According to PhD candidate Laurie Pearce, of UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning, it took almost one hour before rescuers realized that the mobile homes had been wiped out.
"Communications from the top part of the city were cut off and response teams went to the industrial centre and residential areas to the south," said Pearce. "If they'd properly completed a hazard and risk analysis they would have known that the mobile home park was incredibly vulnerable."
Pearce will make a presentation about who is most vulnerable during a natural disaster at Pan Pacific Hazards '96, an international trade show and conference taking place July 29-Aug. 2 at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.
Pan Pacific Hazards '96 - focusing particularly on earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis - has been organized as a major Canadian contribution supporting the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).
The conference includes 300 key speakers from 20 countries who are experts in topics ranging from business recovery challenges in the aftermath of a major earthquake to the importance of telecommunications in disaster preparedness programs.
Among the trade show's more than 80 exhibits are a simulated earthquake experience in the "Quakey Shakey Van" from the Los Angeles Fire Department.
For her own research, Pearce has examined hundreds of natural and person-induced hazard scenarios with an aim to developing programs to reduce "social vulnerabilities."
Some examples of social vulnerabilities are: inability to read English; dependency of senior citizens and young children on others for help; citizens in poor health, on medication or suffering from respiratory diseases; and people with little or no money to cope after a disaster strikes.
In the case of the Edmonton tornado, Pearce said most of the people killed in the mobile home park were low-income seniors over the age of 55 or youths under 18.
"I'm alerting people to things that they might not think of right away in the event of a disaster so that vulnerabilities are built into preparedness programs," said Pearce. "Certain groups have to be targeted for assistance before and after a disaster strikes."
The conference, organized in part by UBC's Disaster Preparedness Resources Centre, will be open to the public on July 31.