Shopping at Costco yesterday -- amidst those manmade canyons/aisles of food -- I was wishing I could express-ship a pallet of food to the remote, devastated areas of Japan. Or even just one of my pantry shelves of food.

The individual stories of tragedy and hardship a week into the disaster are heartbreaking. I just now read of 30 children still sitting in their classroom, where they were when the tsunami hit, waiting for their parents to show up....

With the world's 3rd largest economy and probably the most "prepared" populace and bureaucracy, the disaster response in Japan does not seem to be living up to the expectations of the Japanese people or many international observers. Would any tabletop exercise have predicted what's happening today and how it is being handled?

I wonder if the U.S. would fare much better.

The NorCal-Oregon-Washington nightmare subduction zone scenario.... The New Madrid fault....

Americans not in the damage zones would desperately want to help. Could we, other than donating money? Authorities surely wouldn't want even well-intentioned numbers of outsiders rushing in. Damaged roadways and runways could make it impossible anyway. There is limited access to the Pacific Northwest coastline to begin with. Portland, Seattle and a host of inland towns and roads may not be in great shape, either. If the PNW or midwest were hit I'd be chomping at the bit to load up my SUV and trailer with supplies for family, friends and strangers.

Japan is showing that being outside the damage zone doesn't necessarily mean being unaffected (power shortages/blackouts, food & fuel shortages). We've had some inkling of that potential in the U.S. when hurricanes have affected refineries and pipelines.

I'd like to think America would fare better in such a disaster. But I'm less confident of that today than I would have been a week ago. And certainly less confident than before Hurricane Katrina.

Is there anything inherently different about America, Americans or our government (local-state-fed) that should give us confidence that our nation would fare better than Japan has to this point?

Or worse? (their building codes/practices apparently are superior in regard to earthquakes)

We're already seeing direct economic affect in the U.S. because of Japan's troubles, with a GM plant announcing it was shutting down next week because of a parts shortage due to disruption in the supply chain.