In a way Japan is lucky

[quinnox]

That is a massive earthquake, and its center was miles out in the ocean. Just imagine the devastation if it had its full force struck right on the mainland. All those people living elbow to elbow in tall buildings, *shudder*.

[Rabblevox]

1. Shame on you! I cannot believe you are calling Japan "lucky" after this...

That is one of the most callous posts I've seen in a long time. For shame!

[Name removed]

Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[trumad]

4. Oh chill the fuck out...

They're lucky as fucking shit....

[Rabblevox]

19. spoken by someone who obviously has no friends or relatives there...

It's pretty easy to say "chill the fuck out" when you don't have people in Japan you've been unable to contact.

(Mito, in my case.)

[ZombieHorde]

21. We are so lucky we had eight years of Bush.

We could have had 10 years if our Presidential terms were five years instead of four years. We totally dodged that bullet. We are lucky as fucking shit for our eight years of Bush.

We are lucky as fucking shit MLK jr. and JFK were shot. They could have been bombed; killing dozens.

[charlie]

10. Good grief

The Hanshin earthquake was right offshore and was a "mere" 6.8. It toppled buildings and freeway risers, killed thousands. An 8.9 would've turned Osaka/Kobe into a moonscape.

Japan was lucky.

[ZombieHorde]

23. Define "lucky."

I am not expecting you to actually define the word. I am expecting you to realize how dumb your post is and quietly back out of the thread. Maybe I'll be surprised.

[On the Road]

2. I Do Know What You Mean

They escaped a much larger disaster.

[Dappleganger]

3. The wording is poor, but I get what you're saying.

Given the quake they had, they are also SMART in that they have excellent earthquake building standards and a somewhat decent warning system in place.

[somone]

5. Yep, much of their infrastructure is world-class as far as earthquake resistance

[KittyWampus]

6. the buildings in Japan are built to code. Did you miss the multiple tsunamis?

[quinnox]

11. I don't care what code they are built to

A magnitude 8.9 earthquake centered near a city is going to cause a whole lot of very tall buildings to fall down.

[KittyWampus]

16. And the tsunamis HAVE JUST WIPED OUT MULTIPLE TOWNS.

[malaise]

7. I suspect thousands are dead given that an entire train is missing

and so are lots of boats, but you are correct - it could have been hundreds of thousands here. What's more is that Japanese are more prepared for quakes than everyone else on the planet

[sylvi]

8. I was watching

I was watching one of the science shows on TV regarding earthquakes not long ago (or what passes for science on TV nowadays) and one of the seismologists said the real damage from quakes always occurs some distance from the epicenter, because the shock wave builds in amplitude as it spreads before subsiding.

Of course, in an area as densely populated as Japan I suppose wherever it struck would be devastating.

[ZombieHorde]

9. With any bad scenario, you can probably imagine something worse.

I don't think that qualifies as lucky.

[ej510]

13. In the US we won;t spend the type of money needed to avoid close to Haitian damage

on buildings in the US.

[AsahinaKimi]

Lucky? WTF!!

Did you see all those houses and cars swept away on those videos? Can you even guess how many houses and cars there were, that people died in? One town had 300 houses. How many freaking families do you think might live in 300 houses? And thats one freaking town! I don't even want to think about how many will be dead, but you can bet that it will be horrible beyond words.

:cry:

[adigal]

20. Japan has an excellent warning system

News reports are that many, many people got to high ground in the 5 to 10 minutes they had. Thank goodness.

[AsahinaKimi]

12. Duplicate but see below

[malaise]

14. It is terrible but a direct hit would have been even worse

:cry:

[Pacifist Patriot]

15. There are other factors that determine whether the damage would have been more or less.

The depth of the quake matters as well as the magnitude. I'm not sure we'll ever know if a land or sea quake would have generated more devastation. It may just have been different types of destruction and different lives lost.

[KittyWampus]

17. Thank You.

[Dappleganger]

18. How the plates rub together (what kind of fault) is also significant.

[RegieRocker]

22. Lucky as in "Hey you only lost your legs in that car crash

you could have been killed". OK right.

[ZombieHorde]

24. The OP's real life example is actually more extreme, and therefor more ridiculous,

than your example.

[RegieRocker]

32. That was as extremely ridiculous that my mind could conceive.

[Baclava]

25. I think you meant "Tokyo" was lucky

Yes they were

[Blue-Jay]

26. .

[moondust]

27. I think you meant "It could have been worse."

Could have happened at night as well.

[upi402]

28. They were smart spending money on seismic reinforecement, monitoring, alert equip, etc

They were smart, and a nasty one like this could have been worse in an industrial area with high population like that - I agree.
But the nuke cloud is forming, lets hope it doesn't get very bad for all of us down-winders.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

29. Possibly the most premature, inconsiderate OP ever.

:thumbsdown:

[Bluebear]

30. Good heavens.

[Maru Kitteh]

31. This post is grotesque, no matter the intentions.