Indonesia earthquake
As the news started to come of the indonesia earthquake on friday which was measured 7.5 magnitude followed by a tsunami with waves as high as 20 feet (six meters) which took the life of at least 832 people in the mean time,i felt heartbroken and speechless cause i have experienced what it feels like facing one of the biggest of the natural disaster. it's not something i would like to say but the death toll mentioned will keep adding as the situation is not under control completely, many bodies are trapped under the wreckage,may people are still out of reach of help with no way to communicate. it's going to affect millions of life and the economic condition of the country, people are struggling and scared for their life. from my experience there must still be many aftershocks going one which can be really close and big to the real one.rescuers are trying to save as many lives as possible from debris,they are working through the clock risking their own life to save the life of others,cause you never know when an another big aftershock can come and unsettle the remaining debris and hit the rescuers, its a work that puts their own life in danger but someone has to do it. just wanting to imagine the scene there gives me goosebumps,its something i pray god to never make me experience again. while rescuers are trying to save life crimes like looting are at large. basic and most important thing like water is scarce cause all the fresh water sources are polluted and the companies to treat water cannot open. food and water acts as courage for those who have survived and i hope someone who can help them will do their best.
my experience of the 2015 7.8 magnitude earthquake with the depth of 8.1 km that struck Nepal whose epicenter was really close to the center,kathmandu where I live.
before the aftermath!. it was like any other normal saturday, all schools and offices were closed for the weekend,people were at their home spending time with their family or friends enjoying the day off, the sky was grey and dark. it was a day like any other normal one. i was sitting on the sofa watching MTV catfish then suddenly around 12 am i felt ground shaking a bit at first but i thought i was hallucinating so,I went to look out the window,as i went near the window my mom screamed its a quake and we took another step,the quake intensified,the ground started to shake vigorously,it was hard to even stand and the fact remained we couldn't make it out of the house. where we lived it was crowded with houses,new and old. so,there was a good chance of one falling down on us. we decided to stay in and stood under the door holding it tightly, it took soo much strenght just to stand still. i was watching everything shake like waves in a stormy ocean,the wall,the floor.everything.
the quake seemed like it will never end,that short period felt like a lifetime, mind went blank and the thought if you will make it or not was the most haunting one. i could hear my heart beat faster, the sound of the houses,glass,ground shake was overwhelming, sounded like the trumpet for he end of the world. people were screaming and crying running towards open grounds where there are no buildings.
Finally the moment came when the quake calmed,we went outside of the house and started to call my siblings cause they were elsewhere but the communication was cut,power was cut, so there was no way to communicate but worry, we saw rescue operations immediately take place, then the aftershocks continued, some bigger than 6 magnitude and one even managed to reach 7. but gladly everyone from my family was well and we all gathered together and spend the days outside our homes along with countless others because of the fear of houses falling down. many did fell down near me killing almost everyone inside them .
Aftermath,the news came after a day saying the death toll to be 800+ but actually 8,857 dead in Nepal and 8,964 in total 21,952 injured 3.5 million homeles,destruction of 10 billion USD (about 50% of Nepal's nominal GDP),it affected india,china,bangladesh too. shocks could be felt very far and strongly.it was one of the strongest earthquakes in the history of nepal and the whole world. Nepal still hasn't recovered from that incident and many are still homeless and affected by it, the lack of willingness of the government was clearly visible plus being a developing country put a huge bad impact on all those affected.many of the countries,famous personalities helped nepal,which i hope will be the same for Indonesia.
What to do during an earthquake
don't stay at home
we all have heard people saying "oh you should get under a table or put a pillow on your head during an earthquake or stand underneath the frame of the door," it might me true but not for developing countries like Nepal and Indonesia ,cause we are not rich and developed enough to build houses which are earthquake resistant,they can collapse anytime and rescue might not come on time and be too late. so if you have the time then run like your life depends on it. many of those who passed away in the nepal earthquake decided to stay at home and had the building collapse on them. better cover your head with something and run than to stay at a place that's of no guarantee at all.
Don't panic
during earthquakes or any other people usually panic and which is quite natural reaction but again people panic and try to do something unexpected and get badly hurt or injured which might even lead to death, there have been cases when people jumped off the building and died during quakes, slipping and hitting something,they have lead to many deaths,those people could have survived if they had try to think properly. some even had heart attacks and died because of that. panicking is as much lethal as the houses falling down.
Help yourself first
There is a saying," dead can't help you" so help yourself and get out of the harm's way so that you can be in any condition to help others. you need to be alive and okay if you wanna help someone. yes we should save people for humanity but save yourself first,you can become a hero when you are alive,don't try to become a victim playing the hero but that does't means being and ass. access the situation and act according to that.
how to prepare for a natural disaster like earthquake
before the earthquake i didn't knew what to do at the time of the as such, i was too young, but after the quake i researched and my school taught us how to prepare, all the news were showing how to prepare yourself for such times after the quake. one of the most important thing was to make and emergancy bag with clean clothes to wear, some food which lasts long and bottles of water,first aid,a phone or a satellite phone if possible, some bandages,a whistle and a torchlight ,also some money along with a ID. keep that bag in a place which can be easily accessible while making the run. always have an emergency number on your speed dial list. know the number of ambulances and sos services.
strongly attach drawers,frames,cupboard on the wall with screws or nails,so they might not fall on top of you or cut your escape during the earthquake. many of the injuries and some deaths are cause by the falling of heavy objects at home so learn so to keep them securely attached at their place. this little things can become the biggest problems so it's better to practice them than it's too late and for those who wants to build a house or house spend some more money if you can and make your house earthquake resistant,cause you won't take your money with yourself when you are dead, money can't buy life but life can earn money. always be prepared cause it's a ticking time bomb which explodes without anyone knowing.
participate in drills and events that teaches how to act in situations like that and do rescues,provide first aid. learn from youtube if you want to make use of anything and everything to learn cause in those life threatening situations those knowledge can become a gem, like its said " A stitch on time can save nine" educate people if you have the knowledge and time don't waste it, your few words can save someone.
There are some earthquakes which can be detected few seconds before, so, in developed countries such as usa(california) they have installed a device in the middle of the desert where seismic activities are at large, deep inside the earth so whenever the earthquakes are about to hit they send a warning signal to each and every person's phone few seconds before.this gives them a chance to brace themselves or evacuate before it hits. those kind of devices needs to be installed in places where earthquakes are normal. countries like indonesia nepal sits on the fault line of seismic activities so those devices can save numerous lives.
I am not perfect and i know i must have left some crucial things so feel free to leave them in the comment and i will read it and add it to my post.so comment them in the comment below. thanks for visiting my blog. I'll engage with every comment and upvote them. don't forget to follow me for more. have a good day :)
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