Final Earthquake Observations

This next-to-last post summarizes the main lessons learned from our five-month visit to earthquake regions around the world.  Below I have outlined recurring themes that made an impression on me.

Communication was the biggest problem at all levels. Communication towers were damaged and power was out so that cell phones were ineffective. The government and utility providers could not help immediately. Some rural villages did not see help for a month.  This meant that banks could not operate so trading became a norm in the countryside. 

Stress was still intense near the earthquake epicenters even after one or two years.  People tried to move on with their lives, but they were weary, tired of how long it was taking to get things back to normal.  In fact, life will likely never be completely normal for the people directly affected by these large quakes in Concepcion, Chile, Christchurch New Zealand, and Dechato/Fukashima, Japan.

People needed people and families needed to come together. Grown kids moved in with their parents; neighbors came together, and shelters filled. In addition, many people were called away, leaving family behind. I encountered mothers who were on their own for weeks as their husbands were on rescue/recovery missions or repairing lifeline systems.

Those who recovered emotionally the best were the ones who’d helped others. One man who owned a water truck provided water to his village and told me if he hadn’t helped his village, he couldn’t have survived emotionally.

After the earthquakes, the recovery decisions are huge; how do you provide social care, do you rebuild or repair, what do you do with the debris, how do you keep businesses open, etc.?

Earthquakes can shift patterns permanently. For instance, large neighborhoods of Christchurch and Japan will never be rebuilt because the threat of the next earthquake.  In Concepcion, a city near the epicenter of the Chile earthquake experienced a shift from mom and pop stores to big box stores.  Big box stores (Lidar, owned by Walmart) had the resources to take the temporary hit and stay open with products, but the small stores could not. In the interim while small stores tried to get up and going again, people’s habits changed; they began using the big box stores and never went back to the small, neighborhood stores.  New Zealand combated this by subsidizing downtown businesses and providing temporary storefronts made from shipping containers.  In Christchurch a mall was literally built up out of shipping containers!

Final Trip Wrap-up

Our sabbatical was 151 days long from January 1 and ended May 29, 2013.  We visited seven countries, Chile, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, Denmark and Norway.  Over this period we moved around a lot, visiting different regions within the countries we visited and slept in 50 different beds!  We can pretty much sleep anywhere now!

My favorite places were the Chilean Patagonia region around Puente Arenas and Torres del Paine. The area was just beautiful and our boys were with us which made it really special.  Next on the list has to be the Routeburn Track in New Zealand.   This three-day hike across the mountains in southern New Zealand was just spectacular. The scenery and cherry blossoms in Japan would also have to be on the top ten list! The most challenging time was in Tokyo.  I just could not get comfortable there. I suppose the language barrier was just to high to live there for an extended time.

It was striking to me how much in common humanity has throughout the world. The social issues facing countries wherever we were focused around the migration of young people from rural to urban areas, how to support aging populations, and energy and water woes. 

I suppose it is our age, but regardless of where we were the conversation seemed to always drift to retirement age and pensions, taxes, and health care.  Although these issues were very common topics of conversation, the solutions that nations took were very different.  There certainly is NOT a one-size fits all solution to any of them nor are any of the solutions perfect!

The kindness and generosity of the people we met was overwhelming.  We were treated to countless dinners out and in friends homes, friends ferried us back and forth to the airports and played tour guide time and time again.  We are grateful to so many people that made our trip go smoothly and kept it interesting! 

We missed good coffee, beer and cheese!