China quake death toll nears 10,000

China’s worst earthquake for 30 years killed nearly 10,000 people in Sichuan province on Monday, with more feared dead in mountainous areas cut off by landslides, power failures and the collapse of telephone networks.

At least eight schools were reported to have collapsed, burying hundreds of children under rubble. Chemical-laden factories and at least one hospital collapsed, trapping hundreds more, state media said

This is from a 7.9 quake.

I now turn to our resident Californians for engineering and social perspective.

My main question is, is the damage and death toll from this 7.9 closer to a US level or to a Turkey level? (Turkey’s quake was a 7.4, the most powerful ever to hit Turkey, and killed about 15,000.) China’s 1976 earthquake, about the same magnitude, killed around half a million, so we see a big improvement. On the other hand, you don’t hear much about schools and factories in California collapsing every other year.

My secondary question, not especially for Californians, concerns a niggling little doubt that’s bugging me: in a libertarian society (Bill’s preference) or an anarchy (my pref), wouldn’t we expect to see a lot more death and destruction from natural disasters? Is government regulation really needed to prevent flimsy building in quake zones? Sure, self interest of the property owners might, conceivably, mitigate sloppy construction, but history suggests that short-sightedness would trump that. Insurance companies’ self-interest might lead to safer buildings. The rise of technology and wealth might moot the question, as virtually indestructible buildings become cheap enough to build even for low-rent apartments, but that’s just punting the question to the next comparable issue.

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