Montreal Would Crumble in Major Quake

Montreal is in an active earthquake zone, and if we ever get hit by a big one we're screwed. I don't think anyone would be surprised by that since things here seem to fall apart by themselves anyways...

In Montreal, half of all structures predate stringent 1971 building codes that include standards for seismic protection. And the fragile nature of the province’s infrastructure has also become evident even without an earthquake — think overpasses that collapse.

The Quebec government, for example, decided last year to close a hospital in Baie St. Paul, northeast of Quebec City, because it wouldn’t endure even a 6.0 magnitude earthquake. (Just FYI, there were 19 aftershocks, each of them greater than 6.0 after the big one in Japan recently)

B.C. is spending billions to earthquake-proof every school in the province along with other public buildings. Quebec is just starting to think about it.