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Worrying stuff..
Hope you.. and all.. are okay.
Been out all day and away from the news etc.....just seen this on channel five and it's truly devastating.
Thoughts are with all caught up in this disaster.
Worrying stuff..
Hope you.. and all.. are okay.
Just got in from work and have been watching channel 4 news - holy mother of god - terrible.
Glad to hear you are ok TT - must say this puts my rather crappy day to perspective big time.
Life as we know it will never be quite the same.
Best wishes to you and all your fellow countrymen.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Hope you and yours are safe and sound, this is terrible news and my heart goes out to all of those who are suffering right now
My goodness, is anyone here praying that we don't wake up to a nuclear disaster?
I would just like an update that says its all under control but over the last few hours the updates seem to be getting worse! I'm overly worried I know!
My thoughts are with the engineers trying to get the Fukushima-Daiichi reactor fixed as well as everyone affected and hope for no more serious after shocks.
So it's more than 24 hours since the initial quake. There have been well over a hundred quakes between 5.0 and 7.x since, occuring every few minutes or so. There goes another one. Some truly epic seismic activity underway. Reports coming in that the earth shifted on its axis. Devastation in the north due to tsunami damage. Quite eery how here ( central Tokyo ) things are working almost as normal now. The postman arrived this morning at 6am as usual. The newspaper delivery guy putt-putted up the street on his moped ( and the newspaper had full content, showing the journos and the presses were at work as usual through the night ). Cafes are full. Shops are open. The local flower seller is operating. Trains within Tokyo are starting to run again. Those going north are stopped, still too many quakes and some of the line damage is bad. 4 trains are missing entirely in the north. Power is okay but lots of warnings that it may go. Work still ongoing to sort out the reactors. Just incredible the relative lack of damage in Tokyo given the size of the event and the duration. I offer a humble bow to the engineers who made the structures so tolerant, and all the officials who have put into practice very well exercised plans.
Toll elsewhere is going to be very grim though. Initial figures ( 1400 at time of this post ) from the Japan agencies are based on the count of recovered bodies that have been identified. Many aren't going to be in that category for a while, or ever. Just went outside and played football with the kids in the local park. Lots of other families out too. The sun is shining. A sense of ... well you can imagine.
Thanks for your thoughts and comments.
Paul
( giving up the TT henceforth )
bbc showing footage of one of the buildings exploding. pretty scary.
Amazing grit you guys are showing out there. Really quite incredible.
As for the "aftershocks" running up to a 7 :shock:
That's truly frightening and presumably hampers any humanitarian work, salvage and reconstruction :(
quite astounding the scale of damage, what the people of Japan must be going through,
Power plant does not look good :(
Just speechless watching this unfold in the last 24hrs, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan
My heart goes out to all those families who have lost loved ones, homes etc. Sometimes nature just seems to remind us that we are not in control.
Glad you and yours are OK, Paul. Stay safe.
It appears that the parents of the husband of a good friend live in one of the areas affected by the tsunami and they haven't been able to make contact with them, which is quite concerning.
Glad you and yours are safe TT.
We lived 2hrs north of Sendai for a few years and still have friends in the area. We have not been able to reach them. I just can't imagine the devastation. :(
Amazed at the pictures coming in now from the coastlines.
As I played SimCity fairly frequently as a teenager (yes I was/am a nerd) these plane/satellite shots of the landscape just remind me of the disasters from that game. And those seemed totally fantasy and it seems so surreal that it could actually happen in real life.
Just had some excellent news - found out this morning that my friend's in-laws, who live in Ofunato, are safe and back at home. There's also a large US military convoy with a UK rescue team due to arrive there very shortly, so hopefully things will slowly start to improve for those who have been less fortunate.
Good news to hear, especially so amongst the terrible carnage that has occurred.Originally Posted by Seabadger
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I know this thread hasn't had any postings for three days but I'm still looking at the images, still reading the stories in the newspaper and still watching the news on the TV.
I physically can't offer any help other than to pray that the nuclear reactors start to cool.
Wishing nothing but the best for everyone there and admiration for the people who are trying to control it.
