a single thing you do

[effluency]

Lately I've been thinking, which always seems to end badly. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been able to read some of the news stories about the extent of the damage in Japan, and of course it got me thinking

Comments

[penguinfaery]

I have to say, I think if something THAT big happened here...we would have something similar. In third world countries they do have issues with rescue we don't have but...it's like the conversation in your class...there's nothing to be done. If Yosemite exploded, or the andres fault broke into the ocean...we'd be just as fucked. It's too fast to really....do anything.

[effluency]

Yes, but think of the population density and the size of Japan in comparison to the US. Japan is the size of California, and only 30% of the land is inhabitable due to the mountains. The country, nonetheless, has a third of the population of the US. Especially if something of this magnitude happened in Tokyo, there would literally be NOWHERE to go.

[penguinfaery]

Any heavily populated area is going to have that kinda results though. If that Tsunami had hit New York with that force...while we had half the casualties of Japan with just two buildings going down. It's morbid subject but...any place hit with something huge, unplanned for and unavoidable is going to have epic death tolls.

The countries that are truly fucked are those that...can't get together rescue efforts, so have all the deaths from the disasters...then starvation, cholera, etc etc. Things like the damn collapse in China that killed millions a few decades ago, in part because China's government is just...screwed and didn't help the survivors anywhere near what they should have. Or the 1984 gas release in India that killed thousand and thousands.