Large earthquake off coast of Japan

March 10, 2011 10:12 PM

Preliminary magnitude 7.9 off Honshu at 05:46 UTC The Pacific Ring of Fire has been living up to its name lately. BBC flash reporting a Tsunami Alert has been issued.
posted by Celsius1414 (3215 comments total)

I will be very happy if there is no further interesting news about this event.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:20 PM on March 10, 2011 [11 favorites]

There was a 7.2 in the same area yesterday and a few aftershocks in the 6 range since.
posted by birdherder at 10:23 PM on March 10, 2011

In Tokyo. FUCK. That was scary. So far no one hurt in my office.
posted by gen at 10:23 PM on March 10, 2011 [16 favorites]

Yikes. Hopefully the tsunami doesn't amount to anything...
posted by tracicle at 10:25 PM on March 10, 2011

Looking at the archives on the USGS site (which I've learned about only today when looking for info after my buddy Facebook'd about feeling his Tokyo skyscraper surroundings shaking), this is the strongest quake since Sept. 2009.
posted by birdsquared at 10:25 PM on March 10, 2011

NHK is showing significant damage in Iwate prefecture.
posted by gen at 10:25 PM on March 10, 2011

New revision at the USGS link now saying Magnitude 8.8!
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:26 PM on March 10, 2011

My sister is at the airport there near Honshu, which she just said is being evacuated. Hoping she and everyone there survives and thrives.... (*Fingers crossed*)
posted by Lynsey at 10:27 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. 7.9 is very strong. 8.8 is simply massive.
posted by Justinian at 10:28 PM on March 10, 2011

I just saw this twitpic of aftermath and this video.
posted by mathowie at 10:30 PM on March 10, 2011

Here's hoping that everyone is okay and we get some cool mass dampener videos.
posted by ceribus peribus at 10:30 PM on March 10, 2011

Oh shit. I believe 8.8 puts this in the top 5 recorded quakes of all time.

Apparently one of the problems with measuring quakes of this magnitude is that it's harder to define.
posted by loquacious at 10:31 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm hearing unconfirmed reports of a teenager with wings and a sword standing on top of Tokyo Tower when it happened.
posted by kafziel at 10:32 PM on March 10, 2011 [8 favorites]

Fuck, I just hope the 8.8 isn't ANOTHER pre-shock!
posted by birdsquared at 10:33 PM on March 10, 2011

Japanese television has shown major tsunami damage in northern Japan on Friday, following a magnitude-7.9 earthquake.

Public broadcaster NHK showed cars, trucks, houses and buildings being swept away by tsunami in Onahama city in Fukushima prefecture.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:34 PM on March 10, 2011

According to this link, 8.8 would make this earthquake the 5th-7th largest in the world since 1900!
posted by flyinghamster at 10:35 PM on March 10, 2011

this happened less than an hour ago...


checked cnn, msnbc, fox news


only fox news is covering it now - . -
posted by flyinghamster at 10:38 PM on March 10, 2011

CNN is showing it, including scary footage from NHK.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:39 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

According to this link, 8.8 would make this earthquake the 5th-7th largest in the world since 1900!

Yeah, I was over-rating it by placing it in the top five. But USGS and other geologic may change the rating after several months, as well as dispute each others results like with the Sumatra quake.
posted by loquacious at 10:39 PM on March 10, 2011

CNN has been covering it non stop, dunno why you didn't see it.

MSNBC, though, is showing the daily rerun of "The Ed Show". They really are a shoestring network.
posted by Justinian at 10:39 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

you are right cnn is... i just checked cnn headline news on accident
posted by flyinghamster at 10:40 PM on March 10, 2011

Al Jazeera Live
posted by Feisty at 10:42 PM on March 10, 2011 [4 favorites]

there are pictures of a big tsunami now.
posted by Justinian at 10:42 PM on March 10, 2011

Al Jazeera live stream
posted by philip-random at 10:43 PM on March 10, 2011

Live stream here: from NHK
posted by hellojed at 10:43 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the Al Jazeera link, Feisty and philip-random, this looks like good coverage.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:45 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

msnbc stopped its war on education now
posted by flyinghamster at 10:45 PM on March 10, 2011

According to the USGS site, there have been 22(!) 5.0+ magnitude quakes in the past three days in the same area, starting with a 7.2 on the 9th.
posted by birdsquared at 10:45 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

now i wish i studied stochastic processes
posted by flyinghamster at 10:46 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks hellojed.
posted by -t at 10:47 PM on March 10, 2011

Oh God. This is not good.
posted by flippant at 10:48 PM on March 10, 2011

If there's one thing I have faith in right now, it's the building codes in Japan
posted by hellojed at 10:52 PM on March 10, 2011 [17 favorites]

Okay, in the Al Jazeera feed of Kamaishi. They are showing the cars floating there, and people have the gonads to drive on the flooded road right next to it. WTF, are you nuts?
posted by Mister Fabulous at 10:52 PM on March 10, 2011

Just got an email from USGS, looks like an aftershock (or just another "shock", there has been a lot of them...).
posted by BungaDunga at 10:52 PM on March 10, 2011

Now showing revision to 8.9.

These great earthquakes are so bloody elemental -- the earth moves, great waves of water destroy the coast, fires are started...
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:55 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wow, just watching on CNN video of the tsunami moving whole buildings.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 10:56 PM on March 10, 2011

There's been a 7.1, 6.8 and 2 6.4's since the now 8.9
posted by Mister Fabulous at 10:56 PM on March 10, 2011

Holy shit. Whole buildings being swept away on Al Jazeera.
posted by dirigibleman at 10:56 PM on March 10, 2011

Tokyoite here. That was by far the biggest quake I've experienced. Big time scary on the 6th floor of a bookstore downtown. Half the books fell down. There have been at least three aftershocks, one of those very big. I feel seasick, still now. Wow
posted by zardoz at 10:57 PM on March 10, 2011 [22 favorites]

Horrifying video. Horrifying.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:57 PM on March 10, 2011

Oh s--- is all I can say to the MSNBC coverage - they just showed the tsunami waves hitting.
posted by IndigoRain at 10:57 PM on March 10, 2011

Live coverage: here

Allow scripts from aljazeera.net and brightcove.com
posted by clorox at 10:58 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Possibly just downgraded slightly to 8.4? Tsunami wave 13 feet high.
posted by IndigoRain at 10:59 PM on March 10, 2011

The tsunami footage (we're watching CNN) is terrifying. God.
posted by rtha at 10:59 PM on March 10, 2011

There are buildings on fire in the debris/mudslide moving inexorably with the tsunami.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:01 PM on March 10, 2011

The tsunami footage (we're watching CNN) is terrifying.

This.
posted by juv3nal at 11:03 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Watching cars drive on roads that are about to be subsumed in water and debris. The is surreal.
posted by rtha at 11:04 PM on March 10, 2011

This footage is unbelievable.

A friend in Japan reports that he is safe, trying to get back to Tokyo, but all the trains shut down.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:05 PM on March 10, 2011

Holy shit. Live footage of the tsunami on Al Jazeera. This is insane.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 11:05 PM on March 10, 2011

There's a freaking ship floating on a layer of water down a field.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:05 PM on March 10, 2011

The tsunami footage (we're watching CNN) is terrifying.

It's just awful. That wave is just awful. Taking vehicles and buildings with it. I'm all chocked up.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 11:07 PM on March 10, 2011

Enormous wave of debris destroying everything. Fires within the devastation. I've never seen anything like this.
posted by dirigibleman at 11:08 PM on March 10, 2011

I have Al Jazeera in a browser tab and MSNBC on TV... the footage they're showing is identical right now.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:09 PM on March 10, 2011

Holy hell.

It's too surreal to feel anything, at least for me, right now.
posted by BungaDunga at 11:10 PM on March 10, 2011

Oh god. The earth is trying to kill us all or something. WTF, planet?!

This is fucking awful.
posted by jonathanstrange at 11:10 PM on March 10, 2011

Dude on CNN just said that the tsunami footage we're looking at is 100 km inland? Can that be right?
posted by rtha at 11:10 PM on March 10, 2011

Footage shows the breakers for the second wave coming in now. Probably taller than the first.
posted by Punkey at 11:11 PM on March 10, 2011

Living in Southern California, I can't help but imagine this happening somewhere nearby. Literally chilling.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:11 PM on March 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Absolutely mind boggling.
posted by brundlefly at 11:11 PM on March 10, 2011

Another huge wave coming on the feed. Unreal
posted by hellojed at 11:11 PM on March 10, 2011

Holy hell, are we sure this isn't footage from Deep Impact?
posted by entropicamericana at 11:12 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

CNN and Al Jazeera (YouTube channel) are both showing live footage from NHK. Try the YouTube stream if you can't get others to load.
posted by hat at 11:12 PM on March 10, 2011

Absolutely horrifying. I can barely form words.
posted by faineant at 11:12 PM on March 10, 2011

I have lost all satellite transmissions. No cable tv, only internet.This is getting scary, watching CNN midstream it froze.The scenes were,,,I'm speechless.Tsunami alerts for Russia, Marianas :Praying for all of you
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 11:12 PM on March 10, 2011

'Copter footage - two people walking. Camera cropping moves them out of frame as wave of destroyed buildings approach.
posted by Feisty at 11:13 PM on March 10, 2011

My mouth has been hanging open for many minutes. This is unreal, to watch a tsunami wave come in, to see it crash into the backflow of the previous wave. A long line of waves coming in.
posted by rtha at 11:15 PM on March 10, 2011

Be safe everyone. Take care as best you can - I am praying for you.
posted by helmutdog at 11:15 PM on March 10, 2011

5 M6+ aftershocks so far. I'm so glad my wife and son are well inland from Tokyo.
posted by birdsquared at 11:16 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've had a massive tsunami phobia for years. Watching this is killing me. I'm considering just going to bed and dealing with it in the morning, but man... I don't know if I can go to sleep. All you folks be safe.
posted by brundlefly at 11:16 PM on March 10, 2011

Tsunami watches and warnings from the (US) National Weather Service.
posted by dirigibleman at 11:18 PM on March 10, 2011

Watching the tsunami in Japan live right now...surreal.

Worried that we'll have a shock here in SoCal too. When one side of the 'ring of fire' has a quake, sometimes the other side has sympathy pains.
posted by Asparagirl at 11:18 PM on March 10, 2011

I'm trying to see something on the news about it. They had a quick two minute story and now it's something about 'healing hands'. Thanks, channel 7!
posted by jonathanstrange at 11:19 PM on March 10, 2011

Stay safe and keep checking in, people in the way of this.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:20 PM on March 10, 2011

Hawaii Tsunami Watch
Pacific-Wide Tsunami Watch/Warning

Current estimate time of arrival at Hawaii is 0259 AM Local. Let people know.
posted by Punkey at 11:20 PM on March 10, 2011

Just checking in here because maybe a couple people who know about me know that I live in Japan. I'm on the west coast, so I'm basically tsunami-proof, but there was a pretty big earthquake about 100km-ish from here a month ago. But I'm okay, for what it's worth.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:21 PM on March 10, 2011 [13 favorites]

We can watch people being swallowed up by a tsunami live and we can't do anything about it. The extraordinary extent and the terrible limitations of our technology.
posted by andraste at 11:21 PM on March 10, 2011 [52 favorites]

AJ showing a (refinery? power plant?) wreathed in flames, small fires ringing candy-cane striped smokestacks which appear untouched.
posted by boo_radley at 11:22 PM on March 10, 2011

Jonathanstrange, the best bet you have is The Al -Jazeera stream linked previously
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 11:22 PM on March 10, 2011

I'm sure this fascination with those waves will turn into utter horror later, but right now I can't process both.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:23 PM on March 10, 2011

Agreed, andraste...

I'm watching footage of the initial wave coming upon cars and yelling at the screen hoping they drive like hell and aren't swallowed up.
posted by rachaelfaith at 11:23 PM on March 10, 2011

I switched channels. There's footage now of an oil refinery on fire. It's an inferno.
posted by jonathanstrange at 11:23 PM on March 10, 2011

oh my god, the gas storage units.
posted by boo_radley at 11:24 PM on March 10, 2011

Wow, this is horrible. A wave just ate Sendai Airport, surrounding a large crowd of refugees on the roof, and there's an oil refinery on fire in Chiba-ken.

It's like '95 all over again.
posted by vorfeed at 11:24 PM on March 10, 2011

Us too, rachaelfaith. There were a whole lot of cars just stopping before and people getting out and running. I think the road might be damaged from the quake and that's stopping people getting away.
posted by andraste at 11:25 PM on March 10, 2011

I'm just outside Tokyo, and the fucked up thing is this is my last day at this school. I was all set to go home hours before the earthquake, but some students from the music club invited me to see them flail away at their guitars for awhile. I stayed, and it was fun, and then all hell broke loose. I've never really been scared during an earthquake before, but then teachers in my office told me to get under my desk.

No one is hurt, and there were no classes today, just student clubs and sports teams, so there aren't as many students here. I'm feeling sick from the aftershocks, and it's hard to tell when the next one starts, since everything seems to be rolling.

I heard from my sister in law that my wife and her parents are okay, but I still can't get through to anyone. I'm worried about my house, and my cat. I have no idea when the trains will be running. My s-i-l said that one of the factories near her school had an explosion, and there's black smoke in the air in Soga, near Chiba City. (No Neuromancer jokes, k?) I'm worried about the gas in my house, since you're supposed to turn it off when you leave, but we never do. Fuck. Fuck this is not fun.

I hope all the Japan Mefites are okay. We should meet up, do a headcount, then start drinking to relieve the stress.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:25 PM on March 10, 2011 [66 favorites]

AJ just stated that the quake was felt as far away as Beijing.
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 PM on March 10, 2011

Thanks, youhavetoreadthistwice. I put on ABC2, a 24 hour news station and am hooked up now.
posted by jonathanstrange at 11:26 PM on March 10, 2011

Be safe, Ghidorah.
posted by rtha at 11:27 PM on March 10, 2011

Holy crap holy crap holy crap holy crap. Glued to Al Jazeera.
posted by Phire at 11:28 PM on March 10, 2011

Word has it that Tokyo Disneyland is getting hit, which is just an extremely weird and post-apocalyptic sort of mental image. This is just so surreal. I just got off the phone with a friend, telling him that the entire first floor of the school he's in 30m from the coast in a 3m tsunami area (arriving in about fifteen minutes) is likely to be submerged, and suggesting that he get in his car and just drive, preferably toward the mountains.

This is on basically every channel here right now. The coverage is inescapable.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:28 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

.


I can't watch any more, I think.

In 2004, wasn't there a real-time thread here that surfaced a quick-turn projected wave height simulation while the tsunami was rolling? I looked for the thread but it didn't seem to show in the search results.
posted by mwhybark at 11:28 PM on March 10, 2011

From the 'well, at least it's not raining department...

It's just starting to fucking rain.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:28 PM on March 10, 2011 [6 favorites]

Welp. Not getting to sleep tonight like I'd planned. Al-Jazeera streaming on the laptop and MSNBC on the TV.
posted by rachaelfaith at 11:28 PM on March 10, 2011

reports 10 meter tsunami hit the airport
posted by faineant at 11:29 PM on March 10, 2011

So glad gomi has just, like a few days ago, moved to Australia.
posted by tracicle at 11:29 PM on March 10, 2011 [10 favorites]

Ten meter tsunami hit Sendai Airport. Enormous conflagration at an oil refinery.
posted by dirigibleman at 11:29 PM on March 10, 2011

Al Jazeera says Kyoto news is reporting a 10m tsunami hit the Sendai airport
posted by Decimask at 11:29 PM on March 10, 2011

This is big.
posted by ReeMonster at 11:31 PM on March 10, 2011

I can't... these people waving their arms and white sheets frantically out of their windows- I can't watch.
posted by rachaelfaith at 11:32 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

The airport shown on the al jarezza network is sendai, according to google maps, just confirmed by the news anchors as well.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:33 PM on March 10, 2011

Even my industry is not so morbidly creative as to put shit on fire inside a giant roving wall of mud. Dear God.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:33 PM on March 10, 2011 [9 favorites]

REVISED TSUNAMI WARNING
posted by Punkey at 11:33 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

google map of Sendai, including the airport, if you want to match the footage to a map.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:33 PM on March 10, 2011

THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...
WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
... A WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT ...
A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR
JAPAN / RUSSIA / MARCUS IS. / N. MARIANAS / GUAM / WAKE IS. /
TAIWAN / YAP / PHILIPPINES / MARSHALL IS. / BELAU / MIDWAY IS. /
POHNPEI / CHUUK / KOSRAE / INDONESIA / PAPUA NEW GUINEA /
NAURU / JOHNSTON IS. / SOLOMON IS. / KIRIBATI / HOWLAND-BAKER /
HAWAII / TUVALU / PALMYRA IS. / VANUATU / TOKELAU / JARVIS IS. /
WALLIS-FUTUNA / SAMOA / AMERICAN SAMOA / COOK ISLANDS / NIUE /
AUSTRALIA / FIJI / NEW CALEDONIA / TONGA / MEXICO /
KERMADEC IS / FR. POLYNESIA / NEW ZEALAND / PITCAIRN /
GUATEMALA / EL SALVADOR / COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / ANTARCTICA /
PANAMA / HONDURAS / CHILE / ECUADOR / COLOMBIA / PERU
posted by Punkey at 11:34 PM on March 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Is this the big, overdue earthquake that we've been expecting?
posted by jonathanstrange at 11:34 PM on March 10, 2011

That wall of mud, fire and debris just inexorably crawling, creeping inland is really hard to watch.
posted by loquacious at 11:34 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Assessment for West Coast of the US and Alaska is coming soon.
posted by Punkey at 11:35 PM on March 10, 2011

.

First death reported.

Watching the tsunami spread around on these fields is absolutely surreal. It looks almost like it's computer generated, with boats and trucks and flotsam and jetsam floating around.
posted by kdar at 11:35 PM on March 10, 2011

ENOUGH ALREADY MOTHER NATURE!
posted by Space Kitty at 11:36 PM on March 10, 2011

A giant wall of water.

On fire.

What
The
Fuck
posted by mrzarquon at 11:36 PM on March 10, 2011 [4 favorites]

The woman on there now is describing the way the rumble just kept growing - I know how it is and it's a horrible, horrible feeling. Those poor people, I am so sorry.
posted by tracicle at 11:36 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've watched a few cars driving at rather high speeds trying to outrun debris/water, and then getting cut off and trying to turn around, even though they're cut off behind as well. Then I lose them in the debris.
posted by loquacious at 11:37 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Holy fuck, the wall of water. Jesus. I need a drink.
posted by Phire at 11:37 PM on March 10, 2011

Today was high school and middle school graduation in Japan, meaning that a large number of kids had just gone home safely.

Also, I'd like to point out that there was an action movie recently called Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 which imagined the disaster that would happen if Tokyo was hit by a big earthquake. Now Tokyo really was hit by the worst earthquake in a very long time, and I haven't seen reports of a single building falling down, nor have the trucks and boat docks slamming into bridges and buildings caused any noticeable damage. I feel very grateful to be living in a country that plans seriously for these disasters.
posted by shii at 11:37 PM on March 10, 2011 [30 favorites]

Assessment for West Coast of the US and Alaska is coming soon.

