It was hard to comprehend the magnitude of the disastrous destruction that struck Japan with the March 11 earthquake, and it has been even more difficult to fathom in the days since.

The wreckage leveled by successive punches of the near-record 8.9 earthquake, the ensuing tsunami waves, the aftershocks, and now the fallout from the ruptured nuclear reactor at the Fukushima power plant has  been overwhelming to watch, much less imagine what it must be like for those in Japan.

From the experience of 2004 of the Southeast Asian tsunami, there was plenty of reason to believe that the news would get worse as the days went by since the earthquake. And it surely did get worse.

With entire towns wiped away by tsunami waters, the official number of dead and missing has risen to 16,600, with 6,405 confirmed dead. The economic impacts rippling around the world are still being realized as well.

The cleanup itself will run into the billions. Power shortages have led to factory and business closures, triggering a plunge in Japanese stocks, and there have been stock selloffs here in the U.S. as well.

With nuclear experts around the globe offering varying assessments on the severity of the situation at the Fukushima power plant, it’s hard to know just how the impacts of the radiation leakage will play out in the days, months, even years to come. For those who have regularly been working at or near the plant, the outlook may be grave.

One has to hope that Japan and its people will find the strength to endure the disaster, and hope that the rest of the world will help that happen.