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Sea to Sky mayors urge earthquake preparedness

Politicians recommend 72-hour preparedness kit; Pemberton Mayor recommends a week

Mayors in the Sea to Sky region are urging residents to prepare themselves for the eventuality of an earthquake in the wake of a destructive shake-up near Sendai, Japan.

The earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 9 on the Richter scale and caused almost 9,000 deaths, has stirred a wave of concern on the west coast of British Columbia, a region that is due for a major quake of its own.

Sea to Sky mayors are encouraging people to be prepared in case an earthquake should ever come. Communities such as Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton all face issues related to access due to landslides along the Highway that links them with the city.

Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed said it's important for residents "never to be off guard."

"What's happening in Japan is yet another reminder," he said. "By now most local governments have got very comprehensive emergency preparedness plans, in fact it's required."

Whistler's preparedness works as follows. The municipality has a part-time Emergency Program Coordinator who is responsible for management and coordination of emergency response and recovery activities.

Training courses and exercises are held every year to ensure that municipal staff can respond to emergencies. An earthquake would trigger an emergency operations centre (EOC) that would see representatives from the municipality, the RCMP, the BC Ambulance Service and BC Hydro report to share information and facilitate response coordination.

The Whistler Emergency Social Services team will also provide short-term assistance to people in Whistler who need food, lodging, clothing, emotional support and family reunification.

The municipality also recommends that people residents keep an emergency preparedness kit that would give them enough supplies for 72 hours. A kit would include items such as water, food, spare batteries and instruments that can be powered by a crank.

In Melamed's own case, he just bought a crank-operated flashlight and plans to get a crank-operated radio and perhaps a battery charger as well.

"What we should all be doing is putting it in our calendars and making it a regular maintenance item," he said. "There's a sense of personal responsibility that goes with this stuff. There's only so much government can do, so everybody needs to be aware that they have a responsibility and inform themselves of that responsibility."

The story is a little different in Pemberton, a valley community that lies about 30 kilometres north of Whistler. Access to the city is even more difficult for residents there and Mayor Jordan Sturdy is suggesting that people put together a preparedness kit that will have enough supplies for a week.

"It could be some time before we were accessible again," he said. "That includes food and water and battery-powered radios, prescription medication, the proper clothing, all that kind of stuff."

As far as an earthquake's impacts on Pemberton itself, Sturdy said there could be an effect on structures due to liquefaction - specifically, when soils liquefy due to shaking ground.

"I suspect that the types of soil that are prevalent throughout the Pemberton Valley, that's sand, gravel and silt, there could be significant shifting and potentially liquefaction on the valley floor," he said. "In terms of just the farmland itself, I don't think there's an issue there, but it's when loads are placed on these types of soils and the soils are all turned up, that's when they start to sink.

"They get differential settlement and with differential settlement comes collapse."

The Village of Pemberton recently hired Bettina Falloon as its emergency response coordinator. Already the Village's executive assistant, she'll be in charge of coordinating earthquake preparedness for the community.

The District of Squamish, meanwhile, already has what it calls a "state of the art" Emergency Operations Centre in place, with a full-time emergency coordinator, search and rescue unit and emergency social services.

Acting Mayor Paul Lalli said the District also has an "extensive" emergency response and recovery plan to ensure the safety of residents when an emergency escalates "beyond the first responder level."

"Education is very important," he said. "We have an ongoing awareness campaign to residents and the key is for all residents to be 72 hours prepared, whether it's food, water, whether it's candles, those sorts of things.

"The public has always been encouraged to buy wind operators or battery operators to monitor information."

Meanwhile, Sea to Sky communities are raising money to help victims of the earthquake in Japan. On the weekend of March 26, sushi restaurants in Whistler are banding together to hold two separate events.

On March 26, a consortium of restaurants will be holding a flea market at Myrtle Phillip Community School from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and event that is free of charge and still seeking people to sell wares such as snowboards, t-shirts, books and other items. All profits will go to the Red Cross.

Then on March 27, the restaurants will be hosting a charity auction at the Hilton Resort and Spa. Admission is a donation of $10 and Whistler businesses have donated items such as snowmobile trips, hotel nights and gift certificates, also to raise money for the Red Cross.

Fundraising efforts elsewhere are already underway. Tamwood International College, an English language school in Whistler, raised $500 at a fundraiser on March 16. It got assistance from Sushi to Go, a food outlet based out of the Whistler Visitors Centre, and students are now challenging other Whistler businesses to beat them.

Down in Squamish, Kaoko Mori, a lifeguard at Brennan Park Recreation Centre, organized a fundraiser last Saturday that netted $12,800 that will go to the Canadian Red Cross.

Mori made quick work of organizing the event. Last Tuesday she got approval from the Red Cross to hold a fundraiser for them and then went to District of Squamish council to get approval to use the recreation centre. After she got it she then went around door-to-door to Squamish businesses trying to raise funds.

The Saturday fundraiser had a bouncy castle, food drinks, and musical performers on piano and violin. Mori was stunned that the event raised so much money in just three hours.

"I'm just very proud of being part of Squamish," she said. "The Squamish community is really small but everybody cares about each other. We raised way more than what we expected. Everybody came by, gave us donations, the Japanese community in Squamish really, really appreciates it too."

 

Sidebar IN A BOX PLEASE

Items to keep in an Emergency Preparedness kit

water - at least two litres per person per day

food - non-perishable items such as canned food, energy bars, dried foods (replace food and water once a year)

can opener

crank flashlight

batteries

crank battery charger

candles, matches, lighter (place in sturdy containers)

battery-powered or wind-up radio (with extra batteries)

First Aid Kit

Extra keys for your car and house

Cash in smaller bills, such as $10 bills and change for pay phones

Prescription medication

Infant formula

Equipment for people with disabilities

A copy of your emergency plan including contact information

Additional items: change of clothing and footwear; sleeping bag or warm blanket for each household member; whistle; garbage bags for sanitation; safety gloves; basic tools (hammer, pliers, wrench, screwdrivers, fasteners, work gloves); small fuel-driven stove and fuel; to additional litres of water per person per day for cooking and cleaning