A week ago (Dec. 22) in Central California shook the hell out of Paso Robles (my friend Pete says his brother, who lives there, told him that just about everything in his house that could have fallen and broken did). But his house itself was fine, and there was little damage, relatively speaking. Overall death toll: 2.
Then you have the event of Friday, Dec. 26, in Bam, Iran. There, just about everything that could have fallen did — walls, roofs, entire buildings. Death toll — what? at least 25,000? A story tonight says 40,000.
Why the difference (and does the answer go any deeper than the obvious difference in building materials, standards, etc.)? Haven’t seen anyone put the two events together yet.