All citizens of B.C. should get ready to participate in earthquake preparedness by participating in the ShakeOut BC Drill.
At 10:17 a.m. on Oct.17 residents are asked to stop wherever they are —at home, at work, at school, anywhere—and drop, cover, and hold on as if there were a major earthquake occurring, and stay in the position for at least 60 seconds.
Mayor Bruce Banman said the exercise is important as Abbotsford is in a seismically active region.
“Everyone should use the ShakeOutBC drill as an opportunity to learn what to do before, during, and after an earthquake.”
B.C. is part of the “Ring of Fire” which is a 40,000 kilometer horseshoe area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean.
Off the west coast, the Cascadia Zone includes a portion of the Pacific Plate with the small Juan de Fuca Plate which is sliding beneath the North American Plate creating a volatile fault line. In Abbotsford, the Boulder Creek fault line starts just east of Bellingham, Washington running 11 kilometres long and 17 kilometres wide and is less than one kilometer beneath the surface.
Additional earthquake preparedness information is available online at www.shakeoutbc.ca.
