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The Guardian reports:
An "unprecedented" heatwave in Japan has killed at least 65 people in one week, government officials have said, with the weather agency classifying the record-breaking weather as a natural disaster.
The deaths in the week to Sunday were due to heatstroke, while another 22,647 people were admitted to hospital, the Japanese fire and disaster management agency said.
[...] The agency said on Tuesday that 80 people had died from the heat since the beginning of the month, and more than 35,000 had been admitted to hospital.
[...] The city of Kumagaya set a national heat record on Monday, with temperatures hitting 41.1C (106F).
[...] The high temperatures follow record rainfall that caused floods and landslides in western and central Japan, killing more than 220 people.
[...] The extreme weather has revived concerns about the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which will be held in July and August.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @06:16PM (5 children)
"That's not even considering Fukushima."
.
.
Fukishima was not a disaster, Fukushima was the result of poor design practice ( motivated by greed ) creating a vulnerability that did not need to exist.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 26 2018, @06:28PM (1 child)
Errrr, uhhhh - maybe we have different definitions of disaster. When the Twin Towers fell in New York, that was a disaster, despite the fact that a number of people conspired to make it happen. A train wreck is a disaster, regardless whether the engineer screwed up, the tracks were substandard, or some damned fool intentionally derailed the plane.
I'll go on calling Fukushima a disaster, even though we agree that the engineers and the bean counters jointly screwed things up.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @10:36PM
"...derailed the plane"
Yeah that would be a really weird disaster.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by bob_super on Thursday July 26 2018, @06:59PM (1 child)
> poor design practice ( motivated by greed ) creating a vulnerability that did not need to exist.
We shall only build ocean-cooled nukes at least 300m above sea level, just in case a once-in-50000-years storm, or ice age, comes by.
Everything in life is a trade-off. That doesn't mean the design is inherently bad.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @09:38PM
The tsunami that inundated Fukushima was NOT a "once per 50,000 year" event.
Those in charge of planning took a risk when they chose the level of flood protection
for the power plant, and they chose very poorly indeed.
Hopefully you will soon die as a result of poor engineering, and whoever cares about you
can inscribe "Close but no cigar" on your headstone. You. Stupid. Annoying. Prick.
(Score: 2) by leftover on Thursday July 26 2018, @10:56PM
AC: I think you might be thinking of "natural disaster". The unadorned "disaster" is a superset including all events resulting in widespread damage.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.