It's easy to forget that the world is not of one solid piece, but a jigsaw puzzle of tectonic plates, all moving around slowly as the world spins. It's especially easy to forget that when you live square in the middle of one of those plates in a land locked province, the type of location which tends to be stable and not prone to the various after-effects of the inevitable earthquakes that rock the planet every year.
It is less easy to forget these things when you're on the edge of one of these plates, as is the case of Japan. Given the location of the country and how prone it is to earthquakes, it is likely the most prepared country in the world. With that knowledge in mind, combined with awareness of their strict building codes and many preventative measures enacted to minimize damage in these situations, one can appreciate that the recent earthquake in the country was far beyond the typical force in these events. When even a wealthy country with strict building codes is devastated by a quake, it drives home that sometimes there is little that can be done to prepare.
Then again, consider it from another angle, what would have happened if the country was less prepared than it was? If one watches the many films of the tidal wave crashing into the country, they will see houses, cars, boats and other inanimate objects being destroyed. That's the thing, apart from some foolhardy people filming and people who might not have gotten the warning, the streets were empty and inanimate objects were all that was visible getting washed away, not people.
This is not to say that people were not killed or washed away by the wave, some were and the death toll is high. According to the numbers provided by NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, over 3,500 are confirmed dead and 7,500 missing. The country is still dealing with the aftermath of one of the nuclear plants getting severe damage, and there is billions of dollars in damage.
However, in spite of this, I can't help but think that, without that advanced planning, those numbers are just a fraction of what could have been, had the plans not been in place. This quake was 9.0 on the Richter scale, one of the ten most powerful in recorded history. It was a quake that actually moved the country 2.5 meters. This is a populous country crammed onto a small island. A total of 440,000 people have been evacuated, but remember, they are all still alive.
It was still a massive loss of life and the scale of the damage can be difficult to comprehend. Japan will be rebuilding for a long time, and will have to reconsider how it generates its power. However, the building codes which allowed structures to remain standing after the quake, and the evacuation plans to get people to safety when they knew a tsunami was on the way, those both saved lives. The engineering that went into these codes saved lives, of that there is no question.
There was really no possible way to prevent a loss of life in a quake like this. It was too powerful, and too close to population. However, it was possible to prevent losses that would have happened with less planning and less stringent codes. Thank the engineers for that work.
