When nature gets angry

from the Zimbabwe border with Mozambique.
Women in other surrounding areas in the lower Save region woke up during the early misty chilly hours of the morning to set up fires and prepare food and ready their children for school.

Others went to sell avocados, bananas and sweet potatoes on roadsides. Groups of men and women also went to work in tea and coffee estates.
Cattle stood in kraals waiting for their owners to let them out and munch on the lush grass outside.
If they would talk, cows would dread the thought of their owners bringing large containers to milk their swollen udders.

Kishoni Mhlanga, who works in a tuckshop at Mount Selinda Mission Hospital, went to work early that morning.
It was a calm cool day until at around 12:45pm when tins of canned beef and baked beans on the tuckshop shelves started vibrating with some falling to the floor.
Mhlanga also felt some slight movements as he stood serving a customer.

“At first I thought the vibrations were caused by a tractor that usually passes by but they were too strong. I peeped outside and saw no tractor and knew nature had struck again.
“I immediately scurried for cover under a table and lay there for a few moments. The tremors stopped and I went outside. It was an anxious moment. I almost said my last prayers because I did not know what would come next. I thought it would be serious this time and that we were dying,” said Mhlanga.

He is not alone, thousands of other residents in surrounding areas in the eastern part of the country live each day fearing that, one day disaster will strike.
While others may simply dismiss the tremors as a minor event and may consider them serious if only deaths are reported, people in this community are in constant fear of the unknown. They describe the tremors as a “monster that is hiding in the thick forest and waiting to strike”.

But when will it strike? Is the question that sends shivers down their spines. They are also worried about the little knowledge they have about the “monster”.
Their local authority’s limited capacity in the event that a severe earthquake finally hits keeps them awake whenever they feel tremors.
Others like Mbuya Hazvi Mhlanga (75) said they have had enough and are considering relocating.

“I want to go away to a place far from this monster. I could have gone long back were it not for my husband’s grave,” said the old woman.
Webster’s online dictionary describes a tremor as a small earthquake. An earthquake (also known as a tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the earth’s crust that creates seismic waves.
Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The moment magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported, or the related and mostly obsolete Richter magnitude, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli scale.

At the Earth’s surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacing the ground. When a large earthquake epicentre is located offshore, the seabed sometimes suffers sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking in earthquakes can also trigger landslides and occasionally, volcanic activity.
An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude.

If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock. Aftershocks are formed as the crust around the displaced fault plane adjusts to the effects of the main shock.
The largest recorded earthquake in the world was a magnitude 9,5 (Mw) in Chile on May 22, 1960 (United States Geological Survey).

But this all does not make sense for people like Mbuya Mhlanga who believes the tremors are a sign of the gods who are angry and a world coming to an end.
If the correct information is not passed on to her, she will reach the end of her time believing in “the end of the world theory”.
Chipinge Town Council acting human resources officer Mr Takeshure Maduveko said the local authority does not have the capacity to react in the event that an earthquake hits the area. He said the extent to which they will react depends on the equipment they have adding that currently the council only has one fire tender.
“The other fire tender is not working and we only have one vehicle specifically for disasters. The fire tender has equipment to rescue people if there is a fire but we are likely to face serious problems in the event of an earthquake.
“If we only have fire tenders and the earthquake covers the whole area, it will be difficult to rescue people.
“We would need a helicopter for rescuing people but currently, the council does not have one and not in a position to buy one,” he said. He revealed that Chipinge Town Council has an approximate population of 35 000 people. The town is split into eight residential areas.
But with such a high number of tremors in previous years, the council admits that it has not played its part of raising awareness amongst its locals who do not know what to do if an earthquake strikes.
“We have not raised awareness as yet since the earth tremors. Your question is probably reminding us to do something to make people aware of what to do,” he said.
He added that not only do people need awareness on what to do in the event of earthquakes; they also require information on how to react when other natural disasters like floods affect them. “For example, the last time floods caught villagers unawares and they had to climb trees and wait for helicopters that came from Harare to rescue them,” he explained.
Mr Maduveko said there is need to also train more council employees on disaster management.
“Currently, we have eight people including drivers in the fire department. There is need to train more,” he said.

Mount Selinda Mission Hospital’s administrator, Mrs Maryjane Westa, said their institution has experience in dealing with people in traumatic situations and would do their best in the event of an earthquake injuring people in the community.

“Injured Mozambican civilians would come here seeking treatment during that country’s civil war and the hospital coped.”
But she admits that there is need to train both hospital staff and the community on how to react if disaster strikes.
“But if a major disaster strikes, our staff will not cope and might need help.

“We will probably transfer victims to Chipinge General Hospital who will also further transfer to Mutare if they are full.
“We also have one ambulance but can always call Chipinge and Mutare. In terms of air transport, we will have to use Mars but the problem is they want money upfront and only those insured will be covered,” she said.

She revealed that the hospital has 175 beds.
The earthquake measuring 4,5 on the Ritcher scale rocked the lower Save Valley in Mozambique affecting the eastern parts of Zimbabwe. According to United States Geological Survey, the recent earthquake struck at 12:37am in the area that has seen more than a dozen quakes in the last 20 years, including two very large ones in 2006 that were felt as far as Harare.

The quake originated 25,8km underground in the same section of the southern end of the East African Rift Valley that saw two largest earthquakes in decades in Southern Africa, just five years ago.
The East African Rift System is a 50-60km wide zone of active volcanics and faulting that extends north-south in eastern Africa for more than 3 000km from Ethiopia in the north to Zambezi in the south.
It is a rare example of an active continental rift zone, where a continental plate is attempting to split into two plates which are moving away from one another.

On February 23, 2006 the biggest Southern African earthquake in decades struck the Save Valley in Mozambique shaking much of Zimbabwe and Mozambique and parts of north east South Africa. The earthquake registered 7,5 on the Ritcher scale. Esperanca Bias, Mozambique’s Mineral Resources Minister, is on record as saying: “What is happening is that with the February 23 earthquake there was a huge move of the tectonic plates, and these aftershocks will continue until the plates have stabilised.”

Injuries and damage were minimal with initial reports indicating that two people had died in a small settlement a few kilometres from the epicentre.
The quake also reportedly destroyed 190 homes in Manica Province bordering Zimbabwe. Espungabera in Mozambique, and Chipinge and Chimanimani in Zimbabwe the nearest towns to the epicentre were badly shaken but damage was negligible.

Beira, the nearest city, about 225km away, was shaken but again with no significant damage.
A second powerful but slightly less severe earthquake shook the same area a few months later.
The Save River flows through the lower arm of the Great Rift Valley at the point the earthquake struck.
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