Earthquake in Japan

There has been a lot of talk about the earthquake that devastated Japan. I have not been wanting to comment on it because although I feel horrible about what happened and I am saddened for all that everyone has had to go through since the earthquake, I felt that anything I would say would be useless and just overlooked.

This has been going through my head ever since, until I got an email from my boss with a link to ABC News with aerial before and after pictures of areas effected by the earthquake. In some, entire landscapes are changed, in others, entire villages are wiped out. (If going to the link above on the photos move your cursor from right to left to see the picture change from before to after). I spent a good half-hour looking at these pictures and looking at the changes and thinking of how that changed the people. How did they deal with that? How prepared were they?

This kind of thing TERRIFIES me! Why? Why wouldn't it? I live in Vancouver, we're expected to either have our own earthquake or share in on the predicted 9.0 earthquake slated to hit California and it's supposed to hit anytime between right now to as far as 200 years from now. Not to mention what could happen if they don't prepare our structures and infrastructures to withstand a quake in time.

All this combined with the pictures of Japan made me think, "How am I going to deal with this? Am I prepared? How would that change ME? Even more so, forget me, what about me family, friends, or even my dog? So take this as a time to step back as a reminder to be prepared for this yourself, have a plan for you and your friends and family so you can all contact each other or meet up so you don't have to go days or weeks wondering what's happened to them.

Look at those pictures and think of that as your hometown, put yourself in their position. After all, you never know when you will be.