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It seems that a lot of people think that Japan was not very successful in stopping more devastation from happening. So imagine this scenario...
A huge earthquake occurs off the coast of Florida and a tsunami with 35-foot-high waves comes rushing towards Jacksonville, the metro area closest in population size to Sendai. In about half an hour, waves are wiping out towns along the Florida/Georgia/South Carolina coast.
Who honestly thinks that there would be fewer deaths in this disaster as compared to the Sendai earthquake? I'm guessing that we would have done much worse; Katrina is one example. We had days to prepare for it, yet more than a thousand still died.
I would be more concerned over asking if California has been making its buildings as strong as Japan's.
I agree, but I tried to be fair and compare cities of the same size. The West Coast's cities are all either too big or too small to make an accurate comparison.
If it happened in Florida or California, everyone would have wigged out, started looting and started shooting each other the day after (just like New Orleans). The Japanese people are stoic, Americans are unstable.
One Japanese city built a 33 ft high seawall after a previous tsunami. This tsunami was 40 ft high. This city was hammered flat by the earthquake and drowned by the tsunami. It is gone.
A California city was damaged by an 8 ft wave after several hours warning. Why did this happen?
There are always limits to the amount of protection a place can afford and there is no guarantee that the protection cannot be overwhelmed by a natural event.
I agree, but I tried to be fair and compare cities of the same size. The West Coast's cities are all either too big or too small to make an accurate comparison.
You might as well be arguing that Florida needs to be prepared for blizzards.
A "fair" comparison must include much more than city size , at the bare minimum it also must consider the likelihood of an earthquake.
I doubt we would have done better but I have to say if we lok at disasters we have seen we have learned that the military is perhps our biggest asset. Politcal civilian agncy just can not cut the mustrad because of structure and the military's logics and man power ability and clear lies of caomand and responsiblities.We have to remmmber that japan is a small island that is very densely populated. I personally think that a disaster lke Katrina in a large city woud be much worse than it was in new orlenns really.Overall Japans advantage is it populace and their culture.
It seems that a lot of people think that Japan was not very successful in stopping more devastation from happening. So imagine this scenario...
A huge earthquake occurs off the coast of Florida and a tsunami with 35-foot-high waves comes rushing towards Jacksonville, the metro area closest in population size to Sendai. In about half an hour, waves are wiping out towns along the Florida/Georgia/South Carolina coast.
Who honestly thinks that there would be fewer deaths in this disaster as compared to the Sendai earthquake? I'm guessing that we would have done much worse; Katrina is one example. We had days to prepare for it, yet more than a thousand still died.
Wow, do you have some sort of chip on your shoulder? I haven't heard anyone question Japan's response to the crisis.
Sorry, it's hard to find a perfect comparison in the United States.
Perfect is one thing, reasonable is another. Expecting the south atlantic coast to have the same level of tsunami and earthquake preparation as Japan is not reasonable, especially when we have bigger fish to fry (hurricanes).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kangrui
If you don't like to use Florida, how about if a 35-foot-tsunami hit San Diego?
You're asking if I think that California would've done better?
Answer to that is: no.
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