Earthquakes in Japan

are not uncommon. Earthquakes of a 7.6 magnitude though are much more serious of course. What astounds me is how few people have lost their lives.

Any lives lost in this way is still something to feel concerned about. They were people with family and friends and acquaintances. They may have been family breadwinners or young people looking forward to a long life. There will be people who mourn them.

If an earthquake of this magnitude had occurred in countries further south, the Philippines or Indonesia perhaps, then the death toll and the destruction would have been far greater. It would have been far greater because there would not have been the same sort of warning system and the structures are not built to withstand earthquakes in the same way. The Japanese certainly know a thing or two about that and they deal with it.

I wonder how we would cope here. This city is built along a fault line. It is something those who chose the location would not have known at the time. There are often very small earthquakes. The occasional larger one will get reported as "residents heard a rattle of windows" and the like. 

I can remember an earthquake at night when I was very young kitten. I remember seeing the little wardrobe in the bedroom. The Senior Cat came in and carried me out into the street in the quiet country town in which we lived.  Later we visited the home of my godmother's mother and there was a crack in the wall. I could put my hand through and touch my uncle's hand. There was relatively little damage to that house and it was repaired. It is still there today. 

This house was built with the required footings and is supposed to be "safe". I hope I never need to know if it really is. There are any number of older houses around here that might not be. The house to the south of this one was built before people thought of that sort of thing. In Japan that would not have happened. They have been alert to earthquakes for centuries.

The Japanese will deal with all this in their usual efficient way but it is never as easy or straightforward as people wish for.   Several days ago the son of people I know took his family on holiday to Japan. He may now be wishing they had gone somewhere else. It has not been a good start to 2024 for any of them. 

It makes having to go to the dentist today seem less of an issue.