At 7:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, a Magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Twenty minutes later, a 20-metre tsunami surged up Alberni Inlet, causing catastrophic damage all the way up to the City of Port Alberni.
Don’t feel bad if you missed the shaking and flooding. It’s all part of Exercise Coastal Response, now unfolding across the city and beyond, involving an unprecedented mobilization of federal, provincial, municipal, regional and First Nations resources.
While the “disaster” is virtual, the exercise itself is a real-time deployment of the people and agencies that would be tasked with saving lives and restoring services if and when the Big One strikes.
Representatives from the various agencies met at a special reception on Monday night at Echo Centre, with seafood and hospitality provided by Tseshaht First Nation. They were welcomed to Tseshaht and Hupacasath traditional territory by Alberni Clayoquot Regional District Chair and one-time Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council fisheries biologist Josie Osborne, who now serves as Mayor of Tofino.
Welcoming out-of-towners to “the very cool Alberni Valley – 34.5 degrees Celsius yesterday,” Tseshaht Councillor Hugh Braker said Exercise Coastal Response has the full support of Nuu-chah-nulth communities, and for good reason.
“Since the beginning, when it was initiated, Tseshaht has been a strong supporter of this exercise. All of our reserves are located along the sea. Of all the thousands of Nuu-chah-nulth people who live on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, in our 14 member Tribes, the vast majority of them live less than three metres above sea level. For us, this exercise is critically important.”
Braker noted that currently, hundreds of Tseshaht and Hupacasath members are fishing on the Somass River in small boats.
“If there were an emergency right now, we would face difficulties that others don’t.”
Even closer to the likely epicenter of the Big One, Tseshaht Beachkeepers work in partnership with Parks Canada in the Broken Island Group, overseeing the activities of 14,000 kayakers that visit the marine park each year.
“It was a very hard sell to tell our Beachkeepers that if a big earthquake hits, if there is a tsunami warning, you have less than 20 minutes to get more than 20 metres above sea level. You cannot worry about 14,000 tourists.”
Braker said with so much at stake, Tseshaht has been watching the development of the exercise since the beginning.
“Our First Nation office will be setting up an emergency centre [on Thursday]. We ourselves are going to be an integral part of this exercise, because it is going to help us plan, because we know, some day there is going to be a giant earthquake and tsunami.”
Braker said he has his own memories of the 1964 Good Friday Tsunami that devastated the low-lying regions of Port Alberni and caused long-term dislocation to many Nuu-chah-nulth people and communities in its path.
“I was 11 at the time, and I remember the day vividly, as if it were yesterday,” he said. “So we know it’s going to happen again. And we know when it happens, it’s going to be you relying on me and me relying on you. It’s going to be the Alberni Valley that has to be on its own for a long long time.”
Ha-Shilth-Sa had the opportunity to meet some of the players who are making the exercise happen.
Steve Rook is a Training Services Manager for C4i Training and Technology, while Mike McGinty works on contract with Calian, the company that is writing the scenario for Emergency Management BC and helping with the evaluation process to improve the province’s Immediate Earthquake Response Plan.
“This exercise has two levels,” McGinty explained. “First, there is here in Port Alberni. Here, there is ‘live play,’ with things like the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team (HUSAR), there is ‘live play’ with live casualties and mass care.”
That live play involves community volunteers who will undergo dressing and make-up to serve as convincing victims of the shaking and flood damage.
On the other side, C4i has created computer simulations of the damage and its effects on infrastructure, transportation, etc., such as which buildings have been damaged, how badly, and what levels of casualties are on site.
That information will flow to the Operations Centre (at ACRD), and in turn, to the Vancouver Island Provincial Regional Emergency Operations Centre, and finally to the Provincial Emergency Coordination Centre in Victoria, which is already exercising their Immediate Response plan.
Rook explained that, while participants in the exercise will work in shifts, the ongoing consequences, such as aftershocks, would roll out in realtime, on a 24-hour clock.
“Within the simulation, we can build new emergencies [known as ‘injections’] into that,” he said.
McGinty said the community response has been excellent, and planners have taken care not to overload the exercise to the sort of extreme levels that might be encountered in a real-life event.
“The point about training is that it is training,” he said. “There is no point in having a training event that overwhelms everyone at the first instance, because no one learns anything. So this is a process where we are trying to train people locally, in their areas of specialization, and the EOC in its ability to coordinate the kind of action that would be required after an earthquake – or any other serious event, such as a forest fire or a pandemic, or any other terrible thing.”
“Whatever type of emergency you have, you still need Logistics, Financial, Operations teams on the ground. It’s the same process whether it’s a fire or a flood,” Rook said.
The exercise scenario is strikingly close to the devastating estimated 9.0 megaquake that struck the West Coast in January 1700, as verified by Huu-ay-aht oral histories and Japanese recorded history.
Rook said the goal for simulators is to provide the sort of scenario that first responders are most likely to encounter.
“So if this is based on a real-world event from the past, it is a realistic training event,” he said. “If it is based on Martians landing from the moon, that is not realistic.”
Asked about the recent trend where communities use a Zombie Apocalypse scenario as a training exercise, McGinty said that device is mainly public relations.
“That’s about raising awareness of Emergency Management,” he explained. “So that’s just a mechanism for getting people engaged.”
The message is consistent, however: be prepared to survive for at least 72 hours in an emergency situation.
“This goes back to the federal and provincial recommendations that everybody should have 72 hours worth of resiliency in their home. So it doesn’t matter if you’re prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse, or fire, or ice storm, or earthquake.”
