Replies

1. 
   Scott | Mar 11, 2011 01:19pm | #1

   The water and fire damage is on a scale that is hard to comprehend.

2. 
   DanH | Mar 11, 2011 08:59pm | #2

   Yeah, I've been sending my good wishes.  Not much else I can do, unfortunately.  (Gawd, I hope people don't start organizing clothes drives!)

3. 
   DanH | Mar 12, 2011 07:08am | #3

   Bad to worse -- BBC says there was an explosion at the broken nuke plant.

4. 
   DanH | Mar 12, 2011 04:35pm | #4

   According to CNN, Japan moved 8 feet.  The earth's axis shifted 4 inches.

   That was one big quake!

5. 
   Hokuto | Mar 13, 2011 11:10am | #5

   Thanks for the words of concern. I live about 50 miles west of central Tokyo, and was lucky to be home. I was working up on scaffolding installing siding when the first quake hit. I could see telephone poles waving and neighbors running out into their yards, and got down pretty quick. It was probably the worst shaking I've ever experienced in an earthquake, over 5+ on the Japanese intensity scale where we live. The power went off immediately and stayed off for about fourteen hours. We had a few broken items--things that fell off shelves, but otherwise we are fine. I'm really worried about what I'll find the next time I go in to the university in Shibuya, Tokyo, since my office is up on the 17th floor. I've read reports that Tokyo Tower is now bent, and it isn't very far from my university (clearly visible from my office window), so the shaking must have been pretty severe. The greater worry is what's happening to the nuclear power plants up in Fukushima. Beginning tomorrow afternoon Tokyo Electric is going to be instituting rolling blackouts 3 hours at a time, region by region, in an effort to save power. Over four percent of all homes in Japan are now without power. The death toll is going to be very large, not as large as that from the Sumatra quake, but over ten-thousand, almost for sure. Some towns and villages were simply wiped off the map by the tsunami, and they aren't yet even counting those people "missing."

1. 
   calvin | Mar 13, 2011 07:20pm | #6

   Very glad you've made contact.

   Other than hopes and prayers this type of thing leaves me with nothing to say.

   Best of luck to you and the people of Japan.

6. 
   DanH | Mar 13, 2011 10:52pm | #7

   Apparently a second reactor building just blew up at the Fukushima nuclear plant.