What It Takes For People To Learn
Nov. 13th, 2006 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
funraniumWhile in Hawaii, surrounded by the beautiful and destructive power of the Earth, I finally answered a question for myself that had been bothering me for ages. I am a bad person in that I am humbled, awed, and genuinely appreciative when the slightest of Earth's many fine disasters to chose from obliterates the works of man. Each one is an object lesson for the survivors and the question is always, "What the hell does it take for people to learn not to (build/live/do this) in *INSERT LOCATION HERE*?"
The answer for Hilo, HI at least is two tsunamis in fourteen years.
April Fools Day, 1946. As Hilo was full of newly discharged servicemen and repatriated Japanese from internment camps, a tsunami originating in the Aluetians struck the waterfront. At the time, the waterfront was Hilo's Japantown, as the Japanese had the big fishing fleet. Three blocks back, just like most of the cities around the Indian Ocean almost two years ago, Hilo ceased to exist. A 40' high wave that persisted from 15 minutes killed 169 people.
They picked up their lives. They rebuilt. The scope of the disaster actually inspired the creation of the Tsunami Early Warning System. Fourteen years to the day after the tsunami, the Kamehameha Highway was completed, efficiently linking Hilo with the rest of the Big Island by some method other than air or boat.
May 23rd, 1960. A tsunami generated by a magnitude 9.5 earthquake off the coast of Chile the previous day strikes Hilo. The same three blocks were obliterated again and 61 people died because few people headed the early warning system.
The city fathers decided that it would be wise not to rebuild in that part of town again. The former Japantown is now a park full of banyan trees, an ornamental garden, and memorials to the dead.
It seems you have to have two of the same act of god in the same place per generation for people to get it.
Hawaii has some very unfortunate geography in that it is in the absoluteldead center of the Pacific, which means that if there is going to be a tsunami generated anywhere on the Ring of Fire then crikey o'blimey it is going to hit Hawaii. No questions asked, Hawaii bends over for the big salty faWOOOSH!
It brought my thoughts back to my archeological maps of the old Norse settlements in the fjordlands of Greenland and Norway. Despite the transit times, they were always situated WELL back from the shoreline, sometimes perched above the fjord on one of the over looking cliffs. Tsunami worthy earthquakes really only hit the Pacific every couple decades or so. Icebergs drop into the fjords much more often. I wonder how many lessons it took the Norse to learn to build appropriately.
I mean, New Orleans got flooded twice in a year. To be fair, flooded once and then topped off a bit later. Last I heard, the memorial park in the Ninth Ward went nowhere.
The answer for Hilo, HI at least is two tsunamis in fourteen years.
April Fools Day, 1946. As Hilo was full of newly discharged servicemen and repatriated Japanese from internment camps, a tsunami originating in the Aluetians struck the waterfront. At the time, the waterfront was Hilo's Japantown, as the Japanese had the big fishing fleet. Three blocks back, just like most of the cities around the Indian Ocean almost two years ago, Hilo ceased to exist. A 40' high wave that persisted from 15 minutes killed 169 people.
They picked up their lives. They rebuilt. The scope of the disaster actually inspired the creation of the Tsunami Early Warning System. Fourteen years to the day after the tsunami, the Kamehameha Highway was completed, efficiently linking Hilo with the rest of the Big Island by some method other than air or boat.
May 23rd, 1960. A tsunami generated by a magnitude 9.5 earthquake off the coast of Chile the previous day strikes Hilo. The same three blocks were obliterated again and 61 people died because few people headed the early warning system.
The city fathers decided that it would be wise not to rebuild in that part of town again. The former Japantown is now a park full of banyan trees, an ornamental garden, and memorials to the dead.
It seems you have to have two of the same act of god in the same place per generation for people to get it.
Hawaii has some very unfortunate geography in that it is in the absoluteldead center of the Pacific, which means that if there is going to be a tsunami generated anywhere on the Ring of Fire then crikey o'blimey it is going to hit Hawaii. No questions asked, Hawaii bends over for the big salty faWOOOSH!
It brought my thoughts back to my archeological maps of the old Norse settlements in the fjordlands of Greenland and Norway. Despite the transit times, they were always situated WELL back from the shoreline, sometimes perched above the fjord on one of the over looking cliffs. Tsunami worthy earthquakes really only hit the Pacific every couple decades or so. Icebergs drop into the fjords much more often. I wonder how many lessons it took the Norse to learn to build appropriately.
I mean, New Orleans got flooded twice in a year. To be fair, flooded once and then topped off a bit later. Last I heard, the memorial park in the Ninth Ward went nowhere.