Huh. It never even occurred to me to worry about the west coast. Wouldn't the size and strength of a tsunami dissipate rapidly with distance as the length of the wavefront becomes longer and longer?
posted by Justinian at 11:37 PM on March 10, 2011

A NHK stream is also live at http://jibtv.com/program/?page=0
posted by zachlipton at 11:37 PM on March 10, 2011

Feeling kind of cold and sick.

gomichild must be freaking out about all her friends back home. But I'm glad she's safe.
posted by rtha at 11:38 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ten fucking metre tsunami. Oh fuck.
posted by jonathanstrange at 11:38 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

NHK (watching it on my phone, from the post-apocalyptic future!) is showing the refineries on fire near where my s-i-l works. I'm getting less optimistic about the condition of my house.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:38 PM on March 10, 2011

Sorry to hear it Ghidorah.
posted by anigbrowl at 11:39 PM on March 10, 2011

Best of luck to you and your family, Ghidorah. I'm so sorry.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:39 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

That refinery complex in Ichihara that's on fire... that's the biggest one in Japan, yes? The one overlooking the bay?
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:39 PM on March 10, 2011

Ghidorah - I am so sorry. If I were there I would come and sit with you.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:40 PM on March 10, 2011

Justinian: Probably not, the last serious tsunami that hit California was after the 1964 Alaska earthquake, a 9.2. That caused a 6 meter tsunami in northern California.
posted by Punkey at 11:40 PM on March 10, 2011

Statement for the West coast of the U.S. NO tsunami warning, watch or advisory is in effect for these areas.
posted by IvoShandor at 11:40 PM on March 10, 2011

Oh god, ghidorah. I'm thinking of you all.
posted by jonathanstrange at 11:40 PM on March 10, 2011

The main quake was 8.9 on moment magnitude scale (US) and 8.4 on Japan Meteorological Agency scale.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 11:41 PM on March 10, 2011

Roof caved in on a 600 student graduation ceremony
posted by mrzarquon at 11:42 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

A tsunami seems to have hit Fukushima, too. Man, it looks just chaotic.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:42 PM on March 10, 2011

IvoShandor: That was the original statement issued at 2158 PST. The PTWS is still preparing its assessment given the existence of new tsunami data.

Tsunami Warning Revised for Hawaii
posted by Punkey at 11:43 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

USGS list of latest earthquakes M5.0+ -- look at all the aftershocks.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:43 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

My heart goes out to all of you in danger or with loved ones in danger. I'm so, so sorry!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:43 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ghidorah, I am so sorry.
posted by faineant at 11:43 PM on March 10, 2011

Thanks for the kind words, but it's just a house. The upsetting thing is that the world just won't fucking stop shaking. There is, right now, another fucking aftershock. It's really starting to upset me in an emotional way. But again, thanks to everyone.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:45 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Two different tsunami warning centers in the U.S. Linked from tsunami.gov. Watch for updates. Alaska, Cali and other west coast areas are covered by one, and the rest of the Pacific by the other.
posted by IvoShandor at 11:45 PM on March 10, 2011

I've been watching the AlJazeera feed for the past hour. I should be either doing homework or going to bed (well, both, just not at the same time), but I can't tear my eyes away from this. The tsunami footage is so hard to process -- watching cars and people on the roads, trying to get away, and then suddenly being engulfed by the wave of water, mud, and burning debris.

The only thing my brain has to relate this to is a big-budget disaster movie...but I'm having a hard time with the realization that all those cars aren't being driven by CGI sprites.
posted by djwudi at 11:46 PM on March 10, 2011

MSNBC hoping people are not stupid enough to go down to the beaches to watch the tsunami in the warned areas. Reporting that the tsunami moves at about the speed of a jet plane so that's about how much time it will take.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:47 PM on March 10, 2011

Wow. This footage is just unreal. Prayers for all Mefites and everyone who will be affected.
posted by pearlybob at 11:47 PM on March 10, 2011

Prime Minister (Japan's) saying basically what everyone one of us are thinking, that's trying to minimize the after-effects...how sad it makes me. Absofuckinglutely nothing anybody can do.
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 11:48 PM on March 10, 2011

Good lord, the footage of the wave of water and flaming debris and large boats being swept ashore, and then as the camera pans, you see cars racing from it ... oh hell, I hope they survived.
posted by zippy at 11:48 PM on March 10, 2011

Map from tsunami warning center showing travel time estimates for tsunami.
posted by IvoShandor at 11:48 PM on March 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Jesus, watching a 40+ foot boat being pushed across those fields likes its a styrofoam bouy is disturbing.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:48 PM on March 10, 2011

the large boats swept ashore are about as long as what looks like an 18-wheeler tractor trailer in the shot.
posted by zippy at 11:49 PM on March 10, 2011

IvoShandor: Thanks for the heads up. I can't think of the last time the west coast of US and Canada was threatened by a Japanese tsunami, and neither can Google. West Coast MeFites, we can probably breathe easy.
posted by Punkey at 11:50 PM on March 10, 2011

Fuck. Watching cars trying to escape the water. There aren't words.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:50 PM on March 10, 2011

Pacific tsunami warning center page
posted by mwhybark at 11:50 PM on March 10, 2011

zippy- thats 60ft + in that case.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:51 PM on March 10, 2011

The tsunami footage is so hard to process

Yeah, my brain is having a hard time figuring these images out. No disaster movie I've ever seen has even come close.
posted by rtha at 11:51 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Dear Earth, I'm so sorry I bitched about the 4 inches of rain we're getting. I take it all back, I swear.
posted by rachaelfaith at 11:52 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Weather Channel also following along. They're kind of groping their way along. Was watching MSNBC, and they're trying to figure out what happens when the wave hits Hawaii and the US West Coast. It's really hard to say. There are too many variables in the undersea terrain that dictate how the wave appears on any coastline.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:53 PM on March 10, 2011

I can't think of the last time the west coast of US and Canada was threatened by a Japanese tsunami, and neither can Google. West Coast MeFites, we can probably breathe easy.

The opposite (US Coast to Japan) happened according to scientists in 1700, Cascadia Earthquake
posted by Mister Fabulous at 11:53 PM on March 10, 2011

Ivo, thanks, that was more or less what I was looking for.
posted by mwhybark at 11:53 PM on March 10, 2011

This is terrible, but I have to give credit to the Japanese for preparedness. If this was almost anywhere else, the destruction would have been many many times worse.
posted by geckoinpdx at 11:53 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Huh. It never even occurred to me to worry about the west coast.

Alaska and mainland US Pacific Coast is not currently on watch. It will be re-evaluated shortly.

If you're on the Pacific I'd keep an eye on the news or warnings tonight. If it's not a problem when it hits Hawaii, it'll likely be nothing here on the West coast.

Something that can happen that can't really be predicted is the effect of a tsunami surge on harbors, channels or river outlets. There have been cases of really small tsunami surges being amplified when they enter narrower and shallower waterways. For example a 6" (yes, inch) tsunami surge caused extensive damage at a harbor near where I grew up that amplified it in just the right way, which tossed a lot of expensive boats and docks around and made a mess of things.
posted by loquacious at 11:53 PM on March 10, 2011

Has anybody elese have freezing of cable signals? I know this is no time for speculation, and I can't find anything related to solar flares/storms except the one from the day before yesterday but it brings the weird in me...
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 11:55 PM on March 10, 2011

so heartbreaking to see a car moving because that if it's moving that means there's someone in it and if it's anywhere in the same shot as the wavefront, they are not making it out of harm's way. I can't watch anymore.
posted by juv3nal at 11:56 PM on March 10, 2011

Wow, Japan has been absolutely pummeled by quakes over the last 3 days. Ottawa had a 5.0 a while ago, I can't even imagine something 10,000 times as powerful.
posted by Decimask at 11:57 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have to give credit to the Japanese for preparedness. If this was almost anywhere else, the destruction would have been many many times worse.

This times a thousand.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:57 PM on March 10, 2011

Thank god the nuclear power stations shut down automatically.
posted by rachaelfaith at 11:58 PM on March 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

> Yeah, my brain is having a hard time figuring these images out. No disaster movie I've ever seen has even come close.

The pace of the liquid moving is something I have never seen on this scale before.

It looks like all the times I built a play dam at the beach and then let it go and saw it was away the debris and stuff i put in it's path.

Its just instead of toy boats, its covering 60ft + vessels, and outpacing cars driving at full speed on the highway.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:59 PM on March 10, 2011

Watched a little white car, driving towards the wave, seeing the wave approach, panic stop, 3 point turn, and burning rubber for about 10 feet before the wave caught him.

No words. I just feel sick.
posted by pjern at 12:00 AM on March 11, 2011

Oh my god. Feeling utterly overwhelmed watching that Al Jazeera live video.

So worried about flapjax.
posted by nickyskye at 12:00 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

National Data Buoy Center http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

(sorry if this is a double, I'm not keeping up well with all the posts.)
posted by girlhacker at 12:00 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

BBC article, with live video feed linked inside:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:01 AM on March 11, 2011

and then as the camera pans, you see cars racing from it

..and you can see one individual running down the road and sucked into the maelstrom..
posted by stbalbach at 12:01 AM on March 11, 2011

Heard that my Tokyo coworkers are okay, though there are some buildings on fire near them. Amazing that even after a 8.8 they have internet. I'm not sure San Francisco would fair the same.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 12:01 AM on March 11, 2011

.

Not going to sleep well tonight.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 12:02 AM on March 11, 2011

My daughter was evacuated from the Tokyo airport. No word from her since.
posted by Cranberry at 12:02 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Is there a relationship between climate change and earthquake incidence?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:02 AM on March 11, 2011

Hope you hear from her soon, Cranberry.
posted by tracicle at 12:03 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

So worried about flapjax.

Yeah, can we have a quick sound off? I'm sure many people are busy, away from computers and whatever, but it would be nice to know you're all okay.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:03 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I added some NZ tweeters to my feed after the Christchurch quake and they had reported a notably large aftershock today. IIRC it's not super scientific to relate widely separated seismic activity but it's, you know, hard not to.

Again trying to think back to 2004, didn't someone note that the various wave-height measuring devices (noted on the map Ivo linked upthread) report data to the web publically? Seems like I recall refreshing several datapages as the water moved across the ocean.
posted by mwhybark at 12:04 AM on March 11, 2011

Cranberry - my buddy in Japan said that phone lines (including cellphones) are problematic, so that's likely why you haven't heard from her. Narita is not terribly close to the ocean.
posted by birdsquared at 12:04 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Is there a relationship between climate change and earthquake incidence?

I'm not aware of a direct causal relationship.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:05 AM on March 11, 2011

It's hard not to feel a little depressed at the contrast, my neighbors down the hall just showed up, drunk and merry and oblivious. Didn't feel like telling them.

On the other hand, none of us are anywhere near a coastline of any sort. So that's good news on a personal level, I suppose. Still, would be nice to not know about this right now.

Sleep time, I think. The truly terrifying thing (for me) is that the Cascadia fault is still raring to go off pop, and that's where my family lives. Gonna bet that the US will be so, so much less prepared for a tsunami/earthquake of this magnitude.

Is there a relationship between climate change and earthquake incidence?
No, but I hear HAARP and chemtrails have been causing them.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:05 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm unfamiliar with tsunami/earthquake relations... there are some reports of incoming, larger tsunami waves? 10 meters? Is that true/possible? Can anyone find a source for this?

I hope what I've heard is wrong.
posted by rachaelfaith at 12:05 AM on March 11, 2011

AJE is going into re-run territory now, the speech from the PM has been played twice and some of the footage of the wave of water pushing along debris is definitely being repeated.
posted by Phire at 12:06 AM on March 11, 2011

@BungaDunga - Yeah especially looking across the valley where I live, you can see the line of the San Andreas fault...along with all the new houses they built right on top.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:07 AM on March 11, 2011

Tsunami waves come in multiple... waves.

Narita is not terribly close to the ocean.

Narita is supposed to be back open.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:07 AM on March 11, 2011

Girlhacker linked to the bouy thing I was thinking of.
posted by mwhybark at 12:07 AM on March 11, 2011

Comparative Infographic
posted by a non e mouse at 12:07 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, I was going to go to sleep, but I need to stay up for final word on West Coast.
posted by brundlefly at 12:07 AM on March 11, 2011

Thanks, ZeusHumms.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:08 AM on March 11, 2011

> 10 meters? Is that true/possible? Can anyone find a source for this?

reports are a 10 meter wave at Sendai airport, which is the giant wall of water that Al Jazerra has been showing sweeping over cars and debris. The 10 meters may be 'wave at landfall' it would get lower the further inland it got, but would have a huge amount of inertia behind it.

earthquakes in the ocean can shift a huge amount of land mass, that displaces a huge amount of energy into water, which transfers to waves, which make tsunamis. The shallowaer the earthquake, the more the energy gets turned into waves, etc.
posted by mrzarquon at 12:09 AM on March 11, 2011

The NHK live feed is carrying the cabinet minister's press conference if you want an alternate stream.
posted by zachlipton at 12:09 AM on March 11, 2011

Any news how far inland has the damage has progressed?
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 12:09 AM on March 11, 2011

walking home with the rest of Tokyo

I just checked. 18 km. Probably the best way to go about it.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:10 AM on March 11, 2011

A mention of a Tsunami surge, upthread - Vancouver Island had one in 1964 at the end of the 30 mile long Port Alberni inlet. This incident occured with a second wave that was 3 meters high, devastated the town, but fortunately no lives were lost.
posted by seawallrunner at 12:10 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thank you, mrzarquon.
posted by rachaelfaith at 12:10 AM on March 11, 2011

The NHK live feed is carrying the cabinet minister's press conference if you want an alternate stream.

Bah.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:10 AM on March 11, 2011

I add my hopes that all Mefites and friends and family of will come through this safe and sound.

Here in southern Korea, about 800 kilometres away, it's late afternoon and I felt no tremor when it happened. Given we have the whole of Japan between us and the quake, I don't think there's a wave warning here.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:10 AM on March 11, 2011

5.9
6.1
6.1
6.3
5.9
5.8
6.3
6.3
7.1
6.8
6.4
6.4


And that's just the M5.0+ aftershocks.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:10 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Tsunami warning for Washington and Oregon
posted by BungaDunga at 12:11 AM on March 11, 2011

National Weather Service in US can't seem to agree on their websites. West Coast Tsunami center shows no watch as of 9:58pm Pacific, NWS in Portland shows tsunami watch for Oregon/Washington Coasts as of 11:59pm Pacific.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 12:11 AM on March 11, 2011

Correction to above comment: Tsunami WATCH for Washington and Oregon.
posted by Punkey at 12:12 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm unfamiliar with tsunami/earthquake relations... there are some reports of incoming, larger tsunami waves? 10 meters? Is that true/possible? Can anyone find a source for this?

I think 10 meters is possible, but it depends on the topology of the land underwater leading up to the coastline. 10 meters was reported at one airport. When the tsunami hits other parts of the world, the height will be be dependent on the energy in the wave, plus how the local coastlines are shaped underwater.

The wikipedia description has a nice graphic that shows how the wave height can build close to shore.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:12 AM on March 11, 2011

Ichihara oil refinery fire now even worse. Horrifying pics on CNN.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:13 AM on March 11, 2011

Ah, quite. Watch. Sorry.

Thanks. Yes, definitely need to go to bed. Stay safe and sane, MeFites.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:14 AM on March 11, 2011

No Tsunami Watch yet for Vancouver, BC as far as I know so far. As others have mentioned there is one for Washington tomorrow around 4:00 PM. I have two friends in South Korea right now, hoping to hear from them that they are alright! My thoughts are with the people in Japan!
posted by Bron-Y-Aur at 12:14 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

After watching that footage of the airport several times, I have to ask where all the aircraft are? Did they get swept away? And were there passengers on them at the time?
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 12:14 AM on March 11, 2011

oh god people on my twitter feed stop RTing the goddamn quakeprediction idiot
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:15 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

A seismologist in new zealand said their current estimate was 1 meter, which considering that their tidal range is 2 meters for that region, if the wave hit at low tide, it wouldn't be a big problem. at high tide, it would just be like a serious tidal flooding.

However the bigger problem is even at low tide, you would not want to be at the beach, the waves are traveling at closer to jet speeds, and there are going to be frequent and repeated battering of them, not to mention that the tides usually are draw out as the waves approach (the early hawaii tsunami claimed a lot of lives because the tide went out so quickly that people went down onto the beach to collect all the fish left behind, not knowing about the oncoming wave), so even though there may not be structural damage in a place getting a 1 meter tsunami surge, it still means "don't go in the water" from all the places I have seen.
posted by mrzarquon at 12:16 AM on March 11, 2011

The National Weather Service mentions the potential tsunami time hitting Oregon:

THE ARRIVAL TIME FOR THE INITIAL WAVE ON THE OREGON AND
WASHINGTON COAST IS ESTIMATED TO OCCUR AROUND 715 AM.

which matches the tsumani time chart mentioned earlier.
posted by eye of newt at 12:17 AM on March 11, 2011

Al Jazeera just showed a hellish inferno at that oil refinery. Jesus fucking Christ.
posted by dirigibleman at 12:17 AM on March 11, 2011

Tsunami watch now up for the Northern Oregon and Southern Washington coasts. Florence, OR, to Long Beach, WA, roughly.
posted by dw at 12:17 AM on March 11, 2011

Giant refinery fireball on the Al Jazeera stream.
posted by zippy at 12:18 AM on March 11, 2011

I have two friends in South Korea right now, hoping to hear from them that they are alright!

Don't worry, they are. I'm as close to Japan as you can be and still be on mainland Korea, basically, and as I said above, I felt nothing. Unless we do get a sea surge, but I have so far no heard that this is expected.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:18 AM on March 11, 2011

Okay, since tsunami warnings and watches are out for the vast majority of the Pacific Rim at this point, I think it's worth stating the NOAA definitions for both:

Tsunami Watch - An alert issued to areas outside the warned area. The area included in the watch is based on the magnitude of the earthquake. For earthquakes over magnitude 7.0, the watch area is 1 hour tsunami travel time outside the warning zone. For all earthquakes over magnitude 7.5, the watch area is 3 hours tsunami travel time outside the warning zone. The watch will either be upgraded to a warning in subsequent bulletins or will be cancelled depending on the severity of the tsunami.

Tsunami Warning - Indicates that a tsunami is imminent and that coastal locations in the warned area should prepare for flooding. The initial warning is typically based on seismic information alone. Earthquakes over magnitude 7.0 trigger a warning covering the coastal regions within 2 hours tsunami travel time from the epicenter. When the magnitude is over 7.5, the warned area is increased to 3 hours tsunami travel time. As water level data showing the tsunami is recorded, the warning will either be cancelled, restricted, expanded incrementally, or expanded in the event of a major tsunami.
posted by Punkey at 12:20 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just heard on Al Jazeera site, "This is the biggest earthquake to hit Japan in at least 300 years."
posted by nickyskye at 12:20 AM on March 11, 2011

That refinery fire is insane. I suppose all they can do is watch it burn.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:20 AM on March 11, 2011

South and Central California NOAA Tsunami watch just came up on Emergency Broadcast Stytem. Arrival times: SanFrancisco 8:16, SantaBarbara 8:24, LaHoya 8:48.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:21 AM on March 11, 2011

Don't worry, they are. I'm as close to Japan as you can be and still be on mainland Korea, basically, and as I said above, I felt nothing. Unless we do get a sea surge, but I have so far no heard that this is expected.

They are! Just heard from them. She says people there aren't that concerned about it affecting them much, but of course they are worried for those in Japan right now.
posted by Bron-Y-Aur at 12:21 AM on March 11, 2011

Watching live coverage on NZ TV, not sure of the source (Newsline?), but showing the studio lights rocking in a strong aftershock.
posted by tracicle at 12:21 AM on March 11, 2011

Basically, for this earthquake, if you're within 3 hours of tsunami travel time from an area given a tsunami warning, then you're going to be under tsunami watch. It's NOT something that you need to panic about, but it does mean that you should pay attention to further news alerts, in case the tsunami is more severe than predicted.
posted by Punkey at 12:23 AM on March 11, 2011

My friend in west Tokyo says that there is very little structural damage in Shibuya, but everything to the north is smoke and fire from the inferno at the Chiba Prefecture.
posted by sarastro at 12:23 AM on March 11, 2011

Holy cow. This footage is just awful to watch. Just saw the fireball as well, and hearing the first death reports come in - eight so far, on the feed I'm watching.
posted by po at 12:23 AM on March 11, 2011

Is there a relationship between climate change and earthquake incidence?

There's some theories and proof that melting glaciers or ice packs redistribute the weight, which when that ice is on land actually weighs a significant amount, which can cause earthquakes as previously weighed down crust floats a little higher on the magma, which can cause a local quakes.

But good luck trying to tie that into large scale plate tectonics and geology and proving the theory. If you can do that you can probably accurately model and predict quakes, too, but the system is difficult to observe, and it's so complicated that's it's very difficult to to model anything but smaller segments of the whole geological system.
posted by loquacious at 12:23 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

For anyone unfamiliar with how the Richter Scale works, the 8.9 magnitude is 1000 times stronger than the initial 7.7 assessment.

