Following my earlier blog about the tragedy in Haiti, I would recommend you reading this excellent article from David Brooks in the New York Times.
Also worth looking at is an important piece in The Wall Street Journal.
Both articles provide food for thought and make the case for a different approach for aid.
The Great English Earthquake.
ReplyDeleteIn our - still! - temperate climate we are relatively free of natural disasters, so it is seldom recalled that the British Isles have been afflicted by hundreds of earthquakes over the past 1000 years; not all of these were in distant times either.
The Great English Earthquake was actually the great Essex earthquake, since, thought its effects were felt across UK, France and Belgium, the epicentre was in villages around Colchester, Essex.
This, often forgotten, tragedy of April 22, 1884, caused huge damage at its epicentre. The damage and shock waves of this were felt all over Essex. There was remarkably very little loss of life, though there is evidence that the press and authorities played down the issue of resultant injuries and death in order to minimise panic. Though panic there certainly was during this earthquake, with people running screaming through the streets of Colchester and villages at the epicentre.
In total the earthquake is recorded as damaging around 1200 buildings in that, thankfully, sparsely populated region; though records of damage in the remote countryside of deepest Essex are unlikely to be accurate. We know that the small town of Wivenhoe was razed to the ground, with almost every building destroyed and that the village of Abberton suffered similarly. The medieval church and other buildings in Langenhoe suffered substantial damage, as did nearby villages including Layer-de-la-Haye, Layer-Marney, Layer Breton, Salcott Cum Virley, the 'Wig Wigs', Peldon, Tolleshunt Knights and churches at Colchester. Even nowadays the visitor to these wonderfully romantic places just an hour's drive from Harlow can find evidence of that earthquake.
Very many rural labourers' families were left homeless.
The Essex Chronicle newspaper's report of this earthquake:
"Everything was peaceful and quiet early in the morning, no fresh atmospherical change from the last few days with the exception of a slight elevation of temperature, being experienced to indicate in any way the approach of a visitation of this nature, from which England happily has been very free, and has had little or no cause to anticipate anything of the kind either in years gone by or at this more immediate period.
The awful event came without the slightest warning and lasted from five to ten seconds but in that short period of time, an amount of damage was done to property which it will take weeks to set right, and in some cases destruction is irreparable.
From one end of the town to the other the ground was convulsed, and if a spectator could have taken a bird's eye view of the Borough, the effect would have been much the same as a sea wave, the ground upheaving and lowering by means of that gigantic power pent up beneath the earth's crust.
The general impression appears to be that the ground and the houses with it was lifted up, shaken two or three times in a manner that made the stoutest heart quake, and the bravest to cow with fear, and then subside, disappearing with a kind of final shake or jerk, and then it was all over."
Giant waves in the sea destroyed many light craft, they rolled 'like floating corks' and the quay at Wivenhoe was 'on the move as if going right down'. Many old buildings bear cracks due to the earthquake. Around here, Melford Hall suffered, and repairs had to be made to several churches
The worst affected from the earthquake was Langenhoe:
..."The scene in this parish of 230 souls is spoken of by eye witnesses as most painful in the extreme - women and children rushed out of their houses in the greatest terror, many of them shrieking in the roads, whole men were also startled. How many of the poor people whose houses have thus been wrecked, are to find shelter for themselves and their families for some little time, is more than we can say."
In terms of overall destruction, this was the most destructive earthquake to have hit UK in 400 years, since the Dover Straits earthquake of 1580.
Thank you for continuing to give prominence to the huge tragedy in Haiti, it's crucial that pressure for immediate relief for the substantial number of dreadfully injured, homeless and starving Haitians is sustained.
ReplyDeleteOne of the articles you link to cites how the tragedy of the Great Fire of London lead to a renaissance of the city and raises similar hopes for Haiti. London was indeed rebuilt as a far better city than it had been following its fire tragedy. London, however, was already a rich city of strategic importance to the British and world economy. Money was pumped into the restoration work because it was known that this would give a good return in the future. Small countries like Haiti and towns like Port Au Prince, however, with little or no economic infrastructure, are in a very different situation to that of 17th century London. Haiti was terribly impoverished even prior to this earthquake, it will never have anything like the volume of money or support that London has received; yet needs so much more.
A huge relief fund was launched in London and across Britain for the parishes of rural Essex damaged by the Great English Earthquake of 1884 and a substantial sum was raised: yet it was nowhere near sufficient. Many buildings, including churches, which might have been repaired had to be demolished or just left to rot because of lack of funds for the repairs. Many Essex families ended up in the workhouse because there was nowhere else for them to live.
Many ruined Essex buildings have simply continued in use in their damaged state for a hundred and twenty odd years following the quake because there wasn't the funding to repair them. Two examples: the earthquake damage to the lovely and ancient church at Little Wigborough has only just been remedied during a major restoration of the church by resourceful local people.
Earthquake damage to the ancient church at Tolleshunt Knights wasn't repaired very recently, after a mission of Greek Orthodox monks and nuns established a monastery in the old rectory nearby and bought the church, originally in the 1950s. Even they couldn't afford to begin the necessary structural restoration until two years ago.
That wonderful monastery, by the way, has an open day in July each year and what a joy it is to visit. The monks, who support themselves with a small farm and donations from their church members, have decorated the old rectory, their refectory and the exterior and interior of several chapels they have built, floor to ceiling, with the most stunningly beautiful and colourful paintings and mosaics: in the style of Greek religious icons. Visitors, with the lovely monks as their guides, can tour the farm, orchards, rectory and chapels and the restored All Saints Church. The elderly monk who guided me round the farm wore a traditional black monk's habit with hob nailed boots and long pony tail!