7.9 and 8.8 Earthquakes in Japan

rereading that it seems like such an obvious thing to say :/

no you're totally right...feel the same way myself.

plus so much of it scares me that I feel like the more I understand, the less scared i get

Nothing wrong with that. You can have empathy without being scared, and understanding is pretty much the key to functioning and helping when disaster strikes.

yeah a lot of what people worry might be voyeurism is just natural curiosity, wanting to understand, if youre worried that youre not caring enough, thats a sign that you care

My brain keeps telling itself, "Gosh, it sure is a good thing that every one of those people evacuated those towns before the wave hit, right?"

fuck, is that a person running across at 1:03 in the second from last vid?!

With something like a massive earthquake and tsunami, pretty much you hope that the emergency personall have good training, earthquake-oriented building codes have been in place for a long time, and there is a tsunami warning system. Because that is about all you can do ahead of time.

During the quake, try to get into the open, into a door way, or underneath a sturdy desk or table. Then hope for the best. If the tsunami warning goes off, don't take anything you can't grab in 30 seconds and take off for the highest ground.

Afterward, if you are lucky enough to be a survivor and unhurt, hunt for the injured and trapped and try to help them. Beware of aftershocks, because they will happen and can be very strong in themselves.

After years of curiosity about such disasters, the above are the main points I've learned. Anything more complex I should know has not stuck with me.

P.S. My wife and I do have disaster kits in our cars - 5 gallon buckets with lids, filled with some food (such as canned sardines and hard candy), water and a few other good emergency items, like matches, plastic sheeting and a wool hat. We have a bit more elaborate supplies at home.

Maybe irrelevant right at the moment, but I can't even imagine what the clean-up operation will entail.

My brain keeps telling itself, "Gosh, it sure is a good thing that every one of those people evacuated those towns before the wave hit, right?"

Well that's the thing. The BBC had a disaster special last night with all the regular widescreen raw nature footage, plus one horribly incongruous shot of screaming workers racing from an alley into the street while concrete rained down. I mean, I understand why they don't normally show those shots, but part of me feels if you want to rubberneck, you should have to see real human beings in amongst it.

STRATFOR STRATFOR
NISA says the explosion at #Fukushima could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core http://bit.ly/hMwluU free
2 minutes ago

the video princess tamtam posted is probably the realest i've seen yet. i don't feel that watching them is voyeuristic so much as...i don't know, a vain attempt to come to terms with the scale of what nature can do? we're so used to thinking about natural disasters in the abstract but actually seeing a tsunami happen in real time, from the perspective of someone it's coming towards is truly something else

http://images.scribblelive.com/2011/3/12/adb70c58-1c3a-4636-9d74-06f6320bce33_500.jpg

The footage of cars, boats, and planes all washing around together makes sense considering the airport location and the tsunami, but something in my head doesn't let me really see it as a real scene

I'm ballparking the number here, but this earthquake was stronger than like, 99% of all earthquakes easily, right? I keep hearing it's between the 5th and 7th strongest on record.

― mh, Saturday, March 12, 2011 1:35 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

record being only the last 100 yrs or so. meaning that w/in my lifetime, there will probably be another couple that big, somewhere in the world, right?

Point taken.

I live in an area that's had two "thousand year floods" in the last twenty years, so... yeah.

my god, just can't imagine how much this bloke must have been feeling:
Koichi Takairin

Truck driver, 34, from Sendai

Inside his four-tonne vehicle when the wave struck Sendai, he said that the tsunami was moving too quickly to consider outpacing it so he took the gamble of sitting tight in his truck as a tide of debris – which included entire homes, cars and trees – swept past him.

"The tsunami was unbelievably fast," he said. "Smaller cars were being swept around me. All I could do was sit in my truck." The vehicle was largely destroyed in the resulting chaos.

