Tsunami tragedies

Although our climate, geology, and general astrological environment is pretty stable, there are times when we get reminded just how vulnerable our existence is to natural hiccups.  The tsunami created by yesterday's earthquake was something like 30 feet high when it the shore of various afflicted areas.  A relatively small asteroid, or an earthquake closer to shallow waters, or who knows what else could bring an even bigger wave in over shallow areas.

Evacuation routes are built to accomodate a small fraction of the people who need to evacuate at a time, so we'll need more than a few hours' notice to move large numbers of people when/if there should be a need to do so.  And they're saying the tsunami moved across the Indian Ocean at several hundred miles an hour - more like a shock wave then anything we'd imagine. 

In the meantime, the tragedy is monumental - Western newspapers are obsessing over the number of Western nationals, and you have to wonder if they're counting them a little too carefully considering the magnitude of deaths in general.  Israel is sending a disaster crew that will probably not be welcome everywhere they might be needed.

Update: that last sentence turned out to be prophetic.  Read Allison Kaplan Sommer's note here.

Comments

[Chasity]

I LOVE YOU GUYS

[Cara]

IM SORRY!!

[Katherine]

this site doent really tell much about \how many people are missing and you need to get up to date