Here is the US, all of the rebuilding and cleanup would still be bogged down in red tape. Then toss is all those affected that would be whining how the government owes them a living now... Katrina ring a bell.....
I don't know if I'd call it "rebuilding" , as there is little new/re construction in the displayed pics, but the cleanup is impressive. I think basic cleanup for Katrina lasted over 4 years, and that was a considerably smaller disaster.
Really? Its the Corp of Engineers fault people are too dumb to live ABOVE sea level? Is it also their fault people KEEP MOVING BACK??? Guess What.... New Orleans WILL be flooded again, and again. Expecting that it won't be is foolish.
Lets look at some facts here. 49% of New Orleans is below sea level according ti Wikipedia. New Orleans has flooded 5 times in the last 100 years (1927, 1965, 1978, 1995, and 2004). Estimates for rebuilding after Katrina are over 100 billion dollars, but we really don't have a solid number because the work isn't finished yet...
Compare that to the cost to give every single resident say $200,000 and tell them to move out and you can see how ridiculous rebuilding is. There are not enough jobs to support the population.
I get that you don't want to move. But you know what? Sometimes you don't have a choice. Blaming that on the government instead of taking responsibility for yourself is exactly why this country is in the toilet.
One of the most expensive residential parts of the United States capital city is called Georgetown. It floods. it is home of the university by the same name where politicians and diplomats are schooled to learn their craft.
The Mississippi river you might have heard floods a lot too. Yet still people settle there. Why? Rich farm land thanks to the fertile soil that has been deposited in the area by of all things, the floods, for millions of years. Also, the river is a handy source of transportation.
California has fault lines and earthquakes all over the place. Kansas, tornadoes. Texas and California, wildfires. Northeastern US, blizzards and floods. L.A., California has a shortage of water. But other parts of the state suffer from chronic mudslides. Malibu, California, favored by the rich is constantly eroding and houses are built on the eroding cliff/hill edges nevertheless. New York and New Jersey, tons of man made pollutants -- which you can smell from your car as you drive through parts of them. Arkansas, nonstop earthquakes compliments of fracking which actually did stop when the state temporarily suspended fracking authorization and resumed with the state dropped the suspension. In Minnesota, you have heavy penetration of West Nile Virus among the mosquito population. Violent, organized crime gangs in the last decade or two have settled across the major US cities, outlying suburbs, and where there is meat packing or poultry industries in the rural areas as well. In Arizona and other states with lots of dessert, not many clouds, you could be looking at an extra high risk of skin cancer as well as future water shortages.
The very geographic forces that created extra useful places to live in the US make them extra dangerous. And in the areas that were well off in one way or another but not dangerous, crime gangs moved into.
I don't think it would be hard to pick any part of the country where people live and make at least one argument that it was "stupid" to live there.
Odds are, it will be better in many ways than a lot of other places too.
They haven't rebuilt the buildings lost but certainly the infrastructure such as roads, bridges, rail, and even sidewalks have been built again. Like you I was expecting more from the title of the article. But I think they should be congratulated because a lot of hard work has obviously gone into the recovery effort.
The New Amsterdam is protected by dams and it hardly floods all the time. But it has relied on the dykes for a long time.
One of the best not flood areas was the Nile river basin in Egypt, one of the cradles of human civilization. The Egyptians built a flourishing civilization there tens of thousands of years ago; pioneering in math, architecture, etc.
The Nile floods every year.
The people who lived there counted on it.
jeeper14136Feb 11, 2012Buried
I'd like to know where all the debris went.
jphrFeb 11, 2012Buried
Didn't you the first point in the article:
245 — Cost in billions of dollars of the post disaster reconstruction package.
Guess who paid for that? The fairies?
Looks to me that you are taking in information selectively .
Acknowledge that Japan simply demonstrates more coherence as a society.
US government (both local and federal) simply did not do enough. Part of that is ideological and cultural.
EastexdanFeb 11, 2012Buried
If anyone can overcome such distruction...Japan can.
massivetatasFeb 11, 2012Buried
It's on the way to California.
WabbitslayerFeb 11, 2012Buried
Here is the US, all of the rebuilding and cleanup would still be bogged down in red tape. Then toss is all those affected that would be whining how the government owes them a living now... Katrina ring a bell.....
starjotsFeb 11, 2012Buried
They are building a giant robot out of the stuff.
jeeper14136Feb 11, 2012Buried
I would have left the boat on the roof and maybe opened a restaurant in it
psypher1Feb 12, 2012Buried
SUPER GIGANTOR!!!
