It could have been much worse, but even in a nation that prides itself on being prepared for earthquakes, the 8.9 magnitude temblor that battered Japan was plenty bad enough.
The ingenuity and resilience of mankind faced off against the awesome destructive force of nature - and, of course, humanity got much the worst of it.
The number of lives lost was much smaller than on other days when the Earth's gigantic tectonic plates have shifted miles below the surface.
Deaths may well be measured in the thousands, but not in the hundreds of thousands, as in Haiti last year or in the South Asian tsunami the day after Christmas 2004.
But that is only limited consolation as one of the world's most advanced societies has taken a battering that is a stark reminder both of how powerless even the vast accomplishments of our species can be and of how critical to survival disaster planning is.
The force of the earthquake crumpled buildings, ignited fires, tore up roads, shut trains and plunged Japan into a full-scale nuclear emergency because of damage done to reactors.
Whatever quakeproofing was done on those plants, it plainly wasn't good enough. Not when five reactors at two power plants had technicians and emergency teams scrambling to avert the possibility of a fuel core meltdown.
Long-term, the nuclear industry is likely to suffer an enormous setback and face reasonable demands - both here in our backyard and around the world - for reassurance that, no, it can't happen here.
Tokyo, 240 miles from the epicenter, proved the wisdom of foresight. There, skyscrapers swayed "like trees in the breeze," bemused witnesses told news organizations. They are supposed to sway visibly. They give a little and maintain their structural integrity. They are monuments of human genius.
But worse was coming. The grinding, shifting continental plates tore a gash 186 miles long in the ocean floor and threw a maelstrom of water in every direction - a dreaded tsunami.
This time, mankind was as ready as it could be. Warnings flashed around the Pacific Rim 10 minutes after the temblor. That was fast, amazingly fast. But not fast enough to prepare the nearby Japanese coast.
A seemingly endless mass of water 30 feet high crashed onto the land minutes later, tossing ships and houses, trucks and cars. The land became the sea, and the roaring, rushing ocean carried away all, even burning houses.
And the stunning destruction was there for all the world to see, live on television. Nature has had more spectacularly destructive days, but never one that played out in real time for so many millions of viewers.
What's left now is rescues where they can be made, an enormous cleanup and a reckoning with the supremely destructive power concealed not in the massive core of the Earth, but in nature's tiniest particles.
Cause for awe, indeed, and cause for prayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment