Businesses in Cascadia - CREW

INTRODUCTION OF CREWCale Ash provided a brief description of the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW),including its board of directors, goals, ongoing projects, and role in fostering partnerships.Presentation: Lessons from ChristchurchCALE ASHThe recent experience of Christchurch in New Zealand illustrates why businesses in Vancouvershould prepare for earthquakes.The February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch was a magnitude 6.1 event. Although this was nota mega event, the earthquake and its aftershocks were shallow and occurred close to the city’scentral business district. Because of the extent and severity of the resulting damage, theycordoned off the downtown until the damaged buildings within this zone could be safely cleanedup. A large number of the buildings were unreinforced masonry structures: many were historicand beautiful, but they were extremely prone to damage from ground shaking.The cordoned area is smaller now than when they started, but eight blocks were still cordonedoff as of March 2012. The original zone covered one square mile. If we superimposeChristchurch’s cordoned area onto Vancouver’s downtown, we can see that a similar earthquakehere has the potential to impact a significant portion of Vancouver’s business district. It is alsoworth noting that only a small proportion of the firms surveyed in Christchurch had formalcontinuity plans in place; less than 10% had written response plans.Among other lessons, the experience of Christchurch shows how important it is for businesses tothink about what would happen if they were not able to get back into their buildings after anearthquake. This event illustrates the importance of having contingency plans in place beforehand.CREW seeks to help businesses engage in this type of planning and preparation.Presentation: Earthquake Scenarios for Vancouver, B.C.BERT STRUIK (NATURAL RESOURCES CANADA) AND TERON MOORE (EMERGENCYMANAGEMENT BC)Bert Struik gave a general description of plate tectonics in the region and explained the threeprimary sources of earthquakes in British Columbia:• Subduction zone earthquakes (= interplate)• Deep (Benioff zone) earthquakes (=intraplate)• Shallow (crustal) earthquakes (= intraplate)Vancouver, British Columbia | 33