Reconstruction Process and Social Issues After the 1746 Earthquake and Tsunami in Peru: Past and Present Challenges After Tsunami Events - Post-Tsunami Hazard: Reconstruction and Restoration - page 105

the government of the time, we can discern that the challenges of responding to
modern disasters—though they occur in more complex environments and though
we have access to more advanced tools and technologies for shaping our response—
are quite similar. In 1746, the Viceroy was most immediately concerned with the
rescue of survivors, the protection of Royal assets, feeding the hungry, the preserva-
tion of sanitation services and city health; post-disaster management in the twenty-
fi rst century, by comparison, similarly requires the mobilization of search and
rescue teams, medical services, measures to prevent epidemics and to discourage
looting and other concerns. In 1746, the Viceroy possessed total authority to make
decisions and impose all emergency laws and response activity, and because there
were no other organizations or authorities above him, there was no need for regula-
tions. By contrast, in the twenty-fi rst century, where in addition to the authorities,
the involved parties include local and international organizations, fi rst responders
and others; it is necessary to establish parameters regarding each group's role and
how certain actions are to be coordinated. Humanitarian and international laws must
also be taken into account to ensure an adequate response to an emergency.
In 1746, the great majority of Lima's population considered the disaster to be a
punishment for their sins by a higher deity, in this case, the God of Catholicism.
This attitude could also be found years earlier, after the 1687 earthquake in Lima or
even the 1650 earthquake in Cuzco. Interestingly, a similar attitude has been
described in the Muslim communities of Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami in the
Indian Ocean (Kurita et al. 2007 ). We might think that because neither Wegener's
theory of continental drift nor the theory of tectonic plates was articulated until the
early twentieth century, the lack of a scientifi c explanation for the earthquakes in the
eighteenth century makes a turn to the supernatural as a more plausible. Even at that
time, however, scientifi c communities had developed theories to explain the natural
causes for earthquakes, including the postulation of a relationship between seismic
movements and the gases trapped under the Earth's crust and attempts to predict
seismic activity using astronomical clocks (Odriozola 1863 ). Nonetheless, even
scholars of geography and the related sciences could not refrain from attributing the
generation of earthquakes at least in part to God's will. More important than the
knowledge of modern tectonic theories, however, are the socio-cultural infl uences
that religion exercises in our communities. The importance of studying the particu-
lar case of Lima-Callao lies in the way that historical analysis allows us to predict
possible scenarios for the future (Adriano et al. 2013 ) and to more effectively use
available technologies to assess risks and reduce future losses (Mas et al. 2014 ).

7.6 Final Comments

In this paper, we have summarized the historical accounts of the tragic 1746 earth-
quake and tsunami, and the subsequent reconstruction, in Lima and Callao, Peru.
The condition of the cities before the earthquake and the resulting damage after the
event were both presented to give a sense of the challenges faced by these historical