I'm afraid the death toll will be many times 10,000. On top of what we had already heard, I read tonight that in the town of Otsuchi, people 12,000 people are missing out of a population of 15,000. There may be more stories like this. Two different places reported about 1000 bodies each washed up on shore this morning. How many more are lost at sea forever?
The 2004 tsunami got lots of coverage in the US. Not as much as this, but media coverage of anything is more intense today. On top of that, you have the whole nuclear issue.