A sobering perspective on disaster

I think enough time's passed since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, earlier this year, to allow us to reflect more soberly on the impact of this disaster. It's worth doing - because something equally bad can happen almost anywhere. We may be well inland, safe from tsunamis, but there are always hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts or other disasters that may overtake us. The people of Japan were woefully unprepared for this disaster. How prepared are we?

The New York Times published a series of 20 before-and-after pairs of satellite photographs of the Fukushima prefecture in Japan, showing the damage wrought by the earthquake and tsunami there in March. They illustrate very graphically why and how so many people were killed. The scale of the damage is simply immense! For example, here's a location on the coast north of Sendai, before and after the tsunami. Click the images for a larger view.






And another, this one in the Iwaki area:






There are many more photographs at the link. Sobering and recommended viewing.

According to Wikipedia, the latest casualty figures released by Japanese authorities are 15,538 dead, 5,685 injured and 7,060 missing. It's considered highly unlikely that most of the missing will be found alive (or found at all, for that matter - many were undoubtedly washed out to sea as the tsunami receded).

It might be a good time to check on your own preparations for disaster, and update them - or, if you haven't made any, now might be a very good time to start!

Peter