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A leading Californian seismic engineer has warned the B.C. government that unexpected severe damage to wood-frame housing in a deadly 2016 Japanese earthquake has serious implications for the province.

Peter Yanev, who has advised the World Bank on earthquake engineering and is the author of Peace of Mind in Earthquake Country, told B.C. government officials responsible for emergency management he was particularly concerned because the type of wood-frame construction in Japan is very similar to that used on the west coast of Canada and the U.S., and the terrain was similar.

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The Kumamoto earthquake in Japan in April 2016 killed about 50 people, injured another 3,000 and displaced about 44,000 people from their homes.

Yanev, in an email to 10 officials in the B.C. Ministry of Transportation – including Becky Denlinger – deputy minister of emergency management, noted that schools (some that had been upgraded), a hospital and newer parts of the airport in the Kumamoto area of southern Japan had fared well in back-to-back earthquakes, including a magnitude 7 earthquake.