Special Morning Assembly Program - Sichuan Earthquake & Nargis Cyclone

1. PRAYER

Morning prayer was led by our Hindu & Tamil Language teacher, Mr Perumaland Mr Christopher Foran who is our Catholic English Language teacher from India.

Mr Lloyd Yeo also led a prayer about how to pray, how to give charity and how to give love.

On Love

He makes his sun shine on band and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! You must be perfect – Just as your father in heave is perfect.

On Charity

When you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. But when you help a needy person, do it in sucha way that even your closest friend will not know about it. Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private will reward you.

On Prayer

And when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private will reward you.

2. SHARINGS

Earthquakes

Mr Kevin Pang, led off with the geographical causes for earthquake and explained that Mount Everest and the rest of the Himalayas form part of the Tibetan Plateau and are still rising because of the collision, 45 million years ago, between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Wenchuan was the epicentre of the earthquake and was especially bad because the quake occured only 6.2 miles below the surface. The nearer the quake is to the surface, the more devestating the quake. It also measured 7.8 on the richter scale and the tremors, could be felt in Bangkok, Hong Kong and in Shanghai, more than 930 miles away.

Earthquakes could never occur in Singapore but tremors could be fault. He warned that the best way to survive an earthquake indoors was to couch under a heavy desk or table, well away from windows or glass dividers and to crouch your body so that heavy debris would not hurt you. Outside, stand away from buildings, trees, telephones and electrical lines. On the road, drive away from underpasses and overpasses; stop in safe area; stay in vehicle.

2. Cyclones

Miss Xu Wanjing explained the main source of energy for tropical cyclones is the warm water in the tropical regions. To initiate a tropical cyclone the sea-surface temperature generally needs to be above 26.5°C.

Miss Xu demonstrated how Cyclone occur by getting boys to demonstrate low pressure, moist air and high pressure. She asked the boys to imagine that she was warm water and moist air. Because there is low pressure there and high temperature, the moist air rises. HEat A cyclone develops when it taps into heat released from nearby air particles. This results in condensation of water vapour contained in the moist air.

While tropical cyclones can produce extremely powerful winds and torrential rain, they are also able to produce high waves and damaging storm surge. They develop over large bodies of warm water, and lose their strength if they move over land. This is the reason coastal regions can receive significant damage from a tropical cyclone, while inland regions are relatively safe from receiving strong winds. Heavy rains, however, can produce significant flooding inland, and storm surges can produce extensive coastal flooding up to 40 kilometres from the coastline. If the conditions around the system deteriorate or the tropical cyclone makes landfall, the system weakens and eventually dissipates.Windspeed was close to 190 km per hour, that is three times the speed of a car travelling on the highway.