Where to go next
Further resources
Three recommendations for going further: the province’s guide to follow at home, a drill to practise in every October, and a CBC podcast that tells the story of a major earthquake from the first day to the first year.
Last reviewed
Follow the province’s preparedness guide
PreparedBC, Province of British Columbia. A website and printable guides.
The Earthquake and Tsunami Preparedness Guide asks households to be ready to look after themselves for at least two weeks, and covers the plan, the supplies and what to do while the ground is shaking. It is the guide the advice on Preparing follows.
Beside it are a household plan to fill in, published in English, French, Chinese and Punjabi, and separate guides for apartments and condominiums, for people with disabilities, for pets and for neighbourhoods.
Practise in the ShakeOut drill every October
The Great British Columbia ShakeOut, run by the British Columbia Earthquake Alliance, a not-for-profit society. An annual drill open to individuals, families, schools and organizations.
Once a year, at the same moment, people across the province stop and practise Drop, Cover and Hold On. About 868,000 took part in 2025. Sign up a household, a classroom or a workplace, and rehearse the first minute with the people you would be with. What to do while the shaking lasts is on Preparing.
Listen to Fault Lines, a CBC podcast
CBC Vancouver, presented by Johanna Wagstaffe. Five episodes, 2016.
The series takes a megathrust earthquake off the coast and a shallow one beneath Vancouver, the same two kinds this site describes, and follows them through the first day, the first three days, the first week, and the month and the year after.
It gives a good sense of how many things an earthquake disrupts at once, and of what life afterwards could look like. Much of it is told by the people who would deal with it: engineers, emergency managers and first responders, and two people who lived through the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2010 and 2011.
Sources on this page
Numbered in the order they are cited. Each entry links back to where it is used.
- [1]ReportEarthquake and Tsunami Preparedness GuidePreparedBC / EMCR, Province of BC · 2024"at least two weeks", three times; four litres per person per day; zero occurrences of "72 hours", "72-hour", "three days" or "three-day"Open the document ↗
- [2]ReportPreparedBC's Make your plan page and the fill-in-the-blanks household plan it publishes: the out-of-area contact, the meeting place, and the province's own statement that the most immediate help comes from the people around youPreparedBC / EMCR, Province of BCOpen the document ↗
- [3]ReportPreparedBC's guides and resources listing: what the province publishes beside the earthquake guide, including separate guides for apartments and condominiums, for people with disabilities, for pets and for neighbourhoods, and the languages each is published inPreparedBC / EMCR, Province of BCOpen the document ↗
- [4]ReportThe Great British Columbia ShakeOut: an annual earthquake drill run by the British Columbia Earthquake Alliance, a not-for-profit society, in which individuals, families, schools and organizations practise Drop, Cover and Hold On; about 868,000 participants in British Columbia the year beforeBritish Columbia Earthquake AllianceOpen the document ↗
- [5]ReportFault LinesCBC Vancouver · 2016A five-episode podcast from CBC Vancouver presented by Johanna Wagstaffe: two earthquake scenarios, a megathrust off the coast and a shallow crustal earthquake beneath Vancouver, followed through the first day, the first three days, the first week, and the month and the year after, told through conversations with engineers, emergency preparedness managers, first responders and survivors, two of them from the Christchurch earthquakes. What CBC's own pages and episode notes sayOpen the document ↗