Great BC ShakeOut earthquake drill breaks record for number of participants

This year’s Great BC ShakeOut earthquake preparation drill had more than 690,000 participants, setting a new record and beating out last year by about 100,000.

The annual drill took place Thursday morning at various locations across B.C., with participants including the province’s attorney general and minister of justice, Suzanne Anton, representatives from the B.C. Earthquake Alliance, the Insurance Bureau of Canada and the North Vancouver Board of Education, among many others.

“Earthquakes can strike anywhere, at any time. Your first line of defense is to be prepared, have a plan and an emergency kit that will help sustain every member of your family for at least 72 hours,” Anton noted in a statement on the event.

“Shakeout BC gives us the opportunity to practice these life-saving techniques, and help raise awareness of the importance of disaster preparedness. Make earthquake readiness a family priority – practice the drill of ‘drop, cover and hold on’.”

“Whether or not we are inside a seismically sound school when an earthquake occurs, we can all benefit from developing an instinctive familiarity with this potentially life-saving drill,” added Franci Stratton, chair of the North Vancouver Board of Education.

An Insurance Bureau of Canada study conducted by AIR Worldwide will be released by IBC later this month. In September, IBC outlined some of the findings of the report, which provides an analysis of the impact of a major seismic event in two regions, British Columbia and Quebec and Ontario.