The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is on the verge of Exercise Coastal Response (https://news.gov.bc.ca/stories/exercise-coastal-response-2016), a culmination of the dedicated work of hundreds of Emergency Management BC employees and public safety partners across the province. This is the province’s first full-scale earthquake and tsunami response exercise, and the labour and planning involved in preparing for it over the past 10 months has been extraordinary.

We know the area of land and coastline that now makes up British Columbia has experienced many major earthquakes and tsunamis in the past, and history has taught us that it is only a matter of time until the next “Big One” strikes. This is not speculation – a major earthquake is coming to the west coast. We as individuals, families, communities and as a province must do everything possible to better prepare for this eventuality. We are all in this together.

The BC Government has a number of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and partnerships in place to support response and recovery efforts during disasters.

Magnitude is a measure of the amount of energy released during an earthquake. It is frequently described using the Richter scale. To calculate magnitude, the amplitude of waves on a seismogram is measured, correcting for the distance between the recording instrument and the earthquake epicentre. Since magnitude is representative of the earthquake itself, there is only one magnitude per earthquake.

The B.C. Earthquake Immediate Response Plan (IRP) is the first component of a comprehensive provincial plan for earthquake response, and it sets the conditions for the subsequent planning efforts: sustained response and recovery.

Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) provides critical resources and a specially trained taskforce of up to 125 personnel with medical, fire suppression, emergency response, search and rescue, and engineering backgrounds.

British Columbians forced from their homes by fire, floods, earthquakes or other emergencies may receive emergency social services provided through Emergency Management BC’s emergency support for up to 72 hours.

Most earthquake damage is caused by ground shaking. The magnitude or size (energy release) of an earthquake, distance to the earthquake focus or source, focal depth, type of faulting, and type of sub-surface material are important factors in determining the amount of ground shaking that might be produced at a particular site.

An earthquake occurs when rocks break and slip along a fault in the earth. Energy is released during an earthquake in several forms, including as movement along the fault, as heat, and as seismic waves that radiate out from the "source" in all directions and cause the ground to shake, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away.

In British Columbia, the Coroners Act requires that the coroner confirm the identity of the deceased and how, when, where and by what means death occurred for all traumatic and sudden and unexpected deaths. This is the same in a mass disaster.