Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCommodoreAfro
Japan's prep prevented a lot of the collapsing - the quake was 7.9 here in Tokyo and outside of old buildings and reclaimed land, the damage was not as bad as initially thought. Sad thing though is that the death toll will likely rise in terms of multiples in the north. Entire towns and villages were wiped out and the media is just getting a hold of this.
This is from a little fishing town (with a nuclear reactor that shut down safely) called Onagawa. Nothing about this in the news yet, but destruction is massive.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/0...n-i-once-knew/
The town of Minamisanriku is also missing 9500 people - half the population. This is going to get incredibly scary over the next few days as rescue teams reach destroyed areas. |
I think most of us realize that the true casualty count won't be known for weeks. I didn't want to sound callous in my last post or give the impression that the tsunami isn't such a big deal. From a purely academic standpoint, comparing this event to the tsunami of 2004 (230,000 dead) or the Haiti earthquake (316,000 dead), I feel that Japanese ingenuity and preparedness made all the difference.