Since Monday’s severe earthquake I’m not myself. I toss and turn at night. I get up almost every hour to check on the children, and my imagination works in overdrive. What if? What if it were closer to home? How do I protect my family? Obviously there are no answers. Then I realized. It must be fear. The reason is that you can’t yet predict earthquakes, and there is really no way to protect your family or yourself when such powerful earthquake strikes.
The thought that something could come at virtually any time, with no warning, and strike with such awesome force, causing total destruction in a matter of a few seconds in such a wide spread area is simply too much to take.
I don’t clearly remember being afraid of anything. Surely I was afraid of the dark when I was three, and the monster in the closet. But in all seriousness, I can’t recall the sensation. I’m fine during the day. But at night it creeps back. The uncertainty, the “what ifs”, the wild imagination.
As I’m following this amazing story, I realize that human suffering is only part of it. Large as it is. Nature is changing as well. Lakes are being formed, rivers are changing their course. Dams have been damaged, and so were nuclear facilities. It seems that this earthquake is going to have some serious future effects outside the total destruction and the unbelievable loss of life and misery it has caused already.
A river has been blocked by landslides. As a result, two lakes have been formed. People in the area are fleeing out of fear that the lakes will overflow and flood the their villages and towns. Many thousands of people are running out of harms way (read story). Imagine that. A river that must choose another way. How often do we witness this phenomenon? Almost never. The Qingzhu river in Beichuan county is no longer the river it used to be. Its course will change, its old course will be deserted.
I can’t help thinking. In thirty seconds, the earth moved in a way that made more changes to the environment, than years of pollution can possibly make. Food for thought…
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