British Columbia launches new earthquake early warning system

An early earthquake detection system has been launched in British Columbia, designed to provide the public with warnings seconds before a potentially dangerous quake occurs.

Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said that if a strong earthquake is detected, British Columbians will receive automatic alerts via cellphones, radio and television.

According to a statement from Natural Resources Canada, warnings will be sent “a few seconds or tens of seconds” before strong shaking occurs, giving people some time to “drop, take cover and hold on.”

“We cannot emphasize this enough: in an earthquake, every second counts,” Wilkinson said at a news conference Thursday morning.

He added that the system, announced jointly by the federal and British Columbia governments, will also allow critical infrastructure to take immediate action, such as stopping traffic on bridges and tunnels.

The system was first announced in early May on the British Columbia government website.

British Columbia Emergency Management and Climate Preparedness Minister Bowinn Ma said seismologists have been warning of major earthquakes in the province for decades and the new system would provide “crucial seconds” of warning.

“These crucial seconds may seem like nothing special now, but during an extreme earthquake, they will mean life or death for many people,” Ma said.

She added that British Columbians have been facing emergencies more often than ever before in the past few years, with climate change being a major cause.

“While earthquakes are not a climate change threat, on top of all the other climate-related threats, they mean that British Columbians need to be more prepared than they have been so far,” Ma said.

She said the new earthquake warning system will allow every corner of the province to be “prepared and resilient.”

Edwin Nissen, a professor and Canada Research Chair in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, said communities in British Columbia such as Tofino, Port Alberni and Victoria are at high risk if a large earthquake occurs due to their proximity to the west coast.

Localities in Metro Vancouver’s southern suburbs, such as Delta and Surrey, will also likely “shake like jelly” when the seismic wave hits, Nissen said, so having an early warning system is “a very exciting event.”

However, Nissen added that it is also important to remember that earthquake early warning systems are only part of the emergency response and people still need to prepare their own toolkit.

He added that early warning will not prevent damage to buildings, so the province still needs sturdier buildings.

“We need to retrofit older buildings, especially schools and hospitals, the British Columbia legislature, the Crystal swimming pool here in Victoria,” Nissen said. “There are a lot of older buildings that are certainly vulnerable to ground shaking, and the government will need to continue to retrofit those buildings.”

The new system is part of a $36 million federal government plan to develop a warning system that will protect earthquake-prone regions.

Wilkinson said the system will expand later in the year to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario.