Tsunami perspective
The often insightful Lis Riba points out a useful way to get perspective on the still-increasing death toll from the tsunami: compare it to the population of US cities.
The latest number I’ve heard is “over 127,000″, which puts it up there with Rancho Cucamonga, CA (127,743), and rapidly approaching Sunnyvale (131,760) or Pasadena (133,936). Worse, that’s the immediate toll; disease and such can still make things much worse.
Another perspective: NYC (not the metro area) has a population of about 8 million, and lost about 3,000 on September 11, 2001. Sweden has a population of 9 million, and 3500 Swedes are missing in the areas hit. CNN says “Sweden’s expected loss of life proportionately matches that of Indonesia, and is exceeded only by Sri Lanka.”
