In the Old World and other places where civilization has been around for a while many of the places prone to natural disaster have been avoided. A volcano that frequently blows its stack earns a certain reputation. With infrequent occurrence a people are more likely to forget or engage in denial (it couldn't happen to US!) and yes, it seems that population pressure does force folks into badly prone areas such as flood plains. Etna and Vesuvius are exceptions because of proximity to major population centers, natural beauty and fertility of the soil.

In the New World many of the dangers were (are) unknown and unrecorded. Who knew that the American Mid-West was the most tornado prone area on the planet? or that Yellowstone was one gigantic calderas? Under "should have known" are the Mississippi flood planes and those of adjoining rivers. As San Francisco grew who really knew the extent of the San Andreas fault system, the Calaveras, the Hayward, the Rogers Creek, San Gregorio and a host of others? 1906, what a way to find out! But what did they learn? Ah, build it up again. Don't listen to the guys screaming about building codes, Bah! This is America! We can overcome anything! Right, couldn't happen again in a million years.

I feel for people who get locked into an area economically when that area is one of high risk for natural disaster. Not their fault (no pun intended) but how do they get away? They don't. We gaze at the plaster casts of the unbelievers of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the unbelievers and the ones with nowhere to go and yet we fail to see ourselves in one of those grotesque, tormented poses. We, too, are unbelievers.