Japan quake disaster

[Ian]

I'm thinking about the people I know in Japan, including one of the Panasonic Lumix factories that is in Fukushima prefecture, which is the closest area of Japan to the quake epicentre.

I hope Yoshi is OK - I believe he stays for some of the time in that same general region.

The aerial footage of the tsunami is just terrifying. I've been watching farm buildings, houses and warehouses being immersed by what looks like a slow moving seepage of water, but that's just the scale of the view - it must be travelling at around 50 miles per hour.

None of my relatives in the Philippines live near the exposed coast but tsunamis are expected there too.

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Japan quake disaster

I've just been looking at some of the newsreels and pictures. It's horrific. Very frightening for those caught up in it. I'm also thinking of Yoshi, hoping and praying he and his family and friends are all ok.

Still thinking of Trevor and Dianne in NZ too.

PLEASE log in as soon as you can safely do so and let us know you're ok, Yoshi, Trevor and Dianne.

Pol

[Ian]

Re: Japan quake disaster

I have heard from friends at Olympus and Panasonic, both in Tokyo and they and their friends and families are OK, but public transport is badly disrupted, as is power. One is staying in the office tonight as there is no way he can get home. The other is in Tokyo for a business trip and although the Shinkansen bullet trains are running again, he can't get to the station to go home to Osaka, so he is staying overnight in Tokyo.

Panasonic Lumix has two major factories in near to the epicentre - one in Fukushima (camera assembly) and one in Yamagata (lens manufacture), which is a bit further east. I've heard that some Canon production facilities have been affected, too, but a lot of production is outside Japan these days (not so for Panasonic though).

Ian

[Guest]

Re: Japan quake disaster

Hi Ian - I have just switched on and after seeing your post I went down stairs and switched the TV on to the news channel. The scenes being shown are horrifying and devastating. I should imagine that you are very concerned as you have relatives in the Philippines. I sincerely hope that they will be OK. For the people of Japan it is going to take them a long time to recover from this.

[Pol]

Re: Japan quake disaster

There's a BBC live newswire link HERE

It's difficult to take it all in it's so terrifying! The Tsumai is moving fast so other countries could yet be affected - including NZ.

Pol

[yoshi]

Re: Japan quake disaster

Got a heavy blow - yes, I'm in Fukushima prefecture right now, one of the areas that are badly damaged.

My room below.

The quakes are striking us intermittently even at the time of this writing.
Glad that the electricity supply just came back 10 min. ago after 9 hours of the first hit. No electricty means additionally in my particular case no water supply and no tel connection, no internet. - I have lots of beer instead and full bottle of wine.

Anyway I'm ok atm. Still need paying more attention. Another so-so big one has just come now. The house is shaking with noise.
More than 300 persons are found dead after tsunami withdrew in this prefecture and a whole city seems to be burning in another prefecture. I have no TV here only radio.

Thanks a lot for all of you.

yoshi

[Pol]

Re: Japan quake disaster

Yoshi, thank you so much for posting! It's so good to know you're ok.

Being safe and staying safe is the most important thing for you at the moment. Things can be replaced but people can't.

Take great care and stay safe.

Pol
xx

[Ian]

Re: Japan quake disaster

Hi Yoshi! Glad to hear you are relatively safe (and comfortable with all that booze )

I found it quite emotional watching the tsunami on TV. It's the first time I have seen a recording of what I had imagined a tsunami would be like. There was relatively little action footage of the 2004 tsunami, although my understanding was that it was much worse in 2004 - 24 metres high compared to 10 metres today.

Julia has just said that our office always looks like a quake has just struck!

Anyway - get some rest as I know it's the middle of the night there and take care!

Ian

[yoshi]

Re: Japan quake disaster

Hi Yoshi! Glad to hear you are relatively safe (and comfortable with all that booze )

I found it quite emotional watching the tsunami on TV. It's the first time I have seen a recording of what I had imagined a tsunami would be like. There was relatively little action footage of the 2004 tsunami, although my understanding was that it was much worse in 2004 - 24 metres high compared to 10 metres today.

Julia has just said that our office always looks like a quake has just struck!

Anyway - get some rest as I know it's the middle of the night there and take care!

Ian

Many thanks everybody.
The quake was the strongest and the longest I have ever personally experienced. Normal quakes finishes in 30 sec. to a min. but this one was quite long and even after 2 min. it seemed it was even getting stronger.
So I decided to go outside of my home without forgetting to take a camera with me.
I grabbed G11 although EOS20D was also on my desk. had difficulty in walking out.

