tsunamis

[cellio]

Within the first couple days of the Indonesian quake/tsunami six(ish) years ago, death tolls over 100,000 were being reported (final count was over 200,000).

Within the first couple days of the Japanese quake/tsunami, death tolls in the hundreds were being reported. (Of course, we're not done yet.)

The difference in ability to predict and effectively react between wealthy and poor nations is striking. Three orders of magnitude? Yikes. We in the better-off nations usually send aid after the fact, but it really makes me wonder what we could do before the fact to help less-developed nations build better defenses.

Comments

[siderea]

Well, hold on. My understanding is that a lot of those little tiny islands did pretty well, especially the rural-traditional ones, because they knew "ground shakes"=="head for higher ground". It was the vast continental coastline where people didn't understand what the sea receding meant, which is why they were still there when it came back.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

In that case I stand corrected.