My thoughts are with everyone affected.

loquacious: "Huh. It never even occurred to me to worry about the west coast.

Alaska and mainland US Pacific Coast is not currently on watch. It will be re-evaluated shortly."

Local news in LA just reported a tsunami watch for LA and Ventura Counties, and "strange water currents" for L.A. because of the fault lines.
posted by Room 641-A at 12:23 AM on March 11, 2011

That refinery fire is insane. I suppose all they can do is watch it burn.
They have showed a bunch of teeny little fire trucks, spraying tiny ineffectual streams near the refinery fire. They might as well be spitting on it.
posted by bink at 12:25 AM on March 11, 2011

"Tsunami expected to hit #Hawaii at 8 am this morning according to @ABC News."
posted by nickyskye at 12:25 AM on March 11, 2011

I am in western Tokyo right now. The first earthquake was the biggest that I've ever experienced, and it was the same for the other residents of the apartment building I live in. Aftershocks have mostly been weaker, but are still happening. A rather strong one is happening now as I write this.

No damage in my immediate area but we are in the outskirts. I haven't seen more central areas of Tokyo, but a friend says that they've evacuated the highrise she works in and let everybody go home. Trains are not running from what I know. It was actually eerie how little things seemed to have changed when we went outside after the first quake. The power lines were all still swinging a little bit, but traffic had picked up again. I had little idea of how major the damage had been until I went back and switched on the TV.

I have relatives in Miyagi, not too far from the epicenter. I can't yet reach them by phone, but I'm hopeful that they are ok. They live inland and on high ground.
posted by mariokrat at 12:25 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

At this point, we should assume that Hawaii will get hit with a tsunami in a few hours, right? I'm reading that sirens are sounding in Honolulu, but will most people in smaller towns or on the other islands get warned in time? Will they go house to house?
posted by Asparagirl at 12:25 AM on March 11, 2011

From the NWS:

...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL
AREAS OF ALASKA FROM CHIGNIK BAY ALASKA TO ATTU ALASKA...

...THE TSUNAMI WATCH CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL
AREAS OF CALIFORNIA - OREGON - WASHINGTON - BRITISH
COLUMBIA AND ALASKA FROM THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER TO
CHIGNIK BAY ALASKA...
posted by IvoShandor at 12:26 AM on March 11, 2011

LA Ch 9 news saying entire West Coast under Tsunami Watch, but that's to be expected.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:27 AM on March 11, 2011

"Russia evacuates 11,000 people from areas that could be affected by tsunami, including Kuril islands and Sakhalin island."
posted by nickyskye at 12:27 AM on March 11, 2011

This is a horrible thing to have happen ever, but the timing is particularly cruel given the number of Japanese citizens likely killed in the Christchurch earthquakes and the generosity of the Japanese government in sending so many of their experienced Urban Search and Rescue teams to NZ to help out there.

As noted already, those shots of the Tsunami waters are absolutely mind-bogglingly awful.

Kia Kaha Japan
posted by urban greeting at 12:27 AM on March 11, 2011 [10 favorites]

Is there a relationship between climate change and earthquake incidence?

In Greenland/Iceland, as ice caps melt the earth rebounds upwards causing increased earthquakes.

A more immediate effect is the 'Supermoon' coming on March 19th, when the moon and sun align on opposite sides of the earth increase of earthquakes due to gravitational pull.
posted by stbalbach at 12:28 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

@Asparagirl - I expect so. They're well prepared there.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:28 AM on March 11, 2011

But good luck trying to tie that into large scale plate tectonics and geology and proving the theory. If you can do that you can probably accurately model and predict quakes, too, but the system is difficult to observe, and it's so complicated that's it's very difficult to to model anything but smaller segments of the whole geological system.

Yeah, I was just wondering if all the extra heat energy in our environment ends up as an input to tectonic fault movement — in other words, if earthquakes are stronger of late, on average, as a result of global temperature increases.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:28 AM on March 11, 2011

Asparagirl: "At this point, we should assume that Hawaii will get hit with a tsunami in a few hours, right? I'm reading that sirens are sounding in Honolulu, but will most people in smaller towns or on the other islands get warned in time? Will they go house to house"

Asparagirl, yes - a friend's relative living in Hawaii left off of Facebook about 20 minutes ago saying "Gotta go, just heard tsunami sirens," so they're clearly expecting it.
posted by po at 12:29 AM on March 11, 2011

Recording of a Japanese TV news broadcast showing the wave hitting
posted by clorox at 12:30 AM on March 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

For anyone unfamiliar with how the Richter Scale works, the 8.9 magnitude is 1000 times stronger than the initial 7.7 assessment.

Er, that's overstating it by a bunch. A one-step increase in the scale we use now (which is related to but not the same as the much older Richter scale) means about a 30fold increase in energy release. And two step increase is about a one thousand times increase in energy release. So 1.2 is a lot closer to 32x than 1000x.

Even so, energy release is not the same as the strength of shaking. You don't feel one thousand times as much of a jolt between a 7.0 and a 5.0. Oh, it's definitely feels a bunch more intense but not a thousand times more intense.
posted by Justinian at 12:30 AM on March 11, 2011

Tsunami warnings issued for at least 19 countries after quake
posted by homunculus at 12:31 AM on March 11, 2011

stbalbach: Not sure if you were being sarcastic, but that "supermoon" thing is sheer astrological crackpottery.

My thoughts are with all those affected in Japan and the surrounding areas.
posted by teraflop at 12:31 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

the generosity of the Japanese government in sending so many of their experienced Urban Search and Rescue teams to NZ to help out there.

My thoughts exactly. I hope we can mobilise a New Zealand contingent fast and in numbers, but I imagine many of our people are at their limits already.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:33 AM on March 11, 2011

Japanese newsroom during the quake
posted by clorox at 12:35 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Erm, I meant to say -outside- of Honolulu, in Hawaii, Asparagirl. So more than just Honolulu has sirens - don't know about really rural areas, but I'd imagine door to door might be the way to go.
posted by po at 12:36 AM on March 11, 2011

O hell. Just talked to a neighbour -- her sister is currently in Kiribati. Which is about 1m about sea level, near the equator. I don't hold out much hope for them or many other low islands at the moment.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:38 AM on March 11, 2011

"Yeah, I was just wondering if all the extra heat energy in our environment ends up as an input to tectonic fault movement — in other words, if earthquakes are stronger of late, on average, as a result of global temperature increases."

The heat in the atmosphere is nothing compared to the heat within the Earth, it's like comparing a candle to a nuclear bomb. This is a terrible tragedy, but it's just random, the product of natural forces.
posted by Kevin Street at 12:38 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Christ.
posted by maxwelton at 12:38 AM on March 11, 2011

Justinian: "For anyone unfamiliar with how the Richter Scale works, the 8.9 magnitude is 1000 times stronger than the initial 7.7 assessment.

Er, that's overstating it by a bunch. A one-step increase in the scale we use now (which is related to but not the same as the much older Richter scale) means about a 30fold increase in energy release. And two step increase is about a one thousand times increase in energy release. So 1.2 is a lot closer to 32x than 1000x.

Wow, I've been Doing It Wrong my whole life! I stand corrected.
posted by Room 641-A at 12:39 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Revised Hawaii Tsunami Warning

Fortunately, I just checked the tide tables, with a new estimated arrival time of about 0300, the tsunami should reach Hawaii a half-hour or so before low tide, so the impact should be minimized.
posted by Punkey at 12:39 AM on March 11, 2011

stbalbach: Not sure if you were being sarcastic, but that "supermoon" thing is sheer astrological crackpottery.

Read the article I linked, it talks about the increase chance of earthquakes (and ignore the astrology stuff).
posted by stbalbach at 12:40 AM on March 11, 2011

And another earthquake in Fukushima and Ibaraki. STOP EARTHQUAKING JAPAN
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:44 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Emergency services in HI are authorized to evacuate inundation zones, those areas calculated to be affected severely by sudden increases in ocean height. They will go door to door if necessary, as well as try to close access to any who try to enter or re-enter.

I think they're predicting a surge of 2m, based on measurements taken by deep ocean buoys.
posted by CancerMan at 12:44 AM on March 11, 2011

One of the scariest experiences of my life. Hope I don't have to go through that again (or worse!) My wife and I spent a good five minutes (that felt like an eternity) huddled under the kitchen table as all our shelves came crashing down around us, glass shattering, TV and computer monitors fracturing, the walls shaking and swaying, the heavy wood table covering us sliding back and forth across the kitchen floor. Still aftershocks now, sheltering in a cafe with free wifi...every little shock is scary.

Up north things are much worse. Massive flooding, tsunamis washing away the shoreline.

Have family up that way we can't contact, telephone lines are jammed.

Makes me want to move to a country that doesn't have earthquakes. Taking suggestions...
posted by jet_manifesto at 12:44 AM on March 11, 2011 [13 favorites]

The feeling of dread from watching this on TV (where there's a new announcement every time there's a new earthquake) feels a lot like watching the World Trade Center in 2001.
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:45 AM on March 11, 2011

Or Katrina.
posted by bink at 12:46 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

jet_manifesto: If you want to avoid natural disasters entirely, Ireland's pretty nice. Some nasty winters, but that's about it. And I hear land's pretty cheap there right now!
posted by Punkey at 12:46 AM on March 11, 2011

jet_manifesto, I'm seriously considering the same.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:47 AM on March 11, 2011

Predictions of another quake imminent for NE Honshu.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 12:47 AM on March 11, 2011

Read the article I linked, it talks about the increase chance of earthquakes (and ignore the astrology stuff).

It talks about it by saying "there isn't an increased chance".
posted by mrnutty at 12:47 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Japan issues warning of "imminent strong quake" in Honshu.
posted by dirigibleman at 12:47 AM on March 11, 2011

Tsunami sirens already going off in Hawaii.
posted by nickyskye at 12:48 AM on March 11, 2011

NHK's live coverage has switched to a program on historic playing cards. This is rather soothing.
posted by zippy at 12:50 AM on March 11, 2011

NHK's live coverage has switched to a program on historic playing cards.
Is this part of the "stay calm" initiative?
posted by girlhacker at 12:52 AM on March 11, 2011

LA Times has statement from West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

"Cindi Preller of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center told Fox 11 News that the tsunami could cause some unusually high tides but not major inundations.

It's possible that officials will ask that beaches be cleared as a precaution."
posted by Punkey at 12:54 AM on March 11, 2011

Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake
posted by nickyskye at 12:54 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Al-Jazeera just said 8 confirmed deaths, many missing.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:55 AM on March 11, 2011

Sadly, Korean TV is reporting a much higher death toll than Al-Jazeera at the moment.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:56 AM on March 11, 2011

how many zeroes do you think we'll have to add to that confirmed death number?
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:57 AM on March 11, 2011

Watching the wave of debris sweep over populated roads.. I'd guess too many.
posted by Wyatt at 12:58 AM on March 11, 2011

Why am I hearing nothing on the subject of what those of us in the unaffected areas can do to help? Besides the twitter hashtag #prayforjapan (which is the sickest joke I've heard today - a Loving God doesn't do shit like this)
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:58 AM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

Entire Pacific coast of North America under tsunami warning
posted by clorox at 1:00 AM on March 11, 2011

Red Cross will be your best bet I'd wager, if you want to donate. Honestly, with the quake here donating to Red Cross was the best way to help - sending goods is impractical and people without training coming in to "help" just adds to the danger. Send cash. And love, and good thoughts. But cash, seriously.
posted by tracicle at 1:01 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I suspect there will be many a surfer dude out there with his board this morning.
posted by Justinian at 1:01 AM on March 11, 2011

Wikipedia current events has a link to a Reuters article saying 10 confirmed deaths. Death tolls are a hard thing to predict. I remember my mom calling me around 10am (11am New York time) on September 11th saying that they were estimating 15,000 dead. The total ended up being 3,000. So maybe we will add a zero, or more, but I hope for the best and just listen for the confirmed deaths.
posted by IndigoRain at 1:02 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you want to avoid natural disasters entirely, Ireland's pretty nice.

Iceland? That place full of unpronouncable volcanoes?
posted by WhackyparseThis at 1:03 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Direct Relief
posted by Wyatt at 1:03 AM on March 11, 2011

Neighbour's sister rang from Kiribati -- did she have any news? The hotel TV said there had been an earthquake in Japan. No warnings, no siren, all the local govt buildings are lights out and asleep. The tallest building on the island is two stories. Neighbour is freaking out, I would too.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:04 AM on March 11, 2011

Here in Alaska my news coverage just got interrupted by a NWS tsunami warning. My fiancé is currently on St. Paul island. It's a tiny island with pretty much no high ground. I'm terrified for him and saddened for Japan and everyone everywhere who will be affected.

I hope that the international community will respond swiftly and effectively.
posted by charmcityblues at 1:04 AM on March 11, 2011

charmcityblues, how imminent? Is there air transport? Can he get off the island?
posted by IndigoRain at 1:06 AM on March 11, 2011

Hawaii reporting here. Radio is suggesting people in evac zones head to higher ground. There are crazy lines at all the gas stations. Access to Waikiki and some of the beach areas is being restricted.

We've had several near misses in the last few years, but this one feels different, if that makes any sense. Everyone I've spoken to, however, is torn between preparing and fretting about Honshu. I know a dozen people there. I can't even watch the footage.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:07 AM on March 11, 2011

Whacky: They're all dormant, "active" only in the sense that they have fumaroles or other mild activity, or are extinct. By and large, Ireland is one of the safest places on the planet when it comes to natural disasters.
posted by Punkey at 1:07 AM on March 11, 2011

egads, nothing to say but fiercest good wishes for the safety of all our Mefites and their loved ones. (And taking heavy things off high shelves in the event of any aftershocks that may decide to pop up in SoCal.)
posted by scody at 1:10 AM on March 11, 2011

This is, by many standards, the Big One that Japan has been preparing for all these years.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:10 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Just donated to the red cross, wish I could do more.
posted by maxwelton at 1:10 AM on March 11, 2011

BULLETIN
TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 4
NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK
1244 AM PST FRI MAR 11 2011

THIS MESSAGE UPDATES THE ALERT STATUS TO WARNING AND ADVISORY.

...A TSUNAMI WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT WHICH INCLUDES THE
COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM POINT
CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA TO THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER...

...A TSUNAMI WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT WHICH INCLUDES THE
COASTAL AREAS OF ALASKA FROM AMCHITKA PASS ALASKA/125 MILES
W OF ADAK/ TO ATTU ALASKA...

...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY IS EXPANDED TO INCLUDE THE COASTAL
AREAS OF CALIFORNIA FROM THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER TO
POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA...

...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY IS EXPANDED TO INCLUDE THE COASTAL
AREAS OF WASHINGTON - BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA FROM THE
OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER TO CHIGNIK BAY ALASKA...

...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL
AREAS OF ALASKA FROM CHIGNIK BAY ALASKA TO AMCHITKA PASS
ALASKA/125 MILES W OF ADAK/...

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=WCA&product=TSU&format=txt&version=1&glossary=0
posted by hat at 1:11 AM on March 11, 2011

Me too. I'd heard some of Japan's quake rescue teams who had gone to help out in Christchurch NZ haven't come home yet...
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:13 AM on March 11, 2011

NHK website down now? CNN, MSNBC, and AlJazeera all seem to be re-airing the same NHK clips, with the same editing. Haven't seen new footage for over an hour. Not to be crass, but wheres the actual new, live stuff.
posted by yesster at 1:13 AM on March 11, 2011

Small quakes just off Hawaii-- a 2.5, 2.8, 3.3, and 4.5 in the last hour. That's not helping me feel any better about the large portion of my friends who are on vacation there.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:13 AM on March 11, 2011

I think there are still several hours. I trust that the community has an emergency plan in place. Hopefully the rise in water won't be significant. Perhaps they'd put people on boats and ride it out on the open ocean? Trying to get in touch with him but comms are spotty (unrelated to the events of today).

Hopefully the warning is an abundance of caution.

I hope that the areas in imminent danger have successfully activated their systems.
posted by charmcityblues at 1:13 AM on March 11, 2011

A small swarm of earthquakes just hit Hawaii. I think they said the largest was 4.5.
posted by Room 641-A at 1:14 AM on March 11, 2011

Charmcityblues- St. Paul is up in the Bering Sea which is shallow and the Aleutians will take the brunt. Plus the coastline is rocky and definitely higher than 3m so I wouldn't worry. I've been on St. Paul when the ocean was throwing 30' waves around and it was no problem.
posted by fshgrl at 1:14 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thank you, fshgrl.
posted by charmcityblues at 1:15 AM on March 11, 2011

The earthquakes off of Hawaii are probably more related to the ongoing new eruption site on Kilauea than the Japan quakes. USGS Press Release about recent Hawaiian eruptions
posted by Punkey at 1:16 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do I donate to the International Committee of the Red Cross for maximum efficacy? Or the American branch?
posted by Phire at 1:17 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hawaii address search for evac info:
http://www.scd.hawaii.gov/
posted by girlhacker at 1:19 AM on March 11, 2011

A small swarm of earthquakes just hit Hawaii. I think they said the largest was 4.5.


Police deployed to keep people away from the beach in SF. I live about 10min from the ocean but I'm on a fairly steep hill. If a wave does hit it's going to be pretty astonishing to see.
posted by anigbrowl at 1:19 AM on March 11, 2011

Waiting to see what happens in Hawaii (tsunami due in 3hours 30minutes) before I start worrying about California in 7+hours... I live "close to the coast" but well above sea level with 3 miles of hills between me and the water. If there's a real problem, I'm at the higher ground that folks in Avila Beach and Shell Beach should go to - I'll have to find some coffee to brew...
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:19 AM on March 11, 2011

best tweet I've seen in a while, from @daveewing: The headline you won't be reading: "Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and government building codes". Buts it's the truth.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:21 AM on March 11, 2011 [89 favorites]

Top of Tokyo Tower bent by earthquake

Google's machine translation:

The top of Tokyo Tower seems bent under the influence of earthquake-11 pm, Minato-ku, Tokyo . . . (March 11, 2011) [Jiji]

posted by clorox at 1:23 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hopefully the rise in water won't be significant.

A tsunami expert from New Zealand has emphasized that at these kinds of distances, any surge on this side of the Pacific will generally be less than the tidal range of many places, charmcityblues.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 1:24 AM on March 11, 2011

That video of the cars trying to out run
that huge racing slurry of boats, houses, fire,
and mud was terrifying.
I thought my little problems were bad.
This is so sad.
.
posted by quazichimp at 1:25 AM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

American Red Cross disaster relief fund - You can help people affected by disasters, like the New Zealand earthquake, floods and tornadoes across the U.S., and countless other crises at home and around the world by making a donation to support American Red Cross Disaster Relief.
posted by tracicle at 1:25 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

I don't know whether this is real or photoshopped, but it's heartbreaking.
posted by orthogonality at 1:26 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

It's not possible for me to put into words what watching this from New Zealand feels like - we will feel so strongly for the people of Japan, and be so powerless to help as we cope with the aftermath of Christchurch.

I'm also feeling sick about our low-lying Pacific 'neighbours' - Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru and all the rest.

What a night of horrors this will be.
posted by Catch at 1:28 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

orthogonality: I think that image is from a completely different event. The graphic at the top says 'record-breaking rains.'
posted by mariokrat at 1:28 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

CNN spanish saying there's imminent Taiwan tsunami (ongoing)
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 1:30 AM on March 11, 2011

Yes, PTWC predicts tsunami landfall in Taiwan in ten minutes. That'll be our first real indication of how bad this will be as it spreads.
posted by Punkey at 1:31 AM on March 11, 2011

Also, CNN reverting to the mean, talking about how "the tsunami will circle the globe" and putting up landfall times for places like Chile. Way to prevent panic there, folks.
posted by Punkey at 1:32 AM on March 11, 2011

Al Jazeera lady: It's like a big container of cats...
posted by dirigibleman at 1:34 AM on March 11, 2011

Yeah, same in spanish. I'll abstain from tryíng to update again. In response to Punkey
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 1:36 AM on March 11, 2011

An interesting observation on Al Jazeera:

The quake was the biggest in 140 years. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

Japan should be pretty goddamn proud of itself, once it's recovered. At the moment, the death toll is in single digits. That's four orders of magnitude better than the last really big one, and they have a lot more people to protect. I'm sure the eventual death toll will be higher than eight, and they'll probably slip back to a three-order-of-magnitude improvement, but that's still incredibly impressive.

