A report presented to city councilors on Tuesday details how destructive a mega-quake could be to Vancouver.

The report was led by Micah Hilt, a seismic policy planner employed by the City of Vancouver.

The conclusions are cruel. Up to $17 billion worth of damage is expected, more than 6,000 private buildings could be damaged and more than 1,300 people could be seriously injured or killed.

These numbers are a prediction of what would happen if a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the city. Scientists predict that an earthquake with an explosion will hit the city sometime in the next 50 years.

Hilt’s findings show that six neighborhoods account for 65% of the total risk in the city:

• West End
• Downtown Eastside
• The city center
• Kitsilano
• Fairview
• Mount Pleasant

“In those areas, three-quarters of people rent. Many of them have low incomes. Many of them are seniors. And that’s a key focus as we work to develop a strategy to gradually reduce risk,” Hilt said in an interview with CTV News.

Many of the buildings in those neighborhoods were built before 1990 and are made up of older brick, wood and concrete, posing a greater risk.

All councilors voted in favor of developing a comprehensive earthquake risk reduction strategy for 2025, a move Kieth Porter says is beneficial for the whole country.

“We’re all connected economically,” said Porter, chief engineer at the Disaster Loss Reduction Institute.

“A catastrophe in British Columbia and Vancouver because city council doesn’t act would hurt the rest of the country.”

The current report does not show costs. Hilt says the undertaking will undoubtedly be massive, requiring federal and provincial support.

While the costs would be substantial, Porter says it’s much cheaper to do now than later.

“(Councillors’) choice is between paying for mitigation now in an imposing, well-thought-out plan process or recovering from a disaster and then paying for mitigation,” Porter said.

The report suggests the city is prioritizing buildings at the highest risk and looking at incentives to help building owners retrofit their properties.