Little things for earthquakes

I'm just back from my presentation, when I realized that we are spending many millions for structural improvements (via the building codes), and cannot spend anything to improve general public safety.

So, you can work in a building that has acknowledged the reality of earthquakes, and yet be clueless. The Italian restaurant in the building will stand, but those huge giant wine bottles on the shelves over your head will kill you.

Why is that? I think it's because, in the political world, you can't acknowledge earthquakes, without having to do something dramatic. There is no 'dipping your toe' into the cold waters. All I want, is to place 'earthquake', in the hit parade of Ontario disasters: fire, flood, and ice-storm.

Could we ever be rational with earthquakes? I think it's rational to spend 1% per year, on lives saved, assuming 1 million dollars per life. This gives us room for little things. For example, an educational campaign. Or getting those highway signs ready for an earthquake. It would be great to have an automatic way to flash "Earthquake, Slow Down!" on every sign. That would save dozens of lives.

The Ottawa Valley needs earthquake drills. People need to take down heavy things over the beds of their kids. People near Chalk River need to know that an earthquake will sploosh radioactivity all over the place.

Ah, the dreams of old men....