Mother Nature is unbelievable in all her beauty, but she can also be one of the most terrible "stepmothers" when it comes to natural phenomena, of which we humans can do nothing, only observe and wait for Nature to return to be that calm and peaceful being that surrounds us and makes us dream.
During our stay together in Japan, we experience (unfortunately) in firsthand the feeling of being in the midst of a strong earthquake, with several aftershocks following for the coming hours and a couple more during the last few days Patty was in the land of the Rising Sun. I'm referring to the Kumamoto earthquake, whose main shock had a magnitude of 7.0 on the Ritcher scale on April 16, 2016. Some people joke saying that a visit to Japan will only be complete if we experience an earthquake and /or a cyclone... we had them both in the package... such a thing was not part of our plans, at all!
Patty had experienced the sensation of an earthquake a few years ago at home, with an earthquake of similar intensity, although (fortunately) of short-term and without damages, enough to scare... unfortunately such luck did not happen to the poor inhabitants of Kumamoto who had part of their beautiful city devastated.
The earthquake and its strong replicas killed at least 50 people and wounded another 3,000 in total. Serious damage occurred in both Kumamoto Prefecture and Ōita Prefecture. More than 44,000 people were evacuated because of the disaster. It was not a casual thing that you can play about...
When the first quake happened, we where far from the Kyushu Island, where Kumamoto is located, we where at the airport of Narita, waiting for the flight that would take us back to Dazaifu, to the Fukuoka airport.
It was at the airport of Narita, and while staying there overnight, that we learned through the televisions scattered around the place what happened. It was a shock, a surprise and in the end a relief... why a relief?! Relief because we had planned to visit Kumamoto, as soon as we returned... and if we were there we would be caught up in that "whirlwind".
Unfortunately, our relief was the sadness of many in those days...
When we returned to Dazaifu there was in the air the possibility of a strong replica to be occurring soon, which came to happen that night, but contrary to what would be expected we did not feel panic or fear. Not even when we were hit again and again by the various replicas that were felt there!
Perhaps the main reason was, without doubt, the calm of the people in the situation. I remember when we felt the third replica we decided to leave the house (a typical wooden house and therefore resistant to earthquakes) where we were and go and see how things were outside... (it was very close to two in the morning if not later)... during our short walk to the nearest "Konbini" (convenience store) I noticed that some telephone poles were shaken very slightly indicating that another replica would be happening at the time, although we did feel nothing abnormal while we walked.
Once we arrived at the Konbini, we asked the emploee if he was ok... the calm and even totally unconcerned look of him made us think if we were not exaggerating the situation, (unfortunately it was not quite the case). What made us think the why in Japan, that despite suffering so many earthquakes there is much less dead and injured than in other latitudes... part of the answer lies in the calmness of the situation, panic is often the cause of unnecessary death. Fortunately in Japan, from an early age there is a concern allied with prevention and training for such situations, which saved already many lives.
Even the national TV and numerous applications for smarthphones warn in real time and with some advance that an earthquake is about to happen, giving precious seconds to look for a safe place...
Portugal (where we now live) is a relatively "calm" country when we talk about earthquakes but we need always to prevent and be prepared for the worst eventualities. Look for what to do in a quake situation be calm and you can save yours and other's lifes.
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