Earthquake risk and school seismic upgrades in B.C.

There are 126 schools that are rated by the B.C. Ministry of Educationas "high-risk" and vulnerable to damage and structural failure in the case of an earthquake.

A deadline to seismically upgrade schools had been set for 2020, but earlier in 2015 then-education minister Peter Fassbender moved that deadline back between five and 10 yearsdepending where they are in the province.

CBC mapped all the schools highlighted by the Ministry of Education's seismic mitigation program against an earthquake risk map.

The data shows, for example, that only three schools in Richmond which is at extreme earthquake risk have been completed, while the majority of schools in the district are not in line for seismic upgrades.

Schools constructed since 1992 are not included in the map because they're built to modern structural codes and do not require structural upgrades.

Zoom out to see the whole province or select your school from the drop-down menu.

Legend:

• Red pins = High risk schools requiring upgrades that have not yet been approved to proceed;
• Yellow pins = Schools currently under construction,proceeding to construction or supported for future seismic upgrades;
• Green pins = Schools that have completed their seismic upgrades

The earthquake risk zones aremapped usinga gradient between extreme risk (deep maroon) to very low risk (light pink).

Source: B.C. Ministry of Education on seismic mitigation programas of January 2015;Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction's earthquake risk tool.

*Note: Listen to ICLR explain how it determined the earthquake risk for Canadian postal codes.