Earthquake in Japan!

[MooseMom]

Oh my God, I've been just surfing the Web and saw that an 8.9 quake has hit Japan,one of the most powerful earthquake in history!  There's a tsunami warning, and ....  oh my goodness, I just can't imagine.

[okarol]

Awful, watching the live feed is difficult http://www.justin.tv/hoctoggle#/w/953737536 tsunami wiped out miles of homes, farmland, boats slammed into bridges, I pray they warned their citizens in time. More tsunami warnings for hawaii, indonesia, australia, new zealand now.

[Des]

Australia is off the hook - I believe.

Oh my - I have seen some footage and wow that looks so scary.

 

[okarol]

Small waves from #tsunami likely to hit California on Friday morn; beaches might be cleared LATimes: http://lat.ms/hpHwii MAP

[lola]

this is sooooooo sad.....

[texasstyle]

I was up in the middle of the night when it broke in. I never thought I'd see another one in my lifetime to be honest. I contacted my cousin & family in Hawaii (live on military base) through Facebook. They were safe. She said they were "in a creator". The nuclear power facilty on fire worries me though. I can't imagine the death toll on this one. How sad.

[YLGuy]

I saw this last night before I went to bed.   

[Poppylicious]

This was Breaking News on the BBC when I got up.  I've been watching snippets all day and shouted at the tellybox telling the cars to turn around, but they got eaten up by the tsunami and it made me cry (three times.)

Poor people. 

[texasstyle]

2 nuclear reactors are on the verge of a meltdown . It's 7 pm in the USA. I'm following all day. I was almost crying too Poppy. 2 major catastrophe's in one day for them. The earthquake was bad enough. They say that wave went inland 6 miles at 500 mph. I saw a clip from near round level where you really felt like you were right there with that wave. It's deep and the speed is incerdible! It's a little hard to tell from birds eye view. And we are only seeing a  little bit of that wave. I REALLY horrible about this.

[okarol]

It's so upsetting and I pray the death toll is not huge, but I am worried that it might be. 

[phyl1215]

It is so very sad...my daughter-in-law's family is safe and 2 hrs. from the coast in Japan, we are all very grateful. 

[Rerun]

Very sad and I fear for San Francisco.   Will it be next?  I'm also worried about those nuclear plants.  That would be devastating for the world. 

We don't have anyone from Japan on this site do we?? 

       

[breezysummerday]

I thought I might share this link; also contains a link regarding one of the nuclear plants.



http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/some-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake/

[phyl1215]

Seems it just keeps getting worse in Japan.  Those poor people must be so scared, my daughter in law is very concerned for her family over there even though right now they are safe.  Volcano goinig off now in southern Japan, just terrible.

[Stoday]

Like Rerun, I keep thinking of San Francisco.

Are there any nuclear plants in San Francisco?

[Bill Peckham]

There are Stoday http://www.marketwatch.com/story/west-coast-nuke-plants-are-they-safe-2011-03-14

The thing is, reading the article, everything is designed to a point - a 7.0, or an 8.0 earthquake (I think the Japanese plants were suppose to stand up to an 8.0). Well what is suppose to happen if there is a 9.0? To me the big question is: are we designing for failure by disregarding the potential for these unusually severe events? It isn't just earthquakes, weather events of less consequence then a 9.0 earthquake are still hugely disruptive - we are seeing more frequent and more severe flooding than what has been planned for in many locations e.g. Nashville, Sacramento, Fargo.

There is probably some unlikely, but devastating event that could happen anywhere in the world (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3963563.stm), Mother Nature always wins. Check out this list from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_reactors  It isn't so much the risk of a freak event at any one place on the list but taken together the risk of a freak event somewhere is where the probabilities add up, especially given time. Most of these reactors have been operating for decades and they lack many of the fail safe design features of modern reactors. These 40 year old Japanese reactors seem to have some serious design flaws - siting six together, storing waste outside of containment, single backup power source ...

[Jean]

This is a seious problem. Amazingly, the Japanese people are not angry, as one reporter said, " They are used to it" Really?

[plugger]

If you can spare a little cash, I did put up an easy way to donate with cell phone $10 text donations (UNICEF and World Vision):
http://www.dialysisethics2.org/forum/index.php?topic=632.0

[lmunchkin]

BP, we know and sometimes visit folks in Nashville.  And what those people went through was horrific. They didin get all the attention in press like a Japan or California or other known big cities, but I got to tell you those people pulled together and Im talking about neighbor helping neighbor. I have seen very little of that elsewhere, but some of them who lost everything were helping others who lost everything. If it werent for Internet I never would have had a visual of what went on there.
Tennessee has some of the most corridual people in the world. We've passed through there many times and is such a friendly place to visit & is one of the most beautiful places in the country! 
Last I heard, they are about to get things back to the way it was, but still have a lot to do.
My heart goes out to the people of Japan.  It is horrible what they have gone through, and as I understand it, it is not over for them. They need our prayers!!!!!

