The thing about emergency response in Japan is, everyone is involved. From schoolteachers to QA engineers. For this picture, you’re looking at the result of the hard work of probably a few dozen engineers and hard hat blue-collar workers, plus maybe another dozen formerly unemployed people from the local area.

The thing that gets me is the overblown media response. Sure, it’s great that everyone’s pitching in to whatever local Japan-only relief fund. But I’m really sick of people walking up to me and asking how I’m coping with the aftermath. Dude. I’m a 4th-gen Japanese-American. The relatives I know about are something like cousins 5th-removed. We have no contact; we do not care about each other. But I can’t just say that. Instead I have to just nod my head in thanks and be appreciative of the support.

Out of all the scary 2-minute shaking that the USGS says was an 8.9 quake, a grand total of 1 person died in Tokyo. The tsunami killed an estimated 9500 in the NE corner of Honshu, mostly due to people not wanting to leave their homes. They had a full hour’s warning to leave the area, but they stayed because they figured their harbor’s seawall would deal with the waves as it has for dozens of tsunamis before. These numbers compare to over 200,000 killed in Bangladesh, or 300,000 in Haiti from direct earthquake damage. Or about 1600 in Chile, with another 2 million left homeless.

Here’s an interesting perspective post from someone who worked inland from Tokyo during the quake:
Some Perspective on the Japan Earthquake