Contrasting comfort with catastrophe
Just before Christmas Day I read a report about a huge earthquake on the ocean floor south of Tasmania, near Antartica. I was compelled by headlines exclaiming it was the biggest earthquake ever, where other reports called it the largest in years. It was 8.2 on the Richter Scale.
Three days later the earthquake responsible for the tsunami that has devastated Southern Asia has been reported as a 9.0. The quake off of the shore of Sumatra had a magnitude nearly 10 times as powerful as the one near Tasmania.
Reuters news service is reporting that up to 5 million people have been left without basic comforts, such as clean water. Projected death tolls are tipping past 100,000.
The scale of devastation is unfathomable. The more I read and hear about this tragedy, the more I am reminded of my good fortune. In our side of the world most of us have just spent ourselves silly on clothes and toys. We’ve also consumed more food and drink in recent days than most on the planet do in months. It’s impossible to contrast these conditions with the horrors of Sumatra or Sri Lanka and not feel either like you’ve won life’s lottery, or you owe humanity a huge favour that you must someday repay.
A little Googling on massive earthquakes literally brings the subject closer to home. The last recorded 9.0 earthquake happened 40 years ago, just north of my Vancouver home in Anchorage, Alaska.
Chillingly, one of the 9.0 earthquakes in recorded history occurred just off the shores of Vancouver Island in 1700. I believe that we here on the Left Coast have been too lackadaisical about the possibility of earthquakes. I think that emergency preparedness should be basic training in school, and each family required to have emergency preparedness kits and planning.
As a first measure this year my wife and I attended a free 2-evening basic course on emergency preparedness. Some good checklists and menus for emergency preparedness kits came from that, but we’ve done nothing since we took the course. This week’s devastation in Asia is my wake-up call to prepare for the worst.
