A new study shows nearly 4,000 buildings in Victoria are at risk of complete damage from a major earthquake.
It’s only the second such analysis — after one by the District of North Vancouver in 2015 — conducted recently by communities in southwestern B.C. which are beginning to grapple with increasing scientific knowledge that a major earthquake will be devastating.
While Victoria has responded to the study by expanding a program to seismically upgrade heritage buildings, it will only add 60 buildings to an eligible pool now totalling 222, and which accounts for only five per cent of the buildings identified at significant risk in the study.
Following the release of the study, Victoria city councillor Geoff Young noted it was going to be a long and sometimes painful process readying the city, the province’s capital, for a big earthquake.