EARTHQUAKE, TSUNAMI, RAVAGE JAPAN

Friday, March 11, 2011, Japanese time 2.46, Indian time 11.27AM. Busy office hours. A black friday in the history of Japan. A black day in the history of the world.
A massive earthquake showing 8.9 on the richter scale, followed by a mind-boggling towering tsunami ravaged Japan. Giant Tsunami waves rose more than 20 metres lashed Japan, drowning even multi-storeyed buildings cities as a whole washed away vehicles caught in the Tsunami waves even boats and ships and small planes could be seen floating, three to four trains disappeared, communication and electric lines snapped, the entire world watched aghast all flashed across the visual media. Breaking news flashed across televisions showing the minutest details, a whole nation being devastated by earthquake and giant tsunami waves.
Refineries caught fire and tongues of flames and smoke billowed out into the sky, it was a difficult task to douse the flames at a critical juncture like it. Nuclear power plants were closed to reduce the damage due to radiation to the minimum and at first the news spread out that everything was okay with the nuclear power plants. Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s statement bore testimony to it.
A day after compounding the miseries a closed nuclear plant exploded in Fukushima and of late more meltdowns followed nuclear radiation spread out reportedly injuring more than sixty persons uptill now. In order to minimus radiation deaths and injuries, more than two and half lakh people were evacuated to safer places and a nuclear emergency was declared in the country by Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
It is reported lately that approximately 10,000 persons have been killed at a particular place, more than tens of thousands of persons are missing. These are official estimates and we can very well estimate and come to a conclusion of the number of lives lost will cross lakhs and lakhs of deaths.
The nuclear plant disaster reminds one of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Soviet Union 25 years ago the intensity too might match the Chernobyl blasts, coming days would reveal the clear picture. Moreover the Japanese nuclear disaster is a warning lesson to countries like India which do have nuclear plants and which are eagerly in the pursuit of installing more and more nuclear plants in the nook and cranny of the respective nations without adopting safety standards. Furthermore before nature’s fury even safety standards seem limited, disaster management could only help reduce the calamities.
The Japanese developments have overshadowed many other issues of importance across the world and that’s natural.
Nature strikes unexpectedly, when it strikes, it strikes hard anywhere no device worth nullifying earthquake calamities discovered so far and if such a device were discovered, much of the disasters due to earthquakes could have been taken alleviated.
What all we know about is that Japan like Indonesia is a seismic prone area and earthquakes and Tsunami can ravage it anytime the only corrective measure worth taking is in case of such disasters, maximum remedial measures anticipating such natural fury need be taken. Japan already must have taken such steps the Japanese people are dynamic, enterprising and hard working and in spite of taking all measures, before nature’s fury anything could happen anytime.