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jeeper14136Feb 11, 2012
I'd like to know where all the debris went.
massivetatasFeb 11, 2012
It's on the way to California.
mtownFeb 12, 2012
The coastline around the San Andreas fault is simply not unstable enough! Lets build MORE houses on top of loose chunks of rubble!
massivetatasFeb 12, 2012
I think we should get everyone around fault to jump up and down at noon on Monday and get it over with.
starjotsFeb 11, 2012
They are building a giant robot out of the stuff.
psypher1Feb 12, 2012
SUPER GIGANTOR!!!
deminicusFeb 11, 2012
I figure a lot can be recycled. Rest probably burned.
EastexdanFeb 11, 2012
If anyone can overcome such distruction...Japan can.
jeeper14136Feb 11, 2012
I would have left the boat on the roof and maybe opened a restaurant in it
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012
Never know when a boat on a roof might come in handy.
ano233Feb 11, 2012
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.
canadianmacfanFeb 11, 2012
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.
BrushTeethFeb 11, 2012
I like Japan.
WabbitslayerFeb 11, 2012
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.....
jphrFeb 11, 2012
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.
Angry_MuppetFeb 11, 2012
Katrina was small potatoes compared to the Japanese disaster.
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012
So it should have been easy to fix in less time.
WabbitslayerFeb 11, 2012
It would not matter how much money was tossed at a disaster of this magnitude in the US. It would be so bogged down in red tape and political backstabbing that nothing would get done for a very long time.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012
It is true that the first responders with emergency training/readiness from all over the country were intercepted en route the scene -- to take "racial sensitivity training" courses that were somehow not an issue at all before that disaster.
They were diverted to a upscale business hotel in Atlanta. A town far, far, far away from the city of New Orleans. Not even in the same state.
They were kept their for days.
Meanwhile, local law enforcement, which should have been acting as emergency responders themselves, was busy in a variety of nefarious activities these rescue teams would have avoided, given the chance:
1. shooting a person for their car
2. looting stores of TVs and other expensive items
3. shooting people trying to flee the city across a bridge; shot because they were black because the Bush administration felt that trained disaster responders shoot be kept bottled up in an Atlanta hotel inundated with muzak.
A ton of federal funds were also spent on ice. Which was not needed and most of which was never delivered. Instead, it was moved to expensive refrigerated storage facilities for a long time "in case we do this again". Which eventually, it was decided we would not be doing this again. The ice was discarded.
Trailers were built as temporary shelters that were toxic to human life.
Labor laws were lifted, criminal gangs moved in from out of state and out of the country. New Orleans became the murder capital of the US.
It was the ultimate red tape disaster.
osawaFeb 11, 2012
Japan Fighting!!!
n3rdw0pFeb 11, 2012
If someone, someone being the us corps of engineers, were directly responsible for building crumbling levees that broke and flooded your home, wouldn't you hold them to the fire or whine as you put it? Educate yourself on what happened dickie, I love living here and it blows away any other boring anything USA, I live in a renovated shotgun house rebuilt by catholic charities, I'm not religious but you bet your butt I'm grateful.
jcleekFeb 11, 2012
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, 2012
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.
johnnysoftwareFeb 11, 2012
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.
jcleekFeb 11, 2012
Georgetown doesn't flood. The waterfront floods. Same story for Alexandria. Why? People built too close to a river that floods. The question is, who do they blame? I live close enough to Alexandria to see the flooding when it happens. They are prepared for it. After the flooding goes away they are right back in business. they clean up in days, not years, and they don't go looking for someone else to bail them out. Do I think those people are any smarter? No!
The Egyptians, as you say, had the same idea. They counted on the floods. Again, no government to blame. And they USED the flooding. Their lives were not ruined by it.
People in New Orleans were told to prepare. They were told to evacuate. All along they collectively choose to do nothing. After Katrina there were HUNDREDS of people stranded and they relied on other people to risk their lives and health to rescue the people who did nothing. And now they all want to government to pay them to rebuild and move back, only to expect this exact same thing to happen in 20 years. As a taxpayer I am sick of it. And New Orleans isn't the only place, just the one I responded about.
Just because it has always been done one way does not make that way the best way. My point is still very much valid: they are blaming someone else and doing NOTHING DIFFERENT. The same thing WILL happen again, and the taxpayer will be held responsible. People expect the government to live their lives for them, and believe they are ENTITLED to a good life, yet they do NOTHING to EARN it. And if it doesn't happen it MUST be someone else's fault. Right?Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
jklnnobFeb 11, 2012
My Ghost Story and celerity ghost story on bio channel.
EastexdanFeb 11, 2012
If anyone can overcome such distruction...Japan can.
JinaWolfMar 24, 2012
It is an honour to live on one planet wit this nation! I admire the Japan's hard-working and firm mentality.
witney_in_memoryFeb 15, 2012
Japanese strong people.
CNBExportsleatherFeb 13, 2012
Great Country! ! ! Hat s off to the people of Japan
kinggreyFeb 12, 2012
truely an amazing county, the best i can think of.
analogkid1Feb 12, 2012
Sad thing is that there just one more tsunami away from yet another destruction. In the end, you just can't beat mama nature.
ren1999Feb 12, 2012
I think it is wonderful how fast Japan has cleaned up these areas. But there are still things that Japan must contend with. 1st, if these earthquakes are a result of a historical or seasonal cycle, we could be having more terrible earthquakes. Record flooding could lead to smoothing and slipping of plates. I have been feeling tremors almost daily since last March. Another problem is that a record 1.2 million people have contracted the Flu this year. I personally had a terrible Flu from October to December. Violent whooping cough, throwing up as a result of coughing, etc. In January, I was fine. But now I am sick with the same symptoms again. I hardly ever get sick and am pretty sure that this is related to being radiated a little. On the economic front, Japan is doing great. The country owes itself its own debts. Many jobs are retail, restaurant, etc.. but wages are much higher than other countries. We're going to be fine, while the world continues to get poorer as it doesn't pay the majority of workers high enough to keep the economy healthy.
tpvmanFeb 12, 2012
I'm impressed by what the Japanese people have accomplished! I don't know if the word "rebuilt" really applies but they've certainly cleaned up much quicker than Americans would.
kantspelwriteFeb 11, 2012
Our government would still be arguing over whose fault it was and who is responsible for the clean up.
adventuvengerFeb 11, 2012
aw they destroyed a perfectly fine building in the rebuild process http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/jeffisgr8t-31122638.jpg
adventuvengerFeb 11, 2012
good job japan, but if they were to be hit by a 2nd tsunami like this anytime soon, god that'd really suck for them.
darrweeksFeb 11, 2012
they are hard worker people
sclouthFeb 11, 2012
They really did a great job. Building new houses and such seems like the next step. Maybe another comparison in another 10 months or so?
ereneeFeb 11, 2012
Japan has a long way to go, still.
martoqFeb 11, 2012
The efficiency and ability to execute is inspirational on such a massive scale. I did have the same question as another commenter though...where the hell did all the debris go?