The Accidental Reality

Earlier this morning, CBC Morning broadcasted that an earthquake with a 7.8-8.1 magnitude struck off the northern coast of Japan. Scientists predicted that the earthquake would create a tsunami that would hit Japan's northern islands, and go as far east as Hawaii and Alaska. The CBC reported that the waves could be 1 to 2 metres high. A few hours later, on CBC's website, the waves that hit Japan turned out to be less than half a meter. With the predictions in mind, people on the islands were advised to seek higher ground.

What seems interesting is that with this tsunami and a large reading for an earthquake, the media seemed like it was bracing itself for a repeat of what happened in 2004 when a large tsunami devastated much of south east Asia. Preparation for the possibility of a 2 meter wave can be attributed to scientific instruments in the ocean off the coast of Japan. The CBC said either were not or very few of these in the last tsunami.

It seems that when we prepare ourselves for a huge disaster, it does produce itself in the way we anticipate. We did not anticipate the huge tsunami in 2004 and it caused large amounts of damage. Today, a large earthquake causes a tsunami but because we anticipated it, people survived, and even at that, it was not a devasting tsunami. The worst disasters come when we are not prepared for them: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami of 2004, the bombings of the transit systems in London and in Spain. Even if we are prepared for the eventual disaster, we will grow comfortable with the new security, only for a new disaster to undermine it.