Earthquake, Tsunami, Volcano, Nuclear Emergency

While we wait for just one more person to guess on my Nine Truths and a Lie post, I need to ramble just a bit.

I need to ramble about the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which is scary, horrific, too close for comfort and heartbreaking all at once.  I have people that could be considered distant extended family there, and this tragedy has deeply affected my uncle, aunts and cousins who belong to the distant extended family.

I made a list shortly after the Christchurch Earthquake about things I had learned from that. I’ve learned things from this tsunami as well, and they contradict what I learned from the other in some ways.  In an earthquake, the wood did better.  But in a tsunami, the brick did better.

The scariest thing I learned was just how quick a tsunami moves. I watched in horror as the cars tried to get away but couldn’t.

Where I live, a tsunami is a more direct, major threat than an earthquake. We’re not on top of a fault, but we are close to a beach. We were on tsunami watch after the Japanese tsunamis. My bathtub was full of water, my fridge was full of extra water, and our civil defense kit was on standby.  Had we had a major tsunami event, the water would not have reached our house, but of course, the water, highways, sewage, etc would have been affected.

We watched the tv, on tenterhooks and with mounting fear, and then relief when our beaches reported centimetre swells, and not metre swells.

And we were thinking of moving closer to the beach. I think our plans will change now.

It’s not possible to be safe from all natural or man-made disasters, but if I have a choice, my preference will be to live somewhere not on a major fault and not right on the beach.

(We won’t talk about the active volcano that’s just over there…)