Questions are being raised about the provincial government's response to the massive earthquake off the northwest coast of British Columbia Saturday night.
Local officials, including Tofino's mayor, are saying the flow of information was slow, prompting them to put their own plans into action.
Mayor Perry Schmunk said it took the province 45 minutes to relay information needed to make a decision whether to trigger the tsunami warning system.
“I looked online to see if we could find any more information and quickly came to the conclusion the website was inundated with traffic, I couldn’t get through,” Schmunk said.
Officials in Tofino made the decision to trigger the warning system and residents on the coast and in low-lying areas were evacuated.
Nearly three hours after the quake, Schmunk said they received a thorough update from the province and determined there was no imminent threat of a tsunami.
“It was too big of a risk… we did activate it,” Schmunk said. “Ultimately I think we made the right call… it was a test of our systems and how people responded.”
Schmunk said improving the province’s response time is needed, but Justice Minister Shirley Bond says overall she's pleased with the how emergency officials and local governments handled the aftermath.
Bond said at least one government system may have had technical difficulties, though she's not offering her own assessment of the response until after a review is complete.
“We’re going to take a look at the concerns and see how we can be more expeditious in the future,” Bond told CTV News Monday.
Immediately following the earthquake, the province focused on communities nearest to the epicenter and then addressed areas not as directly affected, Bond said.
Aftershocks continued to rumble off Haida Gwaii Monday. The U.S. Geological Survey said another aftershock -- this one measuring 4.4 -- rumbled through the region just after 5 a.m. this morning.
The shaker, which was 10 kilometres under the ocean, 163 kilometres south of Masset, is one of hundreds that have rocked the northwest coast since the earthquake.
No damage or serious injuries are reported but officials said the earthquake is a stern reminder that the entire coast is prone to earthquakes.
“The province needs to be better, municipalities need to be ready, families need to be prepared,” Bond said.
Saturday night's event spawned tsunami warnings or advisories up and down the B.C. coast and as far away as Hawaii but an earth science professor at SFU says the quake was caused the earth's plates sliding side-by-side, rather an over or under each other, so a big wave was not triggered.
With files from the Canadian Press
