Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnBraden
Since when does wealth and development have ANYTHING to do with deaths in an earthquake?
Is that why the poor and undeveloped Haiti lost over 200,000? Oh, btw, most of the 30,000 or so predicted deaths (dead plus missing) weren't due to the earthquake, but the tsunami that followed....
And how about the nearly 300,000 deaths in southeast Asia in 2004?
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It has a lot to do with
earthquake deaths, actually. Wealth and development generally comes hand in hand with building codes and safer construction - things that drastically reduce earthquake deaths. When it is a country accustomed to earthquakes, like Japan, this means that the building codes are set to withstand most of the shaking.
It`s a moot point, really, because as you said - most of the deaths were from the tsunami. Even if the earthquake had not hit Japan, but instead had happened somewhere far out to sea - a tsunami of the same size would have caused as much damage and death.