Just Another Week in Paradise

Greetings from Lotus Land. Or at least it was. Fourteen major windstorms this winter so far and now this.

Got up to start the day only to learn that a major earthquake warning has been issued for the island. According to the report in today's Globe there's a "low possibility" of a cataclysmic earthquake hitting the southcoast region sometime in the coming week:

"While the probability of a quake is still low, rapid strides in earthquake detection have given federal scientists with the Pacific Geoscience Centre on Vancouver Island greater confidence in their ability to predict when and where one will occur. Garry Rogers, a seismologist at the centre, compared the current earthquake odds to the dangers of driving a car.

“'Everyone drives their car every day, and the probability of getting in a car accident is small,' Dr. Rogers said. But during rush hour, the probability of getting into an accident is much higher. ''Well, Vancouver Island is now driving in rush hour.'

"What prompted the alert was a series of imperceptible tremors emanating from deep beneath the ocean, which scientists now recognize as ominous warnings that the earth is on the move again off Vancouver Island.

"They now estimate the long-awaited giant quake will hit closer to the island's western shoreline than previously thought."

"The recent tremors mean that even more stress is building between the two [tectonic plates], which scientists believe will one day rupture into a major earthquake the size of the one off the coast of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed thousands.

"Dr. Rogers said the chances of a major earthquake striking southwestern B.C. spike during the tremor events. The current tremor session is expected to last for another week."

The notion of the "big one" is something we hear about regularly. Last year a UBC geologist predicted it will be massive enough to shift Vancouver Island about fifteen feet eastward.

Fortunately, I hope, those of us along the eastern shore of Vancouver Island should be safer than the always more dangerous western coast. The one place I wouldn't want to experience a major earthquake is at the end of the inlet at Port Alberni.

In 1964 an earthquake in Alaska sent a tsunami that hit Vancouver Island. Part of the wave rolled up the Alberni Inlet, destroyed buildings, hurled cars and flung boats far from their moorings: