just a few minutes ago here in the office everything started shaking. one thought came to mind: what if it is "The Big One"? It wasn't the big one (obviously, because i would probably be dead if it was), but it prompted me to think about what i will do when the big one actually does come. For those of you who don't know about the big one, read this:

There are two scenarios for Greater Vancouver, says the National Earthquake Support Plan (NESP), a study into the region's earthquake preparedness. The first is the most likely: a moderately strong 6 to 7 Richter-scale quake, similar to the ones that hit San Francisco and Los Angeles in the past decade. This would produce significant damage and deaths in Vancouver. Since the 1989 San Francisco quake, a lot of engineering work has been done to upgrade local bridges and dams against seismic hazards. But little has been done about the vulnerability of older, masonry-walled schools, hospital buildings and brick structures like those in Gastown and Yaletown. Some could collapse. Even in a moderate quake, soil liquefaction would likely break the dykes along the Fraser River and the Georgia Strait foreshore, producing widespread flooding. Similar soil liquefaction would also likely affect many structures on reclaimed lands, especially those built on the periphery of False Creek, the Arbutus lowlands, the riverbanks of the Fraser, Sea Island and the Burrard Inlet waterfront all the way to Port Moody. Landslides and underwater slumpages would drop shoreline houses and port facilities. Power, gas and water systems could be affected for days.

The second--and less likely--NESP scenario, based on an 8.5 subduction quake in the Lower Mainland, would produce severe destruction within 100 kilometres of the epicentre. Many buildings would fail. Liquefaction would likely damage the airport, the Fraser Valley dykes, the Massey Tunnel and those bridge supports sunk into loose valley soils. Western sections of the Fraser Valley would flood. Up to 45 per cent of Vancouver's schools would suffer moderate to total collapse. Tsunamis and underwater slumpage would damage shoreline facilities, producing almost inevitable chemical spills, fires and mass evacuations. The death toll would be in the thousands.

The reality is that when it hits, a major earthquake in the Greater Vancouver area would be a disaster. Most wood-framed homes would ride out the shaking with little serious risk to their occupants. Modern structures, including all highrises and office towers, would remain standing. The old and vulnerable water system would inevitably fail. Gas mains would break and fires would follow. Sections of bridges, port facilities and old masonry-walled buildings would collapse. Train lines, roads and electrical distribution systems would fail. Loose objects within offices, factories and homes would be hurled around. Cornices and chimneys would fall. Glass would fly. Many people would die. Earthquakes search out the most vulnerable sections of a structure. And the Vancouver area has many older buildings that have never been tested in a great quake. The longer the shaking lasts, the worse it will be--as small initial structural failures grow exponentially as the vibrations continue. Someday this will happen here. Nothing can protect Vancouver from things that go bump in the night.

-Some random website trying to make people freak out...

yeah, so basically some really large earthquake is scheduled to destroy Vancouver as we all know it within the next couple hundred years, which means it could happen tomorrow.

I decided that I have only one emergency plan: to run screaming out of whatever building I'm in (i don't think getting under the desk like they taught us in school will help if the building collapses.).