This coming Wednesday apparently there will be a tsunami drill throughout the Caribbeans. Apparently this was scheduled long ago and has nothing to do with the recent horrifying tragedy in Japan (boy did I go through tons of youtube videos last week - morbid curiosity got the best of me).
According to the French newspaper here, 10% of tsunamis that occurred in the last 500 years have taken place in the Caribbeans, claiming more than 3,500 lives since 1842. Woah. That gave me pause.
The thing is that there is no tsunami alert system here - not like those unending sirens and calls to higher ground that you can hear on the Japanese videos. The newspaper says that it's the role of the radio to inform the public if there is a tsunami alert. I gotta remember to turn on the radio more often here.
Of course the other thing is that there isn't much "higher ground" on St Martin - by French law, buildings cannot go higher then 3 storeys. There ain't much "inner land" here where we live either - we live in the stretch of land between the sea and the lagoon. Even if we had enough warning to think "let's go over to the high rises on the overdeveloped Dutch side" - who are we kidding? The traffic that will ensue will get us nowhere.
The events in Japan also made me think - these people lost everything - so is it better to have had it all and have enjoyed it (whatever "it" is) then have lost it, or is it better to never have had much at all, so that you do not have much to lose and mourn? I'm at two minds about this (and trifling and irreverent as it may seem, yes it has something to do with that Hello Kitty Beach Bag purchase I have been deferring)...
Better not to think about it. I am rather hopeful that the series of so many natural disasters we've seen in the last couple of years is coming to an end...
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