The earthquake and tsunami which followed in Japan over the weekend is the type of catastrophic event that could happen here, and if you don’t think so, then you need only go down to the beach and stare out at the horizon.
A mammoth shake of the earth deep below the surface of the ocean a few hundred miles off our coast like what the Japanese experienced this weekend and the water would be pushed upward and then would fall, thus creating a tsunami wave that pushed water in front of it at 80 miles per hour when it finally hit land.
New England is not immune from earthquakes. We are not in as active an earthquake zone as Japan and the entire Pacific rim but an earthquake could happen here, and a big wave following could happen, and the rest that could happen, well, we’re all watching that with horror on television.
Not only are we on the shoreline but we build right on the shoreline.
The Japanese have just experienced our version of a 250 mile per hour hurricane with 30 foot tides and near to total destruction along the shoreline and inland for about 6 miles.
It is hard to imagine – but it could happen here.
Luckily for us, there are only two nuclear reactors in the immediate region that could possibly melt down in a catastrophe and cause radiation to be a health hazard. The nuclear reactor at Plymouth and in New Hampshire are the closest to us and in such a horrific scenario as earthquake and tsunami, we’d be facing the same set of difficulties or more, as the Japanese building standards for nuclear reactors exceed our own by a wide margin.
What to do?
Not much. All we can really do is pray this won’t happen here.
The other thing we can do is to pray for the Japanese people facing these monstrous burdens to overcome following the disaster that hit over the weekend.
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