Friday, January 16, 2009

Toronto Starts Giving Emergency Advice

Article

"Get a stupid radio!". That's it. That's all the advice from Toronto.

Toronto the smug never thinks that anything is going to happen to it. It ignores the fact that it is right on top of a major fault that is bubbling away with earthquakes. It doesn't have a clue of what will happen.

I've written about this in the past, but we'll assume an M6.3 earthquake on the Hamilton fault. It's a shallow thrust fault, and will have the full power of a 'Fist of God' pulse earthquake. Toronto is on the hanging wall of the fault, which has the worst shaking. As the pulse hits, it knocks out all the electrical power and gas around the west end of Lake Ontario. Many more electrical substations get hit. The electrical grid starts to collapse.

If it's right now, all the bridges are at the max for their expansion joints because of the cold. Many slabs fall down. Many buildings damaged, the older hospitals damaged beyond repair. The seismic waves, and the grid collapse, hit the nuclear stations at the same time. The all shut down and poison out. No reactors are left running.

Damage is extensive in the older sections of Toronto, with brick buildings on swamp. All power and gas is out. Many water mains, on the verge of busting anyway, burst. Most water is lost. There is only 5% building damage in Toronto, because of mostly firm foundations, but that's hundreds of millions of dollars.

And many more things, but I don't have the desire to go down that road. (Stuff like Black Start and all that.) Still, you need more than a radio for this. You need your full 3 day camping equipment! Have fun!

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