Every day, Tracy Monk tackles the usual health issues of a family practice. When she takes off her stethoscope, though, her life-saving mission is even more daunting: Monk is determined to protect thousands of children from crumbling schools in BC's next earthquake.
Older schools built of masonry are disproportionately less stable than other buildings. And since BC is in an earthquake zone, even a moderate tremor is a risk for up to 500 schools housing 30 000 children. A major quake would kill at least 290 people and injure 1000 in schools.
Monk's 9-year-old daughter began attending a masonry school last year, shortly after earthquakes struck Italy and Turkey. There, school buildings had collapsed while other buildings stood. Monk wondered why. She looked up a 1989 Vancouver school board report that predicted local schools — including her daughter's — would collapse at 100 times the rate of a wood frame house. “I wanted to throw up,” she recalls.
Monk's 150-member group, Families for School Seismic Safety (FSSS), is backed by provincial public health authorities and engineers. Seismic upgrading — basically reinforcing walls — is dirt cheap when cost is calculated per year of life saved, she says. For about $500 million, seismic upgrades “would protect generations of inhabitants.”
The group has had some success. Victoria and Ottawa agreed to fund a seismic risk assessment, and the recent BC budget committed some money, but not for another 2 years. Monk wants federal–provincial cooperation and funding to prevent a disaster.
Elsewhere, Long Beach, California, has already upgraded its schools, while Washington State will be finished upgrading in 4 years. At its current pace, BC schools won't become seismically safe for another 60 years. — Deborah Jones, Whistler, BC
Figure. Historic precedent: Dr. Tracy Monk is lobbying for seismic upgrading of BC schools. Photo by: Don MacKinnon