Quake rattles Northwest
It wasn't the big one. But the 6.8 magnitude earthquake, which cracked buildings in central Washington and rattled windows in many parts of British Columbia February 28, was a wakeup call for residents along North America's West Coast. For years, they have been warned that a catastrophic quake could happen at any time.
While civic officials have detailed emergency plans, Christians along Canadian fault lines are urging churches to initiate their own emergency plans in order to minister to a potentially devastated community.
Ned Vankevich, a Trinity Western University professor who wrote Y2K Made Simple, an emergency preparedness handbook in anticipation of Y2K, urges churches in earthquake zones to do similar preparation for a quake, including keeping clean water and non-perishable foods on hand.
In heavy earthquake zones like B.C., but equally in the Maritimes for hurricanes or ice storms in Quebec, Vankevich says churches should be better prepared. Being prepared for emergencies reflects two biblical principles, he says, good stewardship of what we have and loving our neighbour, thus enabling the church to "be a beacon of hope and light" during dangerous times.
"People don't take earthquakes that seriously until it happens," says Vancouver structural engineer Paul Fast. He designs earthquake resistant buildings that are built to withstand earthquakes of a limited magnitude. But, he is quick to add, there's no such thing as an "earthquake-proof" building. When the earth moves, history shows there is little humans can do to prevent tragedy. And if a major earthquake happens in a highly populated area, such as relatively well-prepared Vancouver, it would have a devastating effect.
Earthquake as evangelism
"There are no natural occurrences which happen with greater suddenness and cause more immediate widespread destruction than that of a major seismic event," he writes in his book When the Earth Trembles: An Engineer Looks at Earthquakes from a Christian Perspective.
Soon after the recent earthquake, he offered his book to all B.C. churches in his Mennonite Brethren denomination in exchange for a small donation to the Mennonite Disaster Service, a volunteer agency that responds to natural disasters across North America and other countries. He believes the book, which looks at earthquakes throughout history and ends with a strong gospel message, is a tool for both education and evangelism.
"The book draws interesting reactions," he says. "I try to keep a balanced, non-sensational approach."
Fast says one of the things he is most often asked is whether earthquakes are increas-ing in frequency, thus fulfilling prophecy that the end times are near.
"As Christians, we would like to say yes to substantiate our point," he says.
But Fast says the earth is "a constantly trembling mass" with tremors happening every day. Indeed, earthquake research sites such as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/) reveals that every year about 120 earthquakes happen of a similar magnitude to the West Coast one. In fact, that same day, 30 other measurable tremors were recorded in places such as Japan and New Zealand. The USGS estimates that there are several million earthquakes that happen every year, about 20,000 of which it detects annually.
Still, Fast says there just isn't enough historical data in place to substantiate whether the number of earthquakes is increasing.
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