Saturday, an earthquake with magnitude of 8.8 shattered Chile. The death toll has risen to 723 people, and looting in towns without food, water, or electricity has risen along with it. The south-central coast of Chile, closest to the epicenter of the earthquake, has suffered the hardest. Many were not prepared for tsunami and returned after the earthquake to find themselves caught up in storm hitting in three waves. Screams followed by silence were the sounds heard by the citizens of this area of the country. 10,000 homes are uninhabitable, hundreds more destroyed, and 180,000 homeless. Port captains who called warnings saved hundreds of lives, but the navy made a huge mistake by not immediately activating a tsunami warning. Right now Chile is asking for temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, damage assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centers. The United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru have already sent aid.
With the recent massive snow storms in the eastern United States, many have lost their belief in global warming. According to poll by Yale and George Mason University, since 2008, the number of people who don’t believe in global warming has doubled. Also, the number of those alarmed by the prospect of climate change and the number of those concerned about climate change have both dropped. In light of recent events, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, past winner of the Nobel Prize, is under attack and its procedures are being reviewed. Al Gore acknowledges that mistakes have been made, but science can be never be completely free of mistakes. He has also pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere – thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions.
Early Sunday February 28th, the storm Xynthia crashed through concrete sea walls, flooding ports and destroying homes. Sixty-two people across Western Europe were killed and 1 million left without electricity. The storm ravaged France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and parts of Germany. About half of the French death toll was due to the crumbling of the sea walls. France’s railways faced long delays, and one of Europe’s most important airports at Frankfurt faced continual cancellations. The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, promised $4 million in emergency aid, asked the interior and ecology ministries to draw up a report of what happened, and tried to staunch the criticism of the state of the sea walls. Yet, the sea wall that broke dated back to the reign of Napolean. Also, in Portugal, a massive mudslide in the Azores swept a school bus into a ravine, killing several.
Three Similarites:
1) All three were natural occurrences.
2) In each occurrence, there were actions that could have been taken to prevent them from happening, but they were left undone.
3) All three have an essence of the Apocalypse to come.
From the article on the European storm: “We have to ask how in France, in the 21st century, families can be surprised in their sleep and drown in their homes,” he said.
Even great people have the “it won’t happen to me” attitude and are shocked when tragedy befalls them. In the case of President Sarkozy, he could have taken steps to secure the sea walls long ago, but he never thought a disaster like this would wash up on his shore. Just like in the case of 9/11, the United States didn’t think it could happen to her. The French can be wiped out from the comfort of their own beds, and the Americans can be murdered from their cushy office chairs. It could happen to anyone, yet administrations today still remain unprepared for the downfalls to come.
