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if the truck is a'rockin

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Today at the ward office building where I take Japanese lessons, we were taken for a three-part earthquake expo. The first part involved getting violently shaken in the back of a specially-made truck that simulates a very strong (magnitude 7) earthquake.

If you're from a geologically stable country like Canada (okay, Haida Gwaii notwithstanding*) it's a real eye-opener to see how disasterously instable your home can get.

The next portion was a demonstration of how to use a fire extinguisher (which we don't own). Very helpful, and edifying -- those things pack quite a kick!

The last part was a dramatic educational film on how prevention can help out enormously during a big quake. In it (a three-D show for which we wore glasses made from polarized plastic) one family comes through relatively unscathed while in the less-prepared family ... let's just say that the baby winds up in the hospital and the house winds up in ashes.

It's taught me that a number of the things I take for granted here are false and that I have to start taking better care of how I store things.

*Haida Gwaii, or the Queen Charlotte Islands, is one of the most earthquake-prone places on Earth. When speaking of Canada you just know the word notwithstanding is going to edge in somewhere.