Actually the reactors had triple redundant safety systems. There were diesel generators to back up the power systems, seawalls to protect from tsunamis, and the facility was built to protect it from any massive earthquake.

I agree you need to prepare "...for way worse than you expect..." but how far do you take it? Should you prepare for everything up to and including Judgment Day? There has to be a reasonable cut off point. We can second guess the designers but you need to remember these reactors have been working fine since the 1960s.

If you have an earthquake scale that goes to 7 it is unlikely that you need to worry about a 9 or 10. Humans can only prepare for reasonable occurrences. What happened in Japan is beyond reasonable but it happened.

I didn't hear about a shortage of bodybags but I do know that the oil refinery that burned in Chiba prefecture would have supplied fuel for a lot of those trucks and ambulances. Plus the private citizens have been desperately filling their cars. Remember they are a free capitalist society.

I think people need to look closer at the level of destruction. Towns were not just damaged. They were literally wiped from the face of the earth. look again at my last post. They were ready. They just couldn't predict the size of the disaster. The waves were expected but not waves of that magnitude.

When I worked for the Navy in Maine we built our buildings according to high earthquake expectations. It made the buildings more expensive but they were safe. Maine doesn't get many earthquakes and none of any great magnitude but we were ready for them. But we would not have been ready for an earthquake like the one that hit Japan.

You say they could use boats. The local boats were all destroyed or deposited on dry land. The water for miles around is full of bodies and newly deposited navigation hazards. The facilities for unloading boats have all been destroyed.

The roads have been buried beneath the rubble that used to be towns or the mud carried around by the waves. Clearing them involves heavy machinery that has to come from somewhere else. Remember that one of the waves went inland for 10 kilometers. How do you prepare for that?