Sorry for the silence. When too much is going on, I need to retreat and cogitate. I love the Internet, but I don’t like that aspect of it that expects everybody with a few brain cells and a keyboard to be an instant expert, and I don’t like that aspect of it that treats the most profound human experiences as just another fleeting newsbit or opportunity to promote an agenda.
How does one respond to a catastrophe like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami? Everything you read or see appears to be the work of the six blind men inspecting an elephant.
The news dwells on the unspeakable. Meanwhile, people in less-affected parts of Japan protest that all is normal and the media is overblowing everything as usual. But you’ve seen all those videos. Nothing’s normal. Except the usual chaos.
And what about that nuke plant? We can choose between voices of reason (here and here), EVERYBODY’S GONNA DIE!!!! hysteria (scroll down about 1/3 of the way), or anything in between. The latest (H/T P.T.) isn’t good, though it also isn’t China syndrome. Still, those of us without engineering backgrounds or on-the-scene sources are shooting in the dark.
Why is it never okay just to say, “I don’t know”? Or “let’s get the facts before we Pronouncify or Pontificate”?
The only thing we can be sure of is the one thing we can always be sure of — that any official government statement is a lie.
Oh yeah. And that any government that possibly can will use the latest disaster as an opportunity for a power grab. So life goes on — except for 10,000 or so dead and a few hundred thousand whose lives will never be the same again.
—–
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a seismologist. Even built my own seismograph. Which didn’t work worth a damn, of course. But I was fascinated with both the geological and human stories of earthquakes and tsunamis and consumed all the quake histories I could get my hands on. I learned about quakes in unexpected places and read the tragic and comic tales from San Francisco.
The geology makes you feel hopelessly small. But the individual human hells of the worst quakes are beyond imagining. An image from the 1964 Good Friday quake in Alaska stays with me: The quake caused an enormous oil fire near the shore in Seward, then wave after wave of the tsunami (and tsunamis in are worse in harbors than anywhere else) carried the fire inland. Can you imagine a wall of flaming water bearing down on you? God has a nasty sense of humor.
He’s apparently big on irony, too — hitting Lisbon when its population was mostly in church and inspiring an irreverent rhyme after destroying San Francisco’s churches in 1906.
No, I don’t really think some wrathful God hurled a tsunami at northern Japan or deliberately sent cathedrals crashing down on worshipers in Portugal. Could be. If so, he has a habit of being amazingly indiscriminate in his wrath-flinging. In the best case, I think if there’s a god out there, he’s one coldly indifferent fella.
Doubt it? Read the story of the McKenzie family (scroll almost to the bottom and read the entry posted by Range Bayer; I’m surprised it’s the best account I could find of their tragedies).
Ah, okay. I’m being morbid. And rambling pointlessly, too. But I hope my Christian friends will excuse me for doubting that there’s a loving God and legions of angels looking out tenderly for each and every one of us.
The universe is an amazing place. But double-freaking scary. All we can do is prepare, take care of ourselves and each other, and hope we catch the lucky breaks.
—–
Anybody got any good earthquake or tsunami preparedness lessons they’d like to share?
From a seismological POV, this is interesting.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110314/ts_yblog_thelookout/japans-earthquake-shifted-balance-of-the-planet
Claire,
Great post, I have enjoyed watching the reporting from Japan. It has been almost impossible to truly keep track of what is going on since it is obvious that the various reporters and government talking heads have no idea of what is going on, but keep talking.
I do believe we have a loving God. I also believe he set up the world and us as people to be able to function independently of His constant intervention. Although called an act of God, earthquakes, tsunami, typhoons, tornados etc are all natural phenomena that God included when he created this amazingly dynamic world. They are not secrets and I don’t beleive he currently targets groups of persons that may or may not love him appropriately. I guess I am saying that I see God as mostly a hands-off sort, kind of laissez faire. I don’t doubt His existence or love, I just don’t think he is constantly tinkering.
I remember when a tsunami warning was issued for (if I remember correctly) Leadville, Colorado. Surprisingly no one took it seriously enough to take any precautions.
NPR asked “How ready is the US for an 8.8 quake”. Answer: Well it depends on where it is.
There are many places to get info: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/prepare/
http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/earthquakes.shtm
http://redcross.org/
are some.
