Will We Freak Out in the Big One?

Post-Quake California Won't Be as Orderly as Japan, But We'll Do Better Than You Might Think

A couple wanders in the wreckage looking for elderly parents lost in the catastrophe. A husband asks around a shelter for his wife, who has been missing since the massive waves washed in. A woman pulls back the blankets over the faces of corpses in a makeshift morgue. Nuclear plant workers battle fires amid life-threatening bursts of radiation.

Heartache is the first response to a calamity like the one unfolding in Japan, and we are still evaluating the Japanese government, Japanese preparedness, and Japanese response. It’s worth remembering that disasters begin …