Japanese Earthquakes

[Kyle (The Guile)]

In light of everything that's happened, I thought I'd just share a story. My friend was about to move to Japan to live and work there, and the place he was going to move to has been completley destroyed, like literally wiped off the map. He was in that area for a job interview about 2 weeks ago, and now it's gone. It's really hard for me to understand that.

This earthquake, and the subsequent results, are horrific.

[Gamogo]

Yep. Its been pretty catastrophic. The subsequent tsunami has really dealt them a double whammy. What makes things worse for Japan (among other factors) as I understand it is the sheer density of the population. That combined with their significant elderly population has got to make this a pretty massive challenge.

Every image I have seen so far has been peppered with elderly folk looking pretty bewildered. Its an interesting comparison to say NZ's recent quake where you didn't see a great amount of elderly captured in the random photos snapped here and there. Thats not to say NZ isn't without its elderly, but Japan has a large elderly population which means a larger volume of folks are going to find the going extra tough as they work through their recovery.

On top if that though you have the whole nuclear reactor fiasco which presents an immediate and long lasting danger due to the explosions and radioactive emissions. Nasty, nasty shit.

I feel bad for Japan. This has been a gargantuan disaster with a lot of additional dimensions of carnage. The human toll figures are starting to emerge and its looking pretty grim. Every update I read about this thing just gets worse and worse :/

[aaronactive]

I just got back from Japan. I was in Tokyo until the Wednesday and was lucky to get out to Osaka..Was going to extend our stay in Tokyo as well....dunno what would have happened if we did.

Felt the earthquake in Osaka..strange feeling..when we saw all the devastation up north it was mind blowing how the tsunami's paved through everything.

[whatcudgowrong]

More than 2 years and 6 months later, the Fukushima reactor is still giving problems:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/fukushima-nuclear-plant-accident_n_4068891.html
Can't TEPCO decommission it?

My story is that I met one of the rescue team that was in New Zealand in Feb 2011 before he got sent back to Japan to help with *that* earthquake.