I wonder where Hualien rates on the world-scale of most dangerous places to live in terms of natural disasters. It would have to be up there.

I think Japan in general must take the cake. It sounds silly, but I felt a little vulnerable living there with Mt. Fuji overdue for a blowout and the Nankai Trough even more likely to go during our lifetimes. Either one of those events would result in tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of deaths. And then there's just their run-of-the mill massively destructive earthquakes and tsunamis.

The neighborhood we were living on was built on landfill, and the wood frame houses were very close together. Landfill structures are the first to collapse in an earthquake, and once a fire got started in that neighborhood, forget it. Wiped out.

Japan is a disaster waiting to happen. People must just take solace in being around so many other people. "Well, if it were that dangerous, there wouldn't be so many people here!"