The death toll has eclipsed 55,000. Tens of thousands of people are still unaccounted for. In terms of number of deaths, loss of property, scope of the disaster (area affected), how does this stack up to other catastrophic disasters in world history?
I have been surprised, so far, at not seeing a thread about this event. The death toll is already 33 times that of the events of 9/11 and yet it probably won’t go down in history as being anything like as significant as 9/11.
I have also been surprised that with so many thousands of people dead, the british media make a note of the mere tens of british dead. If that is not nationalism/patriotism fucked up I don’t know what is. Why should we care more than 11 brits dead when tens of thousands of humans are dead as a result of this.
I can’t vouch for all of it, but this website lists quite a few. I’ve read before of the earthquake in China in 1556 (830,000 killed), but I didn’t remember the 1976 'quake in Tangshan, China (655,000 killed).
It has been mentioned here. 9/11 is significant because those who died were thought of as “more important.” Political reality.
Amazingly, the two previous highest magnitude 'quakes had far fewer deaths associated with them (from the link):
1960
…
May 22, Chile: strongest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 magnitude) struck near the coast, killing more than 2,000, wounding 3,000.
1964
March 28[sup]1[/sup], Alaska: strongest earthquake ever to strike North America (9.2 magnitude) hit 80 mi east of Anchorage; followed by seismic wave 50 ft high that traveled 8,445 mi at 450 mph; 117 killed.
As regards comparing this to 9/11, I think there’s also a significant difference between a natural disaster and willful mass homicide.
It’s not callous; it’s local interest. Those eleven British had families and friends in the coverage area of the media reporting the news; most of the others who died did not. That means that it’s their special job, over and above reporting the natural disaster that killed thousands, to report about the local people who died in it.
I have to give the Raleigh area media credit – in their coverage of 9/11, they were properly aghast at the destruction and death at the WTC and the Pentagon, and on the fourth plane that was crashed in Pennsylvania, and gave excellent coverage of the whole tragic story – and they picked up on the people from the local area who worked at the WTC or were there on business, and military with local ties who were at the Pentagon, and did specific stories on them as well. (Interestingly, on 9/13/01 we paid our car insurance, and found out that our insurance agent was in D.C. attending a Nationwide agents’ event, and had just crossed the Potomac bridge near the Pentagon when the plane hit it. She was still more than slightly shaken by the experience.)
On one hand, wouldn’t you want to know if people from your country/state/city died? I certainly would.
While I wish the entire human race was so empathic as to not require a nudge toward sympathy, sometimes the knowledge that it’s not just “those funny looking people who talk strange over there” but also some of your fellow countrymen and neighbors takes people from ho-hum to “Oh, wow - this is important everybody”
But, also - a lot of people vacation in that region of the world. Folks who have friends and relatives over there are worried, too. Thanks to modern transportation and gloabel tourism there are very few countries that haven’t lost citizens to this disaster. Local news here reported two comfirmed deaths of Chicago are residents on vacation in that region of the world and at least a dozen still unaccounted for - in addition to surivors both wounded and unharmed.
When Krakatoa popped off in the 1880’s it probably caused a very similar disaster. We know that one killed tens of thousands of people. But we didn’t have CNN back then to show us video of carnage and destruction. Likewise some of the earthquakes mentioned in this thread - we didn’t see the events unfolding on our TV screens, or colorful explanatory graphics accessible at our computers at the touch of a keyboard. We’re more aware of these things than we have ever been before, and prior generations didn’t have the opportunity to see people people swept away by the waters or desparately trying to climb above them, nor did prior generations get to see and hear the survivors weeping over the rotting dead. THAT’s what’s new - the immediacy of the events taking place halfway around the world.
I. Disregard the “on one hand.” I originally meant to write a longer post.
II. Polycarp’s post is better anyway.
III. And I agree with Ringo regarding the difference between a terrorist and a national disaster. Also remember that most Dopers are in the US and a goodly portion of them actually lived in New York at the time of the WTC attacks; it seems natural that there would be more discussion regarding a disaster close to home.
The largest loss of life in the US due to nature was possibly the Galveston hurricane in 1900.
The head of the local weather bureau attempted to get local officials and Washington interested in his prediction of impending doom without success.
6,000-8,000 died.
As opposed to 10 times that many yesterday?
Actually, in the coverage last night there was an extended section on Sri Lanka and the British Sri Lankan community - how they had been affected and how the latter was acting to help.
Perhaps true, but 9/11 was unique in that it had never happened before. Tsunamis and earthquakes, on the other hand, have been occurring since the beginning of time. Granted, if the death toll in Asia was something like 5,000 or less, the story would have fallen off the media radar by now.
Ringo’s link lists death tolls from historic earthquakes & volcanic eruptions, but says nothing about tsunamis in particular, which I think the OP was interested in. All I can say is that tsunamis have wiped out entire villages and even civilizations in the past – the Minoan culture, for example, was destroyed by a tsunami from the Santorini eruption (c. 1630 B.C.)
This sort of thing normally bothers me quite a bit. It seems, for whatever reason, that one Western death equals 100-1000 Eastern deaths in terms of media magnitude. But in this instance, it’s probably been a bit of a saving grace that so many Westerns were involved. This has served to keep US media focus on the region which is only going to help contribute to public support. Already the US has more than doubled their initial commitment. I think there are going to be 100s of British dead at the end of the day, not 10s, so this one’s not going to flush easily out of the public mind. Even our local paper today had a full front page story, with some local connection mentioned on page 8.
Contrast this with the earthquake last year in Bam*, Iran which killed 30,000, injured another 30,000 and left 75,000 people homeless. I vaguely recall hearing about that, but just. Probably because there were no or very few western casualties and because the US media has a very limited presence in Iran. Both are tragic, but because of the local connection we learn much more about this latest catastrophe.
And your point is, what, exactly?
You know what bothers me is that with 60,000+ people dead, folks like ShibbOleth and Lobsang have taken the opportunity to West-bash.
It is human nature that big disasters that don’t affect us personally take a back seat to the little disasters that do. Yesterday 60000 people in Asia died. I also had to stay late at work because someone fucked up my teams database. Which event do you think ruined my day more? Is it because I’m at asshole? Not really. While the tsunami is a tragedy, it’s not something that I have any real emotional connection to. If I had relatives or people I knew vacationing there, then it would be a different story and I would be very interested in knowing about any Americans who were missing.
This is not just a Western trait. I’m sure that in 2001, Indonesian villagers viewed the events in NY the same way - tragic and historically significant, but probably not something that’s going to keep them from fishing today.
That was March 27, 1964. Trust me, I was here and it’s something I’ll never forget.
Read his post. Read my post. Come back if you still have questions.
Scratch that. I’m running on an empty gastank here. I was wrong, and I apologize.
That’s OK, dear, I was just baffled by anything that smacks of “math.”