earthquake in this century was a magnitude 7.3 event in 1946, centred beneath central Vancouver Island. Were this earthquake to occur today under Vancouver, damage would be in the billions of dollars. Recently, scientists have recognized a history of infrequent, but great (magnitude 8 to 9) earthquakes on the fault separating the subducting Juan de Fuca and North America plates. The last great earthquake in 1700 AD affected the entire coast from northern California to southern B.C.
http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/vancouver/earth_e.php

It can be shown that every 350 years or so the area around Vancouver experiences a Earthquake with the potential to cause a lot of damage.  We're at about 310 years from the last one so we can be confident that we'll experience one of a similar magnitude(more or less) that Japan has recently experienced in this century.

What scares me is not the fact that I live in a place where a massive earthquake is guaranteed to occur but the fact that it takes a situation like Japan's to get people thinking about it. 

Indeed, I remember a few weeks back I was browsing the public opinion section of my district's local newspaper which was questioning people on how prepared they were for dealing with an Earthquake (which by some estimates would require surviving without emergency help for at least 3 days).  I normally don't pay much credence to these just because they never offer any real insight and always seem to be awkwardly worded, but one struck my eye.  A woman claimed that we do not live in a Earthquake zone.

A woman in VANCOUVER, doesn't "think" we live in a area susceptible to Earthquakes.  Just let that simmer for a bit. 

This is simply unacceptable.  This woman evidently does not realize that we are, in fact, nearly living on top of a plate boundary.  You'd think the amount of volcanoes we have in this area would have tipped her off, but I would be surprised, given her impressive knowledge of local geology, if she even knew what a volcano was. High School must have been tough for her.

My point is that even though there is no need to panic, Vancouverites, and everyone who lives in a dangerzone, should be ready for a disaster.  Individuals should be ready and society at large should be ready.  When we look at Japan it is clear that they have put a lot of effort and resources into preventing the most damage they possibly can. 

Think of how much more devastating the recent disaster would have been if they had not seismic proofed many of their buildings and not put signifigant time into studying the workings of their local geology.

You know what would be nice?  If the BC government could get busy on seismic proofing our public schools(liek they said they would).  If we ever had a magnitude 9 Earthquake on a school day the results would be horrendous.

What I'm trying to say is, lets not panic but rather try to understand and deal with the realities of where we live.  If we choose to live in areas prone to Earthquakes we should be ready for them.  Japan has shown that they can effectively minimize the impact , we should too. 

As a developed nation, there is really no excuse given the consequences of doing nothing.

Does that seem right to you?