Some amazing video documentation... http://video.pbs.org/video/1863101157 Nova always does a fantastic job of explaining, so that you can really understand and grasp the processes involved. Overwhelming just to see what happened, and makes you think of so many lives impacted.
So, I've just bumped into this info about the Grand Princess Hotel Akasaka(?) closing down for good and then housing Fukushima victims: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yoshinori_ ... 578949022/ I mean just simply.. wow! Imagine all those people who got barely more than a few bags of their belongings, sleeping in some school gym or whatev, not knowing where to go next..
It's not ALL bad news. This dog, found on Friday drifting on debris off the coast of Miyagi, exactly three weeks after the quake, was today reunited with its owner. Video here: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/04_23.html
per cnn a few min ago.. 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes off coast of Miyagi, Japan, Japan's meteorological agency says. (you guys ok over there!!???)
More terrible news. I really wish there could be an end to this tragedy. The Japanese people have already suffered so much. Let's hope that this recent aftershock does not result in a further tsunami.
More than 2.6 mil. homes and offices without power as of noon, Friday (mainly in Sendai I think). 4 people died and 141 were injured. 4 houses were destroyed in Miyagi prefecture and 3 burned down in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. Oh, and TEPCO says the earthquake caused water to overflow from spent fuel storage pools at another of its nuclear power plants, Onagawa in Miyagi prefecture. The utility firm also found water leaks at 5 locations in the plant, including inside buildings housing the reactors. 3 out of 4 external power lines are also down there, & the plant is maintaining its cooling capabilities with the remaining one. You know there are 55 of these things in Japan? Lulz.
Yeah, Yuriko reminds me everyday. But with TEPCO and the government being connected at the hip there will probably be more later. Fuckers. Yuriko and I have been talking about all this alot lately and from the news and talk we hear nothing looks good. India has already stopped imports and it looks like there will more with the radiation stigma attached to anything leaving Japan now. Tourism is going to suck also and this is just the start. I dont even want to know where this will go but I am sure not anywhere good. I havent heard about any suicides yet like after the Hanshin quake when people that lost everything just gave up but I am sure there will be. We have radiation now also in the food here where I live 250 Kilometers from Fukushima and the rice season is about to start so I am wondering if it will show up later in the rice too. Peanuts and spinach are already screwed. Were told the amounts are too small to effect you but people are gonna not take a chance so alot of food will be destroyed. I could go on but this sucks.
One 64-year-old cabbage farmer from Fukushima has already killed himself. He hanged himself on the morning of March 24 in Sukagawa City in Fukushima Prefecture, one day after the government issued it's "intake restriction" on some of the vegetables grown in Fukushima. The man was a highly dedicated farmer, growing a prized organic cabbage. For years, he’d been particularly careful about keeping toxic chemicals out of his cabbages, because they were consumed by elementary school children. The farmer had lost his home and storage facility in the quake, but he had preserved his crop and was keen to sell it. The family blames the nuclear plant for "killing" him. ~ http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... 80468.html
Meanwhile - problems at two more Nuclear facilities: Operations have been suspended at all nuclear power plants from Aomori to Ibaraki prefectures since the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. But electricity is still crucial to keep their cooling systems operating. Japan's nuclear agency says all external power lines at Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture were knocked out in Thursday's quake. The plant switched to emergency diesel power generators for some hours, but power was later restored. In addition, the quake disabled all external power lines at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture. Their cooling systems are still running on emergency diesel power. (from NHK)
And this is the kind of thing that I don't get. Based on your article summary, he didn't lose people, he lost cabbages. Be thankful that you're walking away with your life and your loved ones intact and live another day to farm again. Again, maybe I don't get it because I've never lived through a catastrophe like this and hope I never have to.
My take on the man's 'tweet' (it says here) to his son: "This is the end of growing vegetables in Fukushima. It feels like something that took a lifetime of the utmost care has been lost." And this from a 64yr old woman, Matsuko Ito, who has been living in a shelter in the small northeastern city of Natori since the tsunami: “Something has changed. The world feels strange now. Even the way the clouds move isn’t right.” (Via CBC. Nice pic there of oil leaking into the sea from the Onagawa nuclear plant btw )
TEPCO reports that waves up to 15-meters high hit Fukushima March 11. They have also released video footage taken by a plant worker during the tsunami. The man captured the images with his mobile phone while fleeing for higher ground: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/09_30.html
Wow, Japan is really taking a beating! Another aftershock of 6.6 hit yesterday. I don't know if aftershock is an accurate term. I mean if something like 6 rocked anywhere else its almost a catastrophe. And I just noticed that Yuji-san (M1Go) blogged on 14 Mar that there's no more M1 webpage. Last I checked its still there, just no update. I hope he'll pull through being nearest to this disaster. One month passed, I wonder how the survivors are doing? Must be really tough. From the news, a fisherman said that the ocean was his livelihood but now he can't bear to look at it. Don't blame him.
dont think posting info about these is tasteless, the figures maybe... but then workers on site are considered heroes, so figures are ok to me, making money from these questionable indeed. hopefully lego will donate revenue from sales, we will see. lego representative said: "The figure is on the market since April 2011, but has already been developed more than a year ago. In connection with the Japan-disaster, we have reviewed our product range. Our Japanese colleagues said, however, that the figures are well received there. After all, it is about heroes."
Yeah, those figures were previewed months ago. Any connection to current events is a coincidence not to be thought too hard on. Neat looking figure, though.
