Are You Ready?

 

A coincidence you say? A BC auditor's report has just come out saying that our earthquake preparedness is grossly inadequate. This on the heels of a report saying that a small earthquake preceded the massive landslide north of Seattle earlier this week.

Is it just me or does this all sound like fear mongering. How on earth could anything have been done to prevent that massive slide that covered more that 2 square kilometers and killed many people. Once a mountain begins to slide, there is no stopping it. Short of stopping the rain, this was not preventable.

We are constantly being bombarded with the threat of 'the big one' here on the west coast of Canada. I am not saying that it will not happen, nobody knows. There are many bad things in life that might happen, things we cannot prevent. We have seen school upgrades in our neighbourhood that were as costly as building a new school, all so the school will not collapse in an earthquake. A school is occupied only 7 hours per day, 5 days per week.  But, given a big enough shaker, anything will eventually fall.

Why don't we all just live with the fact that there may be an earthquake and each one of us be prepared for loss of life, loss of food, water, and shelter, for a period of time, and realise that it will be a disaster and then spend the public money on realities instead of maybes.  

BC's emergency management agency has a budget and it has many employees. This agency has to be seen to be doing a job in order to justify its existence. What else would they say but that we are not adequately prepared? This latest announcement will provide budget money and jobs for years to come. They would be most useful if their mandate was to educate every citizen about having an emergency kit and a few tips about communicating without power and wifi for a few days or weeks. And if you are really afraid of a big one, move out of Richmond and stay away from the older high rises. Don't forget either, that you could get hit by a comet, lightening, or an out of control bus. These things happen.