A new Pompeii?

Quote: Pacomartin

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake killed 10,000 and 100,000 and is one of Europe's greatest natural disasters using the narrower definition, as certainly many more people died in the Bubonic plague, the Irish potato famine, and many times in wars.

Wars are certainly not natural disasters. It's not as if a wind-driven front of tanks and machineguns just blew in from the sea. But I'd count epidemics and most types of famine as natural disasters.

Quote: Nareed

Wars are certainly not natural disasters. It's not as if a wind-driven front of tanks and machineguns just blew in from the sea. But I'd count epidemics and most types of famine as natural disasters.

The 2010 Haiti earthquake death toll estimates range from 100,000 to about 160,000 to Haitian government figures from 220,000 to 316,000 that have been widely characterized as deliberately inflated by the Haitian government. Moment magnitude was 7.0 and epicenter was 16 miles from Port Au Prince with a city population estimated at 987,310 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894.

In comparison the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area is 1,976,836 and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake had a noment magnitude of 6.9 and epicenter was 22 miles from San Jose. 63 deaths were attributed to the earthquake.

So the loss of life is a strong function of the emergency infrastructure.

Quote: Pacomartin

So the loss of life is a strong function of the emergency infrastructure.

And the political response. Often the governments simply do not consider that they have any particular role in relief efforts other than intercepting donated funds and seizing the donated goods such as food supplies and building materials. Military units that could be diverted are not. Infrastructure may exist but it is not utilized. Relief efforts are more a public relations effort.

I recall one hurricane that impacted a Mexican resort town and the locals including the local police were looting, raping and killing. Relief efforts? Don't be absurd. The USA and Canada restored order, not the Mexican authorities.