Businesses in Cascadia - CREW

K-12 who have experienced ShakeOut have in turn been raising awareness by educating theirparents.ShakeOut also triggers more thinking about what should happen or what you should do afteryou’ve crawled out from under the desk. As in New Zealand, many schools will be evacuatedafter the initial earthquake; the students won’t return to the building until engineers certify thatthe building is okay. But even after students return to the building, they are likely to experienceaftershocks. In Christchurch, there have been as many as 11 aftershocks per week. If you extendthis to the business community, it is clear that the reality of business resumption is differentwhen you consider the aftershock issues.Property managers have found that the earthquakes in Christchurch and Japan, in addition to theShakeOut campaign, have really affected awareness and interest. The recent earthquakes inChristchurch and Japan have also provided some useful examples of what is actually likely tohappen to a building (that is, the states of damage to expect).Both Fire Smart and ShakeOut have been effective, but we still need to be more proactive aboutearthquake: we can’t wait for it to happen. A large number of people still don’t know about orunderstand the earthquake hazard and risk here—they’re not aware, because it hasn’t yethappened. Moreover, the messages often don’t get back to the CEO or other person withauthority in a business or organization. Emergency Preparedness Week happens every year, butthe message simply isn’t reaching the people who need to see it (small businesses, etc.). Theeducation that has occurred has had an effect, so there are “success stories”—nevertheless, manystill haven’t addressed the basics (e.g., first-aid attendant).Even when free preparedness training is offered to companies, many will still do nothing. Theexecutives of the company must be persuaded to buy in or nothing will happen.Go to chambers of commerce to reach small to mid-size businesses.MARKETINGIt really comes down to marketing. Ideas for this include:• Getting a star athlete or someone with sex appeal to promote it.• Taking advantage of educational opportunities (such as ShakeOut) as they emerge.• Promoting ShakeOut among the business community: The number of schoolsparticipating in ShakeOut is high, but the number of participating businesses is low.There is a ShakeOut website for B.C., but it probably needs a greater push(advertisements, a media campaign, a poster that businesses can put up to announce thatthey are participating in ShakeOut) in order to build interest among those not alreadyhooked.• Getting WCB to be a proponent of (not just a participant in) ShakeOut.Vancouver, British Columbia | 39