'Was that an earthquake?': don't ask 911
E-Comm says during last year's quake it was flooded with non-emergency calls that tied up lines
On the day when hundreds of thousands of British Columbians are learning how to survive an earthquake, the province's largest 911 call centre is reminding the public not to call them for information during a natural disaster.
More than 800,000 people took part Thursday in the Great British Columbia ShakeOut.
Participants were invited to stop, drop, cover and hold on for at least one minute in a simulated earthquake scenario.
Last December, on the night a 4.7 magnitude earthquake rocked B.C.'s south coast, E-Comm was inundated with calls.
Megan Wong is a 911 call taker who was working that night.
"I didn't really recognize it right away — then some of the screens started to shake here and there, then we got flooded with a bunch of calls," said Wong.
The centre received 318 calls in 15 minutes.
That's a 1500 per cent increase compared to normal call volume for that time of day.
Most of the calls were for non-emergencies.
"Some people were asking if that was an earthquake, how big it was, when the next one is, if there's going to be a tsunami, should we evacuate... Lots of questions we don't have the answers to here," said Wong.
Jody Robertson with E-Comm said calls like these tie up phone lines unnecessarily.
"Call-takers are there to help people and lives are put at risk when 911 is treated like an information line," said Robertson.
Robertson says while some people may feel frightened during an earthquake, she stressed there are only so many 911 lines, and they need to remain open to those with true emergencies.
"There are many other great sources of information available... Emergency Info B.C. and other non-emergency resources including government websites and their social media feeds and local media," said Robertson.