Hours later, as the waters began to recede, Takairin left the wreckage of his truck to join the column of survivors who were walking along the road away from the Pacific coastline and towards the shattered city.

from the graun.

how do you not have a heart attack if something like that happens

having talked almost daily to people in christchurch since the earthquake there, and knowing what they are going through, this is incomprehensibly horrible. there are a lot of japanese people living here and i keep thinking of more and more people i know who might be directly affected and it's heartbreaking. and it's really cold in japan right now and i keep thinking about elderly people and sick or injured people and babies in the cold and the darkness and wondering how they will manage-- as well as the shocking grief and fear they must contend with there are all these immediate logistical problems, and so so many people needing help. christchurch has less than 400,000 people and less than 200 dead to tend to, and it's overwhelming, how will japan get through this?

I'm ballparking the number here, but this earthquake was stronger than like, 99% of all earthquakes easily, right? I keep hearing it's between the 5th and 7th strongest on record.

― mh, Saturday, March 12, 2011 1:35 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

record being only the last 100 yrs or so. meaning that w/in my lifetime, there will probably be another couple that big, somewhere in the world, right?

― deej, Saturday, March 12, 2011 4:59 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

tho in this case its the inability to get a seemingly v easily accomplishable detail right, backup energy, that is the problem - so preparedness for the strength of the quake etc may not actually be that relevant

Clearly not out of the woods yet.

Reuters reports that the Fukushima nuclear plant has also lost the emergency cooling system at its No 3 reactor, according to the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. This requires the facility to urgently secure a means to supply water to the reactor an Japanese official said. The safety agency also warned that the number of individuals exposed to radiation from the plant could reach as high as 160.

Meanwhile Associated Press is reporting the International Atomic Energy Agency as saying that Japan is evacuating 170,000 people from the area around the Fukushima nuclear plant.

estela, well said

actually seeing a tsunami happen in real time, from the perspective of someone it's coming towards is truly something else

Yeah, this. Watching trucks, navy ships and buildings on fire bob along at the front of a wave completely changed my perception of what a tsunami is.

It's so unreal it would have sounded more like a child's nightmare than something plausible if it was described to me as "there were giant waves coming towards me, and the waves carry houses, and the houses are on fire".

I'd like to be optimistic and think that Japan will not only come out of this, but come back stronger since the country's been wounded and tested so strongly. This is probably the worst destruction/disaster since... well, since Tokyo was firebombed for months and two other cities were notably bombed.

And now that I've typed that, I feel physically ill....

http://twitter.com/#!/search/Pearl%20Harbour

There are a million more people tweeting in a backlash saying it's a horrible comparison.
OTOH:

qu1j0t3 @TiaDGB it's not clear that Japan was even responsible for Pearl Harbour.
6 minutes ago via web

kinda happy that most of those tweets are backlash xp

http://twitter.com/BigFishJordan

the TamTam video and the footage from inside the airport is affecting in the most awful way....the sounds of the actual tsunami, seeing people watching their homes destroyed, and what is is like for a child to witness all of it...I don't even know.

The poor guy trapped in the crane control console I posted about earlier has died:

"A seriously injured worker who had been trapped in the crane operating
console of the exhaust stack was transported to the ground at 5:13pm and
confirmed dead at 5:17pm. We sincerely pray for the repose of his soul."

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031233-e.html

# They caused pearl harbour, this is fucking karma 6 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

# They're one of the richest countries in the world 6 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

# Japan are so rich.. Why do they need help? 7 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

# Nickelback need a britain tour 12 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

# Proper looking forward to download festival! I get to see Linkin park :D 14 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

TBowles94 Tom Bowles
Why do I never get any new followers :(

CNN via Reuters saying meltdown might be underway? anyone got anything substantial?

Japan's Edano saying that fuel rods at TEPCO Fukushima nuclear plant No. 1 reactor now covered with water

^^ also via Reuters, just ignore anything routed via CNN.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
press conference on now.
venting air from third reactor.

