Reconstruction Process and Social Issues After the 1746 Earthquake and Tsunami in Peru: Past and Present Challenges After Tsunami Events - Post-Tsunami Hazard: Reconstruction and Restoration - page 104

Fig. 7.5 Callao and the new Real Felipe fortress after the earthquake and tsunami of 1746. Note
the dashed line indicating the previous location of the town walls (Source: Silgado 1978 ,
INGEMMET/CERESIS. http://www.ceresis.org/intensidades/hist/776.html )

7.5 Past and Present Challenges for Post-earthquake

and -Tsunami Reconstruction

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in 1756 that society is
responsible for its own calamities: in his opinion, it was the architecture and urban
layout of crowded cities—with high-rise buildings that collapse easily—that were
ultimately responsible for the numerous deaths registered after earthquakes (Perez-
Mallaina 2005 ). The 1746 disaster in Peru proves this argument to be correct. Today,
this argument is understood in an even broader context in which cities have become
megalopolises and in which urban architecture has become more complex and
increasingly dependent on advanced technologies. Today, Rousseau's notion of
social responsibility can be conceptualized in terms of resilience and disaster-
prevention culture .
Clearly, the particular facts described above belong to a different time, one in
which post-disaster priorities for aid and reconstruction differed from those of
today. If we look closely, however, at the experience of the Peruvian population and