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(Above: Damage to the classroom of Courtenay Elementary School 1946 - in a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. Photo: BC Archives) |
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Statement Families for School Seismic Safety May 13, 2008 Statement in response to earthquake in China VANCOUVER - In response to the tragic news from China in the wake of the earthquake that struck the Sichaun province, Families For School Seismic Safety (FSSS) expresses its condolences to the victims and their families, and encourages all levels of government to act swiftly to ensure similar tragedies are prevented. According to news reports, thousands are dead and thousands more are trapped in building collapses following the powerful 7.9 magnitude quake. News agencies are reporting several school collapses that killed hundreds of children and trapped even more. FSSS formed after the 2002 Italian earthquake, which claimed the lives of 26 students. Parents were shocked to learn that while homes withstood the earthquake, it was the school that collapsed. "These terrible tragedies can and must be prevented, and we know how to prevent them," says FSSS director Nathan Lusignan. "We'd hoped we'd never hear news reports like this again - reports of children being buried in their collapsed schools. But since then, many more schools have collapsed and many children have perished. These are preventable tragedies. They should not happen." In 2005, the BC government identified more than 700 BC schools as requiring seismic upgrades. Progress, however, has been very slow and few schools have been completed. Thousands of BC students continue to spend their days in schools assessed as being at high risk of significant structural damage in the event of an earthquake. FSSS urges all levels of government to take an integrated approach to ensuring schools are upgraded in a timely way and in a manner that provides the best possible educational facilities to safely and effectively service future generations of students. "We need concrete plans and clear timelines to ensure the work gets done as promised," says Lusignan. -30- For information, contact Nathan Lusignan, 604-813-0100 Latest News China
Quake Toll May Be Worse Than Initially Feared (Sunday August 31,
2008 - NY Times)
B.C. coast shaken by powerful earthquake (Thursday August 28, 2008
- CBC) Magnitude
7.5 Earthquake results in school collapse with 900 trapped,
condition unknown; Thousands of fatalities in region (Monday
May 12 2008 - CBC)
Promise to earthquake-proof B.C. schools called 'hollow'
(Friday March 2, 2007 - CBC) Campaigns April 7 2008: Letter sent to Premier Campbell asking the Premier to recommit to addressing the school seismic safety issue without delay. Speak Out - Letter Writing Campaign FSSS has created a package of materials including an update to parents as well as a letter template (includes email addresses for key decision makers) which parents can use as a basis for contacting school board, provincial and federal officials. The Earthquake Threat to BC's Schoolchildren From Families for School Seismic Safety - a parent-led advocacy group trying to bring all BC schools up to acceptable seismic life-safety standards. The problem
What FSSS is doing We are meeting with local, provincial and federal officials to seek their support. Our provincial government must take a leadership role in working with our federal government to do the following:
What You Can Do
What building could be more important to a community than its
school? Who could be more important than our children? Help us to
keep them safe. Dr. Tracy Monk (Family MD and mother of 2, 1 in a high risk school – 1 soon to be) Eugene Hodgson (Kitchener PAC Chair and father of 2 in a high risk school) Nathan Lusignan (Student and Co-founder of the student-led seismic activist group: Van Tech Lizards)
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(Above: Paso Robles earthquake 2003. Photo: CNN)
Above: Bam, Iran, December 2003 |
Photos show the December 2003 collapse of an un-retrofitted masonry building in California. It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to envision the devastation that would have resulted if these tons of bricks had landed in a school yard full of children. More than 2/3 of all masonry buildings in California have been at least partially retrofitted. Schools were legislated to the top of priority list in California since the 1933 Field Act. Historic buildings can kill in
quakes The deaths of two women in the rubble of a quake-toppled 1892 clock tower have underscored the danger posed by the thousands of unreinforced brick buildings still standing throughout California, 70 years after the state banned such construction. Bricks-and-mortar buildings are usually the first to crumble during big earthquakes, as they did Monday when a magnitude-6.5 quake struck the state's Central Coast and reduced some 19th-century buildings in Paso Robles to rubble. "The earthquake will pick out the weakest structures and very dramatically highlight their weaknesses," said Bill Iwan, director of the earthquake engineering research laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. The construction of unreinforced masonry buildings was outlawed in California after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, which caused widespread damage to the port city. Ukiah resident Dr. Allan Ward remembers vividly the events of that long ago Southern California disaster. "It happened about 6:30 in the night, and I had just had a trip to the coast collecting things for zoology class -- I was in city college -- and I went to the college to put my things away and by the time I came home the quake struck," Ward remembered. "It demolished the school. It was a big earthquake and practically every school in Long Beach was just demolished." Ward said that fortunately nobody was in school. "If it had happened at 2 in the afternoon it woulda' been thousands of kids killed; I mean thousands. So we were very fortunate that way." |
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