Growing up in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, not far from Vancouver & on the same fault line, I felt a few earthquakes. They rattled all the dishes in the house, & the house itself shuddered for several seconds. I seem to recall they were high 4 or low 5 on the Richter Scale - but they were 40 years ago.
While I was living there, I would try to imagine the quake happening and run drills through my head. My BF thought it was ridiculous and had all kinds of nice names for me, so I stopped trying to get him prepared. I was further surprised by how many Vancouverites shared a poo-poo attitude about preparedness, and would treat even the discussion of the topic as looney right-wing prepper conspiracy theorist nonsense. It's sad, because a lot of people are going to die when it happens, and they don't need to; just being mentally prepared can greatly increase your odds of survival in situations like that.
Either way, I don't see any need to fear the quake, as some do, and am looking forward to returning to Vancouver in the next year or so. It's an amazing place to live, earthquakes and housing affordability be damned!
I agree completely, its a weird situation. The benefits of having a better prepared society and better prepared infrastructure are huge and yet very little is being done relative to what could be done.
Yeah, in Seattle some of the bridges have been upgraded, but a lot of old infrastructure has not yet been.
I'm also concerned when Sound Transit is proposing to build a guiderail as high as 180' in the air on a fill area (SODO) which is prone to liquification in an earthquake. Does that make sense? They already had to work on at grade section as the tracks were settling due to train vibrations and that without an earthquake!
They may want to look at other transit modes which do not rely huge guiderails to cross existing infrastructure (highways, rivers, trail lines) in this area such as an urban gondola whose towers are much easier to earthquakes and whose wires can handle movement to a certain degree.
Growing up in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, not far from Vancouver & on the same fault line, I felt a few earthquakes. They rattled all the dishes in the house, & the house itself shuddered for several seconds. I seem to recall they were high 4 or low 5 on the Richter Scale - but they were 40 years ago.
Yeah I can't say I recall that. The small ones don't last very long!
You should watch last night's Marketplace if you haven't. It's on Gem too and touches on some of this.
Will try to!
Congrats on getting married!
Thanks!
While I was living there, I would try to imagine the quake happening and run drills through my head. My BF thought it was ridiculous and had all kinds of nice names for me, so I stopped trying to get him prepared. I was further surprised by how many Vancouverites shared a poo-poo attitude about preparedness, and would treat even the discussion of the topic as looney right-wing prepper conspiracy theorist nonsense. It's sad, because a lot of people are going to die when it happens, and they don't need to; just being mentally prepared can greatly increase your odds of survival in situations like that.
Either way, I don't see any need to fear the quake, as some do, and am looking forward to returning to Vancouver in the next year or so. It's an amazing place to live, earthquakes and housing affordability be damned!
I agree completely, its a weird situation. The benefits of having a better prepared society and better prepared infrastructure are huge and yet very little is being done relative to what could be done.
Having lived through both the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes in California, the big one is always around the corner, it is wise to be ready
And the big one in the PNW will be really big!
I always try figure out this region would fare when the “Big One” ever happens
Congratulations! May you have many happy years!
Yeah, in Seattle some of the bridges have been upgraded, but a lot of old infrastructure has not yet been.
I'm also concerned when Sound Transit is proposing to build a guiderail as high as 180' in the air on a fill area (SODO) which is prone to liquification in an earthquake. Does that make sense? They already had to work on at grade section as the tracks were settling due to train vibrations and that without an earthquake!
https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/10b-wsble-drafteis-appendixj-drawings-wseattle-202201.pdf
They may want to look at other transit modes which do not rely huge guiderails to cross existing infrastructure (highways, rivers, trail lines) in this area such as an urban gondola whose towers are much easier to earthquakes and whose wires can handle movement to a certain degree.