Picking up the pieces

I  got an email overnight from my long-time friend Louise who grew up next door to me in Melbourne. 

This year she married a Samoan and they both live on the island of Upolu. She told me how their world had changed since the tremors woke them at 7am Tuesday, shaking the walls of their house and sending their dog into a crazy barking frenzy (well the dog was always pretty crazy to start with, I reckon).

What causes these disasters?

An earthquake in Indonesia.
A tsunami in Samoa.
A flood in the Philippines and Vietnam.

In the last few days we’ve seen images of people covered in mud and chest-deep in water, against backdrops of smashed buildings and upended cars. We’ve seen naked grief, grim searches for bodies and entire villages washed away.

It’s got me thinking – why do we know so little about what causes such massive disasters?