B.C. tests quake readiness March 23 Facebook, Twitter, tsunami, people, March

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B.C. tests quake readiness March 23
Facebook, Twitter and other social media seen as key ways to get out early warnings


On March 23, a magnitude-9 earthquake will hit 150 kilometres west of Eugene, Ore., and a five-metre-high tsunami will sweep the B.C. coast.

But don't panic -- it will only be a test run of the Pacific tsunami warning system.

B.C.'s emergency preparedness people take seriously the test as critical to getting ready for a quake and tsunami similar to the one that hit Japan last Friday.

Experts say Twitter, Facebook and other social media are ways to get early warnings of an emergency and send out status updates to the world.

"B.C. is very far from Japan's level of readiness, but we have a robust emergency management system and we are working on enhancing communications," noted Kelli Kryzanowski, manager of Catastrophic Disaster Planning and Recovery for Emergency Management B.C. (EMBC) of the Public Safety Ministry.

"We're also looking at our social media because we've done very well using Twitter and Facebook, with forest fires and floods," said Kryzanowski, who noted that social media quickly became key tools in the Japan quake.

Texts by satellite-enabled smartphones reached family and friends of those in Japan faster than foreign embassies could collate lists or respond to calls.

It is critical in a disaster to make sure communication, whether through marine radio, satellite phone, media or social media, reaches "the final mile," said Simon Fraser University communications Prof. Peter Anderson.

"The experience in Japan should be a wake-up call to remind government to keep funding emergency planning and make sure we reach out along the B.C. coast to the final mile, whether to kayakers, cruise ships, remote communities or on First Nations reserves," said Anderson.

A major Oregon subduction earthquake like that in the March 23 scenario, where two tectonic plates collide, could kill up to 400 people and cause more than $150 million in damage, say emergency planners.

That quake would send massive waves along the Pacific coast and over to Japan, engulfing low-lying areas on B.C.'s west coast.

Emergency planners from B.C., Washington state, Oregon, California and Alaska are expected to take part in the test.

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This aerial view taken on March 14, 2011 during an AFP-chartered flight shows an area destroyed by the tsunami in Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture three days after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated the coast of eastern Japan. A new explosion at a nuclear plant in nearby Fukushima prefecture hit punch-drunk Japan on March 14 as it raced to avert a reactor meltdown after a quake-tsunami disaster that is feared to have killed more than 10,000 people