Tsunami Warning

Sri Lanka has just breathed a collective sigh of relief last night. Despite official, very high tsunami warnings, the Indian Ocean earthquake last night, which registered 7.9 or 8.4 on the Richter scale, (depending which website you read), did not cause a tsunami. It was the most severe since The 'quake' causing the devastating Tsunami of 2004. We were told to wait 2 hrs, then if nothing materialised the danger would be over. I was getting text messages from NGO wives, passing on info from spouses, and stupidly feeling glad I had passed up the opportunity for a birthday drink at the Galle Face, a hotel overlooking the sea! Such is the irrationality engendered by the word Tsunami. Colombo got flooded right on the beach by about 6 ft in places, but it wasn't a 'life or death' situation here, it was too far round to the south west of the quake zone.

At least there's an early warning system now, but it doesn't bear thinking about, even without loss of life, the devastation that could so easily be wreaked again, at any time, on all the reconstruction and rebuilding of lives, livelihoods and schools etc that my husband, amongst many others, has been involved with these last few yrs. Life does just carry on as normal again, but this warning, I think the 1st since the 2004 Tsunami, is a reminder that it might not.

Still you can't live like that. And I should know, I win medals for my worrying...