I feel the earth move under my feet
I have written about the effects of 2017’s Hurricane María over the Puerto Rican population prior here:
Well, now — in addition to that lingering PTSD and general malaise — cue in the earthquakes.
Puerto Rico has been reporting increased seismic activity since the 28th of December, 2019. Principally, the earthquakes have been happening along the southern coast, by the interaction of the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates. Of course, everybody knows Puerto Rico emerged out of volcanic activity on top of various fault lines. One thing is to know, theoretically, that earthquakes might happen; the other to feel them happening on the earth beneath you. The first one I felt — after hearing about earthquakes for a little over a week) — was on January 7th, 2020 at 4:24 am. That one, let’s call it the “big-one-so-far”, woke us with clearly noticeable side-to-side bed motion. The big-one-so-far registered 6.4 on the Richter scale. A few hours after that, an aftershock of 5.8 was clearly felt as well. (Note: I’m writing from the north side of Puerto Rico, so what I’m feeling does not compare to what residents of the southern municipalities of Guánica, Guayanilla, Peñuelas, Ponce and Yauco are feeling.) Those earthquakes caused an island-wide power outage and made this happen:
Last night’s earthquake caught us at the movies, just before the feature film started (we went to watch Sam Mendes’s 1917 which has been getting a lot of Oscars buzz recently… It was awesome, but not as amazing as Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite — although I may be comparing apples to oranges here.) Just now, at 8:54 am (for the record: today is Saturday, January 11th, 2020) this latest earthquake weighed in at 6.0 (later adjusted to 5.9) on the Richter scale and caused me to start writing this blogpost (my husband went to double check heavy furniture is anchored to walls… At least one of us is doing something important 😏)
Although earthquakes are inevitable, I find myself thinking two things: first, I hope the one that replaces the big-one-so-far happens during predawn hours on a weekend (so that most people are at home, and kids are with their parents and not at school), and second, what application could we create to help during this stressful moment?
I’m thinking our single-page-application should have a React front-end and a Ruby-on-Rails backend. In addition to that being the primary full stack focus of the bootcamp I attended over the Summer, The Flatiron School, React creates dynamic components that are updated independently, without the need of full page refreshes. Hey, 🤔, I wrote about creating a basic React app, realtime, as I was learning it, here:
Our site could leverage the United States Geological Survey (USGS)’s API to gain the information on seismic activity. It should definitely have a component that allows people to look up what supplies are sorely needed in the affected areas, to let others know where to send help, and where volunteers are required.* It should, as well, have a links section with information about what to do, and how to remain safe during and after a major earthquake.
*Side note, one big problem we had during Hurricane María’s aftermath was the utter lack of coordination of relief efforts, and the possibly criminally-negligent misuse of the charitable entity created by the government Unidos Por Puerto Rico. Our current governor was once the head of Judiciary in Puerto Rico and she declined to investigate wrong-doing in the previous administration. SMH.
I don’t want to end on a bad note, but reader please know three important things: one, I have not yet lost my sense of humor (that will require at least two more big-one-so-fars); two, I have more pressing matters to attend to right now; and three, we will get through this, as Puerto Ricans are hardy and nothing if not persistent.
