Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Adaptation to frequent natural disasters

A while ago, someone asked me what kinds of natural disasters we have in Canada. I had to think about it for a while before tentatively responding "...ice storms?". I know that there are sometimes hurricanes that hit the East coast (and rarely come further inland) and there are tornadoes sometimes too. These things don't tend to have the same impact as giant earthquakes or typhoons and they lack the frequency of the small earthquakes that serve as a reminder of what will happen some time.

Compared to Japan, Canada (especially Southern Ontario) has relatively few issues with nature. As a result, moving here can create all sorts of little worries about the earthquakes, typhoon and so forth early on.
 
However, one thing I've noticed is how easy it is to get used to the natural disasters that happen here. The first time I felt an earthquake here, I was sleeping. It woke me up and I maybe got a bit concerned, even though it was relatively small. It's pretty startling if you've never really experienced an earthquake before and waking up suddenly can result in some general confusion (especially when the room is shaking).

There were a few like that here in the first few months I moved to Japan. I'd wake up and hit daid in the face because I was startled out of a deep sleep. Now, I hardly notice them most of the time and I've slept through a few. I also experienced the largest earthquake here since 2011 without being especially concerned.
 
Similarly, the first time a typhoon came here, I was worried. The city's safety committee made several announcements in addition to their usual daily announcements and daid's work sent him several emails reminding him to take precautions and assuring him that he didn't have to come into work if it was risky. I made sure to close all the windows and took the clothes drying bar down and all this, but by the time the typhoon got here, it didn't even rain in Tokyo.

The last two typhoons were dubbed "super typhoons" at some point in the media (especially in US sources), but nothing really happened here. We got soaked going to the convenience store and the wind rattled our windows most of last night, but not much really happened otherwise. The one last week meant that some places closed because they didn't want to encourage people to go outside, but it wasn't really bad at all.

While Japan is hit by many typhoons and some people die or are injured by them, most of the injuries tend to be in Okinawa, which is really, really far south and tends to be the first place typhoons headed this way make landfall (and even then, many of the injuries and deaths are to people who do stupid things like standing on the beach photographing the waves or going surfing). By the time a typhoon has made its way through the rest of the archipelago and through the west of the country to get here, it's not nearly so impressive.

Yes, a major earthquake like the one in 2011 could happen again and yes, a typhoon could make landfall on the Kantō plain first. Maybe when one of those happens, I'll get worried again. For now, the typhoons that beat themselves up on the other islands and mountains on their way here and the little day-to-day earthquakes are not especially concerning.

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