Unfortunately, that seems to be human nature: learn from the immediate past, but then forget about it because it is too inconvenient to plan for things that might not happen again in your lifetime. All you have to look at is the human propensity to build right up to and even on the sides of volcanoes that have very long histories of activity. Vesuvius, Etna, Stromboli, Nyiragongo, Merapi ... the list goes on and on. How about building cities right on fault lines. Or in flood plains that are inundated every few years. Kind of sad that people are willing to risk everything for a view, or perhaps for a few good years of farming. The thought is always "Well that was then, but it won't happen to me."