Humility toward nature

The recent disasters in Japan remind us how small we are against the unleashed power of nature.

During my stay in Palestine & Israel, very bad news came from Japan. Within a week, a typhoon hit the region Kansai and then a strong earthquake rocked the island of Hokkaido.

2018 is really a sh... year for Japan in terms of natural disasters... Osaka and its region as well as Hiroshima just recovered from other catastrophes (big earthquake in Osaka in June, landslides and flood in Hiroshima with more than 200 dead in July) and were now affected again, especially Osaka.

Before beginning soon the diary of my journey in the Middle-East, here a short recap of the situation in Japan.

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On September 4, typhoon Jebi, the most powerful storm to hit Japan in the last 25 years, lashed the whole Kansai area, left 11 dead and hundred of people injured.

In the south of Osaka, the Kansai International Airport was flooded. Furthermore, a tanker ship crashed into the bridge connecting the airport with the mainland. About 5,000 passengers had to stay overnight in the airport and were then evacuated by ferry.

10 days after the disaster, the airport is still partially closed and won't fully reopen until the end of next week.

2 days later, in the night of September 6, a strong earthquake rocked Hokkaido, the most northern island of the Japanese archipelago. 41 people lost their lives and more than 1,600 are still living in shelters. The infrastructure is badly hit and power supply won't be fully restored until November...