The Cruel Earth

The event currently afflicting Haiti right now is an incredible wake-up call for the region about the very real dangers of earthquakes, that these can occur at any time and have no season, and how preparedness, ranging from proper building codes and planning regulation to having the right emergency facilities in place, is critical. It has shown how unpredictable and devastating an earthquake can be, and, since it occured so close to home, that earthquakes aren’t remote events occuring only in the south Pacific.

But there are several elements that we need to understand, and appreciate the progress we’ve made as a nation, certainly in the 103 years since our own temblor, in January 1907, in terms of our own engineering and planning of buildings and infrastructure, and even our economy and capacity to mitigate against such a humanitarian crisis post-disaster.

As bad as things are here, Haiti is proof-positive things could be worse. There’s a reason why we have planning regulations guiding developments. There’s a reason why we have a new and revised building code, and now we have more reason than ever to enforce this. If you look at the damage, it’s from building collapses and from structural failures; it’s not from landslides or secondary natural hazards emanating from the primary earthquake.

We have a central disaster relief organization in the ODPEM. We have engrained in our culture the need for block and steel construction, a legacy learned from the 1907 quake; even squatters build with block and steel here!

But Haiti is another case altogether. It wasn’t even the worst earthquake in the Caribbean in the last 5 years – a M7.4 earthquake struck off Martinique on November 2007. But the confluence of the poor structures and poverty led to a perfect storm of suffering there.

Engineering works. 2 major cities exist on or near fault lines: San Francisco had the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 (another M7 quake, 63 dead), and Tokyo had a M7.1 quake just last August (no casualties, and a baseball game continued afterwards!); Kobe, Japan was whacked with a M7.2 quake in 1995, with 6400 dead). Compare that to the 100,000+ dead in Haiti. Same magnitude or worse earthquake in all cases, the only difference is engineering.

The world now needs to come together, first to help Haiti right now, then move on in helping Haiti rebuild itself properly. Enough of the political upheavals there and making excuses for not helping them, or, at best, half-hearted efforts at assisting them.