Haiti: A Wake-Up Call for Lebanon

The earthquake that has hit Haiti had devastating consequences on this impoverished, small nation. The imagery that's emerging is unbearable to watch. What made the devastation worse are the substandard building practices common in Haiti, and the fact that the infrastructure itself was devastated. The government and other services that should have taken care of the victims were themselves almost annihilated by the quake.

Haiti's tragedy should serve as a wake-up call to Lebanon's institutions to be prepared for a similar occurrence. Lebanon lies on a number of active fault lines and the occurrence of a major earthquake is a matter of time.

How would Lebanon fare if a 7 magnitude quake hit Beirut? Would the airport and seaport remain operational to receive foreign aid? Would the hospitals remain operational? Would the water, electricity and telecommunications networks survive?
And who could coordinate the rescue and recovery efforts? Would that entity and its capabilities survive the quake?

According to seismologists, Lebanon is overdue for a significant quake. The frequent tremors felt some time ago in the Tyre area are only a reminder that Lebanon is also seismically unstable. The major known faults are the Roum fault in  the South which has been most recently active (and was behind the deadly quake of 1956), the Yammouneh fault in the Bekaa which has been dormant, and the most worrisome is the underwater fault that's 4 kilometers off Beirut and was responsible for a Tsunami that destroyed the city in 551 A.D. There is no telling when any of these faults will cause a massive quake that could devastate the country.

The government needs to setup a disaster recovery plan, a plan that would assess the survivability of critical infrastructure and institutions, designate alternatives and most importantly set a minimum standard for an earthquake-resistant code for new constructions.

The clock is ticking, and one day it will be too late.