Quake-proofing the old schoolhouse
The staff and students of this East Vancouver school are working in portables in the field. Construction trailers line the street. Police and parents are monitoring traffic and there is a “walking school bus” program for families to drop their kids at a nearby high school.
This is one of eight seismic upgrade projects now underway at schools in Vancouver, according to an article published by CBC on Mar. 2, 2010.
In the article, Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus said some schools – like the one in this photo – are nearly 100 years old and not able to withstand an earthquake.
“We’ve seen, just in the last couple of months, a couple of devastating earthquakes in Haiti and in Chile, and we are also in a high seismic risk zone,” Bacchus told CBC. “It could very well be the case here that in the future, we are hit with a strong enough earthquake that could cause catastrophic damage to some of these schools, so it is critical that we get on with making them safe.”
It’s pretty easy to get freaked out about “The Big One” that’s predicted to happen along the fault line that runs up the coast from California. But all you can do is take the approach of this old English proverb: “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.”
For advice on being prepared, check out What to Do in An Earthquake from the City of Vancouver Emergency Preparedness website.
Nice to see that the government is taking this situation seriously. It is best to be safe then find out later there was something that could be done to prevent injuries. I wasn’t aware that Vancouver was in a risk zone for earthquakes.