Tsunami lessons unlearned
It would be easy to blame distant politicians and bureaucrats for the abject lack of preparedness exposed when one of the world’s most earthquake and tsunami-prone nations, Indonesia, was again cruelly smitten. So let’s do that.
Because part of Indonesia’s post-quake, posttsunami suffering is the result of idiocy. The warning system involving buoys connected to the sea floor, which had been set up following the 250,000-fatality 2004 Boxing Day disaster that struck a dozen nations, had been allowed to deteriorate from vandalism, theft and lack of maintenance.
A newer, improved prototype system of undersea seismometers and pressure sensors that would have increased the warning times for Sulawesi had been stalled through inter-agency infighting and purse-lipped protection of budgets rather than people.
This abject lack of commitment came in part from the seemingly practical notion that an earthquake of sufficient size and duration is, itself, all people should need by way of fair and urgent warning.
To be quite that fatalistic would be rather more defensible if, at least, a sustained system of public education on this point had been shown to be effective.
As if.
Reports make clear that many people shocked by the quake gave scant thought to the prospects of that deadly surge of water. They were still milling around Sulawesi shorelines when waves were visibly approaching.
This may seem staggering to New Zealanders where the advice to anyone living near the coast, as so many of us do, comes in the most childishly memorable of rhymes. All together now: if it’s long or strong . . . get gone. Right. And the goodish news is that nine in 10 of those of us who took part in an official disaster preparedness survey early this year answered correctly. You have to be a tad concerned about the remaining 10 per cent. But not only that, because the survey also indicated a discomforting drop in the number of people who have in the past year taken the maybe five minutes or so to run over what to do during and after a quake or tsunami with, say, their families.
A more vigilant approach to earthquake readiness, evident in the pained aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes, has been showing signs of perceptible decline lately.
We need to be clear on the distinction between, on the one hand, having a pretty good level of understanding of what kinds of disasters could occur, what the effects could be, what we should do about it, and on the other hand confronting the rather less pleasing indications of how many of us haven’t really got around to doing the little pieces of planning and preparation we sagely agree we should. So then, what should be done?
How about a national earthquake and tsunami exercise, some time soon?
Take a gold star if you found that question redundant. Because it’s already lined up for October 18. And, it’s not some therapeutic spasm of activity prompted by the Indonesian tragedy. It’s called ShakeOut, it’s nothing terribly innovative, or demanding, and it’s been long planned.
The operational effectiveness of our own national emergency planning systems remains a matter of frequent high-level assessment and rightly so. But a far easier, more straightforward lesson to be drawn from our Pacific neighbours is one that applies to us as individuals, to take the minimal effort to engage with the ShakeOut exercise.