As I write this my house is shaking violently in a strong earthquake…..
>>>>added 00:29
Regular TV broadcasting has been interrupted by a bulletin reporting that Aomori suffered an earthquake registering 6 on the Japanese scale..
They are showing 5+ all along the Pacific Coast of Japan.
Though Tochigi is located quite far from the epicenter, the shaking here was long and strong.
Tsunami warnings are up.
>>>>added 00:32
One thing that was a relief to see was that the advance warning system seems to be working. I was sitting in front of the TV writing some things for Japan News Junkie when suddenly the TV started flashing a warning and announcing in a loud voice, “Prepare for a strong earthquake! Prepare for a strong earthquake!”
>>>>added 00:32
Tsunami warnings have been canceled. They are saying a Japanese intensity scale of 4 for Tochigi, but it felt stronger to me.
>>>>added 00:46
Duration was 15 seconds vertical followed by 30 seconds horizontal. . . It felt like it was a lot longer. . .
>>>>added 00:50
Reports of property damage coming in, but nothing about injuries or deaths…
>>>>added 01:12
Reports of injuries starting to come in.
>>>>added 01:21
Things seem to be settling down, so I am off for a bit of shut eye. . . See you all in 40 winks. . .
No need to look uncute as your home and the world as you know it is crashing down all around you with this fashionably pink Hello Kitty disaster kit, which includes:
The New York Times has a report about Huang Qi, a Chinese human rights advocate who, ironically told National Public Radio recently that there have been great improvements in the human rights situation in China.
BEIJING — Three weeks after the earthquake in Sichuan Province, five bereaved fathers whose children died in collapsed schools sought help from a local human rights activist named Huang Qi.
The fathers visited Mr. Huang at the Tianwang Human Rights Center, an informal advocacy organization in the provincial capital of Chengdu, where he worked and lived. They told him how the four-story Dongqi Middle School had crumbled in an instant, burying their children alive.
Mr. Huang soon posted an article on his center’s Web site, 64tianwang.com, describing their demands. They wanted compensation, an investigation into the schools’ construction and for those responsible for the building’s collapse to be held accountable — if there indeed was negligence.
A week later, plainclothes officers intercepted Mr. Huang on the street outside his home and stuffed him into a car. The police have informed his wife and mother that they are holding him on suspicion of illegally possessing state secrets.
“They’ve been using this method for a long time,” said Zhang Jianping, a contributor to the Web site who has known Mr. Huang since 2005. Nobody knows the grounds for his arrest, but many people have the same idea. Mr. Zhang said, “It may be because the schools collapsed, and so many children died.”
There is no official death toll for the children who died in schools during the Shichuan Province earthquake on May 12. According to estimates by the Chinese government, seven thousand schoolrooms collapsed.
Japan has once again made world news; this time with a large earthquake which rocked northern Japan. The 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck at 8:43 am on Saturday in Iwate Prefecture and killed at least 6 people and injured scores more. On the Japanese scale, the quake measured 6 out of 7. I felt the quake all the way down in Yokohama and figured it was a big one based on its long duration.
I’m not the only one to note the strange synchronicity of Ed’s post on recent Japanese earthquakes, and the very large tremor which rocked China this week. It feels a bit strange to blog about a part of Asia, and to not, at the very least, acknowledge the human tragedy, particularly since China has made the unusual gesture of asking other nations for help.
NPR has a rather harrowing, but gripping account of a family’s search for their two year old son. I can’t seem to embed the player, but you can hop over to the site, and click the “Listen Now” button to hear the narration, which will surely put a human face on this sprawling wreck of a story.
On Monday, Fu Guanyu dropped off her young son, Wang Zhilu, at his grandparents’ house so she could go to work. Minutes later, the earthquake hit.
She rushed back home and saw their apartment building in ruins. She says soldiers came right away to help, but they had no equipment.
Had a hard time sleeping last night as a swarm of earthquakes kept rocking me out of my slumber over about an hour.
When I was first shaken awake by a strong jolt, I turned on the light and noted the time was 1:10 a.m. After settling back in and drifting off a bit, the house started shaking hard enough to wake me up again. This cycle off getting back to sleep and being shaken awake must have occurred about five or six times during the night, with a couple of really hard jolts thrown in for good measure. Also, there was one instance after a strong temblor when I could feel the bed continue to sway back and forth for what seemed to be quite a long time and build back up into another episode of violent shaking.
We had not had a strong earthquake for quite some time and it is easy to forget about them, but old Mother Nature has her ways of keeping you on your toes.
The Washington Post is running an article from Reuters about the consequences of a big earthquake in Tokyo. It contends that the foot traffic from 12,000,000 people would create incredible crowd densities of more than 6 people per square meter! The article also states that:
The Tokyo metropolitan government said in 2006 that a magnitude 7.3 earthquake under Tokyo would probably kill more than 5,600 people and injure almost 160,000. Official estimates of economic damage have topped more than $1 trillion.
It’s easy to forget in normal day-to-day living just how vulnerable Japan is to huge catastrophes.
The next time someone tells you that, in case of an earthquake, turn off the gas, get under a table, stand in a doorway, and do all of that other good stuff, remember this video which was taken by a camera that was rolling when the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake hit in 1995.
Straight from the Security and Safety Trade Expo in Tokyo is this emergency outfit for dogs. Designed to be either for a dog or cat, the coat includes pockets that contain emergency goods and food.
Why food? You would think that there would be plenty of fresh meat lying around for the enterprising dog or cat to eat following an earthquake or other disaster. . .
