Lisbon 1755

 Back in about 2007 my brother bought the VCR copy of "Earthquake" and brought it to our annual family Christmas where we all watched bad films and laughed at them. The actors were over the top: the stars of the mid-70s with terrible dialogue written and scenery chewing acting: Charlton Heston; the father from Bonanza, a Canadian who used to do the CBC radio news during the Second World War and was jokingly called the 'voice of doom'.  The movie was sold as being in "sensorsound" which would reproduce the terror of a real earthquake.

While it was laughable I did get some sense of what one should do in a quake. I've only experienced two, but they were light: Greece sometime in 2008 or so where a big one hit Turkey and everyone ran out of the cafes. Then before that in Toronto back in the 80s where an out of nowhere quake shook Toronto briefly. I was sitting on the couch watching the 6 pm news when I felt like I was on the back of a giant writhing snake. The chandelier on the ceiling in the ground floor apartment was swaying like crazy and I thought: 'what the hell was that?' About 5 minutes later the news people on tv laughing and feeling very frightened said 'if you thought you felt an earthquake well that was one!'

Back to Lisbon where in 1755, one of the largest natural disasters in written history occurred. 

On November 1st in the morning of All Saints Day, when the church had people light candles to remember the souls of the dead, a 7.9 quake hit the city. 

At that time Portugal was at a pinnacle of power: it controlled a vast empire of ships, slaves, gold and goodies from the New World. 

Fervently Catholic, many of the people were nuns or poor monks, whose orders, not able to feed so many supplicants, sent them out to beg.

Suddenly a terrible shaking occurred lasting from some 3.5 to over 6 minutes. Walls and roofs fell; bricks and mortar toppled and people were thrown all around, not able to walk the quaking was so severe. 

We went to the "Quake" museum which tried to reproduce the cataclysm physically. C loved it. Me, not so much, as the first smack and crack sent me flying into the back of a wooden pew banging my already, tender back. 

The staff person warned everyone not to leave the "simulation" or try and keep falling 3d objects from hitting you. As much as the quake was awful, the thing I found the worst was the simulated fire. 

Lisbon was holding such an important religious event, that it meant that everyone had a candle burning in their window in the memory of the souls; fires were also lit in the morning for food for the feast at lunch. So went the buildings and then went the candles and so came spreading fires. 

An enormous firestorm was created which turned the city into a living hell which burnt for days. 

People terrified of after shocks and fire ran to the long sand beach riverbanks. Then some 40 minutes after the quake subsided, a giant Tsunami hit the city from the river, waves ranging from 3 to 15 metres destroyed the sea front and remaining buildings. 

Surely God was punishing Lisbon for its sins...

Only 15 % of all buildings and houses still stood after it was over; perhaps 70,000 or more died. The fires lasted for days. Bodies everywhere, disease, no civil order or authority or rescue and no water or food. 

Out of the horror a man was appointed to immediately save the situation: he was a man of science. New in those days and he sent out orders about preventing disease, disposing of the dead, feeding the hungry and putting roofs over people. Apparently after that day the King was heard to say he would never sleep under a roof again and slept only in his carriage. 

The man of reason issued orders to maintain civil society and calm and prevent looting and injury.

The city was ordered to be rebuilt under rules about the idea of dealing with shaking and earthquake stress.

 Finally he ordered that a survey be sent out to all the churches (those still standing) to ask people simple questions about i) when did the earthquake start ii) what direction did the walls sway iii) did the buildings rise or fall etc... This was one of the first scientific studies of earthquakes. Our wise man did not believe in punishment for sins, but as a man of the Enlightenment, thought such calamities were natural and not punishments of God and he thought it was important to prepare to prevent great loss of life in future. 

This led to a long line of discussion between Kant, Voltaire and Rousseau about nature and whether bad things were divine punishment or whether the actions of nature are separate from God's will.

Knowledge is one benefaction.