On a side note, the national level exercise 2011 will be simulating another New Madrid Seismic Zone quake. (the last “big” one was in 1811) You can find out more here:
http://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/nle2011_fs.shtm
NVOAD (National Voluntary Orginzations Active in Disasters) will also be taking part in it.
one more link: http://lds.org/hf/library/1,16866,4340-1,00.html?LibraryURL=/lds/hf/display
Thanks for the links, Drill Sgt K. But you know what? Although those government and Red Cross sites may have plenty of information for people who are otherwise unprepared, I wouldn’t trust them to give real voice-of-experience advice. How often have they been proven wrong? Before Katrina, for instance, they all urged everybody to have a three-day emergency kit — which would definitely have been better than nothing. But — oops — it wasn’t even near enough.
The booklet offered on the USGS site, “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country,” looked interesting. When I clicked to download it, up popped a very snoopy form. I proceeded to the download without filling in the blanks — and was given a booklet, but one customized for a different part of the country than I live in. Went back to the form. But in a nearby zip code. Still got the same form.
I’m going to have a look anyhow, since much good advice will be good all over.
Interesting about the FEMA exercise. Remind me to stay away from the New Madrid area while they’re treating future quakes as a “homeland security” issue requiring FEMA-style management. Yikes!
ADDED: At least they’ve now rushed to make the nature of the purchase private. That’s a pretty big something. But “We believe that markets are conversations”? Markets are conversations? And buyers and sellers all want to be chatty, gossipy “friends”? S**t. They’re still so far off on the wrong track they’re headed for Siberia when their members want to go to Puerto Vallarta.
I like the LDS link very much! Thank you, Drill Sgt K.
Point #1: “Try to stay cool and calm. Think through what you should do. Try to reassure others.”
Excellent advice — and easier to follow if you’re well prepared. I’ve been in earthquakes, a storm equivalent to a category 3 (possibly 4) hurricane, and have had to retreat to cellars to avoid tornadoes. In none of those cases was the situation as bad as it could have been, knock wood, thank heaven, etc. But with earthquakes above all (their sudden onset; the fact that the very ground under your feet has turned on you) there’s a tendency to just lose it at least momentarily. Staying calm is easier when you’ve rehearsed a plan and/or when you’ve got children or animals you have to take care of.
Sadly the government and other relief orgs don’t trust people to behave like people. They have to put stuff together for the lowest common denominator, and they assume that the LCD is a total idiot.
Because of that, you get the “barney level” of information. For some reason these groups (gov and responders) seem to think that when something bad happens everyone will turn into raging Zombies playing Road Warrior. Rather than what we see happen 99% of the time: people helping each other. 2003, the whole north east went dark. NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, etc. How many riots? Zero. Looting? Nope. People helping each other get home? Yup, I was in NYC and watched store owners handing out bottles of water to passing people, letting them refill from larger jugs, people taking turns pushing a lady in a wheelchair (who they did not even know), etc. Right after an earthquake people start helping everyone else.
I was in a small town that got hit by a tornado, took out a lot of homes. Everyone not hurt started helping others. After the responders arrived with the heavy equipment we shifted to getting food going, water, recovering personal belongings, setting up a collection fund, etc. Never saw raging mobs looting peoples homes after a disaster if the area was not prone to large scale theft to begin with.
In my Emergency Management classes we have done a lot of reading and research on Katrina, New Orleans was a failure, but that was not the only place hit. The response was much better in other parts of the effected area.
Even still, the Coast Guard was actively doing rescues less than two hours after the storm passed. Over 1,300 were rescued in the next four days. The Air National Guard effectively evacuated over 5,000 critical hospital patients in two days after the levees broke. 11,000 National Guard soldiers from six states were in the NO area with in three days. The Red Cross had set up 23 shelters out side of the evacuation area before the storm. Amateur radio clubs provided communications for non-military responders for three days till FEMA/DHS could get their systems on site. NVOAD’s had food distribution sites up less than 48 hours after. Utility and Road crews from across the nation arrived in the area less than 24 hours after to aid in recovery and open roads for transport. NO was at the end of those roads.
Over all the area effected by Katrina saw fast response and aid beginning to arrive with in 72 hours. NO was at the end of a big area and a lot of politics were being played. (such as the Gov demanding that she have control over the Federal soldiers like she had over the National Guard, etc) A lot of media was pointed at NO and not the rest of the area, and lets face it, bad news sells better than good news.
