PM: We must be more prepared

By HELEN TARAWA
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill told a special Parliament on Tuesday that the nation has to prepare for more disasters because worst is yet to come.
O’Neill said another earthquake struck on Monday night.
Papua New Guinea is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an earthquake zone, he said.
O’Neill said the Feb 26 magnitude 7.5 quake was the first of such magnitude in the Highlands region for almost 100 years.
“There is no living memory of the last earthquake in 1921, when this earthquake hit our people were shocked,” he said.
“Mountains collapsed, villages were buried and our rivers were blocked with debris.
“This was not the first earthquake in the Highlands and it will not be the last. Our country is built on what is called the Ring of Fire.”
O’Neill said the ring of underground activity stretched from Chile in South America to North America, Asia through Japan and Indonesia, PNG and New Zealand.
The ring of fire is where underground tectonic plat collide and move against each other, causing shifts in the earth’s surface and unleashing earthquakes and volcanic activity.
“These natural occurrences over which we have no control over, we can only prepare for the worst,” O’Neill said.
“Last night (Monday) was a 6.6 magnitude earthquake 180km west of Rabaul at a depth of 40km.
“Earthquakes are a fact of life in Ring of Fire and the responsibility of our government is to do our best to minimise damage and help communities to return to reality.”