They have done a phenomenal job getting ready. Now it's up to their rescue services and response teams.

Best of luck, Japan. Wish we could do more to help.
posted by Malor at 1:36 AM on March 11, 2011 [11 favorites]

"When you jump a magnitude from 7 to 8, it's not 10 times stronger, it's a 1000 times stronger," said Cabrera. "With an 8.8 earthquake that shallow, that close to shore, there will be more than one tsunami."
via
posted by a non e mouse at 1:37 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Word on Twitter in Japan is that Suntory (beverage company) has made their vending machines free in areas hit by today's earthquake and flooding. Like, just push the button.
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:38 AM on March 11, 2011 [19 favorites]

I have a Taiwanese TV feed, flash required, but they're mostly showing Reuters, NHK, and CNN footage.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:39 AM on March 11, 2011

The difference between a big earthquake in Chile/ Japan and in Haiti is just incredibly sad.
posted by fshgrl at 1:39 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Am I correctly seeing the NHK feed as saying that the JMA scale estimate has been revised to 8.8? Would that make the Richter estimate higher than 8.9? I'm not really up on how the JMA/ shindo scale translates to Richter magnitudes.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:42 AM on March 11, 2011

The JMA Scale runs from 0 to 7, with 7 being the strongest.
posted by a non e mouse at 1:46 AM on March 11, 2011

Allright, so what's the deal with this tsunami reaching the US? Santa Monica, specifically.
posted by phaedon at 1:46 AM on March 11, 2011

Now they're doing missing persons reports requesting a response, from family members, on NHK Educational. Between this and seeing footage of people taking refuge in an elementary school gym with "そつぎょうおめでとう" ("congratulations on graduation") written on a banner on the wall there is something ridiculously heartbreaking about this.
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:47 AM on March 11, 2011

News reports from Taiwan indicate maximum wave heights of about a meter, mostly only a few dozen centimeters tall.
posted by Punkey at 1:48 AM on March 11, 2011

Allright, so what's the deal with this tsunami reaching the US? Santa Monica, specifically.

8:32am estimated arrival time, per NOAA, phaedon. Probably not large enough to be a problem, but we should stay alert all the same.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:49 AM on March 11, 2011

phaedon: LA Times blog post on waves Posted above, but worth reiterating: the wave heights on the west coast will be maybe a couple feet.
posted by Punkey at 1:50 AM on March 11, 2011

Tsunami arrival estimate times for various pacific islands - UTC.
posted by rongorongo at 1:52 AM on March 11, 2011

No actual capital W warning south of Lompoc, southlanders, currently an Advisory only. Back with a link in a moment.
posted by mwhybark at 1:52 AM on March 11, 2011

Thanks rongorongo.
posted by Catch at 1:52 AM on March 11, 2011

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/lox/

South coastal CA NOAA info
posted by mwhybark at 1:54 AM on March 11, 2011

Santa Monica is under Tsunami Advisory

The Tsunami Warning zone is from Point Conception (between Santa Barbara and SLO near Lompoc) to the Oregon-Washington border.
posted by clorox at 1:54 AM on March 11, 2011

That's about as good news as we're getting from you, Punkey. Thanks everyone, Cranberry hope yu hear from your daughter real soon.Doctor Fedora, Ghidora and all japanese-based mefites let us know how can we help.
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 1:55 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well I guess I really did prepare for the big one by moving to Cairns, Australia before it happened.

Finally all my friends and family have checked in. Even my moving company has - and my guy sounded so upset.

Thinking of all you guys still in Japan.
posted by gomichild at 1:55 AM on March 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

Amazing sea footage (sorry about the ad, if someone can find a better link)
posted by a non e mouse at 1:55 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Ground, what are you doing in the air?! Ocean, what are you doing on the land?! Get down! You do not belong there. You are ocean and ground.

Here's hoping for as few aftershocks and tsunamis as possible. And that everyone remains safe, and well.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 2:00 AM on March 11, 2011 [13 favorites]

News update on my friend: he's fine. So am I. The Red Cross is already accepting donations, though, according to the TV, but there's nothing on their web site yet that I can find.
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:02 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

There's an emergency warning from a nuclear power plant in Fukushima (Japanese only).

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to build all these NPPs on a major fault line after all.
posted by sour cream at 2:02 AM on March 11, 2011

Separately, Fukushima Prefecture, the site of a Tokyo Electric Power nuclear power plant, said on Friday the plant's reactor cooling system was functioning, denying an earlier report that it was malfunctioning.
posted by Punkey at 2:05 AM on March 11, 2011

I just recorded the tsunami warning siren here in Kihei, Maui. Streaming local TV coverage here.
posted by prinado at 2:07 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Any word on whether the Japanese search and rescue people had got back from Christchurch before this happened? Japan, we really appreciate your help there, and hopefully NZ can do something to help you now.
posted by Infinite Jest at 2:10 AM on March 11, 2011

It seems that they (the nuclear power plant operators and the government) are forced by law to declare a nuclear emergency, and that's why they call it an "Article 15 emergency announcement" or some such. They also say that there is no danger of any radiation leaks.

But then again, I wouldn't trust the authorities at all in such matters. After all, this is a country where doctors will often not tell their patients that they have cancer, because it might upset them too much and thus reduce their self-healing abilities. I predict denial until undeniability, followed by a few token resignations.
posted by sour cream at 2:10 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Site listing live feeds, webcams, twitter hashtags etc.
posted by klue at 2:13 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Alright, it looks like the media outlets have settled into that lull between the actual disaster and the first real segments on the ground on damage and loss of life. Fortunately, the tsunami was by and large well under a meter in height when it made landfall at Taiwan, so it looks like that, unless something truly unfortunate happens to Hawaii, the tsunami damage will be restricted to Japan and the low-lying islands in the western Pacific.

Good luck to all you MeFi'ers in Japan and elsewhere, and to anyone else caught in this disaster. Let's hope that this becomes known as the largest earthquake with the least loss of life in history. Night, all.
posted by Punkey at 2:14 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Again, thanks Punkey.
posted by youhavetoreadthistwice at 2:21 AM on March 11, 2011

Punkey - where did you find the information about the severity of the tsunami in Taiwan?
posted by askmehow at 2:22 AM on March 11, 2011

Man, you can watch the aftershocks spreading north and south from the hypocenter in realtime on the USGS maps. There's dozens of quakes exceeding 5.x now ranging from just northeast of Tokyo to almost to the northern tip of Honshu over a range of approximately 400 miles.
posted by loquacious at 2:24 AM on March 11, 2011

I found it difficult to hear prinado's link, so I looked up another example from a few years back on Oahu. Those civil defense sirens used to have different tones for different events such as air raids, but nowadays I think they just serve to alert people to tune into radio or TV for information about the emergency.
posted by CancerMan at 2:29 AM on March 11, 2011

Askmehow, Punkey's signed off. I don't know where the Taiwan sources he found were, but here's a random blog update that appears to confirm that info.
posted by mwhybark at 2:33 AM on March 11, 2011

a non e mouse: ""When you jump a magnitude from 7 to 8, it's not 10 times stronger, it's a 1000 times stronger," said Cabrera. "With an 8.8 earthquake that shallow, that close to shore, there will be more than one tsunami."
via"

I mentioned this upthread but was told this was incorrect. Are there different scales people are referencing?
posted by Room 641-A at 2:33 AM on March 11, 2011

I'm a bit north of Kyoto, and quite far from the epicenter, but it was still shaking my elementary school enough to set off the alarm and have all of us huddling in the center of the classroom. First time I've had that kind of scare. No real damage here, but I hope the folks in Sendai and the other spots that got hit are doing alright.

It was pretty scary watching that tsunami wave creeping into Sendai on a live feed; just creeping inland slowly, but nothing anyone could do to stop it.
posted by p3t3 at 2:37 AM on March 11, 2011

Hope you're OK, Flapjax.
posted by nicolin at 2:38 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

On the "1000 times stronger" thing:

The Mr. Cabrera quoted there is apparently a meteorologist, according to the article. He's not a seismologist or even a geologist; he may have misspoken or misremembered. Justinian is correct that going from a 7 to an 8 is about a 30x increase in energy release.

There are a couple of different magnitude scales (Richter magnitude, moment magnitude, etc.). Well, I should say, different ways of measuring magnitude; they all use the same scale, and while they might be off by 0.1 or 0.2 or something from each other, the numbers tend to be pretty similar.
posted by mandanza at 2:40 AM on March 11, 2011

From Okinawa the tsunami just went throughg an hour ago, about a foot or two. Guam was also spared.
posted by aggienfo at 2:46 AM on March 11, 2011

There is a warning in effect for all the west coast of North America - what are the possibilities that it will still be strong enough to damage when hits?
posted by molecicco at 2:47 AM on March 11, 2011

mandaza: Thanks for clarifying that for me. I was trying to wrap my head around comparing this earthquake to the Northridge quake.
posted by Room 641-A at 2:47 AM on March 11, 2011

Got to say, our state government has really prepared the state well for this sort of thing. Current Facebook rumors suggest that they're predicting a 6ft wave here in Hawaii. That's pretty bad, but obviously nothing like what happened in Honshu.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:49 AM on March 11, 2011

Mapping of this morning's quakes - and tsunami information - from the British Geological Survey. This page seems to be getting frequent updates.
posted by rongorongo at 2:49 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is a warning in effect for all the west coast of North America - what are the possibilities that it will still be strong enough to damage when hits?

Almost none.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 2:55 AM on March 11, 2011

Forecasted wave heights (amplitudes) for the Pacific coast of North America, including Alaska, from the West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

The current largest forecasted amplitudes of 1 m to 2.5 m appear to be expected around southern Oregon and northern and central California.
posted by hat at 2:58 AM on March 11, 2011

Not sure what reactor it is but Al Jazeera is reporting that they're having issues with the cooling and backup systems of a reactor that's been shut down. Backup power generation to operate the water cooling pumps has failed and a nuclear emergency/situation/warning has been declared.
posted by loquacious at 2:58 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Boats, ships and trucks tossed like toys. Floating flaming debris. Praying for the people.
posted by fixedgear at 3:07 AM on March 11, 2011

I hope New Zealand will respond with the same sort of help Japan offered us. Awful.
posted by rodgerd at 3:07 AM on March 11, 2011

I am struck by difference in government response between Katrina and this disaster. the Japanese government is already putting into action a well-prepared well-practiced disaster plan, and the water hasn't even stopped coming yet.

Our government sat on it's thumbs and rotated for days.
posted by pjern at 3:16 AM on March 11, 2011 [27 favorites]

the Japanese government is already putting into action...

Yeah, and how.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:19 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Here in Hilo we got a little shook up with the 4.6 quake a couple of hours ago; most of us have moved the crap out of our businesses here on Bayfront. The cops are kicking everybody out at 2:00am and the first wave (if any) is now expected to hit at 3:46am. Oh, and there are no stores selling beer.
posted by IslandTrust at 3:21 AM on March 11, 2011

Tokyo MeFite here. Made it home and just cooked dinner. Aftershocks still coming in. Very surreal. Tohoku region (Iwate, Miyagi, Sendai) looks really bad.
posted by gen at 3:29 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Not sure of how good a source people will consider this but Sky News here in the UK is running with the following two disturbing headlines

'Ship carrying 100 people swept away by Tsunami'
'State of emergency issued at nuclear plant following cooling system failure'
posted by numberstation at 3:35 AM on March 11, 2011

Just as a point of comparison, ALJ is saying the reactor is "threatening meltdown." SKY is saying there is "no radioactive event."

My understanding from what Sky is saying is that a state of emergency whenever there is a cooling system failure, but that there are multiple backup systems. Their commentator was speculating that the pumps may have been disrupted by the water drawback right before the tsunami, but that these are mechanical systems that should be able to be restored.

I have no idea which point of view - end of the world, or low-key well-planned problem - is most reflective of reality so I'm just going to sit here in the middle and assume Japan is on top of this.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:39 AM on March 11, 2011

Japanese news is also reporting that a cooling system failure is in process. Not sure which nuclear reactor.
posted by gen at 3:40 AM on March 11, 2011

Opposite coast of Japan here, and the earthquake didn't do much here except make me slightly dizzy, but... my good friend who came to Japan with me lives right on the coast in Fukushima Prefecture. We had a jokey conversation about our school lunches on gchat at about 1pm... haven't heard from him since. Fuck.
posted by sunset in snow country at 3:41 AM on March 11, 2011

Yeah, the nuclear power plant situation sounds like a recipe for a meltdown and is extremely worrisome to hear just bits and pieces about. It takes a long time for a reactor core to cool off even if it's completely shut down and not currently undergoing a reaction.

If they can't get backup generators running to start pumping a lot of water very soon the control rods and core can melt and then you can't shut the pile down. We really don't need another Chernobyl happening right now. That would be worse than multiple tsunamis.

The most recent report says there's no radiation leak occurring. Yet. Or they're not reporting it yet.
posted by loquacious at 3:42 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is this affecting transpacific flights as well?
posted by infini at 3:43 AM on March 11, 2011

Official statement, I assume:

Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano says the nuclear power plant in Fukushima developed a mechanical failure in the system needed to cool the reactor after it was shut down in Friday's earthquake. He said the measure was a precaution and there was no radiation leak at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. He said the facility was not in immediate danger.

Via the Guardian's live blog.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:51 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I live in central Tokyo. I was at work when the first quake hit -- we got shaken around quite a bit, and evacuated down 22 stories to Hibiya Park, where the next strong aftershock occurred. There is no feeling quite like the sensation of the earth moving from side to side underneath your feet.

After an hour, my colleagues and I went back upstairs (no elevators, of course) to get our belongings, then I made the hour-long walk home. I was lucky -- all of the trains from Tokyo on east are stopped for the rest of the day and night, and taxis are ridiculously hard to come by, meaning several million people stuck without a way home. Phones are essentially useless, but internet is working. Emails are taking hours to be received.

We're still being shaken around by aftershocks, but we have power, water, and gas. The poor residents of Tohoku are not nearly so lucky.

Aftershocks and tsunami are still occurring, and the full extent of the damage is still unknown.

Please keep us all in your thoughts.
posted by armage at 3:52 AM on March 11, 2011 [23 favorites]

I hadn't heard about the nuclear reactor troubles until now. At Asahi Shimbun (Japanese), they're reporting that both the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors in Fukushima shut down automatically, but because of the failure of external power sources and emergency diesel generators, they're not able to cool the reactors down normally. They are looking at ways to cool them in other ways, but they're unable to confirm whether the reactor temperatures are falling.

Scary, but perhaps nothing to get worried over yet.
posted by mariokrat at 3:55 AM on March 11, 2011

I just timed the main tremor felt in central Tokyo at 1 minute 20 seconds.
The 5.6 I went through lasted about 15 seconds. It felt like 2 minutes and changed me into an atheist.
So I guess that would have seemed like a ten minute earthquake, and most likely would have seen me born again, again.

I'm so relieved that there wasn't any catastrophic building collapses, but I fear the toll of the tsunami.

That shit is chilling. The stuff of nightmares.

My feelings go out to the people feeling pain and or grief.
posted by Duke999R at 4:08 AM on March 11, 2011

Ghidorah, gen, jet_manifesto, zardoz, flapjax, woodblock100, everyone: stay safe. Please keep posting updates here, if possible. I'm glued to TV Asahi right now, but we all want to be sure that you and your families are okay.
posted by armage at 4:08 AM on March 11, 2011

Latest updates: 40 dead, 39 whereabouts unknown, 244 injured according to Asahi Shimbun. Dead include 3 in Tokyo, 2 in Kanagawa, 2 in Chiba, Ibaraki 1. Largest confirmed magnitude is 8.8.
posted by armage at 4:11 AM on March 11, 2011

Yeah, we're glued to NHK and ANN and Twitter.
posted by gen at 4:11 AM on March 11, 2011

Just had a call from my sister, who was in a coastal city but is OK. I thank the fates.
posted by jaduncan at 4:13 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

200 people may be trapped at a ski resort near Sendai.
posted by armage at 4:13 AM on March 11, 2011

The Ginza Line, Ōedo Line, and part of the Hanzōmon Line are back in operation.
posted by armage at 4:14 AM on March 11, 2011

Another aftershock right now... A good bit of shaking up on the 12th floor here.
posted by armage at 4:14 AM on March 11, 2011

If you're looking for someone in Japan, or if you live in Japan want to let people know that you're all right, Google's set up a special site.
posted by armage at 4:16 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Here's an image of a forecast model from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, giving a better idea of what is expected to show up on the west coast of North America.

You can see how the amplitude gets smaller aross the ocean, but in certain pockets can get larger again as it approaches the coast, although the predictions still suggest it will be pretty tame by the time it shows up (although, earthquake magnitude measurements seem always to be revised upwards after they are first reported, and I worry that this might be a conservative estimate).
posted by molecicco at 4:18 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

1.36 million households without power in Miyagi Prefecture alone, according to TV Asahi.
posted by armage at 4:19 AM on March 11, 2011

My thoughts are also with those who are affected in Japan - armage, definitely appreciating your updates. Stay safe.
posted by molecicco at 4:19 AM on March 11, 2011

Whirlpool video
posted by a non e mouse at 4:19 AM on March 11, 2011

Asahi TV just reported that the Fukushima nuclear reactor may have released radiation; officials are ordering nearby residents to evacuation immediately.
posted by armage at 4:21 AM on March 11, 2011

Please stay safe, all of you!
posted by tommasz at 4:22 AM on March 11, 2011

Altogether 4.04 million households across ten prefectures without power (TV Asahi).
posted by armage at 4:23 AM on March 11, 2011

Tokyo Metro: Fullly resuming lines: Ginza and Oedo Lines. Partial resumption: Hanzomon, Asakusa and Mita Lines.
posted by armage at 4:26 AM on March 11, 2011

Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese) is reporting that 1,864 people living within a 2 km radius of the No. 2 reactor have been ordered to evacuate. They're saying that the water levels in the reactor are dropping, which may lead to the release of radiation.
posted by mariokrat at 4:26 AM on March 11, 2011

Indian Beach in Ecola State Park, Oregon Coast, it is going to be death on a stick out there. I'll bet it will be packed.
posted by humanfont at 4:27 AM on March 11, 2011

.
posted by caddis at 4:28 AM on March 11, 2011

Thanks mariokrat -- I misspoke, the reactor has *not* released radiation as of this moment. There is just a fear that radiation could be released due to the low water level.
posted by armage at 4:28 AM on March 11, 2011

Tokyo Metropolitan Police just released updated casualty figures for the entire affected region: 59 dead, 55 unaccounted for, 241 injured
posted by armage at 4:30 AM on March 11, 2011

I know this seems self centered, but how worried should I be about this tsunami in Oakland? (All I know right now is what I've read here and the fact that my mother called to tell me.)
posted by madcaptenor at 4:35 AM on March 11, 2011

Oakland? You're not on the coast, right? Nothing to worry about. SF has cleared people from the beaches I last heard.
posted by gen at 4:38 AM on March 11, 2011

Translated Twitter feed
posted by a non e mouse at 4:40 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

@madcaptenor Tsunami waves are estimated to begin striking Hawaii at 5:07am Pacific time (3:07am Hawaii) so that should be an indicator of what we can expect here in California. But living in the SF Bay, I'd imagine we'd be pretty well protected.
posted by sambosambo at 4:42 AM on March 11, 2011

Absolutely shocking, but an incredible testament to Japanese preparedness and engineering -- had this happened pretty much anywhere else in the world, we'd be talking about a death toll in the tens or even hundreds of thousands, rather than roughly 100 (which of course is still tragic).
posted by modernnomad at 4:42 AM on March 11, 2011

Most of Oakland should be OK

It's Alameda and Treasure Island that are gonna get it if it's bad enough.
posted by clorox at 4:46 AM on March 11, 2011

madcaptenor, According to the information in this post by hat from a couple of hours ago, the forecast wave heights in the SF bay area should be well below 1m.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:47 AM on March 11, 2011

modernnomad I definitely agree that Japanese engineering and preparations will greatly reduce the harm, but it will be awhile until there is an official death toll (it is still extremely early) and unfortunately, I suspect it will be much much much higher than roughly 100.
posted by molecicco at 4:48 AM on March 11, 2011

California Tsunami Inundation Maps
posted by birdherder at 4:49 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

clorox, a friend of mine lives in Alameda and posted a facebook status update saying he's glad he just bought a kayak.
posted by madcaptenor at 4:49 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Video of a massive explosion at a Chiba oil refinery (Nikkei)
posted by armage at 4:52 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

unfortunately, I suspect it will be much much much higher than roughly 100.

