7.9 and 8.8 Earthquakes in Japan

yeah i dont think PIH is even planning on going to japan

uh, i know?

sorry for snark: i mean, PIH's ~thing~ is "healthcare for poor people" and they don't generally "go in" anywhere. that's MSF's ish.

just saying that if you want to give to an org that's good for the world in general, PIH is a great choice

looks like Americans aren't the only ones apologizing today

Tokyo Govenor Ishihara has apologized for calling the tsunami, 'divine retribution' (Guardian, UK)

meanwhile it looks like we might see another hydrogen explosion at reactor #4, the fire was in the same spot as last time apparently.

all this is from the very useful TimeOutTokyo twitter link from above

Mr "it won't even be as radioactive as a fart" upthread is an HR expert: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/15/josef_oehmen_nuclear_not_worried_viral

Stay classy, Sun
http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/49ultp.jpg

Yeah the Age is being about as helpful with it's headlines this morning, too :( Like sure, there's probably some raised radiation levels right now but humans can deal with quite a bit before it becomes a damn problem. Meanwhile these kind of reports are causing ppl in tokyo to go and panic-buy stuff.

Fire reportedly out at reactor 4, but workers can't check it yet due to radiation. 8 minutes ago via Echofon

I keep thinking of the guys who've had to keep working at the plants trying to save them. Those brave bastards.

otm. friend who is closer to the situation pointed out how many of them are grieving, some have been injured, and several have been irradiated, but they're still going back in.

I seriously hope they are all safe and are all honored at the highest level once this is over.

thanks for the doctors without borders tip, i was trying to figure who to donate to and they sound like the best option.

it's amazing and moving how heroic people can be, bless them all and keep them safe.

yeah i read that doctors without borders "why we don't accept earmarked donations" thing last night while drunkenly trying to work out where to send my money and it seemed pretty legit. (then i donated to the red cross anyway; can't remember why. didn't earmark it though.)

This is pretty nuts, what a world we live in:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/15/california.student.japan/index.html?hpt=C1

the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeVI5hZOFb0

that is v heartwarming

Wow that made me cry, what an incredible feeling that must be to have mourned your family only to find that they are alive...and finding out like that. Just, oh man....

Yeah. Amazing.

For a variety of reasons I have not seen any of the video clips or searched up the photos. The bare words alone are grim enough:

Yasumasa Miyakawa, 70, who owned a laundry on the first floor of his home, said he and his wife ran up a hill when they heard the tsunami warnings. Then Mr. Miyakawa went back down, because he forgot to turn off his iron and was afraid it would catch fire.

When he stepped back outside his shop, he heard those on the hill above him yelling: “Run!” A wave was barreling at him, about a half-mile away, in the bay, he said. He jumped in his car, and by the time he could turn the key and put it in gear, the wave was almost upon him. He said he sped out of town chased by the wave, rising in his rearview mirror.

“It was like one of the ridiculous scenes from an action movie, except it was real,” said Mr. Miyakawa, his hands quivering. “I was going 70” — kilometers per hour, or about 45 miles per hour — “and the wave was gaining on me. That’s how fast it was.”

When he returned the next morning, he found his home reduced to its foundations, and heard faint cries for help. He followed them to a nearby apartment building, where he found a woman shivering and wet in the March cold and took her to a shelter. “The wave killed many,” he said, “but it spared a few.”

Among them were the town’s children, whose schools were located safely on a hilltop.

In fact, the children said they did not even notice the wave. Ryusei Tsugawara, a 13-year-old middle school student, said he figured something was amiss only when school ended and teachers would not let the children go home. Instead, the children were kept at school until the next day, when his parents and those of some of the other children began to claim them.

Some parents never showed, and the unlucky children have been placed in care of friends and relatives, town officials said. “The town is gone, and I’m scared to stay here,” Ryusei said.

Oh god those poor kids

It's getting very hard to keep track of all this, but Reactor #3 is now on fire:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

I thought it already was on fire, now I am confused

That was reactor #4 that caught on fire 2x in the past 24 hours, this is another reactor.

TEPCo just had a press conference that was vague and semi-conflicting and people are starting to get pretty frustrated with the level of info that's being provided.

just 50 ppl still in place at facility? too terrible.

thanks Steve for keeping track of all this btw

Honestly, I'm a bit conflicted myself about the conflicting information. The more I learn about this nuclear stuff, from an armchair position, the more I realize so much of it is unknowable until it actually happens. Like, how much radiation will be released? Depends. If the core melts down, will it be worse than Chernobyl? Depends. Is it safe to be anywhere near the reactors? Depends. And it seems from this distant, time-lapse vantage that the situation there has been changing drastically from hour to hour.

TEPCo is having a difficult time measuring the radiation on site because everything's on fire.

That things are on fire is baffling me I have to admit. Arent these places all concrete and steel?

one of the side effects of this process is that hydrogen gas is being produced, which is v. combustible

Ah of course yes.

Just as a comparison point, here's a pre-quake Google street view of the exact location in Kesennuma where the 6 min "walking up the hill" video was filmed.

NYT has a piece up on the 50 workers: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16workers.html?_r=2&hp

CNN is reporting that those 50 workers have been evacuated.

But NHK is dismissing that as false information.

Another huge quake in the metro Tokyo area right now.

usgs site is on a 6 minute lag right now.

jesus how huge is huge???

fukkin end of days shit right here

Chiba quake, 12.52pm. 10km underground, magnitude 6

Chiba prefecture (just north of Minato), ~6.0

Minato = Tokyo

10km = very shallow, no tsunami warning.

Ah shit.

Sanpuku, is that the same fault as the Miyagi quakes? What about the Shizuoka quake last night?

This is basically terrifying

Havernt they been having ~5.0 aftershocks all this time anyway tho?

Kyoto news says no tsunami threat; Reuters reports no immediate damage

The big quakes and after/fore-shocks (with the exception of a 6.2 last night) were about 350km away, this one is basically in the metro Tokyo area, and very shallow.

From timeout tokyo

Actor Ken Watanabe addresses the world at large, in English. http://youtu.be/H5T3t9rYcjw

Referring to this site:

http://kizuna311.com/index_eng.html