Tokyo (CNN) -- The light bulb above our dining room table begins to swing. The windows rattle. The table shakes. Then the whole room shudders, the walls vibrating violently. A vase of flowers wobbles on a top shelf. Glasses clink. Theres a loud rumble and a roar. Then the bookshelf tears loose from the wall, scattering books everywhere, before we hear a shattering crash. Then comes silence. But not for long. A few seconds later the floor begins to buck. The walls bulge. The room jumps up and down and moves from side to side. Crockery starts flying through the air. I dive under the table, hold a cushion over my head, shut my eyes and start laughing. When I open them I see Tokyo collapse in front of my eyes. Then a buzzer sounds and an instructor comes into the room. My disaster preparedness instructor bends down and looks at me cowering under the table. Shes pleased with my performance. Well done, you survived your first earthquake, she says with a smile. Not bad for a beginner. Tokyo has a number of unusual and relatively unknown attractions -- the worlds only tapeworm museum and a noodle museum housing the worlds largest collection of pot noodle cartons come to mind. But only one tourist site has been declared an official disaster zone. Tokyo Earthquake Simulation Center visitors learn emergency first aid and how to protect themselves after a quake. The Tokyo Earthquake Simulation Center is located on the fourth floor of the citys Ikebukuro Bosai-kan fire station. Its open to the public and theres no charge to experience two minutes of terrifying tremors. Residents of Tokyo are required to attend courses to enhance their disaster preparedness awareness, says my instructor. Children and salarymen all come to learn what to do in the event of an earthquake. The computer-controlled earthquake mimics a quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale. There are 50,000 reported earthquakes in the world every year. They vary in seismic intensity. No area of the earth is entirely free from the threat, although some areas are more active than others. Japan has had more than 60 major quakes, with the first recorded in 684. The 2011 Tohoku quake registered a 9.0 magnitude and claimed nearly 16,000 lives. The worlds biggest earthquake is believed to have been the 1960 Valdiva Quake in Chile, which was a 9.5. The quake that hit California in 1906 and ruptured a 70-mile length of the San Andreas fault was an 8. Other big ones have hit in Lisbon in 1755, New Madrid, Missouri in 1811 and Alaska in 1899. The Lisbon quake -- which killed at least 60,000 people -- was so powerful that the water in Loch Lomond in Scotland oscillated for two minutes. A serious earthquake with accompanying aftershocks is simulated every half hour every day except weekends and Tuesdays at Tokyos Life Safety Learning center. There are similar centers in Tachikawa and Honjo. The Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake brought about catastrophic devastation, my disaster preparedness tutor tells me. We must all learn safety measures so we know what to do in such an emergency. It might save our own life and the lives of others. Here we learn how to behave during a catastrophe. How to keep a cool head and a calm body. Our programs improve all-round earthquake skills. The center has a permanent exhibition to the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. On September 1, 74,000 people died in seven seconds. Fifty-four percent of the brick buildings and 10% of all reinforced-concrete structures collapsed. One percent of the citys houses were destroyed and 700,000 homes were burned down. The shock started a tsunami tidal wave that reached a height of 36 feet at Atami on Sagama Bay, where it destroyed a further 150 houses and killed 60 more people ....
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 08:42:00 +0000
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