Japan quakes

DESPITE suffering a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 Richter on Monday and over 155 smaller tremors and tsunami waves up to one metre high along the Sea of Japan coast till the next day, Japan has come out of the shock relatively safely. Most of the buildings in the affected areas of central and western Japan withstood the jolts. Being the most quake-prone country in the world, it has invested heavily in technology to make its infrastructure quake-proof and establish a quick and efficient response mechanism for such disasters. It updates the mitigating measures after every massive quake. The 1923 disaster had led to the drawing up of the quake-resistant building code. The 2011 one, which sparked a tsunami, leaving over 18,000 dead, provided vital clues to dealing with the double whammy of the earth shaking and sea waves crashing inland.

Clearly, Japan was well equipped to deal with the seismic activity on New Year’s Day. While it did cause fires and buildings to wobble violently, with some collapsing, and roads to crack open, hampering rescue operations, the upheaval was handled well. By Tuesday evening, around 50 people were reported dead and many more injured, even as rescuers — facing challenges due to power outages and disruptions to flights and rail services in the affected region — raced against time to pull out more survivors of the catastrophe. Nearly one lakh people were evacuated to sports halls and school gymnasiums that double up as emergency evacuation buildings.

India has much to learn from Japan. The lessons range from quake preparedness to a prompt response mechanism, including issuing timely alerts. Most significantly, it is about not compromising with building bylaws related to quake resistance.

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