Even outside the ground was shivering. As it was snowing, I stayed in the car for 30 min. or so and duirng all the time the car was swinging as if I were driving on a bumpy road. Another quake came before one finished and so on.

yoshi

P.S. The news says the quake was the largest since they started the scientific quake observation in the second half of the 19th century.

[Pol]

Re: Japan quake disaster

P.S. The news says the quake was the largest since they started the scientific quake observation in the second half of the 19th century.

I don't suppose you'll be able to see video or film reports of it yet where you are until power and communications are properly restored but the BBC reports and footage we're getting look shocking, very emotional to watch.

Be sure to keep your car well away from any building whilst you're sheltering in there. One of our son's friends lost his home in the Christchurch earthquake a couple of weeks ago. He'd just left his home (in Christchurch) and was running to his car when part of his house and chimney fell onto the car and buried it under rubble.

I'm sure you already know about these dangers but I felt compelled to mention it.

Pol

[Bob Ross]

Re: Japan quake disaster

Hi Yoshi,
When I heard about the EQ. I immediately thought of you. I am really glad that you had a chance to let us know how you are doing. Your description of the quake is what I would have asked you for. I have experienced my share of EQs while I lived in California. We had nothing as big and long lasting as what you just had. For those who haven't been in a quake, when they start I sort of go into a "stop watch mode", because the duration of the actual shaking will tell you how deep and intense the damage will be and sometime how far away the epicenter is. EQs that last longer than 30 secs realy start to offend your psychological need for a stable world. One like Yoshi experienced would have really challenged my usual quake behavior.
Stay safe Yoshi.
Bob

[Barr1e]

Re: Japan quake disaster

So many disasters in the world in recent times and Anne and I feel so sorry for those involved.

Yoshi, it was a big one - thankfully you are well. We send best wishes to Japan and hope things improve quickly.

Regards. Barr1e + Anne

[devilgas]

Re: Japan quake disaster

good to hear you're ok yoshi. like others, my first thoughts were for your wellbeing. i didn't see any footage until a few hours ago and was totally gobsmacked by what was being shown.

[yoshi]

Re: Japan quake disaster

Good morning and thanks indeed for your kind comments, Bob, Anne, Barr1e and devilgas.

Since this early morning, a helicopter was slowly flying over this area, apparently looking for/into the damages we got in this region.

Radio news says the coastal area seemingly got devastating damages but details are unknown due to difficulty of access by road. My place is around 30km inward from the coastal area and big differences in the intensity of the damages, I guess, as no fear of tsunami here.

The quakes are continuously hitting us but not that frequent anymore in this region.

What I do not like is the atomic power plants. The seven atomic power reactors in two power plants stopped automacically as was programmed.
That's the ok part of the story.

The problem is, however, one of the seven has problems in keeping the temperature of the reactor primary coolant
low enough due to malfunction of four diesel power generators and other protective devices to be used in this kind of emergency stop.

The people living within 3km radius were instructed to evacuate last night and this morning the area was enlarged to 10km.
Our village locates in approx. 30km area.

Confirmed death counts 223 persons at this moment. Many of the death is due to heavy damages in the city of Sendai and neighboring regions (around 100km north from my place).

It looks like more than 700 persons are missing, out of which more than 500 are in this prefecture, Fukushima.
Still lots of people are seeking for physical help.

******
The scenary outside is just ironically calm and normal. Bird are singing as usual. Another quiet and gentle day as the attached picture shows --- had it not been earthquakes. Ooops, one more EQ is coming. I stop this here.


yoshi

[devilgas]

Re: Japan quake disaster

The problem is, however, one of the seven has problems in keeping the temperature of the reactor primary coolant
low enough due to malfunction of four diesel power generators and other protective devices to be used in this kind of emergency stop.

that was discussed on the news here earlier this evening. there was talk of venting some coolant vapour to the atmosphere. apparently the half life of the radioactive isotope (nitrogen 16 iirc) is only 5 seconds, decaying to oxygen, and allegedly poses no threat. obviously if the reactor doesn't get cooled sufficiently then there are other things that can go wrong. here's hoping we don't find out what those other things could be.

was amazed at the stats on the aftershocks. as of 6pm, 70 aftershocks over 5 on the RS, with 1 in the 7's. they were also saying that they could go on for many months.