
Planning for the next Vesuvius eruption - deegles
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/worlds-dangerous-volcano-threatens-huge-city/
======
tobltobs
If you want to know how good Italy will handle such a catastrophe you could
take a look at the outcome of the earthquake in L'Aquila in in 2009. This area
is a known earthquake area. The earthquake was rated 5.8 or 5.9 on the Richter
scale. 380 people died. Lot's of "earthquake-proof" buildings were damaged.
For example L'Aquila new hospital had to be closed. Around 40.000 people were
made homeless and had to live in tented camps for weeks, many for months. They
were more or less left alone and had to depend on relatives or foreign help
organizations. Official support was more or less non existent. In a "normal"
country an earthquake like this one would not have killed more than ten
persons.

There haven't been much consequences after this embarrassing fiasco apart of
that an Italian court convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter
for failing to adequately warn citizens before the earthquake struck. (This
ruling was overturned later.)

A large eruption of Vesuvius will cause a thousands of dead's and Italy will
be toast and the new Greece. Too make it even more depressing there is not
even a way to prepare for this event and change that outcome. All money spent
for this will land in the pockets of politicians and the mafia, whereby in
Naples they are the same anyway.

------
jfaat
This could well be the most disastrous natural event in our lifetimes. Good
luck getting the warnings of scientists to sink in with Neapolitans. They know
it's going to blow, but almost no one will leave to avoid it.

------
untethered
Let's concetrate on constructing robot-powered orbital space stations, and
worry about the volcanoes later. When's the last time a volcano came close to
messing up a space station?

Where are all those carbon nanotube space elevators[1][2] we were supposed to
be building?

[1]
[http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/02/57...](http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/02/57536)

[2] [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/22/space-
elevato...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/22/space-
elevator-2050)

~~~
jfaat
Your comment comes off as quite callous considering the potential loss of life
involved with this impending disaster.

