Japan Learns from Previous Earthquake Experience

This article, Bitter lessons of Japan's 2011 tsunami put to use with latest quake, highlights what Japan did differently yesterday when another earthquake and tsunami threatened coastal areas. 

What enabled this positive change in the outcomes and behaviors came, I think, from a series of circumstances.

1. This was a similar event that happened in exactly the same area of the mega event from 2011
2. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that happened on 3/11 seared into the Japanese mind the significance of the outcomes, with an estimated 18,000 dead
3. The proximity in time to the last event, being only five years ago, allowed those experiences to remain fresh in people's memories
4. Japan is a regimented society and with their emphasis on disaster preparedness, there was enough time for institutions to change their policies and procedures and conduct training on them so they could be used in the latest event.

If only here in the United States we could be as efficient and effective.

Claire Rubin shared the link above.