Miami Earthquake Essay

Human life stolen and washed away. Massive confusion, disbelief, destruction and death - all resulting from an instantaneous catastrophic natural event. A tsunami initiated by the movement of fault slips between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. This calamity has been marked as one of the most expensive natural disasters to date.

On March 11th, 2011 an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 hit the east coast of Honshu, Japan. This earthquake was the largest one to ever strike the island and has been the fourth largest in the world in recorded history (Geophysical Research, 2012). The secondary damage that followed the earthquake was a massive tsunami, which also caused a nuclear crisis. This disaster resulted in nearly 20,000 deaths,

Advance planning and preparation can be the difference between life and death in the event of a catastrophe like a tsunami. Such a strategy takes money and time in itself. Governments are restricted by economics and resources available, including relationships with other world governments. These realities must be weighed against the needs of families, schools, workplaces and the wider communities. Not having an evacuation plan can put the community at immediate risk for injury and long term economic and health threats. Often “grass root” responses are the easiest and most accepted. Rather than a government manual the people may never see or understand communities may plan within their own local government appropriate and effective evacuation policies and procedures. Some things that could be beneficial for a successful evacuation plan are to go over practice drills so everyone in the community will know where to go for safety during a tsunami, ensure there is a warning system and signals put in place prior to a tsunami and making sure all members of the community are educated on