7.9 and 8.8 Earthquakes in Japan

^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.

*&^&^%

did things just get a lot worse? Only turned over to news now and it's saying 10,000 presumed dead and the nuclear plant situation looking critical?

Haven't been following on tv so maybe been like this all day?

Well the headlines I'm angry at when you read the actual articles are still just saying "theres a risk", not that anything further's really happened, and the 10k missing ppl is that town that I dont even know if thats been verified has it?

Like, the Age front page has "10,000 missing in Japanese port"
Click on the actual article tho, and it says "Toll from Japan quake-tsunami nears 900" and no mention of the 10k thing at all! Fucking bait and switch reportage, I am so over this paper.

google maps has layers up now for earthquake damage http://bit.ly/japanimagery
the elementary school i taught at near the port in sendai is still standing

So glad ILX's nuclear power plant experts have weighed in on this thread.

A meltdown may have occurred at at least one nuclear power reactor in Japan, the country's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, said Sunday.

He also said that authorities are concerned over the possibility of another meltdown at a second reactor.

"We do believe that there is a possibility that meltdown has occurred. It is inside the reactor. We can't see. However, we are assuming that a meltdown has occurred," he said of the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility. "And with reactor No. 3, we are also assuming that the possibility of a meltdown as we carry out measures."

Japan media confirming partial meltdown yeterday at reactor 1, and now possibly still partially melting down as emergency "last-defense" measures are not cooling reactor.

Very bad news: reactor 3 is in worse shape than reactor 1, worst case scenario feared.

Evactuation now over 200k people, evacuation radius grown to 30km+

Live TV News claiming "Explosion imminent"

mh, thanks for your commentary, would love to hear more from you.

One first responder has died, 4 other in critical condition.

Radiation readings at a completely separate reactor 100km north of Fukushima jumped up 4000% in the hours after yesterday's explosion which is what's leading the NISA officials to admit to that there was in fact a partial meltdown had occurred.

Reports are ranging that between 15-89 people have entered decontamination treatment for radiation, not counting the first responders.

Ugh i hate this. I'm caught between wishing I could fast forward to see how this ends, or turning off all my news feeds and watching Kitchen Nightmares reruns

Alaska, Washington, and Oregon are on high-alert to measure radiation cloud readings. No radiation detected yet.

These reactors were bullt by (wait for it) General Electric in the early 70s, and there are 23 of their siblings across the USA.

Good news: a 60 year old man feared missing/dead was found 15km out to sea by a naval ship.

After and fore-shocks in the past three days that measured over 5.0 on the richter scale = 300+

damn... thanks, shasta

BreakingNews Breaking News
Death toll in quake-hit Miyagi prefecture, Japan, could surpass 10,000, police estimate - AP

also, quake officially upgraded to 9.0

Jesus

This is just... manic and unbelievable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S35Q5-XPLo0

Good news: a 60 year old man feared missing/dead was found 15km out to sea by a naval ship.

Another report was saying that he was on the roof of his home that was swept out to sea

@arclight on Twitter is an engineer who specializes in nuclear system risk assessment. He's taking questions and posting lots of good commentary and analysis on his feed.

My god, that video

Pretty insane that at 1:09 the person filming runs towards the raging torrent.

my old man (who actually /is/ an nuclear engineer) says that as long as they can maintain the integrity of the pressure vessel it can be an amorphous blob inside and it'll still be 'fine'. the engineers will be sat monitoring & managing that right now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corium_(nuclear_reactor)

so even barring the (hopefully remote) possibility of some nuclear catastrophe, is this going to be the most massive public works/clean up project in history or something? it's hard to see photos and not imagine that.

end of WWII's the only bigger thing that springs to mind

more extraordinary footage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12725646

Holy fuck. I don't think I can watch any more of this. Thanks, this thread, for being a useful respository of information and sanity away from babbling 24 hour news goons.

still from that is whoa

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51653000/jpg/_51653413_011515481-1.jpg

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51653000/jpg/_51653430_011515168-1.jpg

Probably a dumb question, but why is the water black? All the shit getting churned up from the seabed?

Yeah I spotted that too, like was thinking in comparison to the brisbane floods/king tide surges which were all completely brown.

Could understand inland floodwater being the colour of dirt, but 'fresh' water coming downstream straight from the sea?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm

Holy shit.

And, still no word from my Sendai relatives...my cousin in Tokyo has completely gone off radar but we think he's trying to get back north. Just pretty unspeakable really.