Three of Langley's experts at preparing for disasters laid out a stark example of a worst-case scenario for members of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce Tuesday.

Diane Robinson, crime prevention coordinator for the Langley RCMP, along with Township fire chief Stephen Gamble, and City fire chief Rory Thompson, all talked about ways businesses can try to avoid or mitigate a disaster.

Thompson talked about the 1994 Northridge quake in Los Angeles.

Along with the immediate deaths of 57 people and $20 million in property damage, the quake hit businesses hard.

Of 1,100 businesses affected by the quake, the average loss in damage was $100,000, said Thompson. They suffered damage to buildings, to stock, and loss of power.

About 25 per cent of them went out of business as a result of the quake.

Thompson noted that in the area that includes southern coastal B.C., there is a 10 to 14 per cent chance of a major quake, hitting nine on the Richter scale, in the next 50 years.

Even if the fabled big one doesn't hit, the presenters had slides showing a number of disasters that have hit Langley, including a train derailment, flooding on the Langley Bypass, and plane crashes.

Even a police incident can hit hard, said Robinson, who noted that a nearby meth lab may force immediate evacuations.

The trio had a number of recommendations, based on the idea of planning, preparing, mitigating, responding, and then recovering after an actual disaster.

Listing high-level assets for each company, then mapping threats to those assets can help.

Focussing on something to control the high risks is needed.

Those controls can be procedural or physical, or even simply an insurance policy.

When an emergency does break out, one key tip for keeping in communication with both family and co-workers is to skip trying to make a cellphone call and go to texting.

Ginger Sherlock, Langley's emergency program coordinator, said that even 400 cell calls can knock out a tower. That's been seen with incidents at schools.

But texts, which use much less bandwidth, still get through.

"The younger generation will have all the answers for you," Sherlock said.

The group also passed out information on various emergency planning techniques.

mclaxton@langleyadvance.com