So much for our budget shortfalls, our deficits and our polarizing political prattle — our endlessly entertaining glimpses of Charlie Sheen’s daily mental train wreck. More than 10,000 people are likely dead in Japan as a result of Friday’s unfathomable 8.9 earthquake and subsequent catastrophic tsunami, and suddenly none of our little games of name-calling and ideological one-upsmanship seem to matter anymore.

Now our thoughts are taken up by hoping against hope that what’s shaping up as the worst crisis to befall Asia since WWII doesn’t result in nuclear fallout on an epic scale. Already, we’re left wondering how it might be possible to evacuate and resettle potentially millions of Japanese citizens in harm’s way. That’s not to even mention the monumental destruction of property wrought by this disaster, the thousands left homeless, the swath of death and suffering whose depth can’t yet even be calculated.

What if this were to happen to us? What if an 8.9 shaker slammed Southern California or some other part of the West Coast in a populous area? We’re getting a glimpse of it at Japan’s wrenching expense, but only a glimpse. Hardly anything close to a full measure. Because unlike the U.S., Japan had a far greater level of readiness in terms of its strict building codes and civil preparedness. We don’t come close to matching it. We are, instead, sitting ducks. Thus, a quake scenario of similar strength and magnitude could well mean deaths in the six figures, injuries in the millions, impassable roads, toxic leaks, the disappearance of food, water and gasoline, no electricity, limited or no cellphone and internet service. We’d become an every-man-for-himself nightmare of death, doom and destruction in a blink for an undetermined period of time. Possibly weeks.

So while we’ve all seen plenty of false alarms in the past in terms of the need to be prepared — the Y2K fiasco comes to mind — this should be a lesson that everyone need have enough food and water on hand for a family of four to survive for a week (since you either have that many people under your roof now or will need to help others). Also, boxes of batteries, first aid supplies, water purification tablets, flashlights and satellite radios, a couple of portable toilets, all of that. Because if something like this were to happen, and someday it will, those who are prepared will survive and those who aren’t, won’t. It’s really just that simple.

As we’ve been reminded again with stunning drama, we are but insignificant dots running in circles when Mother Nature decides to make her presence felt. Some shifting of the seismological plates and suddenly lives are rubbed out, homes washed away, buildings and cars tossed around like children’s toys — and a nation thrust into chaos.

We all need to heed the warning. Prep is key. You can’t count on an organized response from the nation, so you need to arm yourself with knowledge, supplies, and a battle plan. That isn’t paranoid or conspiratorial thinking. It’s simply the way to survive in a crisis when all of those around you may be losing their heads — or their lives.