Earthquake preparations included in Nunavut's emergency plans

A 5.9 magnitude earthquakethathit near ResoluteSunday evening left some people asking if Nunavummiut were prepared.

"It raises a lot of questions," asked Larry Audaluk, a Grise Ford resident, on CBC Nunavut's talk-back line."What's going to happen? How do we prepare for it? What would happen if it is in summertime? Would it create tsunamis ... like in other places."

Therearen'tspecific earthquake preparation plans in Nunavut, said Ed Zebedee, the director of protection services for the territory. Instead, the territory plans for a variety of emergencies.

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"We do training in the communities for emergency management," he said. "It's based having the communities prepared to respond to an emergency whether it's an earthquake, flood, fire, whatever."

It's a week long training that gets updated every few years, so people in the community know how to set up, who is in charge, what the response will look like.

The goal of emergency management is to ensure everyone is prepared for an emergency by having everything they need for the first 72 hours. That includeswater, food, clothing and cash, Zebedee said.

"It takes time to respond,especially in a remote community and so people have to be prepared to take care of themselves until we can respond," he said.

There are about 40 earthquakes a year in Nunavut, Zebedee said, but most are less than 4.0 magnitude. There is no way to predict them.

According to the Geological Survey of Canada, most of the earthquakes will happen in Baffin Bay.

"Our biggest concern has always been tsunamis and we've done a study with the Geological Survey and they don't believe we have the proper geology to have a tsunami here," he said.