Editorial | Warnings from Venezuela

Last week’s earthquake in Venezuela, which may have killed tens of thousands of people, is a horrific reminder of the dangers when you live atop, or near, tectonic fault lines that tend to jostle each other.  At some point, there is going to be a major slippage of the plates, resulting in a major earthquake.
Jamaica is in such a position. The island exists in an active earthquake zone where the Caribbean Plate meets the North American Plate, with a complex web of fault lines across the island.
Fortuitously, despite many threatening or attention-grabbing shocks in recent times, Jamaica has been spared a major or catastrophic earthquake in nearly 120 years. But experts warn that it is not if, but when, the next ‘big one’ will happen.
While it is almost impossible to predict timelines, recent seismic activity, nearby and elsewhere in the region, is a call for Jamaica to be vigilant. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), apart from what it does internally, must expand its earthquake preparedness public education campaign.
The agency has, in recent times, improved its public-facing discussion of earthquakes and how they occur. That is good. But the messaging lacks a sense of urgency, failing to find the balance between preventing panic while capturing a real sense of what might happen if the ‘big one’ hits and how, in the event, Jamaicans should respond.
After the devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti in 2010 that killed an estimated 220,000 people, there was a clear stirring in Jamaica with respect to earthquake education and preparedness.  The intensity slackened, but regained some momentum.  Venezuela insists on shifting to a new, higher gear. 
HIGH RISK
Like Jamaica, Venezuela is a high-risk earthquake zone, sitting atop where the Caribbean Plate meets, and sliding east past the South American Plate is their seismic jostling.  Sometimes the encounter leads to big earthquakes.
Prior to last week’s events, the previous big earthquake in Venezuela was 59 years ago in 1967 – a 6.6 magnitude shake in Caracas and nearby regions that left more than 200 people dead and over 1,500 injured.
What happened with last Wednesday’s earthquake, whose epicentre just west of Caracas, was, experts say, highly unusual. Usually, there is a heavier earthquake followed by milder aftershocks over minutes or days.
In this case, a massive 7.2 magnitude shock occurred in the early evening. This was followed 39 seconds later by an even bigger 7.5 magnitude shake.
It was big like a so-called double-tap in war, where an adversary fires bombs at a target then sends another wave just when rescuers were likely to be responding to the first assault.
In Venezuela’s case, the first shake damaged and weakened buildings and other infrastructure.  The second and more powerful shock caused many to panic crushing people trying to escape or attempting to help others.
So far, nearly 1,500 people have been confirmed dead in Venezuela, but more than 60,000 remain unaccounted for. It is expected that many bodies will eventually be pulled from beneath the rubble.
LESSONS
There are lessons Jamaica must learn from Venezuela, not least of which is awareness. There is no place for complacency. The ‘big one’ will happen.
The issue is how to make the island’s population as ready as possible for when it happens, without a descent into panic or national disorder.
The authorities must periodically conduct earthquake simulations, instructing people on what to do and how the State will respond in a worst-case scenario. For example, should an earthquake trigger a tsunami, what will be the alert and how will specific communities be expected to respond? 
Those instructions must be clear and often repeated. And the mechanism must be in place, tested, primed and ready for use when necessary.
Further, The Gleaner has in the past proposed an updated analysis of the earthquake survivability of Jamaica’s older buildings and what ought to be done to improve their safety.  The Editorial Board repeats that call.
The relative boom in high-rise construction in recent years also amplifies the safety issues and demands vigorous oversight from regulatory authorities. Developers can’t be allowed to cut corners.
In a massive 2023 earthquake in Türkiye, a slew of relatively new high-rises, which supposedly met new earthquake codes, collapsed. It was determined that a corrupt system allowed developers to circumvent regulatory requirements. This must not be allowed. Lives are at stake.
But it is not only the structural integrity of high-rise buildings that is in issue. There are questions of whether they are designed with, and have, critical disaster response systems and mechanisms, and what is the capacity of the State, in this new environment, to respond to crises.