Yet another interesting link:
http://blog.fema.gov/2011/03/over-1-million-in-for-central-us.html
The Great Central U.S. Shakeout site is a good one: http://www.shakeout.org/centralus/index.html
Part of me is suspicious of any mass PR exercise like this, especially one run by governments. But then, I’ve spent my life in earthquake zones where the dangers and precautions are already well recognized and discussed. Most people are probably shocked when they learn that several of the worst quakes in U.S. history hit Missouri and the south-central states. And hit so hard that church bells rang in Boston (or was it Philadelphia?).
“And that any government that possibly can will use the latest disaster as an opportunity for a power grab.”
– not to mention the opportunities they take when they figure people aren’t paying attention to what they’re up to…..I usually call it “the holiday sneak” but maybe it should be “the media diversion sneak”….
~
My experiences with a disaster (involving a flood) – It was post Katrina, and FEMA was trying it’s best to correct their mistakes – – a lot of fluff and still no substance behind it…..
However, the first responders were amazing….immediate evacuations by helicopters (then came the boats), organized local gov (yes, that was a shock). It was a small community, and I think that is the key to how well it all worked out. No one died, even tho it hit at a time when many were still sleeping; and only affected an area of less than 500 homes. Red Cross became a welcome sight, when they’d come around to check on everyone daily; local churches had more people out there helping with clean up (and sometimes even with the reconstructing) than ANYONE else…..
All the volunteers are what made the whole situation amazing, and the local people are what made the clean up go faster…..
BUT, having credited all that, I have to say that things/decisions were made quite often “for the well being of the victims”. Anyone in defiance of that meant an argument/fight to retain their choice. And they make you sign a paper stating you refused *whatever* ~ LOL ~….all done while we all stood there in the muck, time better used for saving property or cleaning up….Shelters won’t accept animals (even in this town – that overlooks people bringing them into the grocery stores), people who’s pets managed to avoid the flood got lost during the AFTERMATH or had to be placed somewhere temporarily….I think there’s probably some misunderstanding when viewing any of these disasters from afar – there’s some fee or charge or cost the victims’ bear that happen all thru this process. It’s not all “help” as most people perceive it. In situations where people have lost their home, car, the majority (if not all) their possessions and possibly more, there is always someone informing you that “you owe such in such for whatever” or you can get this “if you pay that”. Everything you claim (or say) is challenged. THIS is why people living paycheck to paycheck, or in poverty, end up in a “Katrina-like” (as best known referencing of the aftermath) situation. And it’s true, the window of attention lasts about a few weeks, after that victims are on their own. All that initial attention gives them a false security.
I should probably add: this happened in a DESERT town…..no one had flood insurance, obviously…..
I should also add, 3 YEARS later the area still isn’t back to what it was before (the economy has a hand in that, too)……
On a lighter note, somewhat….those of us who stayed home and rode it out were also some of the people asking if anyone had seen “various named Prep-supplies” float by….being prepared is fantastic as long as you store them where the water can’t wash them away, or the tornado/hurricane can’t blow them into your neighbors acres….Altho it was quite amusing to watch a case of toilet paper float by, to break up the monotony of another car or someone’s toxic garage contents…..
Drill Sgt K — Thank you for the ongoing reality checks. Sometimes I can be too cynical and suspicious for my own good. But heaven bless the courageous first responders, whoever and wherever they may be.
I’m with Matt, I certainly believe in a loving God (and legions of angels), caring for our immortal souls… and expecting us to get thru this vale of tears and fears using the tools He gave us … best advice I have on earthquake-tsunami preparedness, don’t live on an earthquake fault line, don’t build near the coast.
Interesting the number of people who have the same expectations of God as they do the government. (I.e.: always nurturing, always fixing every single possible problem, always working to make us happy, always there to wipe our backsides, with an army to protect us from all harm, etc.) There’s a commentary in there somewhere.
(I believe in God, but I don’t believe in what people claim he’s like. Like most of us, the reputation may not match the reality.)
LOL, ML. That works for earthquakes and tsunamis, indeed. Now where do we find the place without hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, volcanoes, killer hail, industrial accidents, or other catastrophes of God or man?
BTW, for those considering a move to earthquake country (and there are good reasons to be here, despite the hazards) … living right next to a fault line can be safer than living many miles away from one. Fault line + bedrock is better than distance + filled land.
And belief … it’s such a mystery.