Today in Japan

According to CNN, in addition to the loss of life (now confirmed at over 15oo but likely to rise considerably), the economic costs are huge:

Losses from the quake, tsunami and fires will total at least $100 billion, including $20 billion in damage to residences and $40 billion in damage to infrastructure such as roads, rail and port facilities, catastrophe modeling firm Eqecat estimated.

The Japanese were well-prepared for earthquakes — much better than the U.S. — but it still wasn’t enough.

Japan earthquake