Oh, I see, it's reactor 3 they're worried about. Great, I thought we were just worried about one reactor.

synopsis of press conference
reactor 1: sea water working
reactor 3: trying to stabalize, like #1

I don't think this got posted yet, from that NHK link:

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says the explosion at a nuclear power station in quake-hit Fukushima Prefecture occurred in the reactor building; rather than the steel reactor container itself.

Edano told reporters on Saturday that the wall of the reactor building collapsed at the Fukushima Number One power plant earlier in the day but that the reactor container itself suffered no damage.

Edano's remarks followed a report that an explosion was heard at the plant.

Edano explained that the reactor is covered with a steel container and that it is placed in the reactor building which is made of steel-reinforced concrete.

Edano said the explosion was triggered when a combination of hydrogen and oxygen ignited.

He added that although a level of radiation measured around the plant was at one time on the rise, it was gradually decreasing.

Edano stressed that the explosion would not cause a large amount of radiation leakage.

Saturday, March 12, 2011 22:07 +0900 (JST)

Someone says "we're not sure what exactly exploded"

First news medium's headline: unexplained explosion might be a meltdown

Second news site: meltdown! (gets more clicks than the other one)

Public: forms opinion based on third hand hearsay, refuses to be convinced by facts from now on.

^speaking of which, I'm really skeptical of the figure of 10,000 missing, as far as I've seen the Japanese media haven't mentioned any figure of missing over a few hundred. Maybe I'm just a stubborn optimist.

Just saw that they found all four of the missing trains, and all of the passengers are safe and accounted for.

http://www.boingboing.net/assets_c/2011/03/RTR2JT1T-thumb-600x480-38398.jpg

This has probably been posted already but TEPCO are issuing hourly bulletins in English.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031301-e.html
Obviously you'll have to take their word for it...

Apologies - i see it already has been. Carry on.

someone upthread was mentioning the 10k number.
NHK news just said "10,000 are stranded in ______ town" so it sounds like maybe contact has been made but the town isn't accessible?

With something like a massive earthquake and tsunami, pretty much you hope that the emergency personall have good training, earthquake-oriented building codes have been in place for a long time, and there is a tsunami warning system. Because that is about all you can do ahead of time.

During the quake, try to get into the open, into a door way, or underneath a sturdy desk or table. Then hope for the best. If the tsunami warning goes off, don't take anything you can't grab in 30 seconds and take off for the highest ground.

Afterward, if you are lucky enough to be a survivor and unhurt, hunt for the injured and trapped and try to help them. Beware of aftershocks, because they will happen and can be very strong in themselves.

After years of curiosity about such disasters, the above are the main points I've learned. Anything more complex I should know has not stuck with me.

P.S. My wife and I do have disaster kits in our cars - 5 gallon buckets with lids, filled with some food (such as canned sardines and hard candy), water and a few other good emergency items, like matches, plastic sheeting and a wool hat. We have a bit more elaborate supplies at home.

Excellent advice, all of this. There's a good piece up on Slate from Farhad Manjoo as well, detailing some choices and recommendations for preparation:

http://www.slate.com/id/2288031/

Meanwhile, the LA Fire Department also has this up for general emergency prep:

http://lafd.org/eqbook.pdf

Just saw that they found all four of the missing trains, and all of the passengers are safe and accounted for.

― adamj, Sunday, March 13, 2011 7:48 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is a relief

Another thing to keep in mind, perhaps as a matter of scale/proportion: Japan is a wealthy, educated country, as well prepared for earthquakes as any country on earth, with sturdy, stable buildings, good warning systems, emergency drills and the like. And still the power and devastation of this thing was overwhelming.

jesus christ, the sign that said '300 ppl'

Fucking bullshit click-grabbing headlines on the Age website making me so mad.

NUCLEAR PLANTS FAIL. 10,000 MISSING (which has nothing to do with the damn nuclear plants)

then underneath NUCLEAR CRISIS NO THREAT TO AUSTRALIA SAYS PM.

*&^&^%