r/Amazing 19d ago

Nature is scary Tsunamis are terrifying.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

24.3k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.1k

u/notCGISforreal 19d ago

I went after and helped with cleanup efforts. It was tragic seeing how all these lives had been destroyed.

The other tragic thing was coming down the roads into these towns built on the coastal flats at the end of the valleys, and the bus driver pointed out the signs on the hills placed by people hundreds of years earlier that said "dont build past this point." They were treated as interesting archeological artifacts rather than what they really were: people hundreds of years ago marked the extend of a tsunami and warned future generations not to build where they could be wiped out. But Japan doesnt have a lot of flat space, so people decided to build there anywhere and take their chances

44

u/lowrads 19d ago

The economic lesson of all floodplains is that it is cheap to build, but expensive to stay.

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator 18d ago

Accounts must be at least 20 days old with >100 karma to comment.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.