[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by RWebb

Different places have different sorts of disasters, and some are easier to predict and avoid (flood plains, tho only some of the Colo. flooding involved that).

We have very good predictability of what disasters will strike where in the US, but that does not mean people pay attention - e.g. large parts of Seattle will be destroyed by lahars but people are not moving away from those areas.

We also know that large parts of Hawaii will be destroyed by flooding, not to mention Florida and southern Manhattan.

Similarly, we know where tornados are going to hit, yet popn is going up in those areas (partly b/c of renewed oil & gas activity).

If you do want to occupy a disaster prone area, there are often things you can do, from stronger or more flexible buildings in earthquake zones, to evac. planning. I'd bet that the relatively small loss of life in Japan compared to the Indonesian tsunami is due to dectection capabilities, warnings, building design and other investments they made.

You can predict all that stuff? We need to get you a TV show on the Weather Channel.