139,580
One hundred thirty-nine thousand, five hundred eighty.
That’s how many people have died from the SEA-EAT, according to current reports.
The meaning, the human cost behind that number still boggles my mind a bit.
I think about the area where Noelle, Scott, and I grew up in Orange County, and how a disaster this size would translate into 92% of the populace in Mission Viejo (93,102) and Lake Forest (58,707) dying.
Think about it: More than nine out of ten of every man, woman, and child, gone.
Maybe Orange County gets spared, and instead it’s the entire city of Torrance that’s wiped from the face of the earth.
Or perhaps everything and everyone I knew in Imperial County disappears, save for a few thousand lucky survivors.
How would the nation react if more than a quarter of Wyoming’s population were to suddenly die? How would the world react?
How would you react?
I had originally thought about the population numbers and gone to the census website to try to find cities and venues (the LA Coleseum, for example) that you could fill with people and try to imagine them all gone, but none of those mental exercises still drives home the point about how many people that really is. Part of the problem of imagining who 92% of the population of Mission Viejo and Lake Forest are is difficult, because the cities are somewhat sprawled out.
We’re talking about more than 282 FULL 747-300 airplanes of people. These were all people, no different from you or me. They had hopes, they had fears, they had loved ones, they had ones who loved them.
Gone.
All because they happened to be in that area, whether it was because they live there, or were vacationing there. Incidents like this make me realize even more that the differences between people based on which side of some imaginary line they live on (country borders) are so silly. We should all be working together for the long-term preservation of the species, not getting into pissing matches because of what part of the planet people are from.
What is a ‘Soul Cookie?’ And, oh, Wendy says hi…she is number 1 on your list of five people you’d like to hear from again, right? Looked you up on ‘Whois.com’ and see your just a bit south of where we all used to live. Email me and I’ll get you and Wendy (yes, Edington…almost 9 years now) connected. Glad to hear your alive and kicking. Jason