Canada: Coastal communities at risk of tsunamis consider the merits of evacuating up

By Ainslie Cruickshank

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While many areas along the coast have natural evacuation zones within easy distance, in some communities — including a few on the west side of Vancouver Island — it may be difficult to clear the inundation zone in time.

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To help solve this potentially deadly conundrum in other parts of the world, emergency managers are looking at vertical evacuation options: towers built to withstand first an earthquake and then a wall of rushing water and debris.

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Now, Tofino, B.C. is looking at the feasibility of building a tower of its own.

About two-thirds of the Tofino area is in the tsunami inundation zone with limited access to natural high ground, said Keith Orchiston, the District of Tofino’s emergency program coordinator.

So the “community would stand to benefit significantly from one of these structures,” he said.

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