Terrifying scenes. We are so lucky in the UK. There's also reports of hundreds missing in Laos in a dam collapse.
I was in a serious earthquake on a Greek Island some while back - it scared me witless - the ground seemed to have lost its substance, a horrible feeling, and the inhabitants were rightly frightened - Zakynthos town had been demolished in living memory. Fortunately no lives lost or structural damage.
There's nothing at all controlable about these things whether volcanos, tsunamis, earthquakes, fire or flood. Sadly, the latter two are often exascerbated by human folly and inaction.