[FBD]

Take a look at the satellite pics on #393.

Now multiply that to every waterfront town in Indonesian area.


Now, add cholera, dysentery, and every other plague and pestilence known to man...

That 400,000 figure is going to be LOW.

[F16Fighter]

"Add cholera, dysentery, and every other plague and pestilence known to man...

That 400,000 figure is going to be LOW. "

Well, ANYTHING's possible when everything is factored in, but I interpreted the 400k number to be deaths from the flooding alone.

[TFine80]

The satellite pics are pretty persuasive, I guess.

I think the problem with my theory is that it assumes the government tilt toward higher initial casualties. For every country except Indonesia, I believe this is the case. For Indonesia, however, I think there country is closed enough and paranoid enough that they may try to cover up some of the damage (although the pressure behind the relief effort may blunt this).

Kinda like disasters in the Soviet Union were the opposite of this proxy. You had to multiply the death figures by 10.