Daily Lessons from Life 21-22 February 2013 - Earthquake felt in Hong Kong

21 February 2013 - Over-eat at Gurney Drive Food Center, Penang in the evening. Total PIG-OUT!! Bloated and not in condition to do anything!! A lesson for me perhaps ... You are what you EAT!!

"Earthquake felt in Hong Kong - AFP 22 February 2013

HONG KONG: Thousands of people in Hong Kong contacted city authorities Friday saying they had felt the ground shaking following an earthquake across the border in southern China, an official said.

While earthquakes are not uncommon in China it is unusual for them to be felt in the southern financial hub.

The Hong Kong Observatory said the 4.8-magnitude quake struck in Guangdong province shortly before noon about 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of the city.

"People felt it indoors and they reported hanging objects swinging. It lasted for a few seconds," the Observatory's scientific officer Leung Yin-kong said.

He told AFP that some 5,000 people had contacted the agency to report feeling tremors, but there were no reports of damage. Some residents told local media the quake had caused buildings to sway and objects to fall from shelves."

Should I am concerned about such an uncommon occurrence so far away from Singapore? Singapore had felt the tremor of earthquake in Indonesia before. Should I be nervous about living in high rise building in our nation?

Lessons for me are:

1. since I am not a seismic scientist, I can only use my layman's feeling to say that: I am not comfortable with such UNCOMMON occurrence. While it has never been felt before in the past, once it starts when does it ends? That is the pessimist's view;

2. are buildings in Hong Kong earthquake or after-shock proof? I don't know. I am sure the Hong Kongers would like to know if they are unknown. Should the authority alarm or make known to the public what the experts say about the possibility of an after-shock that can cause some serious damages to Hong Kong's properties and human lives?;

3. regardless of the possibility of such a disaster happening, the fact that it had just happened means one cannot be more careful. Perhaps some serious disaster drills must be performed. In Singapore, the recent fire in a MRT train track not too far from the train station platform is another situation of tragedy waiting to happen IF we do not know how evacuate safely and speedily in a drill. Some will say it is never the same when the REAL disaster struck. Well, in spite of this, I feel much better if everyone, the public with the young, parents, the old, the handicapped, etc are involved in a drill, it better prepared them for the slim chance that disaster actually strikes us!

Can you imagine Singapore's density and the height of our buildings are as high as their? How many more will perish when the big one comes around!?