HOW WOULD AUSTRALIANS HANDLE AN EARTHQUAKE LIKE THE JAPAN QUAKE?

Figure 1 Accessed from Google Images

Last weekend was the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in northern Japan.  Indeed 2011 was a dramatic year for natural disasters; floods and cyclones in Queensland, heat waves in Western Australia and Victoria, Earthquakes in Christchurch. In all, Australia pulled together to take these home disasters head on and I believe that we overcame the effects that nature could throw at us.  But not only did we have our hands full with our own disasters, but we also gave a helping hand to our neighbours’ in New Zealand, and we also sent our emergency services and military to help out in the tsunami affected areas of Japan. It was a proud time to be Australian, and I strongly believe that once again we showed the world what we are truly made of.

There was a story on Ninemsn last Saturday that warned of the real possibility of an earthquake hitting the Tokyo area. Japan scientists warned that ‘Tokyo is a city of 35 million people and is built on the intersection of four tectonic plates. The scientists believe Tokyo has a 50% chance of suffering a major earthquake, above a magnitude of 7.0, in the next four years’. The scientists estimate that 6400 people would be killed, 160000 people would be injured, 471000 homes and builds would be destroyed, 96 million tonnes of waste generated and would have an economic cost of 1.45 trillion dollars (Ninemsn 2012).

I then sat back and thought how would we in Australia handle such a disaster, considering our past natural disaster efforts; and how such an event in Japan would affect us in Australia and the rest of the world? The natural disasters that we have been exposed to in the past two years have happen over a vast area of the continent and over a period of time. There were also minimal fatalities compared to the Japanese earthquakes. I have no doubt that the Australian spirit would prevail, but how long would it take for the shock of the event to subside before we mobilised? The mud army mobilised in Brisbane after last year’s floods but in the aftermath of the clean-up it was realised that there were quite a few OHS issues that should have been addressed before the mud army was put to work, such as the asbestos risk. Luckily for many, the asbestos sheeting was still wet. After an earthquake the damage is a total different story with partially damaged buildings that are structurally unsound, people both alive and deceased trapped within buildings and rubble, hazards from building materials. You just can’t send the mud army in to clean it all up. What would our attitude be after a period of time?

Figure 2 Accessed from Google Images

The predicted cost should a greater than a  category 7.0 earthquake occur in the Tokyo area would be 1.45 trillion dollars. In the current world financial climate, surely this burden would cripple Japans economy for quite a period of time, and dramatically effect global financial markets.

Japan has 54 nuclear power plants, some within the bounds of Tokyo itself. In the event of a similar earthquake as occurred in northern Japan, what would the effect be on the population of Tokyo if a similar meltdown was to occur?

As I procrastinated on this I ended up with more questions than answers. One question that I am confident that I could answer was that Australians wouldn’t let each other down in a disaster no matter how devastating it may be.  

I look forward to your responses.

References:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8432008/quake-researchers-warn-of-tokyos-big-one