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012Buried
Never know when a boat on a roof might come in handy.
Angry_MuppetFeb 11, 2012Buried
Katrina was small potatoes compared to the Japanese disaster.
ano233Feb 11, 2012Buried
I don't know if I'd call it "rebuilding" , as there is little new/re construction in the displayed pics, but the cleanup is impressive. I think basic cleanup for Katrina lasted over 4 years, and that was a considerably smaller disaster.
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012Buried
So it should have been easy to fix in less time.
jcleekFeb 11, 2012Buried
Really? Its the Corp of Engineers fault people are too dumb to live ABOVE sea level? Is it also their fault people KEEP MOVING BACK??? Guess What.... New Orleans WILL be flooded again, and again. Expecting that it won't be is foolish.
Lets look at some facts here. 49% of New Orleans is below sea level according ti Wikipedia. New Orleans has flooded 5 times in the last 100 years (1927, 1965, 1978, 1995, and 2004). Estimates for rebuilding after Katrina are over 100 billion dollars, but we really don't have a solid number because the work isn't finished yet...
Compare that to the cost to give every single resident say $200,000 and tell them to move out and you can see how ridiculous rebuilding is. There are not enough jobs to support the population.
I get that you don't want to move. But you know what? Sometimes you don't have a choice. Blaming that on the government instead of taking responsibility for yourself is exactly why this country is in the toilet.
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012Buried
One of the most expensive residential parts of the United States capital city is called Georgetown. It floods. it is home of the university by the same name where politicians and diplomats are schooled to learn their craft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.#Climate
One of the other pricier places to live in the same region is Old Town Alexandria.
As you might have guessed, people have been living there a long time! And, it has been flooding a long time.
It is built along the river and as you read in the article above, the river floods a lot. It is right at sea level.
http://oldtownalexandria.patch.com/articles/old-town-alexandria-recovers-from-hurricane-irene
The Mississippi river you might have heard floods a lot too. Yet still people settle there. Why? Rich farm land thanks to the fertile soil that has been deposited in the area by of all things, the floods, for millions of years. Also, the river is a handy source of transportation.
California has fault lines and earthquakes all over the place. Kansas, tornadoes. Texas and California, wildfires. Northeastern US, blizzards and floods. L.A., California has a shortage of water. But other parts of the state suffer from chronic mudslides. Malibu, California, favored by the rich is constantly eroding and houses are built on the eroding cliff/hill edges nevertheless. New York and New Jersey, tons of man made pollutants -- which you can smell from your car as you drive through parts of them. Arkansas, nonstop earthquakes compliments of fracking which actually did stop when the state temporarily suspended fracking authorization and resumed with the state dropped the suspension. In Minnesota, you have heavy penetration of West Nile Virus among the mosquito population. Violent, organized crime gangs in the last decade or two have settled across the major US cities, outlying suburbs, and where there is meat packing or poultry industries in the rural areas as well. In Arizona and other states with lots of dessert, not many clouds, you could be looking at an extra high risk of skin cancer as well as future water shortages.
The very geographic forces that created extra useful places to live in the US make them extra dangerous. And in the areas that were well off in one way or another but not dangerous, crime gangs moved into.
I don't think it would be hard to pick any part of the country where people live and make at least one argument that it was "stupid" to live there.
Odds are, it will be better in many ways than a lot of other places too.
BrushTeethFeb 11, 2012Buried
I like Japan.
canadianmacfanFeb 11, 2012Buried
They haven't rebuilt the buildings lost but certainly the infrastructure such as roads, bridges, rail, and even sidewalks have been built again. Like you I was expecting more from the title of the article. But I think they should be congratulated because a lot of hard work has obviously gone into the recovery effort.
osawaFeb 11, 2012Buried
Japan Fighting!!!
mtownFeb 12, 2012Buried
The coastline around the San Andreas fault is simply not unstable enough! Lets build MORE houses on top of loose chunks of rubble!
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012Buried
Half a dozen feet below sea level. It's hardly a Stygian depth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_on_land_with_elevations_below_sea_level#North_America
The New Amsterdam is protected by dams and it hardly floods all the time. But it has relied on the dykes for a long time.
One of the best not flood areas was the Nile river basin in Egypt, one of the cradles of human civilization. The Egyptians built a flourishing civilization there tens of thousands of years ago; pioneering in math, architecture, etc.
The Nile floods every year.
The people who lived there counted on it.
massivetatasFeb 12, 2012Buried
I think we should get everyone around fault to jump up and down at noon on Monday and get it over with.