Unfortunately, based on what I've seen on the news, I am forced to agree with you.
posted by armage at 4:53 AM on March 11, 2011

I do not believe these preliminary death tolls can possibly be accurate, and sadly, I think they must be far too low. Yeah, the Japanese are amazing at engineering. But this thing looks like more than a match for their best.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:55 AM on March 11, 2011

From Hong Kong to Japan and all the Japan MeFites: be safe.
posted by bwg at 4:55 AM on March 11, 2011

Very little physical damage around me, but I'm still a bit distraught. NHK is on the TV behind me. The announcer is relaying personal messages to and from the affected areas. She reads out the name and address of the sender and recipient, with a one or two sentence message. "Are you ok? Please call." "The children are fine. We are waiting to hear from you."

They showed people huddling inside a designated evacuation point in a small school in Sendai. When the camera went through the door and cast its lights on the people inside, they covered their eyes. They'd been sitting in the dark, bundled up in winter coats, and listening to the radio. Power is out there. Temperatures in Sendai are around the 1 degree centigrade mark.

The aftershocks are mild, where I am, but they continue. Sometimes, it's hard to tell whether the ground is really moving or not, so I try to sit as still as possible whenever something feels out of balance.

After so many hours, I still can't reach my relatives. They live a couple of hours of Sendai. The power must be out there too, and the phone lines are overloaded.

My wife's family lives near Christchurch. They were horrified when they first heard news of the quake here. I feel like our family has dodged two big bullets in as many months.
posted by mariokrat at 4:55 AM on March 11, 2011 [27 favorites]

Another smaller aftershock now.
posted by armage at 4:57 AM on March 11, 2011

mariokrat, my thoughts are with you and your family. (Are you in Tokyo?) I hope you can get in touch with them soon. NTT East has made all public payphones free in their service area, so if you can't get through via your mobile, I suggest trying that.
posted by armage at 4:59 AM on March 11, 2011

I check my facebook before I go to any news sites...thankfully my first indication of the earthquake/tsunami was the post my friends made saying they were ok-they just moved to Japan a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, what horrible and sad news to wake up to this morning. My heart goes out to the people of Japan.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:01 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

looks like sirens have gone off in Oregon coastal towns, I'm relieved to read evacuations are in progress (the vast majority of my friends and family are in the Northwest, many of them in coastal towns...): Oregon coast braces for tsunami surges surpassing 6 feet (about 2m)
posted by fraula at 5:03 AM on March 11, 2011

Hoping Hawai'i doesn't get hammered.
posted by bwg at 5:05 AM on March 11, 2011

Video of a building facade nearly missing several pedestrians in Yokohama (TBS News)
posted by armage at 5:07 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Many bodies" discovered in the Arahama area of Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai (Fuji TV)
posted by armage at 5:08 AM on March 11, 2011

Ungh. MSNBC is really, really committed to keeping the political wonk guests they signed up for this morning on the air despite actual news occurring.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:10 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Authorities order residents within a 3 km radius of the Fukushima nuclear plant to evacuate (Yomiuri)
posted by armage at 5:11 AM on March 11, 2011

I'm in Tokyo. The earthquake was unbelievable: massive, violent, and long. Apparently the main quake was a minute and a half.

The aftershocks are still happening, just a minute ago was the latest. They're the most nerve-racking aspect; the main quake is long over, but these goddamn aftershocks keep coming, some of them really strong. I've lived in Japan for over seven years, and in the last 8 hours I've experienced more earthquakes than in the previous seven years combined. By a wide margin. I've counted at least a dozen aftershocks.

Trains were stopped all afternoon and evening, though they seem to be back on track a bit now. I walked home and it took me two hours, good thing Tokyo is relatively flat. The queues for buses and taxis are crazy. Lots of people are stranded wherever they were when the quake hit.

I'm dizzy. It's weird, but it's kind of hard to sense when a quake starts and when it ends. It really is like being on a ship on the ocean, and then suddenly the land is still again. There's some inner ear stuff going on that's making me constantly woozy. I've overheard lots of people saying the same thing.

There's all sorts of mayhem all over Japan. I just hope they get that nuclear reactor in Fukushima under control.

If this wasn't the Big One, it was certainly a Big One. Biggest one in recorded history, bigger than the 1923 I think. There were some old people saying they never experienced anything like it, so take that how you will.

I have a friend who lives near the coast in Chiba, probably where a tsunami hit. I really hope he's ok.
posted by zardoz at 5:11 AM on March 11, 2011 [37 favorites]

I'm relieved our Japan mefites are checking in and are OK... my prayers are with everyone, also with those within the tsumai warning zone.
posted by Wuggie Norple at 5:12 AM on March 11, 2011

Sidebar this thread, please.
posted by bwg at 5:14 AM on March 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

Large explosion/fire in Sendai; details unknown (Asahi TV)
posted by armage at 5:15 AM on March 11, 2011

Glad you made it home safely, zardoz.

Another decent-sized aftershock as I type this.
posted by armage at 5:18 AM on March 11, 2011

Glad you're okay, zardoz.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:18 AM on March 11, 2011

That fire in Sendai is likely a refinery fire in Shiogama, a city in Miyagi Prefecture (Asahi TV)
posted by armage at 5:19 AM on March 11, 2011

Update: Police reporting 200-300 bodies discovered in the Arahama area of Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai (TBS News)
posted by armage at 5:24 AM on March 11, 2011

Photos
posted by clorox at 5:25 AM on March 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

I'm glad the others here are ok. We just felt a large-ish aftershock here in Mitaka, but smaller ones have been coming pretty regularly.

NHK is listing deaths by prefecture. The numbers may not be incredibly high (yet), but I'm astounded how far away from the epicenter some of them are occurring.
posted by mariokrat at 5:25 AM on March 11, 2011

.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 5:29 AM on March 11, 2011

Christ, this looks like a freaking explosion.
posted by bwg at 5:30 AM on March 11, 2011

Waves were due in Kauai at 3:07 and in Oahu at 3:20am. We're seeing a small surge here in Waikiki but so far it's on the order of inches, not feet. Still waiting for the all clear.
posted by zanni at 5:31 AM on March 11, 2011

Christ, this looks like a freaking explosion.

It was.
posted by clorox at 5:32 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Please keep us posted if you can, zanni
posted by bwg at 5:33 AM on March 11, 2011

Asahi Shimbun is reporting that those people in Wakabayashi drowned to death, though they don't specify the number. Only that their were many.

Horrifying.
posted by mariokrat at 5:33 AM on March 11, 2011

Tokyo Metro Namboku Line back in operation.
posted by armage at 5:34 AM on March 11, 2011

Another aftershock just now.
posted by armage at 5:35 AM on March 11, 2011

I'm seeing the Shindo levels of these aftershocks and just thinking how big they are. Bloody hell.
posted by gomichild at 5:38 AM on March 11, 2011

What the hell was that whirlpool I just saw on TV??
posted by gomichild at 5:39 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Another aftershock just now.

Here is the USGS's list of quakes above 5.0 magnitude. They've been hitting regularly for the 7 hours since the big one.
posted by clorox at 5:40 AM on March 11, 2011

Video of a massive explosion at a Chiba oil refinery (Nikkei)

Holy crap. I can't even get a sense of scale on that thing. It looks like the entire refinery went up. Just roughly guessing from the scale of the towers and estimated distance based on horizon and atmosphere haze that fireball looks like it could be a half mile to a mile wide and a mile or three tall.

I could be vastly overestimating it but that may be the largest non nuclear explosion and fireball I've ever seen video of, maybe even including the Pepcon rocket fuel explosion in Nevada.
posted by loquacious at 5:40 AM on March 11, 2011

Yurakucho Line back in operation between Ikebukuro and Shin-Kiba (Tokyo Metro)
posted by armage at 5:47 AM on March 11, 2011

It is so weird to be sitting here at my desk in North Carolina reading about this when I know that my ex husband and our daughter are fast asleep and don't know anything yet. My ex comes from Japan so all his family and friends live there-- he and my daughter are planning a trip there in early May. They will both be waking up in about 20 minutes to this horrifying news. They also live in the Calif coastal tsunami inundation area according to that chart posted earlier, but I'm assuming that it won't be anything too significant.

My brother lives in Hawaii and would normally be surfing at dawn because that is what he does every morning, but mercifully he is in jail at the moment.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:47 AM on March 11, 2011 [27 favorites]

NHK just has a map with post-its stuck on to note the numbers of dead by ken. So surreal.
posted by Muttoneer at 5:49 AM on March 11, 2011

Holy crap. I can't even get a sense of scale on that thing.

Another angle with a very helpful point of reference.
posted by clorox at 5:52 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Offshore reef at Waikiki beach is exposed (via hitsunami.info)
posted by buzzv at 5:54 AM on March 11, 2011

Another angle with a very helpful point of reference.

Ok, not as big as I thought, but still huge.
posted by loquacious at 5:57 AM on March 11, 2011

I'm listening to Hawaii County PD right now, they are gathering a situation report on wave size, I'll check in here once I hear anything.

My thoughts are with everyone affected in Japan. Glad to see some of our Japanese Mefites checking in...
posted by rollbiz at 5:58 AM on March 11, 2011

Correction: Offshore reef at Diamond Head is exposed (via hitsunami.info)
posted by buzzv at 5:59 AM on March 11, 2011

Hawaii County officials reporting waves are still coming in, unable to determine size but it sounds like an under control situation at this time.
posted by rollbiz at 6:01 AM on March 11, 2011

Things have slowed down on the news front for now, so I'm going to call it a night. I may be back if the aftershocks wake me up.

(Another aftershock now. Damn, this is getting old fast.)

Tomorrow will likely bring lots more bad news, so I hope other Japan-based Mefites who haven't checked in yet are safe and sound. Here's hoping that they post to this thread once they're able.
posted by armage at 6:02 AM on March 11, 2011

Video of a massive explosion at a Chiba oil refinery (Nikkei)

That fireball is a BLEVE from one of the tanks, almost certainly. There's nothing to do at that point except let it burn out. If firefighters have the resources, they might be able to cool other tanks to supress further explosions, but I'll bet they're just evacuating at this point.
posted by bonehead at 6:02 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yes rollbiz. . .I have friends in Kona and another set who is vacationing in Kona. . way to early to call and check on them. . .keep us informed. .. thanks.
posted by Danf at 6:02 AM on March 11, 2011

armage: "Things have slowed down on the news front for now, so I'm going to call it a night."

Thanks armage. I have to be up early myself, so I must pack it in as well. Hong Kong will suffer no sea effects whatsoever.

Not looking forward to the updates when I wake up. I hope the numbers of victims will not climb substantially.
posted by bwg at 6:07 AM on March 11, 2011

Tsunami Warning Center says it will not be a significant event in Hawaii
posted by samsara at 6:07 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm off to bed too. I really need to turn NHK off. Good night. Take care. A better day tomorrow.
posted by mariokrat at 6:13 AM on March 11, 2011

There's a video clip they keep showing that shows a road with a major fracture/rupture running right down the middle of the center stripe like someone unzipped the road. The rupture is even following the curve of the road and the center stripe.

So unreal.
posted by loquacious at 6:13 AM on March 11, 2011

If you want to avoid natural disasters entirely, Ireland's pretty nice.

Iceland? That place full of unpronouncable volcanoes?

Ireland != Iceland.

(This bit of pedantry is all I can really contribute right now. Not really able to process the disaster. *hugs everybody in the world*)
posted by kmz at 6:17 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

In Focus has some photos up.
posted by backseatpilot at 6:18 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I live and work in Kanagawa, so I was relatively lucky. Long walk home on completely dark roads (no street lights, no traffic lights, just headlights), but I got there in the end, and my family is fine.

Like armage, I hope that all the other Japan Mefites who haven't checked in, and their families, are okay, and will post to that effect when they can.
posted by No-sword at 6:20 AM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

No delays planned for BART; MUNI's website has no news.
posted by clorox at 6:21 AM on March 11, 2011

Yeah, local (San Francisco) morning news here is all about the ocean-side roads that have been closed as a precautionary measure, but the tide will be out when the waves are expected to hit, and they're forecasting 2-3.5 feet from Point Reyes to Santa Cruz.
posted by rtha at 6:25 AM on March 11, 2011

Still not hearing about anything higher than 3 feet in HI County. Good news so far...
posted by rollbiz at 6:26 AM on March 11, 2011

I dont know if the video on the front page of BBC News was linked here but it is seriously going to give me nightmares. The way that water and debris just creeps over the land, destroying everything in its path.
posted by vacapinta at 6:28 AM on March 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

I live in San Francisco itself, just south and west of the Golden Gate Bridge, and I think the only injuries that might happen as a result of tsunami activities will be if the on-the-scene reporters elbow each other too hard when they're jockeying for position while standing in front of the seawall out at Ocean Beach.
posted by Bindyree at 6:31 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

All these assurances of no radiation leakage are making me nervous.
posted by ryanrs at 6:32 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

This is like reading issue 16 of Akira.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:32 AM on March 11, 2011

The thing is, Tokyo didn't get hit by a huge earthquake, exactly. The epicenter was 250 miles away.

To put that in comparative terms, that's about the same distance as San Francisco to Bakersfield or San Luis Obispo in Southern California. From San Diego near the Mexican border to Los Vegas, or New York City and the border of Maine. Houston and Baton Rouge. From London, across the channel and across the bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, and 10 miles into Germany.

This quake was just that massive. There are a lot of heavily populated places in Japan it's closer to than Tokyo, really... many miles away. Some have been heavily damaged by the quake, or completely wiped out by the tsunami. This quake was so big that it could be felt over 1500 miles away... about the distance from Paris to Moscow.

As it stands, Japan faces some potentially crippling problems with its vital electrical infrastructure, its transportation infrastructure, its ability to refine petrol, etc. Things could get bad. But in actual fact, it got a distant, glancing blow. Even Tokyo's rigorous building standards would likely not withstand such a quake, were it a direct hit.
posted by markkraft at 6:33 AM on March 11, 2011 [11 favorites]

Why do they give these running totals of confirmed dead when it is obvious that we are not going to know for a long time to come? Does anyone really believe it will be tens or hundreds? What about coral-reef islands and the places that are not the centers of the media world? Just say that the extent of the damage and fatalities will take weeks to assess.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:34 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

4 hours and 20 minutes later, I'm home, and mostly the house is in surprisingly good shape. The cat seems entirely unbothered. Mrs. Ghidorah is holed up at work for the evenly with coworkers, and the family is all okay. Sometime later, I'll try to write up the surreal walk home. Meanwhile, thanks for all the well-wishing, and in general for being fucking awesome. I love you guys.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:35 AM on March 11, 2011 [131 favorites]

Why do they give these running totals of confirmed dead when it is obvious that we are not going to know for a long time to come?

24 hour news cycle. Reporters need something to talk about on air.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:37 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

But in actual fact, [Japan] got a distant, glancing blow.

The burning, smoking, waterlogged crater once known as Sendai might disagree.
posted by stelas at 6:37 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Why do they give these running totals of confirmed dead

Because the authorities have to start counting and the reporters hound them for the latest count.
posted by ryanrs at 6:38 AM on March 11, 2011

vacapinta, that video is unbelievable. The water looks like it's alive. This is terrible.
posted by biscotti at 6:38 AM on March 11, 2011

Just had email from my daughter who was allowed back in Tokyo airport and wifi. She is ok and trying to book a flight back to LA, then home to Portland OR.
Thanks for the good wishes.
posted by Cranberry at 6:39 AM on March 11, 2011 [10 favorites]

I don't know why but I just started crying reading Ghidorah's latest comment.
posted by kmz at 6:39 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

The burning, smoking, waterlogged crater once known as Sendai might disagree.

I think this was in the context of Japanese building codes vs. an 8.8 earthquake. Neither of which matters to a tsunami.
posted by smackfu at 6:39 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was video editing and didn't feel a thing here in Kyoto, so a very different experience from the Kobe earthquake that I was much closer to.
posted by planetkyoto at 6:40 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

That video has scared the shit out of me. Oh, I saw a white car turning and trying to escape. Maybe it was the same one referenced above? I can feel myself in that car. I'm so, so sorry for that person and everyone who has been affected.
posted by h00py at 6:41 AM on March 11, 2011

The government has issued an evacuation advisory to people living within a three-kilometer radius of a nuclear power plant in quake-stricken Fukushima Prefecture.

No no no no no no no no
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 6:41 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

No no no no no no no no

It's purely a precaution. The reactor is already shut off and no leakage has been detected.
posted by stelas at 6:41 AM on March 11, 2011

Reviewing this at my job (yes I'm on the blue at work shhh) and I have just received an email sent out to everyone in the firm with news on the earthquake; it also mentioned that the Hawaiian offices already reported in to say that the surge hit already, but was only three feet; and the anticipated "storm surge" in California is supposed to be only about two feet.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:42 AM on March 11, 2011

BTW, I have a friend doing JET in Fukuyama-shi in Hiroshima Prefecture. She hasn't responded to multiple queries on Facebook, but based on the map on Wikipedia, it looks like she should be pretty safe from everything. Right?
posted by kmz at 6:42 AM on March 11, 2011

Seems the worst of it has passed in Waikiki. I watched what almost looked like time lapse photography of the Ala Wai canal rising from low tide to high, water moving very quickly, but it's now moving on out. Will have to wait for daylight to see if there is damage.
posted by scottymac at 6:44 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

If anyone's interested, the aftershocks are still coming in every 10 minutes or so, but they're slowly trending downward in magnitude with a slightly larger one about every hour.
posted by clorox at 6:48 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hiroshima is pretty far from the epicentre kmz.
posted by gomichild at 6:49 AM on March 11, 2011

Oh hell - fires across Miyagi prefecture.
posted by gomichild at 6:51 AM on March 11, 2011

"I live in San Francisco itself, just south and west of the Golden Gate Bridge, and I think the only injuries that might happen as a result of tsunami activities..."

...would be the surfers out near Mavericks, who want to ride a *really* big wave.

San Francisco isn't the real risk. The big risk in California is Crescent City near the Oregon border, which frankly, couldn't be better designed by nature to be a death trap in the event of tsunamis. Fortunately, the coastal areas all have evacuation warnings. The forecast tsunami amplitude for Crescent City is 8.2 feet... significantly higher than most coastal areas. Tsunami amplitude is measured relative to normal sea level, not crest-to-trough wave height, and doesn't take into account that at 7:23, when the first tsunami is forecast to strike the area, the tide level forecast is 2.7 feet above sea level.

So basically, a sustained wave of water up to perhaps 12' high is a possibility. Not the worst case scenario certainly, but not safe, either. Wouldn't want to be a boat owner, really.
posted by markkraft at 6:53 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

That BBC video of the wave coming into Sendai....holy hell. What can you do to protect people against an event like that? A huge, burning mass of debris rolling across the land just obliterating everything. I'm in Vancouver and get to spend the day working in a building 100 years old. Will be feeling nervous until I'm out of there.

My thoughts are with the people affected and I hope the mortality rate turns out to be as low as could be expected.
posted by Salmonberry at 6:58 AM on March 11, 2011

Yay, Ghidorah's cat!
posted by nicwolff at 6:58 AM on March 11, 2011 [28 favorites]

The infocus pictures linked upthread are just mind blowing.
posted by cashman at 6:58 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The big risk in California is Crescent City near the Oregon border, which frankly, couldn't be better designed by nature to be a death trap in the event of tsunamis.

