Last Friday, news broke of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that had hit Japan. I remember sucking in my breath in shock because I know anything above 6 is serious. At first, there were reports that there were no deaths and I thanked God for that.

Only for the Tsunami to ruin the party. Japan happens to be the world’s third richest country with great infrastructure and elaborate disaster management systems but nothing prepared them for the string of catastrophes that this earthquake triggered.

In a matter of hours, villages and towns that had been bursting with life and business only a few days ago were completely destroyed. Footage of ships, containers, cars and houses being swept away by the force of the water left me open-mouthed. And just when the survivors were starting to pick themselves up, word got out that not one but four nuclear reactors had been compromised.

Experts were called in and undoubtedly, no resource has been spared to try and cool the plants but even after all this, Japan still has a nuclear crisis on its hands.

There was also the blizzard and at a time when people still don’t have power or even homes to go back to, the last thing they need is snow.

This just reminds me of a proverb from my native Buganda that loosely goes, "Once it starts raining in a poor man’s land, it just won’t stop.” Just after you’ve lost your job, you learn that your wife has cancer and that the plot of land you bought with your life’s savings actually belongs to someone else...

 It’s just one blow after another. As we go to church today, let’s pray that God continues to watch over the people of Japan but also thank Him for sparing us. 

You know, we have our problems here in Africa but we rarely have to deal with extreme weather and disasters of such magnitude.

 I shudder to think what would happen if a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck any African country. Most, if not all buildings would undoubtedly come down, not with the many shortcuts we take when constructing them.

But that aside, do we even know how to respond to such a disaster? How many people even know the first thing you should do is duck under a solid surface, say below a desk or table so you’re not hit by falling debris? Not many I tell you.

By the way, I just learnt from one of the survivors who was interviewed in Japan that if you can, you should open a door or window so you can wave or call to rescuers. You don’t know how long you might be trapped.

Now, assuming the said earthquake triggered a Tsunami, would we detect it? In Japan and many other developed countries, Tsunami alerts are issued regularly. Would anyone warn us of the same? With most of our populations living in remote areas with no electricity, radios, televisions or mobile phones, would they even know what was going on? And if by some stroke of luck they did find out, would they get out of the danger zone in time?

I remember the mudslides in Uganda early last year where it took so long for rescuers to get to would-be survivors on time. Some roads were impassable and rescuers didn’t even have the appropriate equipment to dig people out.

We need to think seriously about these issues because usually, nature doesn’t issue warnings about the wrath it’s about to unleash. We also need to undergo drills, say on how to put out fires or get out of burning buildings.

I see fire extinguishers in many buildings but I don’t know how to use them and I don’t know many people who can.

To be continued...
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