Dreading the dreadful:

I’m not a fanatically religious person but certain events taking place worldwide are chilling me down to the bones, leaving me bewildered about the greater forces at work in the Universe.
Frankly, I’m a bit spooked.
Deadly tsunamis, volcano eruptions, shattering earthquakes, powerful hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons, tornados, massive flooding, famines and other weather-related extremities that have caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.
There seems to be a certain pattern of such calamities of late and the impact they are having on human lives and on development.
Based on what scientists and their super-computers are predicting, the worst is yet to come.
I’m sure the Christians among us would say that we’re living in the end times and all these are just signs of the nearing of Doomsday.
The non-believers, however, might argue that numerous catastrophic events have occurred in history with even more disastrous consequences on human life than what we’ve been seeing over the last few decades.
Listed at the top of the ten most deadliest natural disasters in recorded history is the Yellow River Flood in China in 1931 which claimed between 1,000,000-4,000,000 lives. The Yellow River flood also claimed between 900,000 -2,000,000 in 1887 and again in 1938, its death toll was between 500,000-900,000 lives.
Closer to the current era, there was the 1970 Bhola cyclone in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh which claimed between 500,000-1,000,000 lives; in 1976, the death toll from the Tangshan earthquake in China was put at over 242,000 and more recently, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami which claimed over 230,000 lives in a wink.
When the latter occurred, I remember thinking that we were like ants in the Universe, so powerless, against such brutal forces.
Some of the catastrophic events in our current day are being blamed on climate change; others such as earthquakes on the fault lines passing beneath countries such as Indonesia and Peru.
Maybe too, the massive flooding that we’ve been seeing over recent weeks as a result of the Monsoon rains in Bangladesh and India that left hundred dead and millions displaced is really because of poor drainage and blocked canals leading to rivers and seas.
Closer home and still in the news is Hurricane Dean, the first Hurricane of the 2007 hurricane season but what a circling mass of power and rage in the form of winds and rains it turned out to be.
Although not directly slamming into Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, its close brush with the countries left several persons dead, destroying homes, buildings, agricultural plantations and setting back development.
Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago and other countries in the Caribbean might have been spared Hurricane Dean but who knows what is going to happen over the next few months since the hurricane season doesn’t end until November.
Globally, 2006 consumed 31,000 lives in terms of catastrophes and US$ 48 billion in losses.
Also consider that between 1970-2006, five out of ten major disasters occurred in 2004-2005 with eight of the ten being weather related.
That really says something, doesn’t it?
Two weeks ago, an earthquake measuring 8 in magnitude hit the central coast of Peru killing over 500 and destroying about 85,000 homes.
Scientists in our part of the region have talked about an over-due massive earthquake that will rock this part of the earth and tsunamis that will undoubtedly take place.
Our regional scientists have said that if a massive earthquake should strike or a powerful hurricane slams directly into our countries, there will be massive devastation and loss of many lives.
Frightening, to say the least.
But the best we can do with all this doom and gloom prediction all around us, is to be prepared – and according to the experts, we can start by accessing possible risks to our family and our homes and take mitigative action.  
But who is ensuring that our houses and public buildings are being constructed, according to legal requirements, to at least withstand the moderate earthquakes and hurricanes?
In the aftermath of the1999 Izmit earthquake in Turkey which measured 7.4 in magnitude, a number of land and building contractors were arrested and charged with constructing illegal housing and homes which collapsed like cards, according to witnesses. Some 17,480 people died and 23,983 were injured.
I visited Turkey days after the earthquake and remembered the photographs in the Hurriyet newspaper of the illegal buildings that collapsed while those that were built, according to the construction codes remained intact.
In fact, the Turkish Chamber of Commerce estimated at the time that 65 percent of all buildings in Turkey were constructed without a permit or without regard to building codes.
Grenada learnt a painful and expensive lesson from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and have been trying to rebuilt stronger homes and buildings.
Ivan damaged nine out of ten private homes in Grenada, devastated the tourism industry,  and destroyed 90 percent of the country?s nutmeg trees ? formerly mainstays of the economy. 
Altogether, the losses amounted to 200 percent of Grenada?s gross domestic product.
Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were also hit by Ivan causing losses totaling more than US$3.4 billion.
In 2000, the UN launched the international early warning programme to address the underlying causes of vulnerability and to build disaster-resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of disaster reduction, with the goal of reducing human, economic and environmental losses due to hazards of all kinds.
It was established in 2003 but developed increasing importance a year later when the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami was triggered by an earthquake which registered a magnitude of 9.3, the second largest in recorded history.
A tsunami warning system has now been set up in the Indian Ocean to alert bordering nations of any impending dangers.
Early warning systems such as these are now widely recognised as worthwhile and  necessary investments to help save lives.
According to the UN, coupled with humanitarian aid and better preparedness, the warning systems have slashed the number of people dying from famine, saving 2 million lives over the last 20 years.
In 2004, millions of people in the Americas and Asia were evacuated when tropical storms struck, undoubtedly saving thousands of lives.
In the Caribbean, early warnings systems are also being put in place.
The seismic research unit, part of the University of the West Indies is pressing ahead with plans to establish a tsunami warning system for the Caribbean and adjacent areas.
Communication has also improved. Disaster preparedness agencies publish tips and strategies at the start of the hurricane season to ensure that people take the necessary action to keep their homes and their families as safe as possible.
There’s also frequent advertisements on radio, television and newspapers on what to do in the event of an earthquake.
During the recent hurricane Dean, countries such as Jamaica and St Lucia appealed to residents to take safer lodgings in stronger shelters opened to them by the government.
Various disaster preparedness and emergency management offices throughout the Caribbean including those that were not in the path of Hurricane Dean kept a close track and passed on timely information to the media to impart to the rest of the country.
The Met office in Trinidad did a fantastic job, monitoring Dean even before it reached the Caribbean, with numerous updates and later bulletins on where it was headed.
Although we may not have control over hurricanes and earthquakes, the very least we can do, is to prepare the best that we could. And leave the rest up to God, as we tend to say in the Caribbean.