Could they have used a more terrifying soundtrack for that video? :( Tsunamis are freaky enough as it is...
posted by Nattie at 6:59 AM on March 11, 2011

Flapjax? Stay safe Pacific Mefites. Were thinking about you here.
posted by MarvinTheCat at 7:02 AM on March 11, 2011

I can't stream video here at work, but reading everyone's posts, and looking at the still photos on the news sites just makes me grieve. I hope everyone is as safe and sound as possible.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:04 AM on March 11, 2011

I live in the evac zone in Marina del rey.

The Marina amplifies this stuff. I wonder if my wife has to evac. I'm in Austin right now.
posted by Lord_Pall at 7:08 AM on March 11, 2011

hoping flapjax et al are ok. glad Ghidorah and cat etc are. i can't watch any more of this coverage.
posted by peterkins at 7:08 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is not the thread I wanted to come back to this morning.
posted by SLC Mom at 7:11 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

4 hours and 20 minutes later, I'm home, and mostly the house is in surprisingly good shape. The cat seems entirely unbothered. Mrs. Ghidorah is holed up at work for the evenly with coworkers, and the family is all okay. Sometime later, I'll try to write up the surreal walk home. Meanwhile, thanks for all the well-wishing, and in general for being fucking awesome. I love you guys.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:35 AM on March 11 [19 favorites -] Favorite added! [!]

You hug the shit out of that cat for all of us.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 7:12 AM on March 11, 2011 [55 favorites]

So glad to see so many Mefites in Japan checking in. I'm not sure I can stand looking at some of the videos described in this thread; the text is scary enough.
posted by immlass at 7:12 AM on March 11, 2011

Google Person Finder.
posted by schmod at 7:14 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

...would be the surfers out near Mavericks, who want to ride a *really* big wave.

Watching the footage of the tsunami last night, when the camera pulled back to show the waves coming in, I was a little ashamed to find myself thinking that it looked like a beautiful break.

Ghidorah, I send skritches to your cat and hugs and well-wishes to you and yours. So glad to hear you're all okay.
posted by rtha at 7:15 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Can someone help me find out what the situation's like in Atsugi? My sister's there teaching a course. She posted to Facebook right after the quake but that's the last I've heard, and all I can come up with so far is that Narita traffic was diverted to the base, but nothing else about current conditions.

I'm probably just going to be a nervous nellie until she emails me all annoyed to say "everything's fine and I had a whiskey and went to bed, jeez".
posted by padraigin at 7:16 AM on March 11, 2011

So relieved to find that my family and old friends and students are ok.

I was in Tokyo when the Great Hanshin Earthquake hit and had hoped never to see anything like that again. The damage is just stunning.
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 7:18 AM on March 11, 2011

Has flapjax reported in yet?
posted by Meatbomb at 7:20 AM on March 11, 2011

I had been avoiding watching the videos, because I know myself too well. Then I watched the BBC one that vacapinta linked to. Then I walked into the bathroom and threw up. My god, the cars driving...
posted by gaspode at 7:20 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yay, the three people I personally know who live in Japan right now are fine. Despite all of my usual complaints about Facebook, it really is useful for checking in with people when stuff like this happens.
posted by limeonaire at 7:21 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I agree, limeonaire. Facebook has proved its worth to me today. I haven't heard from everyone yet, but it went a long way to giving me some peace of mind over a good majority of my friends there. I hope they all continue to stay safe. My heart goes out to the people up north.
posted by zerbinetta at 7:24 AM on March 11, 2011

. Justinian is correct that going from a 7 to an 8 is about a 30x increase in energy release.

Yes. The confusion comes that going from a 6 to an 8 is a 1000x increase in energy released. Today's nightmare was 8.9 M_W

Do you all remember Kobe in 1995? That quake was 6.8 M_W. So, the 2011 Sendai quake released more that 1000 times the energy of the 1995 Kobe quake.
posted by eriko at 7:37 AM on March 11, 2011

I'm going to hell for linking this
posted by Oktober at 7:40 AM on March 11, 2011 [17 favorites]

BBC reporting a dam burst in Northern Japan.
posted by Optamystic at 7:42 AM on March 11, 2011

Mother-in-law in Bandon, OR, called this morning at 7:30 (Eastern) to tell us she was evactuating. It was the first we'd heard of anything, so it was a bit surprising.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:43 AM on March 11, 2011

Ghidorah, so glad to hear you're all okay.
posted by zarq at 7:44 AM on March 11, 2011

Isnt going from 6 to 8, 100x...not 1000x?

From the Wikipedia Richter Scale article:

The energy release of an earthquake, which closely correlates to its destructive power, scales with the 3⁄2 power of the shaking amplitude. Thus, a difference in magnitude of 1.0 is equivalent to a factor of 31.6 ( = (101.0)(3 / 2)) in the energy released; a difference in magnitude of 2.0 is equivalent to a factor of 1000 ( = (102.0)(3 / 2) ) in the energy released.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:45 AM on March 11, 2011

But it's the humidity that'll get to you.
posted by ryanrs at 7:45 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Isnt going from 6 to 8, 100x...not 1000x?

No. In both Richter and Moment Magnitude, one step is 10^1.5 higher than the next, so from 0 to 1 is a factor of 10^1.5=31.62 increase, two steps is 10³=1000 and three steps is 10^4.5=31,620.

Stellar Magnitude uses steps of 10^0.4, a difference of 1 is 2.51 times brighter or different, and a difference of 5 is 10^5*.04=10²=100 times.
posted by eriko at 7:52 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Err, 10^5*0.4=10². Sorry.
posted by eriko at 7:52 AM on March 11, 2011

Oktober, thanks. That was exactly what I needed. I'll make sure to send money to your commisary account in hell.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:56 AM on March 11, 2011

That didn't come off quite as witty as I'd hoped. Sorry.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:56 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

NW Washington coastline has advisories, arrival times started about twenty minutes ago. Haven't heard anything yet.
posted by warbaby at 7:57 AM on March 11, 2011

Here in Guandong province they put an advisory out not to go near the coast in case of surges, but nothing significant here.
Thoughts and prayers with everyone affected by this.
posted by arcticseal at 7:59 AM on March 11, 2011

CNN, MSNBC, and AlJazeera all seem to be re-airing the same NHK clips, with the same editing.

Probably because they're mostly pulling the video from the same Reuters and APTN rushes.
posted by Jahaza at 8:01 AM on March 11, 2011

That didn't come off quite as witty as I'd hoped. Sorry.
No apologizing after what you went through! Enjoy your cloned bluefin tuna sushi!
posted by girlhacker at 8:02 AM on March 11, 2011

I've been off and on watching this since I woke up. No sign of flapjax yet.
posted by infini at 8:08 AM on March 11, 2011

reruns for you, the end of blissful ignorance for me.

Random bit of very Chiba specific damage. I walked home along route 14, which links Kisarazu to Tokyo. Between Makuharihongo and the Hanamigawa river, the sidewalks were broken in several areas, and there was a disturbing amount of exquisitely smooth mud covering the sidewalks. I heard there was going to be a Tokyo Bay tsunami, does anyone know if that's what happened in Makuhari?
posted by Ghidorah at 8:09 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Girlfriend evacuated from her hotel job in Eureka. They called all the guests at 6am to plead with them to get to higher ground and pulled the fire alarm for the most cantankerous. My girlfriend is now safe in the hills.

Incidentally, I was caught thinking of a plant I was monitoring in Point Reyes, with its only wild population existing less than a quarter mile inland, at sea level. These are the events which demonstrate the danger of low ecological rigor.
posted by Wyatt at 8:12 AM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

Ghidorah, after the day you've had, I'd consider an ability to speak coherently a pretty big accomplishment. Don't worry. Go hug your kitty some more.
posted by cmyk at 8:12 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Probably a long shot, but if anyone knows anything about how things are going in Rokkasho-mura, I would be grateful to hear it. Rokkasho is north of Hachinohe in Aomori-ken. I spent part of a summer there a few years back, and I haven't really kept in touch with anyone, but... I want to know that everything is all right.
posted by Vibrissa at 8:19 AM on March 11, 2011

My brother lives in Hawaii and would normally be surfing at dawn because that is what he does every morning, but mercifully he is in jail at the moment.

I shouldn't be laughing at this, but I am. Glad your brother is safe, Secret Life of Gravy.

Such devastation on that tiny, crowded island, and such hardship ahead. I can't even imagine it.
posted by orange swan at 8:20 AM on March 11, 2011

Lots of people gathering at Palisades Park in Santa Monica now. I didn't hear that they'd closed the beaches but I don't see a single person out there.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:24 AM on March 11, 2011

According to an INGV preliminary estimate, the earth axis has registered a change of about 10 cm. (link, italian)
posted by elpapacito at 8:24 AM on March 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

Hitting Santa Cruz, CA now... (as reported to me)
"water is flowing out of the harbor"
posted by fluffycreature at 8:25 AM on March 11, 2011

BTW, I have a friend doing JET in Fukuyama-shi in Hiroshima Prefecture.

She'll be fine, Hiroshima's very far away and I've heard from multiple friends in Hiroshima who say there is no damage there.
posted by ripley_ at 8:27 AM on March 11, 2011

.
posted by angrycat at 8:27 AM on March 11, 2011

The county emergency services here in coastal California ran a reverse 911 a couple hours ago advising everyone within the inundation zone to evacuate, so I ended up out of the house and at work about 4 hours early. Not expecting anything dangerous, but hoping my house's carpets stay dry.
posted by hat at 8:32 AM on March 11, 2011

Shit, we're just about due for another Tokai earthquake, aren't we? How's Shizuoka-ken holding up? Specifically, any word from Fuji-shi? I lived there '97-'98.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:33 AM on March 11, 2011

Crescent City gauges indicate a measured 4.6 ft wave, and one suspect line with "-99" for the data... maybe the gauge considered the data erroneous or it went outside the design limit. I scoured Google News feed for what's going on in Crescent City but all the news stories are pretty devoid of any info, basically parroting the stories about there being warnings in effect. Where is the hard hitting journalism?
posted by crapmatic at 8:41 AM on March 11, 2011

My friends in Japan are alive, did the same walk home as Ghidorah (glad you're okay, G!). They said they couldn't call each other or find out if their building was still there, but they walked for hours, worried and reeling from the aftershocks, updating and checking in through Facebook because they couldn't get cell reception.

I will never curse FB again for being a piece of crap timewaster, because unlike on 9/11, I was able to verify Mark was alive as soon as I heard because of it. I remember calling him for hours and getting a busy signal that day, worried he'd been unable to get out of the towers; he was late to work that day and saw the buildings collapse, but wasn't inside, though I wouldn't find that out until three days later.

Afterwards, he moved away from NYC because he couldn't get over how 9/11 affected him. He picked Tokyo, and has lived there for almost a decade. And now, his girlfriend is ready to leave Tokyo, though she's a native, because of this. It's like tragedy followed him there.

Praying for all MeFites in Japan/Hawaii/coastal areas of the US right now. Japan is incredibly well-prepared for such events, thank God.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:42 AM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

Between Makuharihongo and the Hanamigawa river, the sidewalks were broken in several areas, and there was a disturbing amount of exquisitely smooth mud covering the sidewalks

Sounds like you found signs of soil liquefaction.
posted by loquacious at 8:42 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

FYI, here's a breakdown of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 for comparison to the events of the last 24 hours.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:44 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Live stream from santa cruz.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/livenow?id=8007618
posted by johnstein at 8:47 AM on March 11, 2011

Live webcam of Ocean Beach, San Franciso (via the Guardian blog).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:48 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Somehow I missed hearing about this last night (wtf? I watched the news for a good 20 minutes before bed and it was all about mild local flooding without a mention?!), but the first thing I did this morning when my husband told me was to check on metafilter to make sure Ghidorah and other Japanese mefites were okay. Hugs to you and your kitty, G--and all of you in Japan.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:51 AM on March 11, 2011

Unicorn, I've gotten to the part about the ethnic mass murders following the quake & am completely horrified. (And ashamed.) I had no idea.
posted by PepperMax at 8:52 AM on March 11, 2011

geez, EndOfInvention - i was watching that livecam about half an hour ago and there were 45 viewers... now there are over 3000
posted by lapolla at 8:53 AM on March 11, 2011

Loquacious, that looks almost exactly like what I saw. I even saw a manhole cover looking almost exactly like this photo, and the mud looked just like the mud surrounding the two cars in this photo. I'd always thought soil liquification needed absurd (9.0 plus) earthquakes to occur, but I guess not. When the earth stops behaving like a solid, it's really easy to start to worry about other things we take for granted.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:55 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Watching the SF Bay for the past 30 minutes. Oddly calm. Aside from the ferries and one cargo ship, no boats out.
posted by zippy at 8:59 AM on March 11, 2011

Emergency services in HI are authorized to evacuate inundation zones, those areas calculated to be affected severely by sudden increases in ocean height.

I was in Kauai last year during the Chilean earthquake, and we had to be evacuated, not that anything significant happened. Though it did get me researching some of the terminology. Basically, the "inundation zones" are anywhere from sea level to 30 feet above, which may not sound like much, but in an tourist area, those areas tend to be rather densely populated.

Anyway, good news for Hawaii thus far. Here's hoping for the best for those in Japan and other more severely afflicted zones.
posted by philip-random at 8:59 AM on March 11, 2011

I'd always thought soil liquification needed absurd (9.0 plus) earthquakes to occur, but I guess not.

8.9 is an absurd earthquake -- the difference in energy between 9.0 and 8.9 is 1.4x. But it can happen in much smaller quakes -- Loma Prieta and Kobe both had big liquifaction problem. The big factor is the soil you've built on -- typically, the more groundwater, the more likely liquification can happen.
posted by eriko at 9:03 AM on March 11, 2011

I'm not an expert but, afaik, soil liquefaction is about how much shear stress the earth can withstand. Soil type (and hydration) is really, really important. Clays, in particular, are very suseptible. Get a clay into shear behaviour and it can self-lubricate. The grey colour of the mud in those photographs are telltales for silt/clay soils.
posted by bonehead at 9:04 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

eriko, of course you're right, it's just that Chiba is pretty far from where the earthquake hit. Then again, essentially everything in that area, between that road and the bay is built on reclaimed land, which probably had a lot to do with it.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:06 AM on March 11, 2011

Just heard on the news that there's some damage to boats in the harbor at Crescent City, CA. Doesn't sound like anything too major.
posted by OolooKitty at 9:07 AM on March 11, 2011

J Raw Footage by YoshiEatsWasabi. Apparently the earthquake continued for approximately 20 minutes.
posted by nickyskye at 9:08 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

.
posted by desjardins at 9:08 AM on March 11, 2011

.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 9:12 AM on March 11, 2011

Pics: Huge overturned boat, car driving by. Cars floating by.
posted by cashman at 9:15 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Do I donate to the International Committee of the Red Cross for maximum efficacy? Or the American branch?

ICRC is ONLY for armed conflict - so, donate to ICRC if you want to support relief efforts in Libya. For disaster relief, your best bet is to donate to your national society or to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (this is the federation of all national societies).

Canadian Red Cross
posted by arcticwoman at 9:16 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Do I donate to the International Committee of the Red Cross for maximum efficacy? Or the American branch?

I hate to tell people with money in hand to hang tight, but if you want to donate directly to the relief efforts in Japan and be sure that's where every dollar is going, hang tight. This event will wind up with a specific donation path listing, and when it does it will be here.

If you want to assist with disaster relief in general, including in Japan, use the "Where the Need is Greatest" or the "Disaster Relief for Countless Crises" links on that page.
posted by rollbiz at 9:22 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Jeeeezus. I can't believe that ABC news is going with the 'this disaster might be good for the american consumer' angle. W.T.F?????
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:26 AM on March 11, 2011

re liquifaction: this video demonstrates liquifaction in a wheelbarrow going over cobblestones, so it doesn't take a huge earthquake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvYKcCS_J7Y Liquifaction was a big problem in the recent Christchurch earthquake. When the inevitable large earthquake hits Vancouver BC, it'll be interesting to see what happens in Richmond which was basically built on silt.
posted by Emanuel at 9:27 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Then again, essentially everything in that area, between that road and the bay is built on reclaimed land, which probably had a lot to do with it.

DING DING DING WE HAVE A FACTOR.

Reclaimed land is infamous for liquefaction in earthquakes -- both Kobe and Loma Prieta saw the worst damage, and the most soil liquefaction, on areas that were reclaimed.
posted by eriko at 9:28 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

For certain values of "interesting".
posted by steambadger at 9:29 AM on March 11, 2011

PepperMax, yeah, it's quite depressing, isn't it? I had no idea, either, until I visited Japan and heard about the ongoing enmity between various cultural communities and how they got started. Sometimes the worst outcomes from natural disaster occur from the spread of misinformation and panic - something we hopefully will avoid in the future with the ability to communicate clearly and quickly on an international level thanks to the Internet.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:29 AM on March 11, 2011

When the inevitable large earthquake hits Vancouver BC

I hope you knocked on wood when you typed that.
posted by Hoopo at 9:30 AM on March 11, 2011

I just sent a donation to the Red Cross, but will be happy to donate again when the money can be targeted to the relief efforts in Japan.

Twitter has been great in letting me know that friends are okay in Japan.

I hope the rest of the Japan Mefites check in soon (have they all checked in yet?)
posted by Julnyes at 9:30 AM on March 11, 2011

Backing up whatever anyone says in this thread about people worrying more about the global economic impact than loss of life and infrastructure right now - sorry if I don't give a crap about Wall Street right now, though I'm sure we'll all be feeling it in some way.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:31 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

still no word from Flapjax?
posted by Ghidorah at 9:31 AM on March 11, 2011

...something we hopefully will avoid in the future with the ability to communicate clearly and quickly on an international level thanks to the Internet.

The internet is great for communicating quickly and clearly, but it can spread misinformation about as quickly as accurate information. Using twitter to follow what's been going on in Wisconsin has been stressful just from trying to separate confirmed reports from rumors.
posted by Vibrissa at 9:33 AM on March 11, 2011

Ghidorah, someone mentioned over on the MeTa thread that flapjax does not have a mobile phone so that could be it.
Glad you & your family (human & feline) are OK
posted by pointystick at 9:34 AM on March 11, 2011

Very glad to hear our Mefi Japan contingent checking in. After seeing the picture of a cat perched on a car floating in a flooded area, I'm absurdly pleased that Ghidorah's cat is okay. Hoping to hear from flapjax very soon.
posted by empyrean at 9:35 AM on March 11, 2011

Flapjax is probably sleeping.
posted by zerbinetta at 9:36 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Was the recent 8.9 earthquake 350 times stronger than the 6.3 Christchurch earthquake?

350 times worse than Christchurch?

No, it's a lot worse than that. The difference in energy release between a 8.9 and a 6.3 is 10^3.9. Or nearly 8000x worse. I've been in 6.3 earthquakes. They're not fun but there is absolutely no comparison with a 8.9, which I can barely imagine.

But I want to repeat that a difference in energy release isn't exactly the same as a difference in shake intensity. This difference in shake intensity between 8.9 and 6.3 is huge but it isn't going to feel 8000x more intense.
posted by Justinian at 9:36 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

An in-traffic photo from during the refinery explosion linked upthread, and a different video of it from someone's apartment.
posted by cashman at 9:36 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ugh, I just saw a TV reporting (probably incorrectly) that the price of oil in the US is likely to go down slightly in the near future. The reason? Japan isn't going to require as much in the near future.

I shit you now.

Fuck network news channels.

Stay safe Tokyo!
posted by quin at 9:38 AM on March 11, 2011

now not
posted by quin at 9:38 AM on March 11, 2011

Can someone check my math here?

The difference in energy release when you increase one step is 10^1.5. To compare two earthquakes the formula is 10^{1.5(m₁ - m₂).}
posted by Justinian at 9:39 AM on March 11, 2011

At some point, comparing Christchurch and this (Sendai?) is like comparing apples & oranges. It feels like one really has to be there to understand the damage and extent of it. Energy is just one part of an earthquake - there's local topography and geography, building construction, and personal readiness.

I think for many people, one or the other is more than just a number.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:40 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The cooling system for Fukushima I Reactor 1 is currently running via battery backup. The JSDF is securing additional batteries and will be flying them in. That's maybe 8 to 12 hours of cooling for the core...

It's an older BWR that came online in 1971... pressure is building in the core...

