The Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: Early Conclusions

Newspaper reports detail Japan's amazing infrastructure preparations for just such a catastrophe: the regular drills in coastal towns, warning systems that alert individual households, the special footpaths and escape routes leading to higher ground, state-of-the-art engineering allowing high rises and residential buildings to withstand tremors, coastal and river floodwalls, etc.

One resident of Tokyo testifies today on the New York Times website:

The shaking went on for so long that I had ample time to get up, put my shoes on and go out onto the emergency stairs. The neighborhood -- largely 3-15 story buildings -- looked like a set of children's blocks teetering on a shaken table. It looked more dreamlike than scary ... After what must have been 2 or 3 minutes, the neighborhood public address system came online with a cheerful, slightly inappropriate recorded message: "This is Sumida City. Just now, a large earthquake happened. Please be careful."

It was only when I turned on the television and saw live footage of a tsunami closing in on cars driving down the road that I understood the severity of what happened.

We seem not to have woken to the need for such infrastructure improvements in the U.S. Our entire west coast is part of the same "ring of fire" that circles the Pacific, of which Japan is a part. There is no reason—other than shortsightedness and right-wing aversion to federal spending on effective public works solutions—that we should not be able to prepare for what one day, inevitably, will come.