Small quakes no big deal - ODPEM director

WESTERN BUREAU:

Ronald Jackson, director general in the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), is once again urging Jamaicans not to panic whenever they feel small earthquakes (tremors).

Jackson was responding to questions raised during a Gleaner Editors'Forum held at the Rose Hall Resort and Spa in Montego Bay, St James last Thursday.

He was speaking in the wake of earth tremors felt in sections of Manchester and St Elizabeth last Wednesday.

Disaster management experts attending the forum said scientists have insisted that there is no such thing as an earth tremor, instead they should be considered small earthquakes.

Jackson said he was not concerned with the frequency of such quakes, but he was concerned with the seismicity of the island and how critical facilities are sited, arguing whether or not existing infrastructure is built to withstand disasters of certain magnitudes.

"Small earthquakes don't concern me because it is a release of the stress and energy levels that are built up whenever the earth is sliding. We need to have these frequent and periodic smaller releases. If not, we might get a big one," Jackson explained.

150-200 tremors

He said Jamaica experiences between 150 and 200 small earthquakes annually, adding that three-quarters of them are not felt. Against this background, Jackson said there was no need for persons to panic.

"We have to begin to accept that we live with risks. We have lived with risks most of our lives. We have to learn enough about the hazards that we interact with and learn how we can mitigate. What we can't mitigate and control we should develop an understanding of how we respond to them," he said.

Admitting that earthquakes are the most catastrophic and devastating of all the hazards, Jackson said Jamaica had not applied a modern legislative building code in constructing most of its buildings. Against that background, he asserted that no one knows which of those buildings they are likely to be in, in the event of a disaster.

"If we are, we need to know how to react when disaster strikes. That is where we would like to promote knowledge and practice. I think that would lend us in good stead if we are caught off guard," noted Jackson.