Experts gathered a week ago to ready for earthquake

Nepal's devastating earthquake was the disaster experts knew was coming.

Just a week ago, about 50 earthquake and social scientists from around the world came to Kathmandu to figure out how to get this poor, congested, shoddily built area to prepare better for the big one, a repeat of the 1934 temblor that leveled the city. They knew they were racing the clock, but they didn't know when what they feared would strike.

"It was sort of a nightmare waiting to happen," said seismologist James Jackson, head of the earth sciences department at the University of Cambridge in England. "Physically and geologically, what happened is exactly what we thought would happen."