I haven't posted for a while on the subject. From what I have seen, a lot of the foreign ( foreign to me that is ) media are focusing on the reactor issues with less said about the actual, as opposed to potential, destruction that has already happened. Some of the reporting is just simple sensationalism multiplied by ignorance. I suppose it is to be expected, but it still makes me sigh.
I'm reasonably hopeful the reactor issues are reaching an end stage. In the meantime I have relocated myself and family to Kyoto for a few days. The temples here are as tranquil as ever.
Paul
Hope things are as settled as can be for you and yours Paul. I agree on the focus of the media reporting here, but such is the vulture mentality of the 24-hour, rolling news stations.
Hi Paul
So good to hear from you again,let´s hope the best as possible!
Best wishes
Miro
Took the bullet train back to Tokyo yesterday. Kyoto was a good rest. Still many earthquakes happening here. Nuclear reactor situation seems to be getting a little better ( much to the sadness of some of the foreign press, still, they have Libya now ... ). British Embassy handing out iodine tablets to nationals who want them. I'll pick some up tomorrow. UK Chief Scientific advisor ( Sir John Beddington ) backtracks on his earlier much-quoted "no possible risk to Tokyo whatever the nuclear situation" quote from last week, in a terribly British "well things have changed you see, oh, have to go to another meeting now" update to the Embassy. ( Really, see here for transcript ). FCO doing very well to put out sensible advice, even if "consider leaving Tokyo" ( FCO ) is immediately headlined in the press as "Brits told to get out of Tokyo ! / Evacuation of Brits !" and so on.
Still horrendous devastation and suffering further north, which is the real issue right now.
For those interested, the site here might help put the geological events of the last week into some perspective, and demonstrate the challenge facing those providing help. Perhaps unprecedented seismic activity.
http://www.japanquakemap.com/
Paul
Thanks very much for posting that link. We have familiy in Kamakura and I have been looking for this information over the past week.
Hope it all goes well for you and your family.
Japanees shows amazing currage and strength. All the best to Japaneese nation. We are with you.
Kuni
Paul, glad to hear that you and your family are fine.
Despite the sensational slant in the writing, I could not help but be moved by the selfless actions of the Japanese engineers at the Fukushima plant.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World- ... _In_Japan_
The story is getting lost in the Libyan intervention :roll: however, the after effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant damage deserve to be heard.
My emphasis and sorry for the thread bump but I think you are right. It's still a huge mess. The foreign media have moved on, as to be expected, news isn't news if it isn't new. The effects of the earthquake and tsunami are going to be here for a long time. I think a couple of recent amateur reports from people who actually went up to help are better at explaining the situation. Both are quite long reads, but in my opinion, so much better than a thousand excitable but empty sound-bite updates from the professional media.
http://jasonkelly.com/2011/04/watari-and-yamamoto
http://www.tokyophotographers.com/2011/ ... uth-1.html
I won't quote juicy soundbites from either of these, although both contain enough quotable content and pictures, as they deserve the few minutes it takes to be read through.
Paul
Thanks for posting.
The eyewitness accounts and pictures bring a reality to this tragedy that the news media never could.
Isn't it shocking how quickly we can forget about such an event when it disappears off our screens? :(
Thanks for the reminder.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Agree 100% - must say a lot about our society today !
As our 'beloved' Bliar always referred to having to 'move on' if there was an unpleasant odour surrounding him - as there was most of the time :evil:
Cheers, Peter
A moving read indeed :cry:
Just had another huge quake. Not as big as the first one, but probably the largest aftershock ( of the 600+ ) since. Everything shaking here in Tokyo. TV is reporting the epicenter close to Sendai again. Not what is needed. Tsunami warning is given.
Just reported as a magnitude 7.4
Hoping all is ok and tsunami does not come.
Many thanks, no concerns for Tokyo so I needn't sleep in my swimming trunks. Tsunami prediction is for 1m further north and people have been advised to seek higher ground. I really hope this doesn't materialise. It is a quarter to one in the morning here. A tsunami in the dark ...
