As the province rebuilds after the atmospheric river, experts hope for a heightened focus on future quake hazards
Canada’s largest port is shut down. Highways have snapped, buckled and crumbled. Bridges are washed into raging rivers and landslides rumble down mountainsides, burying cars and stranding travellers. Rail lines linking the west coast to the rest of North America are damaged. Oil pipelines cease operating.
Three years ago, officials at Vancouver’s main transport hubs were told to prepare for a scenario in which nearly 3 million people in south-western British Columbia were cut off from the rest of the country.