ADVERTISEMENT

Nobody knows when it will happen, but seismologists and geologists agree that a large and destructive earthquake will almost certainly strike the populated south coast of B.C. sometime before this century ends.

It is likely to be a potentially devastating quake with a magnitude of about seven, like the 1995 quake in Kobe, Japan. The Kobe earthquake caused more than $200 billion in damage and claimed nearly 6,000 lives.

Surely, we have a responsibility to make an investment now to minimize the casualties and damage of such a disaster. One of our first priorities must be to protect our children by structurally upgrading old schools.

John Clague, professor of earth sciences

Simon Fraser University