PORT HARDY, B.C.- Residents in parts of British Columbia started the day off with quite a shock. A tsunami warning was issued after an earthquake hit off of Alaska.
Fortunately, the warning was called off at around 4:30 a.m.
“The District of Port Hardy has a really good (emergency) plan in place,” said Hank Bood, the mayor of Port Hardy.
“Over the last ten to fifteen years, there has been a number of big earthquakes reasonably close, and of course, there’s always a chance of tsunami.”
Bood noted that the District has a few evacuation and safe zones set up.
“We have an emergency operations centre, which is the district hall,” he said.
The District also has two evacuation centres, one being the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and the other being the Port Hardy Civic Centre.
“What generally happens is the emergency operations centre springs into action and they spread the word to both the RCMP and the fire department and those folks go out and warn the folks in the lower areas of Port Hardy to get out and evacuate.”
Bood said residents can contact the District office, or himself, with any questions when it comes to emergency response plans.
“Everything went really well today,” he said.
“The planning that we have done in the past sort of made our process go a lot smoother than it might have otherwise.”
Emergency Management BC has the province separated into five Tsunami Notification Zones:
- Zone A covers the North coast and Haida Gwaii
- Zone B covers the central coast and Northeast Vancouver Island coast, including Kitimat, Bella Coola and Port Hardy
- Zone C covers the outer West coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Scott to Port Renfrew
- Zone D covers the Juan de Fuca Strait from Jordan River to Greater Victoria, including the Saanich Peninsula
- Zone E covers the Strait of Georgia, including the Gulf Islands, Greater Vancouver and Johnstone Strait
More information on the Tsunami Notification Zones can be found through this link.
