Monday, 12 October 1992
An earthquake had occurred in Egypt. The catastrophe occurred on 12 October 1992 (Monday). Due to the local time, it happened at 3:09pm. The earthquake took place in Dahshour, a small country near Cairo which is located in Egypt. The earthquake was mainly cause by the movement of the crustal plate. The plate movement often occurred at the plate boundaries, which mean the edge of plate. There are actually three main types of interaction between the plates, they are as follow. The convergence, the divergence and the transformation. The briefly introduction to these movement mean that convergence is the plate movement towards each other while divergence is the plate movement pull away from each other, and lastly transformation is the process of plate slides pass each other. Sometimes the plate movement will causes natural disaster such as earthquakes. After all, the earthquake of Cairo was actually affected through the divergent and convergent between the African Plate and the Arabian and Eurasian Plates. The measurement of the magnitude of the earthquake is 5.3 on the Richter scale.
The catastrophe had affected many cities in Egypt. Egypt was mainly considered to be one of the areas of the medium earthquake. It was the strongest ever recorded near the Egyptian capital and it had lasted for 20 seconds. The critical of the damage was estimated about one billion dollar. Many buildings and monument had toppled and devastated. What had remained was the rubble of the collapsed buildings. Egypt was mainly considered to be one of the areas of the medium earthquake. Several aftershocks followed the strong earthquake during the following weeks. The extent of the aftershock was measured up to 370 people and also include a large number of about one hundred panicked students who hurried from the swaying school were killed and more than 3,300 people were injured in the disaster. A lot of victim and children were stampede to death too. Therefore this earthquake is actually a great devastation for Egypt.
After the earthquake the government quickly carried out the rescue operation which is to dig out the casualty that is still alive. The rescue operation carry out is to saving life trapping in the collapsed building so as to reduce the death caused. A lot of casualty is being rescue out. Temporary shelters, foods and drinks were too being provided by the government to the victims of the earthquake while waiting for their ruin houses to being rebuilt.
To my reflection, I think that there is lots of way to minimize the damaged caused in such event. Regardless the comparatively damage, panic had also became a main reason for death. However, people always thought that it was the devastating effects of the earthquake and it is a natural disaster which had caused hundreds killed, seriously injured and the collapsed of buildings. I think that we should be calmer when any earthquake occurs so that we can minimize the damage made by the catastrophe. Therefore I also think that people in the prone earthquake area should be educated and drills should be carried out so that they can evacuate and react to the earthquake in a more calm way. Other from that, the other things that can be done is that the government should take note of the construction materials for the buildings as the construction materials also one of the effects for the collapsed of building and the death of peoples.