[MooseMom]

I just have to say this.  My family has a house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that miraculously survived Katrina.  I was there six months after the storm, and I've never seen anything like it.  My aunt also has a house there, and it was badly damaged.  A container full of frozen chickens washed up from the port onto her front yard; you can imagine the stench after a day or two of August in the American South.

I'm living in the upper Midwest, far from the carnage, and I don't know if any of you remember this, but there were SO MANY people who would call into the talk shows or write to the papers about how they resented having their tax money go to the recovery of an area of our country where "people shouldn't be living in the first place."  "You chose to live there, so if a hurricane comes along and devastates your town, don't expect ME to pay for it."  I have to wonder if the Japanese people think along those same lines.  Are there people in, say, Nagano who are writing to their representatives saying, "Those people in Sendai chose to live near the coast where tsunamis are a threat; don't expect ME to have to pay to rebuild it!"

[lmunchkin]

I agree about our taxes paying for the choices people make about where they live!  Those are natural disasters!  But Human disasters is what I DO NOT LIKE our taxes going to. When these banks, auto companies would have gone bankrupt but they got BAILED out!  That's what chaps me. You have small business owners who are having a hard time staying afloat in this economy, but they learn to budget by inventory. People like us, we budget our money!  Why is our government using our tax money to bail out these corp's when theyv'e been living High on the Hog all these years. Please, dont get me started, MM. It is no wonder this country is in the shape it in!  What happened in to the iland of Japan, could be much worse for us down the road. Katrina was awful. My sister lived in Gulport and they lost everything!! Yes it was there choice to live there and they also knew those situations happen there, but they lived there many years before, then came the big one! Thank Goodness they use some inheritance money to put down on another home in another state.
If you ask me, I would much rather my tax money go to those disasters that cant be helped than the ones that could be avoided!!!!!

[MooseMom]

Gulfport!?  That's where my aunt's house is!  My house is in Long Beach!  Have you been down that way lately?  They are making a lot of progress down there, but it is slow going.  We were down there for Thanksgiving and got to see how Beauvoir was restored.  There's just not a lot of money down there, and as you can imagine, insurance rates are through the roof, so it makes it really hard for regular folk to return to the area.  The insurance companies really screwed a lot of homeowners down there.  Such a shame.

I don't have much sympathy for the banks that got bailed out, but now with hindsight, I'm glad we bailed out some of the auto companies.  I know Ford didn't get bailed out; they've weathered the storm OK and perhaps didn't need it.  The other companies weren't as well managed, I guess, and maybe needed help.  I know that poorly managed companies should be allowed to sink or swim on their own, but so many jobs were at stake.  Yes, our tax money was used, but it is being paid back (I think GM has paid it all back...I could be wrong; I'm sure someone here will tell me!).  I don't think the auto companies caused the financial breakdown, so I can cut them some slack, but the banks DID have a hand at causing this fiasco, so I am not happy about THEM being bailed out.

[lmunchkin]

The problem is not the bailing out so much, that is a givin. It is continuing the behavior that bothers me.  Yea our taxes dollars went to bail out Chrysler , GMC, but their spending tackics remain the same, just a little "coloring" here and there to make it look like they have changed. I hope Im wrong, but I see the same pattern here!
Ford, they have done an excellent job in managing there money so much that their profit margin this year was more than all the other automakers, including Toyota & Nissan. I have never really been a Ford person myself, but they hit the mark for real. Iam a GMC & Toyota person myself! GMC is gonna be right back to where they were if they don't change their behavior & Toyota unfortunately Disaster may have put a big dent in their sales.
If any of the auto companys go under, so be it, let them sink!!! Not just auto companies either, there were lots of jobs lost when manufacturing went to other countries cause labor was cheaper.  I was one of those who was making good money in a manufacturing co. but it moved to Brazil cause they could make the product alot cheaper! Quess what, 1200 workers lost their jobs and no body bailed us out! Why would anyone want to treat the Auto Company differently is just not fair and quite frankly not right! 
Yet our Health Care System is failing us. That is what our money should be paid out to.  Cobra,(which we are doing) is a JOKE, but thank God we have it even if it is ridiculously HIGH. Medicare, this should be no surprise to those who are on it, will be broke, and my friends, I believe SOONER rather than later! Unless a solution is found quickly, count it good as gone.
Medicare is not the lone solider on this sinking ship,  Social Security too!
It hurts me to no end, that everyone who has paid their dues will find themselves in a bad way.  It is ashame, MM, a downright shame!
Man what is it with me today!  Such a Doomsday attitude, but unfortunately truthful!!!      

[phyl1215]

According to my DIL the area of Japan that got hit was a very poor area where people take in relatives and friends into their small homes so the death count will be much higher than they are saying (if the bodies can be found).  To me it is amazing that there are not reports of looting or complaining of standing in lines for hours for food or water, we know what happens in the US from New Orleans, there are many lessons to be learned from Japan, including checking out and improving our neclear plants.  Having been through 3 hurricanes when I lived in Florida the mental part of the destruction and fears last forever.