God. Damn. It.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 9:40 AM on March 11, 2011

This morning the story on CNBC was "how is this going to affect Toyota sales?" Of course, they are the business channel, so maybe it's best they stick to what they know rather than interviewing geologists.
posted by vespabelle at 9:40 AM on March 11, 2011

Wow... hoping the aftershocks continue to get smaller and they've seen the worst of it.

I'm supposed to fly to Tokyo on Monday, enroute to Hokkaido for a two week ski trip. I wonder what the likelihood is that it will happen?

The folks I'm going with are all mountain rescue members here in the states -- any idea who would be the best contact if we wanted to help with the recovery efforts?
posted by Pantengliopoli at 9:40 AM on March 11, 2011

Yeah flapjax has no mobile phone so he won't check in until he's home and computer and Internet and power ok. People have been stranded all over the place.
posted by gomichild at 9:42 AM on March 11, 2011

Ugh, I just saw a TV reporting (probably incorrectly) that the price of oil in the US is likely to go down slightly in the near future. The reason? Japan isn't going to require as much in the near future.

Oil prices fall below $100

Awful, but rational, I suppose.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:43 AM on March 11, 2011

At some point, comparing Christchurch and this (Sendai?) is like comparing apples & oranges. It feels like one really has to be there to understand the damage and extent of it. Energy is just one part of an earthquake - there's local topography and geography, building construction, and personal readiness.

Yeah, bearing in mind that the bad ChCh quake was 6.3, but they had a 7.5 quake last year that didn't kill anyone.
posted by Infinite Jest at 9:43 AM on March 11, 2011

And woodblock doesn't have a mobile phone either btw so same scenario.
posted by gomichild at 9:44 AM on March 11, 2011

The JSDF is securing additional batteries and will be flying them in. That's maybe 8 to 12 hours of cooling for the core...

By which time a larger generator will be flown in or a local emergency generator will be back online. I'm willing to be they're grabbing batteries first because (as long as the charge was monitored), you don't have to make any assumptions about availability of fuel. If they're being very paranoid, there's a standard interface, and all they'll have to do is plug these into the power units.

It's a measure of how severe the quake was here. Batteries are probably the 4th level backup (First power is the plant itself, 2nd is grid, third is generator, fourth is batteries.)
posted by eriko at 9:45 AM on March 11, 2011

The cooling system for Fukushima I Reactor 1 is currently running via battery backup.

Does anyone have a link to a technical explanation for this?

Also, why can't they bring in generators? This seems more straightforward than bringing in batteries.
posted by zippy at 9:45 AM on March 11, 2011

The US Navy Commander, Fleet activities, Sasebo Japan has a facebook page. It says the Navy and Marines are preparing Operation Tomodachi, but they can't move without a request from the Japanese government.

Other 7th Fleet assets are also preparing for assistance operations.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:47 AM on March 11, 2011

Televison explains infrastructure must be repaired then bring reactors on-line. I believe it takes 12-24 hours to re-set when going off line.
prayers for the great peoples of Japan and great hope for Mefis in Japan are safe.
posted by clavdivs at 9:50 AM on March 11, 2011

I know it's not much but Maru the cat is safe.
posted by hellojed at 9:54 AM on March 11, 2011 [38 favorites]

The cooling system for Fukushima I Reactor 1 is currently running via battery backup. The JSDF is securing additional batteries and will be flying them in. That's maybe 8 to 12 hours of cooling for the core...

It's an older BWR that came online in 1971... pressure is building in the core...


My husband has a paper route along with his day job so he had no idea about what was going on till he woke up from his post paper nap this morning. I filled him in regarding the earthquake, tsunami, fires, and possible problems with the reactor, to which he responded, "What next? Godzilla??????"

I don't think he was trying to be funny, either.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 9:54 AM on March 11, 2011

Maru is safe.

Obama says that one US aircraft carrier is already off the coast of Japan, and more are on their way.
posted by schmod at 9:55 AM on March 11, 2011

had to update
Fukisnima reactor requires battery until full power is restored. Onagawas' turbine house has a fire.
posted by clavdivs at 9:59 AM on March 11, 2011

No, it's a lot worse than that. The difference in energy release between a 8.9 and a 6.3 is 103.9. Or nearly 8000x worse. I've been in 6.3 earthquakes. They're not fun but there is absolutely no comparison with a 8.9, which I can barely imagine.

One shouldn't really get hung up so much on the momentary magnitude or Richter scale values, because they are not really a good indication of the actual havoc wrought.

For example, you say "6.3 is bad." Well, the 6.3 is an indication of the total power released by the quake. It's bad if you stand in or above the epicenter, still bad 100 miles away, but not so bad a 1000 miles away. The waves propagate essentially spherically, so I would guess that also the power attenuates by ^-1/3 over distance or something like that.
An 8.9 quake is not really devastating if it happens in Siberia or in 5000m depth in the middle of the ocean, but much more so if it happens just outside of Sendai.

For comparison, earthquake maps in Japan are much more detailed. Essentially, right after the earthquake, they'll have a number of "earthquake watchers" phone in to a central agency to report the felt strength of the earthquake, assigning numbers to subjective phenomena such as "walls were shaking", "pictures fell from walls", "wall crumbled". The result is a subjective map of numbers that gives a very good indication of the damage. Much better than just a single number, such as 6.3, which says little about the actual damage at a particular place at an unknown distance from the epicenter.
posted by sour cream at 10:02 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Has anyone heard from woodblock100? I've just emailed him, but there's no update on his blog. From the maps of the quake, I can see that Ome (where he lives) is a bit further inland than the hardest hit areas, but that emergency shelters have been established at Tama High School and Ome High School nearby, so it's definitely affected, and I'm worried.
posted by ocherdraco at 10:04 AM on March 11, 2011

If you're looking to help financially, my Methodist friend sent me this link to the UMC relief project (a press release about it can be found here):

In response to the Earthquake on March 10, 2011 that struck Japan, The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) will be working with local communities to rebuild. UMCOR is now better able to help when earthquakes and tsunamis or other disasters hit the area. UMCOR works in shelter and infrastructure reconstruction, water and sanitation, income generation, health and nutrition, education and community development.

100% of all contributions to this fund go directly to emergency relief and long-term recovery support. I'm sure there will be dozens of other orgs receiving for this as well... Please post whatever you can about them here so generous MeFites can see their options.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:07 AM on March 11, 2011

sour cream, USGS does shindo-style subjective mapping for US quakes, too; you just have to dig on the site a little. I've reported SoCal quakes to them a few times.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 10:08 AM on March 11, 2011

From WaPo:`` Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday morning that U.S. Air Force planes in Japan had delivered coolant to a nuclear power plant affected by the quake.

"They have very high engineering standards, but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," she said, "and so Air Force planes were able to deliver that." It was not immediately clear which plant received the coolant. ''
posted by BeerFilter at 10:10 AM on March 11, 2011

The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) has an updated announcement (PDF, dated 11 Mar 11) on the reactor situation:

Quake Triggers Evacuation of Residents Surrounding Fukushima-1
NPS
After a massive earthquake struck northeast Japan at 2:46 p.m. on March 11,
Fukushima Prefecture issued an evacuation directive at 9:00 p.m. to residents
living within a 2-km radius of the Fukushima-I Nuclear Power Station (NPS). The
Fukushima-I-2 NPS suffered a loss of feeding water for its cooling system,
caused by the cutoff of power supply.

... the reactor core still has a sufficient amount of water for cooling, with no
danger of the nuclear fuel being exposed. Several emergency generator vehicles have
rushed to the scene to provide the necessary power for the water supply.

... while there
was no confirmation of radiation leaking from the reactor ... the government [directs] residents living with a 3-km radius to
evacuate, and other residents living outside that limit but within a 10-km radius [are] urged to stand by at home.

Nikkei.com has this:

The radiation level is rising in the building housing a turbine of the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant ... the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday.

The company also said ... the air pressure level has also soared inside the container of the reactor.
posted by zippy at 10:10 AM on March 11, 2011

Well emergency centers have been set up all over - lots of people stranded far from home.

It's night time in Japan and people have had an exhausting day. Power is out in some areas which means no Internet and woodblock100 does not have a mobile phone. Give it a few more hours until things become more stable power-wise and people have rested.
posted by gomichild at 10:10 AM on March 11, 2011

I hate cold weather earthquakes in Japan. So many people still use those stupid, smelly, kerosine heaters, especially older folks, and they are a giant hazard when the ground starts shaking. When I had my earthquake training a few years ago we were instructed to turn off any stoves or heaters before seeking shelter under a desk or table because fires are so much more dangerous than the earthquakes themselves, and they spread making it a danger to anyone else nearby.

Seeing all those homes and offices on fire in the pictures is just terrifying.
posted by Alison at 10:11 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I just realized I had a phone number for woodblock100's daughters. I spoke with one of them and she said that he's fine. He was away from home at the time of the quake, and was stranded since the trains aren't running, but he's at the home of one of his print collectors, and is in touch with family in Canada.

Phew.
posted by ocherdraco at 10:12 AM on March 11, 2011 [25 favorites]

Japan MeFites, thank you all for checking and staying safe.

Eriko, clavdivs, zippy thanks for the update on the reactor. I can only imagine what feats the plants engineers are doing to ensure that a core breach does not occur. Let us hope that nothing else gets in their way.

Has anyone heard from Flapjax yet?
posted by PROD_TPSL at 10:15 AM on March 11, 2011

I'm getting audio but no video on Al Jazeera live stream (OSX 10.6.6 under both Firefox and Safari), anybody else? Any ideas? What other live streams are good?
posted by ottereroticist at 10:17 AM on March 11, 2011

Seeing all those homes and offices on fire in the pictures is just terrifying.

While I hate them too, kerosene heaters typically have an earthquake shutoff mechanism. I think some of the fires we're seeing are coming from LP (propane) gas canisters used for hot water heating in houses.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:17 AM on March 11, 2011

side note: I am hitting paywalls and subscription walls on several Japanese news sites when trying to look up information about the reactor situation - news site owners, this would be an excellent time to drop your paywalls as doing so may save lives.
posted by zippy at 10:18 AM on March 11, 2011

Finally catching up on this thread. Best wishes and high hopes for everyone in Japan, their loved ones, and their pets.
posted by marxchivist at 10:18 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Another quake just hit Ibaraki and the surrounding areas. NHK says magnitude 3, so everyone should be ok. My in-laws are there, so I hope for the best.
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 10:19 AM on March 11, 2011

The quake was just updated to a 9.0
posted by MrVisible at 10:21 AM on March 11, 2011

I recorded some rather unsettling emergency evacuation warnings from STV Abashiri Station NRN this morning.
posted by mykescipark at 10:23 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

One shouldn't really get hung up so much on the momentary magnitude or Richter scale values, because they are not really a good indication of the actual havoc wrought.

This is what the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale was designed for - it gives a measure of earthquake damage and severity, not just the amplitude and energy of the seismic event itself. According to the USGS, they are tentatively estimating the 8.9 (now 9.0, on preview) quake as an 8 (VIII, severe shaking and moderate to heavy damage) on the Mercalli scale.

Here's the USGS "Did you feel it" page for the 8.9 quake (there are separate pages for each aftershock). You can see Mercalli estimates from all over Japan.
posted by dialetheia at 10:24 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

If they can't get backup generators running to start pumping a lot of water very soon the control rods and core can melt and then you can't shut the pile down. We really don't need another Chernobyl happening right now. That would be worse than multiple tsunamis.

Just wanted to comment here that there's essentially zero danger to the public here; unless a reactor is just about on top of the epicenter of a truly massive earthquake, there's no possible way it could take enough damage to leak anything.

Assuming that Japanese reactors are built at least as well as ours (and considering that they've been building them for a lot longer than we have, that's probably a safe assumption), there simply is no failure mode that will release radioactivity, short of physical breach of three containment vessels that are built to absolutely ridiculous standards. The China Syndrome is total bullshit, a complete fabrication. It's a fictional story that people treat as true.

Western reactors are some seriously space-age shit, with multiple layered safety systems. Even if the worst happens, like at Three Mile Island here in the US, nothing dangerous will get out. They're designed so that the core will slag itself, and then flow down into capture basins underneath the reactor, where it's separated into sub-critical masses. You lose the reactor for decades, until it cools down enough to be safe to clean out, but nothing escapes, and there's no danger of explosion.

The sum total of the radioactive release from TMI was some radioactive krypton gas. This was done deliberately, to speed recovery efforts. It wasn't detectable fifty feet downwind from the reactor. Krypton is one of the 'noble gases'; it doesn't interact with much of anything, so it doesn't bioaccumulate. It's very much like it's not even there, for all the impact it has. It just floats around, and occasionally decays into something else. Even if it happens to be inside you when it decays, the damage is completely unnoticeable compared to all the other natural sources of radiation we're exposed to. And if you breathe in some of it, you'll promptly breathe it back out again, because it just doesn't bind to anything.

But, of course, the media and politicians thrive on fear and spectacle, so all you got was nonstop horror about a radiation leak on TV, while the engineers on site were busily rolling their eyes. Mysteriously, you didn't hear about the eye rolling.

Even if something really dire is happening in that reactor, nothing is going to get out. The only damage will be monetary. They might lose the plant, and perhaps some workers if they're foolishly brave. There will be no civilian injuries or deaths.

Don't confuse Russian engineering with Western nuclear power. The Chernobyl-style plants are inherently unsafe, and absolutely should be decommissioned. I wouldn't want to live within five hundred miles of one. But I'd be perfectly happy living immediately next to any of the Western plants, including this one, even right now this very minute, when it's having trouble. The evacuation order is probably legally required; from a safety standpoint, it's incredibly unlikely to be necessary.

The current designs for new plants are even better than the ones we have now, and the ones we have now are just fucking amazing engineering. If you feel safe enough about aviation engineering to fly, Western nuclear plants should not scare you. We've had only one 'crash', and nothing outside the plant was damaged. It did exactly what it was intended to do.
posted by Malor at 10:26 AM on March 11, 2011 [104 favorites]

More information on the IAEA statement concerning the cooling system problems, rising pressure, and overall concern at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
posted by samsara at 10:27 AM on March 11, 2011

The reactor is already shut off and no leakage has been detected.

Can someone tell me what it means that the reactor is shut off? I thought it took weeks (months?) to shut off a reactor.

Unfortunately, all I know about nuclear reactors has come from mystery and thriller novels. And watching that depressing Soviet documentary about the heroism of the Chernobyl first responders.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:27 AM on March 11, 2011

People near Fukushima reactor, please evacuate ASAP.

Japan's top government spokesman Yukio Edano told an evening press conference, ''We have a situation where one of the reactors (of the plant) cannot be cooled down.'' But the chief Cabinet secretary said the evacuation instruction was only precautionary.
posted by zippy at 10:28 AM on March 11, 2011

From Zippy's link: ''No radiation has leaked outside the reactor. The incident poses no danger to the environment at the moment,'' Edano said.

Jesus but that's ominous.
posted by jbickers at 10:30 AM on March 11, 2011

ASAP vs. only precautionary, eh?

Fixating on the nuclear reactor is pretty weird. Like it will do more damage than the massive wall of water that killed a lot of people.
posted by smackfu at 10:30 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm of course reading between the lines, given the rapidly changing news regarding the reactor. So I apologize for being alarmist, however reports currently state that TEPCO is considering releasing potentially radioactive steam from the reactor.
posted by zippy at 10:34 AM on March 11, 2011

This is a good reminder that everyone should have a go-bag and an evacuation plan in place. I know that the damage here on the West Coast can't compare, but when I woke up I only had about 20 minutes notice prior to the arrival of the first Tsunami wave. Not a problem this time because the wave was less than 5 feet, but a wake up call for the future.
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:36 AM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Thanks for sharing the links and updates, everyone. I wish I could do more than donate to the Red Cross.
posted by dragonplayer at 10:38 AM on March 11, 2011

Here's one such report from Asahi.com and another here regarding a potential venting of radioactive material.

Where officials seem to be adjusting to an as-yet uncontrolled situation at a nuclear reactor, I feel it's sensible to encourage people to head the government's advice to evacuate the area.

I can't do anything to prevent the tsunami, but I can help get out the word of an event that may occur in the future.
posted by zippy at 10:39 AM on March 11, 2011

small_ruminant: Can someone tell me what it means that the reactor is shut off? I thought it took weeks (months?) to shut off a reactor.


There are a lot of safety thresholds that must be crossed before there is imminent public danger. I think there are a number of automated systems that can close down I believe that they'd tell people to leave ASAP over pretty low-level concerns, but it's not something to balk at.

More on this: Japan: 11 nuclear reactors shut down

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday morning that U.S. Air Force planes in Japan had delivered coolant to a nuclear power plant affected by the quake.

"They have very high engineering standards, but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," she said, "and so Air Force planes were able to deliver that." It was not immediately clear which plant received the coolant.

Emergency Declared at Japanese Nuclear Plant

Heat from the nuclear fuel rods must be removed by water in a cooling system, but that requires power to run the pumps and to align the valves in the pipes. So the plant requires a continuous supply of electricity even after the reactor stops generating its own power.

An analyst with the World Nuclear Association, a major international nuclear power group, told Reuters that he understood fresh cool water was now being pumped into the cooling system at Fukushima, reducing the threat of a meltdown.

“We understand this situation is under control,” the analyst said, adding that he understood that a back-up battery power system had been brought online after about an hour and began pumping water back into the cooling system, where the water level had been falling.

posted by filthy light thief at 10:39 AM on March 11, 2011

Has anybody seen an update as to the missing commuter train?
posted by PepperMax at 10:41 AM on March 11, 2011

It's a great idea to keep a 5-minute bag in your front closet with absolute basics (a bottle of water, some snacks and a change of clothes) and whatever other provisions you need somewhere a little further out. Even if you don't use it for an emergency, it's sometimes helpful when you're heading in/out of the house quickly.

And if you have a car, one in the trunk.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:45 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fixating on the nuclear reactor is pretty weird.

I suspect a lot of us who are eyeing Fukushima-I warily grew up in the mid-80s/ remember Chernobyl/ have been trained since a young age to be very alert to possible nuclear mayhem.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 10:47 AM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

A huge section of Kessanuma seems to be on fire

Kessanuma is in Miyagi, north of Sendai, and is the home of the Japanese tuna fleet.

It's worth noting that the tsunami affected a huge area of Japan's coastline. The live feed I'm watching now shows destructive tsunami waves in Muroran in Hokkaido, far to the north of Sendai.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:49 AM on March 11, 2011

Japan's quake updated to a magnitude 9.0.
posted by nickyskye at 10:49 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you're trying to conceptualize the relative magnitudes of the Richter scale, this graph from the SD geological survey may help.
posted by zennie at 10:50 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Less alarming new details on efforts to cool Fukushima reactor:

Another official at the nuclear safety agency, Yuji Kakizaki, said that plant workers were cooling the reactor with a secondary cooling system, which is not as effective as the regular cooling method.

Kakizaki said officials have confirmed that the emergency cooling system — the last-ditch cooling measure to prevent the reactor from the meltdown — is intact and could kick in if needed.

"That's as a last resort, and we have not reached that stage yet," Kakizaki added.
posted by zippy at 10:51 AM on March 11, 2011

I'd like to also say that, as a proponent of nuclear energy being a crucial part of getting the world off fossil fuels, this reactor holding up (or not) could serve as a huge "make or break" point in the eyes of the world, even though this does seem to be a reactor from a few tech-generations back.

Simply put, if it fails/breaches, even if to no huge adverse effects, it's a black eye and if it stands fast then I would hope it would be an example of what proper engineering/construction can promise for the nay-sayers.

So, yea, the fixation is a bit odd, but not at all unjustified if you're looking at the macro-level.

My thoughts are with Japan.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:53 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

The wording of this Slashdot article title is dumb, but the topic is worse: beware a massive influx of "tsunami relief" scams and malware.

Charity scams have always been a favorite of fraudsters. After Hurricane Katrina, the FBI felt it necessary to issue a warning when over 4,500 web sites appeared, all attempting to collect donations to help hurricane victims.
...
Scams are already spreading across Facebook, which started in a matter of minutes after the news broke of the earthquake in Japan.

posted by filthy light thief at 10:59 AM on March 11, 2011

I'd like to also say that, as a proponent of nuclear energy being a crucial part of getting the world off fossil fuels, this reactor holding up (or not) could serve as a huge "make or break" point in the eyes of the world, even though this does seem to be a reactor from a few tech-generations back.

