An independent panel, investigating the Japanese government’s policies, regarding natural disasters, has found many faults that actually made things worse after the March 11 disasters.

Two primary faults were pointed out at a press conference.

One was the lack of an evacuation policy.  It seems the government never expected to have to evacuate survivors.  The panel said in the future, evacuation plans must be a pillar of dealing with natural disaster.

The second major fault (pun intended) was that the government ignored geographical evidence of 9.0 earthquakes, and hundred feet high tsunamis along Japan’s coastline.  The result was that buildings and seawalls along the coastline were not built strong enough.

Also, the panel discovered that most of the government’s hazard maps and historical tsunami data are totally wrong.

The independent panel will now research ways for the Japanese government to come up with a functional natural disaster preparedness plan.