Large scale landslides in Hiroshima, Japan. The death toll is now over 40 and more missing. A young mother lost both of her little boys. A rescuer perished in mud while trying to rescue a baby who also died. Tragedy of this sort can hit any of us quite unexpectedly. My prayers and tears are with them right now. We Japanese know about the destructiveness of nature very well. We cannot outdo the force of nature. But still, werent there preventive measures that could have been taken to prevent such large scale disasters? In this case, because of the rapid population increase in Hiroshima area, the area underwent a large scale residential land development by cutting through mountains. Japan Society of Civil Engineers had issued a warning in 1999 that the ground is too fragile for housing. Still they built. And once the residents settle in, its not easy to move them out. People have lives to live, and most are struggling through it. They cannot just pack and go somewhere else (as I was told by many after the big quake/tsunami). In 2011, people in my city of Chiba learned that when you build a home on landfills, the ground will suck your house in in case of large quakes. We thought we can control nature and tame it to our likings. That is human hubris. We should have learned our lessons by now. Have we? the-japan-news/news/article/0001510082
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 05:43:55 +0000
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