Earthquakes
The terrible death toll in the Iran earthquake is now estimated at 50,000. This is about 15 times the amount of people who died in New York on September 11th 2001 and (without checking too much) the biggest 'disaster' I can recall in years.I am not, by making that comparison, in anyway comparing the impact or horror of the two events. Earthquakes are very obviously different from madmen flying planes into skyscrapers.
However Iran is a country with a similar population to the UK and it's almost unimaginable to consider a disaster of such magnitude happening here. The largest man-made disasters tend to kill less than 100 people. This summer's heatwave, where 2000 people might have died, is an obvious exception, but -- and I am ashamed to say it -- it is much harder to find that sort of thing so horrifying.
posted by Matthew @ 12/30/2003 07:59:00 PM
Comments: 0
