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Why are we going to be so screwed if there is a major earthquake? It's because of Total Localism, which is my term for handling everything within the actual earthquake zone.
In the dictionary, localism is political, and it is politics that drives earthquake response. Everybody wants this cushy job in the neighbourhood. I know, because I did it for 30 years. It's like being an 'earthquake fireman', only working when there is an earthquake. Sure, I put all my effort into trying to mitigate the effects, but that was truly 'pissing into the wind', since nobody listened. I had a few small successes, to keep me sane. :)
The sad news is that every time we have an earthquake under Ottawa, the GSC is buzzed out of their mind. They have centralized everything and are overwhelmed. The same goes for the BC wing.
Our local emergency response team in Toronto is not in a good location for earthquake, and will be wiped out (in effectiveness), should we have our 1 in 500 earthquake. BC is the same. We will all have to rely on the US for information!
Really, we live in a modern world. Information response teams, such as seismic assessment should be outside the immediate zone. A small start would be to have the BC team do the East, and the Ottawa team do the West. Why not?
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