How to reduce the impact of an earthquake in the community of Queen Charlotte

In order to reduce the potential negative impacts that an earthquake of high magnitude would have on the village of Queen Charlotte, it is important to prepare the population in advance to recognize the best plan of action to reduce casualties in case of emergency, while still remaining safe. Although the village of Queen Charlotte and the Queen Charlotte Secondary Schol both have emergency plans in place (Village of Queen Charlotte) (School District 50 Haida Gwaii) there are still different ways for the village of Queen Charlotte to fortify themselves against natural disasters. A first effective method of achieving this would be to instate an education plan to inform the populace of the village on earthquakes. If the residents of the village are able to recognize that there are three different types of waves (that strike one after the other) and that some earthquakes can entail tsunamis (for example), the villagers can be better prepared to assess their risk factor and act effectively in an emergency to reduce casualties. For example, when the devastating earthquake of 2011 hit in Japan, because of the education plan set in place, citiznens were able to recognize the difference between primary and secondary waves. This allowed them to take the warning of the primary waves and prepare for the next bout of seismic waves (Birmingham, par. 4), thus helping save lives. A second method would be to attempt to solve the issue of Queen Charlotte's vunerability to earthquakes by investing in repairing the damages done to existent buildings (20.7 dwellings said to be in need of major repair in 2006) (Statistics Canada)  and new earthquake resistant infrastructure. As a large portion of the buildings in Queen Charlotte were contructed prior to 1986 in 2006 (Statistics Canada) Queen Charlotte is not up to date on the most earthquake resistant buildings techniques, as one of the first documents detailing the importance of earthquake resistant infrastructure was published in 1986 (Arya, Boen, Ishiyama p.6). This would help reduce the number of casualties injured by falling debris. A final method would be to issue emergency kits to residents of Queen Charlotte with supplies (food, water, batteries, radio etc...) to aid them should they find themselves trapped in collapsed buildings. This constitutes three methods to effectively reduce the negative impacts of an earthquake on the community of Queen Charlotte.