“the toll could rise to more than 1,300 dead”

That’s the headline for THIS NY Times article on Japan.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s a lot of deaths. But my gut reaction upon reading that headline was relief: having seen some of the footage of the tsunami coming in, I was sure the death toll would be in the tens of thousands. If it’s 1,300 then Japan sort of dodged a bigger bullet, based on the destruction I saw on video.