Filed under: Uncategorized
Natural disasters are simply a part of life that must be dealt with, at least occasionally, by most places in the world. Whether it is a tornado, earthquake, hurricane, firestorm, tsunami, blizzards or sand storm these natural phenomenon cannot be controlled or contained by any technology that man has discovered as yet. The best that can be done is to predict and/or track it in hopes to lessen the casualties and damage by providing an early warning to those in the affected area. But everyone knows that these technologies are not fool proof and even with plenty of advanced warning, death and destruction can occur. The problem with the predictions for earth quakes and volcanoes and the like, is that scientist are forever predicting that “the big one” will be occurring. Initially, that prediction might cause people in the area to be concerned and take certain precautions to try to ensure their safety, but after a while “the big one” predictions works more like the boy who cried wolf. There is a volcano near Auckland that is supposed to wipe out most of that city when it occurs. As yet, Auckland still stands and most residents of the city put more thought into tying their shoes than about that possible future volcano. And what about California? When did the predictions begin that an earthquake would break it along the San Andreas Fault line and make it “fall into the Pacific”? So far it seems to still be hanging on to the rest of the US, despite many conservatives prayers that it would go ahead and take that plunge into the ocean.
In the central Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand, in which Queenstown is centrally located, they have been predicting that a big earthquake should hit at any moment. It is, they claim, more than thirty years over due but there is really not much that anyone living here can do to prevent an earthquake so what is the point of sharing this prediction with the areas residents? This is the New Zealand countryside where there are no buildings more than four stories tall, no large apartment complexes or shopping malls. The biggest problem will be that most of the houses are built into the hillsides surrounding Queenstown’s downtown area in order to create for each property better views of the lake. This planning scheme is great for a builder’s profit margin because who wouldn’t want an unobstructed lake view, but makes little or no sense in an area that suffers from occasional seismic activity. However, you can see the builder’s point of view as well because so far that big one hasn’t happened and the houses haven’t been tested. This is the whole boy who cried wolf problem.
Anyway, the people in this area know that occasionally earthquakes do occur. Usually, though, they are not big enough to even be felt by the residents of Queenstown. That is, until last night. I was sprawled out across my bed talking on the phone in what I’m sure must have looked like a scene from some 1980’s chick flick, kicking my feet in cliché fashion when I noticed that my bed was still moving even though I wasn’t. Strange, I though briefly but went back to my conversation without saying anything to my friend on the line. Then I noticed that my closet doors were gently swaying. So, I turned over and my windows were shut which meant it wasn’t the wind blowing that was making the closet doors move. Finally, I noticed that the lamp that hangs down from my ceiling was also swaying and the bed started to move again. At this point, I could no longer ignore what was going on so I asked my friend on the phone if she had ever been in an earthquake. When she said no I ran out to the living room to ask my roommates, who were watching TV, if they had felt the house move at all. Of course, they too had felt it and having been in the area longer than I have, knew that it was an earthquake. I was overly excited by this because I come from a land of hurricanes, not earthquakes and this was my very first earthquake that I have actually been able to feel. There was no rumbling or rattling like you hear in the movies or on TV and it wasn’t a very big earthquake so nothing moved or fell over, but still it was an earthquake. Immediately I got online to look it up. There is a website in New Zealand that lists all of the earthquakes that have happened in the past thirty days and gives the details on when, where and how strong it is. This earthquake happened a little over 100 kilometers west of Queenstown, out in the fiordlands and registered a 5.1. That sounds pretty big to me, but what do I know; this was my first earthquake.
Just so you know, I don’t mean to make light of these natural disasters. So many of them do cause serious death and destruction and with the Haiti earthquake disaster so present in our minds this may seem incredibly cold hearted, but please know that I do not mean it in that way at all. What happened in Haiti is truly heartbreaking and I cant even bare to watch the coverage of it on the news anymore. My heart really goes out to those people.