|
Regents School welcomes Mr. Kim Johansen
Mr. Johansen and the Year 13
IB Geography class.
Siripat Champrasit
(Year 13 IB student)
On Wednesday November 5, senior Geography students of the Regents School had
the privilege of listening to Dr. Kim E. Johansen, retired chief of the San
Francisco ambulance service, talking about his experience during the San
Francisco earthquake of 1989.
He started-off by giving us some background information on the earthquake.
The earthquake occurred at 17:04 local time, on October 17, 1989. The quake
lasted for 15 seconds. The magnitude was recorded at 6.9-7.1 Richter on the
Richter scale. The temperature on the day was 70°F.
He then moved on to the immediate effects on the city. There were 22 major
fires and 1,400 buildings collapsed. The whole city was in a complete
black-out. There was no water for the firemen to use because the pipes got
damaged. Parts of the highway collapsed onto the roads underneath.
The area of man-made ground was where the most damage was. It was because
this area acted like a jelly and amplified the seismic wave of the quake.
There was no electricity or clean water supply for 1-4 days. The extensive
usage of mobile phones caused the network to collapse. The collapsed Bay
Bridge had to be closed for the whole month because it needed a lot of
repairing. Due to safety reasons no one was allowed on any of the bridges
for one whole day, disabling ground transportation in and out of the city.
He mentioned that during the earthquake there was a baseball World Series
game being played. The game saved a lot of lives because if it was on an
ordinary day, people would be out on the roads during the rush hour instead
of at home watching the baseball game on TV.
After this he started to talk about the immediate effects on the Oakland
Cypress Freeway. The elevated part of the freeway collapsed down onto the
roads below, resulting in 42 immediate deaths. Rescue was carried-out slowly
because they didn’t know when the rest of the freeway would collapse.
Finally he told us what the overall damage was and gave us some tips on how
to prepare for a similar disaster. The total death toll was 67, with 3,757
injured and 12,000 homeless. He said that from his personal experience
having plans on paper is not very useful; in times of a real disaster it is
usually down to how much practice has already been done. People who do not
have sufficient knowledge should not attempt rescuing other people because
most of the time they end up being just another victim. There needs to be at
least 2, if not 3, backup plans. Communication is the most important thing
when there is a disaster, therefore there has to be a means of communication
that works effectively during a disaster.
The Regents Humanities Department and all the senior (IGCSE and IB)
Geography students would very much like to thank Mr. Johansen for his time
and generosity to deliver such an informative talk on this tectonic hazard.
Orphanage receives much needed funds
Roy Thornton
The past two weeks has culminated in a total of 87,500 baht
being presented to the Baan Jing Jai Orphanage. This has been a combined
effort from funds raised by the Haven Hotel, a weekly golf competition
by Lewiinski’s, a fund raiser in the UK and by Jez Lees’ Pattaya Bay
charity swim.
 46,000
Baht presented at Home Town village on 8th November 2008.
To mark the occasion, each day coincided with a day out for the
children. On Saturday October 25, the children were taken to the beach
at Sattahip, and with the aid of a few canoes, rubber rings and banana
boat rides expended all their pent up energy before being taken back to
the Haven Hotel in the afternoon for a buffet, coke, ice cream and other
goodies all compliments of the Haven Hotel. This gave an opportunity for
some of the golfers and guests of the Haven who donated to our cause to
come along and meet the kids before the presentation of stage one of our
fund raising efforts.
Then on Saturday November 8, the children were taken to Home Town
Village, courtesy of the village residents, for an afternoon of swimming
and a poolside BBQ. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side, but
that did not put off the children from enjoying themselves. During the
heaviest of the rainfall the children treated us all to a song whilst
the hard working volunteers prepared the BBQ.
 Happy
smiles at the seaside on Saturday October 25.
Once the rain eased up, the children were soon back in the pool and Jez
Lees, who was unavailable on October 25, demonstrated to the children
the technique he used in the recent Pattaya bay charity swim.
The presentation of stage two of our fund raising efforts was a direct
result of Jez Lees’ efforts, in that he had an agreement with the
organisers of the Pattaya Bay swim to split the funds he raised on the
day. It is believed that he not only raised this amount for the
orphanage, but that he was also the highest fund raiser for the charity
swim.
The funds raised will be put to good use by the Baan Jing Jai Orphanage,
although they did come too late to prevent two of the care helpers
leaving due to a lack of funds to pay their meagre salaries.
Our next effort is to raise funds to give the children a Christmas to
remember by holding a golf day in the shape of a 4 person Texas Scramble
at Eastern Star Golf Club on Thursday December 18. We are looking for
sponsors, individual or business, no matter how small the sponsorship,
to be involved in this worthy cause. If you can help, please contact us
at [email protected]
Playtime before the rain.
Orphanage say thank you to
Jez Lees.
|
