Natural Disaster OMG!

I read two articles in class - Earthquakes hit Japan and Indonesia, and Hurricane Ike Delays Cargo for Space Outpost. The first article was about two earthquakes that were unrelated, and how a bunch of people in Japan were running for their lives, for the supposed "tsunamei" that never came. The second article was about the evacutation of the mission's control center in Texas due to Hurricane Ike's approach. Hurricane Ike was much more disasterous. Both occured in the Ocean. Both were natural disasters. However, only Hurricane Ike caused damage. It is strange to me that things like this hit the news, yet nearly no damage is done...
With triviality,
Aaron