The effect wasn’t as extreme as last October when an earthquake measured at magnitude 5.6 scared the daylights out of Jamaicans and visitors. Nonetheless, Wednesday night’s tremor, measured at 4.2, felt in eastern Jamaica, including the capital Kingston, was a valuable reminder that we should ‘tek sleep mark death’, and stay prepared for the worst.

Lest we forget, Jamaica lies on a major earthquake fault in the northern Caribbean.

The catastrophic quake of 2010, magnitude 7.0, which devastated Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands, provided staggering proof of constantly lurking danger.

Historians remind us that in 1907 Kingston was wrecked by a quake which left more than 1,000 people dead. Just over 200 years before that, in 1692, among history’s most-talked-about earthquakes destroyed the infamous pirate city of Port Royal, causing a major portion to be swallowed by the sea.

In 1957 a major quake caused damage and loss of life in Montego Bay and wider western Jamaica.

Experts say that annually there are about 200 or more minor quakes in the vicinity of Jamaica
— most apparently only felt by relevant measuring instruments. There is every reason to believe that at some point we will experience a big one. For that, all Jamaicans and their leaders must be on constant alert.

As Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie was reported as saying during Earthquake Awareness Month in January: “We need to ensure that our programme of information and education is not just in the month of January but every week, every month of the year…”

We should be asking ourselves whether Mr McKenzie’s charge is being appropriately followed.

It seems to us that in schools, in workplaces, in public spaces, at home, everywhere, earthquake drills should be a frequent activity with people putting into practice required safety measures.

That’s not happening now with any degree of rigour or consistency, if at all.

This is a shortcoming which the Government and its agencies
— not least the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM)
— should be urgently addressing, in our view.

Also, let’s not forget that next month is the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Following direct hits, 37 years apart from Hurricane Charley in 1951 and Gilbert in 1988, elderly and middle-aged Jamaicans are very clear about the death, devastation and hopelessness which can result from hurricanes.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Gilbert we recall a stunned former Jamaican prime minister, the late Mr Edward Seaga, likening destruction he had seen from an aircraft as resembling that caused by atom bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II.

Outside of direct hits, hurricanes skirting Jamaica’s coastline have frequently caused death and long-lasting devastation, such as Ivan in September 2004 and Dean in August 2007.

As part of preparations for the hurricane season we expect municipal corporations
— refreshed following local government elections in February
— as well as ODPEM and related agencies are on track with disaster mitigation measures, including drain cleaning which is essential to prevent flooding.

Crucially, too, individuals should be protecting themselves and their communities by also clearing clogged drains, pruning trees too close for comfort, et al.

As we all know, prevention is always better than cure.