> When I said "not knowing" I was talking about not knowing well
> enough to evacuate everyone. Would a large Japanese city tolerate
> evacuating 1 million residents in the greater metro area if that
> meant the businesses would shut down for 5 or more days, when a
> hurricane might just not hit at all?
Kelley,
I understand what you wrote. I am saying that in the case of Japan, as well as Cuba afaik, there is _no_ place to hide from the thing when it really hits the land. Japan is a tiny spot on the map with 130,000,000 million people cramped on the few flat spots that exist. And rivers running down from the omnipresent mountain areas through the flat areas right to the sea. When typhoon come and the river banks are overflown there is _nowhere_ to go except places that are prepared for that.
I am saying that, just like it's been repeated over and over a thousand times here, preparation is what makes the difference, like Cuba etc.
Then, when you know where the shit will hit the fan, you can actually take cover in hard concrete building located on high ground.
And I was not talking about evacuating the local school. I wrote that schools and community centers are made to be evacuation spots. And since there is nowhere to run because the storm is _everywhere_ your only way to reduce human damage is to sit on high ground in places that are prepared for such times.
For your information, pretty much all of Japan is a "metro area", and yes, I believe if agencies consider the risk is high enough they will give evacuation orders to 1,000,000 people, even in metro areas.
I've been listening to "United Radio of NO" for 3 days now, reading all the stuff I could read and checking TV news wherever I could and the only thing I saw was that the State and its local deputies were _not_ where they were supposed to be. The locals had not place to run for shelter, it looks like either you can make it on your own, or you don't make it. That's not the way the State is supposed to work.
JCH