Jesus, another biggie gone off so soon, that just isn't fair :(
:cry:
A harrowing video of the power of the tsunami. :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=UoD_ZVZ9xXg
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Another large quake this morning. Lifts stopped, stuff coming off shelves. It wasn't so big ( magnitude 5.9 ) compared to many, and we've all internally re-calibrated what a "scary" quake feels like, but the kids were at school ( Saturday is a school day ) for this one and it ran through my mind again about all those who lost people last month and their current situation. There have been over a thousand quakes since Mar 11, well over 250 of which have been magnitude 5 or more. It will be years before this is cleaned up, physically, but the other damage may never be cleared up.
Another couple of reports. Not "disaster tourism" I hope but some first-hand insights into the effects, for those interested.
http://jkts-english.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... areas.html
A translation of a Japanese nurse's diary.
Excerpt :
http://jasonkelly.com/2011/04/drowning- ... ady-river/On the day before departure, we were given handouts and held a meeting. The handout said that there was no need to include our wallets and money when we pack for the mission. There is no use for money there, we should expect to miss meals and sleep, and disaster victims are to be given higher priority for the use of temporary lavatories.
The situation over there is beyond your worst imagination. If any of you have signed up with optimistic outlooks or from the spirit of volunteerism, please leave the team now. No matter what happens at the site, DO NOT CRY. We are not going there to express our sympathy. We are going there to provide nursing and medical care. If you think YOU want to cry, think about how much the people there want to cry. The tears of a rich medical team from Tokyo will only be bothersome or even insulting to them.
Jason Kelly again, giving out socks, receiving stories in return. Well worth the two minutes.
Paul
All the best Paul and everyone over there. We have family in Tokyo and Kamakura and are in touch regularly, everyone always says its ok but then they would say that. Its useful to read your posts and get someone else's perspective. Much appreciated.
We hope to go to visit the family in October
The situation is getting less media coverage here as other issues bump it off the news, people I talk to here tend to assume that it is all over or nearly so. There is an up to date interactive map of the quakes here (46 this week I just looked)
http://www.japanquakemap.com/week
Also NHK are now doing live english broadcasts on
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
(hope its OK to post these links here if not Eddie please remove.)
One year today
Paul
Thought I had been mistaken when I heard the radio today - it doesn't seem like 12-months.
RIP to those who lost their lives and strength to those who are still affected by this tragedy.
Our thoughts are with those who suffered and the Bereaved.
ktmog6uk
marchingontogether!
The BBC website do these reports so well, images then & now are well worth a look.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17219009
Very powerful use of photography. I do find it difficult to comprehend what happened even after a year, truly our thoughts are with the Japanese who will live with this for the rest of their lives.
2 years today
We watched some programmes over the weekend about the Japanese earthquakes - with footage and analysis of it all. Was quite astonishing just how much damage was done.
Shame such a wonderful country had to endure it and is probably most at risk than anywhere else. Apparently Tokyo is due a big one any time from now up until the next 10 or 20 years. The one that hit the North East two years ago wasn't even the expected one.
We may have to review whether we can realistically live/work there for a while as we would like.
Such stoical, friendly, mild-mannered people. If anyone had the strength to deal with it, they would.
I remember with awe what happened two years ago. Thoughts go to all people there and those with friends and family who have suffered....
10 years ago, today
Time is speeding up. I'm sure of it.
I have been studying tectonics as a result of lockdown homework. Not for me, you understand. But I have absorbed it. The Earth is still a naturally violent place and the impact on those who live near plate boundaries can be catastrophic. Youtube knows of my interest and sends me to Japanese news channels on a regular basis. It's sobering stuff.
Iceland at it as well ..
https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-...sula/#view=map
Don't be tempted by those "Too good to be true" Japanese car imports! If you have one, check for previous water damage. They look lovely after they were dried out but inside the electrical connections and boxes........................ Oops!
There was a documentary on the subject last night, not sure if it was a repeat or not.
Sobering stuff. To have witnessed such catastrophic events first hand and the death and destruction it caused must have been, and probably still is, harrowing. The sheer speed at which the tsunami came in and the ease at which it picked up everything in its path...
Do you know if this affected the MX5, sorry Eunos
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