Simply put, if it fails/breaches, even if to no huge adverse effects, it's a black eye and if it stands fast then I would hope it would be an example of what proper engineering/construction can promise for the nay-sayers.

Not to spoil anything, but you just described much of the storyline of the latest episode of V.
posted by limeonaire at 11:00 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

TBS TV is currently reporting a large quake centering Nagano (center of Honshu), with tsunami warnings now for the entire Japan see coast.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:02 AM on March 11, 2011

Magnitude 6 just hit Niigata in the west.
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 11:02 AM on March 11, 2011

Japan "Sea" coast
posted by KokuRyu at 11:02 AM on March 11, 2011

Finally heard from my mom and brother on Maui. They were up all night and had two sets of friends sheltering in their high-ground house. Apparently the police shut down all the roads and weren't letting people travel, so all precautions were taken.

I can't imagine what everyone with family in Japan is going through, not to mention of course, those actually there. Terrifying.
posted by threeturtles at 11:05 AM on March 11, 2011

Bastish.net (long time Nagano blogger) reports that things are okay where he is near the center of this latest quake.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:06 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Another one in Ibaraki just now :(
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 11:10 AM on March 11, 2011

I just asked my sister, who lived in Japan until recently and who I assume still has some friends there what she's heard about the situation.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:12 AM on March 11, 2011

"Tokyo is now feeling pounding strokes!"
posted by nickyskye at 11:13 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Among other things, Ibaraki has a lot of nuclear power plants right along the coast, just north of Oarai, which already experienced a tsunami.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:15 AM on March 11, 2011

My brother, who lives in Chiba, is fine. It's ridiculous, though. He's a translator and does a lot of simulcast work, and was looking at a totally impossible amount of shows to get through yesterday because of things outside his control, and then the quakes started. He apparently ran outside for the first time since moving to Japan and did some of his work in a park. But it seems that, because his building is very new, it's one of the safer places to be. His internet has stayed connected the whole time, and although he says that the air outside is full of smoke and he could hear explosions from the refinery, I think it was, the worst that happened to him was some stuff got knocked over. Still, terrifying.

The irony is that he's been awake this whole time freaking translating things, and worrying about his neighborhood, and the shows that caused him to be late on this current stuff are being preempted by news!

He can be very single-minded, my brother. I told him not to get himself killed because he was too busy translating things, but apparently he really is safest hunkered down in his own building. Yesterday he mentioned something on IM about "maybe I can get an extension on some of these... I don't know if I have a good enough reason to ask for one..." Feel secure in knowing that your anime will have good subtitles, damn it, come hell or high water, literally!
posted by Mizu at 11:17 AM on March 11, 2011 [34 favorites]

And another in the west just now :(
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 11:17 AM on March 11, 2011

"Tokyo is now feeling pounding strokes!"
posted by nickyskye at 11:13 AM on March 11 [+] [!]


The guy from your link has been on the air for 13 hours straight. He must be exhausted!
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 11:25 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

And only one bathroom break. Yikes.
posted by nickyskye at 11:28 AM on March 11, 2011

Link to feed from Japan Meteorological Agency showing all quakes as they come in (and they really are coming in a lot now).
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 11:30 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

The American Red Cross has updated their donation page to allow donations directed to Japan
posted by Vibrissa at 11:30 AM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Japan’s Strict Building Codes Saved Lives
posted by homunculus at 11:35 AM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

Lots of mid sized quakes hitting all kinds of areas on Honshu now - Shindo 6 in Niigata and 4 in Chiba - usually quakes of this size warrant enough attention and warning.
posted by gomichild at 11:36 AM on March 11, 2011

Mother of God, the earth just won't stop shaking...

My thoughts and best hopes are with all the people of Japan.

Peace.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 11:42 AM on March 11, 2011

Any of these smaller quakes would be enough for a major news item and crisis here, much less so many of them.

"Smaller" being extremely relative.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:43 AM on March 11, 2011

For those wonkishly following progress on cooling the Fukushima-1 reactor, here's a detailed description of this reactor's design (PDF) from the Asian Nuclear Safety Network.

Some points:

Unit 1 at Fukushima is an older Boiled Water Reactor (BWR vs the newer Advanced ABWR). In the document, Fukushima-1 is also referred to as BWR-3. Section 2.3 (p. 8) gets into the cooling and backup system details.

From my imperfect understanding of the news (IAA Engineer, but IANA Nuclear Engineer) it sounds like the backup high pressure core cooling system may have failed, and that plant operators are using the next line - the low pressure core cooling system - now (with three low-pressure reflooder systems in reserve, plus additional redundant systems if those fail).

In the event of a gas release, there is a "standby gas treatment system" in place to remove radioactivity from that gas before it is released into the atmosphere (p. 10)

If all the cooling systems fail, and I should note that there are presently active cooling systems running according to the news, here's a description of the systems in place to deal with this:

"[F]ollowing a loss of coolant accident, the temperature of fuel cladding could rise
and hydrogen could be generated by a water-metal reaction, which could impair the
containment integrity due to hydrogen gas combustion. In order to prevent such a case, BWR
containments are kept inert with nitrogen gas ... during normal operation, and the 11
flammability control system to prevent hydrogen combustion by recombining the generated
hydrogen gas with oxygen gas."

Like Malor wrote earlier, there is a lot of carefully thought-out redundancy, systems that continue to operate at this plant. However, I have not read anything about a passive system to separate the core in the event of a containment breach in either the BWR or ABWR designs; anyone have a link?
posted by zippy at 11:43 AM on March 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

The American Red Cross has updated their donation page to allow donations directed to Japan
posted by Vibrissa at 2:30 PM on March 11 [1 favorite +] [!]

Thanks for the link - donated again!
posted by Julnyes at 11:44 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

and a different video of [the oil refinery fire] from someone's apartment

My god. The massive explosion at 17 seconds is scary enough, but then a few seconds later the shock wave hits the cameraman. Probably about as visceral a moment as anyone watching halfway around the world is likely to get.
posted by mediareport at 11:46 AM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

From a Canadian Red Cross press release:

(Alberta) March 11, 2011: The Red Cross is responding to a powerful 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan overnight. The earthquake, the worst in Japan's history, has triggered a tsunami warning across 20 countries along the Pacific coast.
The Red Cross response was immediate. Local volunteers have been working around the clock to support emergency response efforts including evacuation, search and rescue and emergency first aid.
The Canadian Red Cross is monitoring the situation closely and is ready to rapidly respond with emergency supplies and personnel if needed.
The Japanese Red Cross responded immediately following the quake. Volunteers are supporting search and rescue activities and providing first aid to survivors. They are deploying tent clinics and 15 medical teams to the affected area.

Canadians seeking information on Canadian citizens believed to be in Japan should contact the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’ Emergency Operations Centre at 1-800-387-3124 or emailing [e-mail].
Albertans are encouraged to support Red Cross relief efforts by making a financial donation to the Canadian Red Cross Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami fund. Donations can be made online at www.redcross.ca/helpnow, at your local branch office or by calling toll free 1-800-418-1111. Canadians can also text in their donations to the Canadian Red Cross. Text ASIA to 30333 to make a $5 per text donation.
posted by arcticwoman at 11:47 AM on March 11, 2011

Any confirmation as to whether the Nagano quake is an aftershock or a separate event?
posted by ozomatli at 11:48 AM on March 11, 2011

So I'm from an area with little to no seismic activity, is it common when big earthquakes hit for the aftershocks to continue for as long as these have (12 hours if I'm reading everything right)?

Or maybe a better way of phrasing this is: so has the ground really been shaking on and off for half a day? I think I'd go crazy!
posted by quin at 11:52 AM on March 11, 2011

InFocus has new images (was 24, then 33, now 40), and wow.
posted by cashman at 11:52 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

ozomatli: My understanding is any earthquake that occurs close in time to another is considered to be an aftershock.

Earthquakes usually come in clusters divided into foreshocks, mainshocks and aftershocks. If an aftershock is stronger than the mainshock, it becomes the mainshock and the mainshock becomes a foreshock. Make sense? Basically they're all earthquakes, but they're related.

~Straight Dope
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:52 AM on March 11, 2011

is it common when big earthquakes hit for the aftershocks to continue for as long as these have (12 hours if I'm reading everything right)?

Yes, often for days or even weeks
posted by Hoopo at 11:53 AM on March 11, 2011

Shocking photo set from National Geographic, including the huge frightening whirlpool.
posted by Rumple at 11:53 AM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Heard via Twitter that four people were washed out to sea in Crescent City, with two recovered alive, one dead, and one missing.
posted by cmyk at 11:54 AM on March 11, 2011

Any confirmation as to whether the Nagano quake is an aftershock or a separate event?

Not yet reported. There was a 6.2 and a 5.5 in the same area per USGS. Nikkei.com with the quick blurb.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 11:55 AM on March 11, 2011

Japan's nuclear safety agency plans to release what it described as "slightly radioactive" vapor from a nuclear power plant damaged by Friday's record 8.9 earthquake, authorities said.

The temperature in one reactor's nuclear fuel rods has built up to 50% above normal levels since the six-reactor facility was shut down following the most powerful earthquake on record in the island nation, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported. via LA Times
posted by futz at 11:56 AM on March 11, 2011

It's being reported by the USGS that there have been at least 100 separate aftershock events now of magnitude 5.0 or higher. Crazy.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:00 PM on March 11, 2011

Jeez, don't even know what to say, but I'm hoping for everyone there.
posted by snsranch at 12:05 PM on March 11, 2011

The announcers on TBS are now wearing hard hats.

If you think that the Christchurch earthquake is going to cost at least $11B to recover from, and there are probably a good 50 communities the size of Christchurch that have been affected, all the way from Chiba to Hokkaido...
posted by KokuRyu at 12:09 PM on March 11, 2011

Some fuckin' crazy visualizations from the NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab:

Tsunami Wave Height Model Shows Pacific-Wide Impact

Pacific Ocean Floor Affects Tsunami Propagation
posted by gman at 12:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

InFocus has new images (was 24, then 33, now 40), and wow.

Oh, wow. I started from the top and at first thought that #10 was toy planes and cars among some small debris... It took a moment or two to realize they were real (and that the debris was not just some wooden splinters). The sheer magnitude of this disaster is just beyond comprehension.
posted by daniel_charms at 12:11 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

.
posted by whimsicalnymph at 12:11 PM on March 11, 2011

4 people washed out to sea in Crescent City and the harbor destroyed (again, last destroyed by a tsunami in 2006).
posted by fshgrl at 12:14 PM on March 11, 2011

Someone on NPR this morning (from the USGS? Probably?) said that the thing with aftershocks is that they don't really decrease in intensity much (maybe 1 magnitude) over time but they do decrease in frequency. So if they're still coming frequently, they'll still be very big.

Oh Japan, I am so sorry.
posted by marylynn at 12:16 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Jesus. More on Crescent City.
posted by rtha at 12:16 PM on March 11, 2011

Good God: USGS Says Worst earthquake to hit Japan in nearly 1,200 years.

This is an epochal event.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:18 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I look at those InFocus photos - #33 and #34 for example - and I wonder how the heck you clean up something like that. How the hell do you even begin?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 12:18 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Five ways you can help
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 12:18 PM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

What is special about Crescent City compared to the rest of the California coast? Did they build a harbor in a really bad spot?
posted by smackfu at 12:18 PM on March 11, 2011

am I correct in thinking that the aftershocks may be more damaging than the initial event? I thought the first quake was out to sea -- these aftershocks are closer to shore/on land?
posted by angrycat at 12:20 PM on March 11, 2011

and I wonder how the heck you clean up something like that. How the hell do you even begin?

The excavators they use for demolition can pretty much take care of anything with hydraulic grapples and cutting arms. I just watched them take a massive factory building down to the ground and trucked away in less than a month. If you don't have to be careful with the stuff, it's not too hard.
posted by smackfu at 12:24 PM on March 11, 2011

"Half of Japan is safe, half is not."

"Aftershocks still happening. Magnitude 5.0. Still the possibility of another tsunami. Over 100 earthquakes just happened."

YoKoSoNews. Live streaming Japanese newstation, in English.
posted by nickyskye at 12:25 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

What is special about Crescent City compared to the rest of the California coast? Did they build a harbor in a really bad spot?

Here's a Newscientist page with faultline graphics, pictures, information and a ton of in-text links. An earlier update on that page about Crescent city said:

"California's Crescent City, which is susceptible to tsunamis because of its confined bay, could get up to 1 metre. Residents have been urged to move to higher ground."
posted by cashman at 12:25 PM on March 11, 2011

Just to cross-post, because I've been worried: ocherdraco posted on MetaTalk, flapjax & family are fine.
posted by booknerd at 12:26 PM on March 11, 2011 [15 favorites]

Still waiting to hear from gc. He's in Morioka, in Iwate province but well inland. I know I probably needn't be too worried, but there have been earthquakes since Tuesday, which was when he last checked in, and I'm concerned given how many more are happening.


... while posting this: 6.1 earthquake near Morioka about an hour ago.

I've used the Google Person Finder linked above but no luck. I've tried Facebook and Twitter. I know I need to be patient, but does anyone have any insider on the conditions in that region? There are so many that it is hard to find information from there.

You guys, again, prove to be amazing. Thank you for all of the helpful links. I'm just hoping he'll have access to something soon so that he can let us know he's okay. My thoughts are with all Japan-based Mefites.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 12:27 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh man oh man oh man. Did not even hit me how terrible this was when I first heard 'cause I'd been up 30+ hours video editing. Had some sleep now, and all I can say is very proud of the Japanese people for what seems like proper emergency procedures, and I hope there's no more suffering. Also like many I am hoping flapjax pops in to say hello, and am glad for the check-ins from users over there. zardoz, did you not have your giant floating stone head? did the SDF confiscate it for search and rescue work?

My husband has a paper route along with his day job so he had no idea about what was going on till he woke up from his post paper nap this morning. I filled him in regarding the earthquake, tsunami, fires, and possible problems with the reactor, to which he responded, "What next? Godzilla??????"

I did not realize you were enspousened to a nine year old :p
posted by jtron at 12:28 PM on March 11, 2011

What is special about Crescent City compared to the rest of the California coast? Did they build a harbor in a really bad spot?

Also, if you look at that NOAA wave simulation visualization linked by gman, you can see a single red line extending into the northern California area - I would guess that the seafloor is influencing the wave propagation as described in gman's other link. Thanks for the links, gman!
posted by dialetheia at 12:30 PM on March 11, 2011

another 6.6, 1km depth, near honshu
posted by Mach5 at 12:31 PM on March 11, 2011

and that 6.6 was on the WEST coast. damn. the earth is hungry today.
posted by Mach5 at 12:35 PM on March 11, 2011

eleven M6+ aftershocks so far.
posted by yeolcoatl at 12:36 PM on March 11, 2011

If you check out Latest Earthquakes M5.0+ in the World - Past 7 days on the USGS site, you can just keep scrolling and scrolling. Just mind-blowing.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:36 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

They're trying to bring Fukushima-I under full control with the normal safety systems, because that will allow them to restart the reactor after repairs. There are three basic emergency core cooling system -- one using steam from the reactor to start a high pressure flooding system, one that releases pressure into a condensation pool to allow low pressure systems to flood the core, and then the last line, which is the Standby Liquid Core Control System.

This consists of a series of redundant battery operated pumps and explosively opened valves that will, under any pressure that the containment vessel can stand, fill the core with a large amount of coolant laced with neutron absorbers. This will turn off the reactor. It would also require a complete overhaul to ever restart it. They'd prefer not to go there, because if they can just get the normal cooling flow online, they can keep using the reactor after this.

The usual "oh shit!" accident starts with a large break loss of coolant accident which rapidly drains the core. This isn't occurring here -- if it was, there would be no pressure inside the containment vessel.

The one worrying aspect here is the lack of onsite power, which is seriously hampering efforts to cool the core. The low pressure systems can't feed water into an overpressurized core, which is why they're talking about a steam release, but the failure of the backup generators is a big deal, and I'm sure everyone is going to be taking a very good look at assumptions about backup generators reliability and availability during an emergency.

It's clear that Fukushima-I has some coolant, though the flow rate isn't adequate, and I'm sure there are three tracks going -- replenishment, getting power online to activate the high pressure systems (which can get coolant in even with the high pressure in the core environment) and someone's very carefully watching for a certain temperature. If they reach it, that person will hit a button and a few hundred tons of borated coolant are going to shut that core down -- and probably shut the reactor down permanently.
posted by eriko at 12:41 PM on March 11, 2011 [22 favorites]

From the USGS Earthquake list that Celsius1414 posted, there have been almost if not over 100 quakes since the initial 8.9, several of them over 6.0 in magnitude - a few of them only 1km deep, and most of them every few minutes or so. That's just complete insanity.
posted by empatterson at 12:42 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Network for Good has a nice roundup of which charities are helping, and how.
posted by zarq at 12:44 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

So geologist types. How does this compare with the aftershocks witnessed by the Chrismas Day earthquake and the Chilean quake in recent years?
posted by humanfont at 12:46 PM on March 11, 2011

Fukushima-1 reactor pressure may have reached 2.1x design capacity according to Japan's trade minister.
posted by zippy at 12:48 PM on March 11, 2011

Wow. That list Celsius1414 just posted from USGS is horrifyingly mind boggling. Not only do they just not stop coming today, look at two days ago when there were apparently a whole bunch of "small" earthquakes in the same place. So terrifying. I have been glued to this thread all day.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:50 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Knowing that flapjax at midnite is okay makes me feel a lot better; so I'm celebrating by enjoying this recent song he did. Morbid humor, yes; but when the devil breathes down your neck, you take all the laughs you can get.

Good luck out there, FAM and everybody else in harm's way. To the extent that I'm capable of prayer, my prayers are with you.
posted by koeselitz at 12:51 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Also, TEPCO says two staff missing at Fukushima-1. I hope they are OK.
posted by zippy at 12:52 PM on March 11, 2011

Another 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Nagano just happened minutes ago. Apparently it's on a different plate, which is highly unusual.

Five of Earth’s massive plates meet in this area and grind upon one another: The Okhotsk plate, the Pacific Plate, the Filipino Sea Plate the Eurasian Plate and the far western edge of the North American Plate all converge within this area broadly defined as the northwestern Pacific but more regionally defined as Japan and more locally as northern Japan.
posted by nickyskye at 12:54 PM on March 11, 2011

From the every cloud has a silver lining department (sub-department of WTF): Tsunami could help clear out dead fish in Redondo Beach
posted by Rumple at 12:55 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Note to non-engineers: 2.1x design capacity does not mean it's 2.1x past the pressure range considered normal. Every important design has a factor of safety built into it. Otherwise this reactor would have exploded when the pressure reached 1.00001x design capacity. Obviously this didn't happen. Anyone happen to have that number for this pressure vessel or for reactors in general? Pretty cool number to know....
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:59 PM on March 11, 2011

Maybe I'm a hard-hearted bastard or something. I read that news report up there about the guy who got washed out to sea at Crescent City, and I'm having a real hard time feeling sorry for him.

He heard that a tsunami was coming, and he went down to the harbor so he could take pictures of it. And the wave caught him and took him out to sea. Seems to me that if someone goes that far out of their way to get into trouble, they deserve what they get.

I feel really bad for all the people suffering in Japan, but not for him. He's a Darwin Award winner.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

:-( I hate this tragedy and the breathless reaction to it.
posted by eeeeeez at 1:02 PM on March 11, 2011

He died for our satisfaction. A YouTube martyr.
posted by nickyskye at 1:03 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Looking at live TBS footage of Rikuzen-Takada City in Iwate, north of Sendai. Just utter devastation. Apparently the tsunami traveled 2-3 kilometers inland. The entire city is flooded and filled with debris.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:03 PM on March 11, 2011

Interesting picture of the wave entering the harbour at Emeryville, California.
posted by Rumple at 1:03 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Docks destroyed in Ft. Bragg, CA, too.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:04 PM on March 11, 2011

I don't know if these figures relate to the design pressure of the containment vessel, however the PDF I linked to earlier has this to say about water pressure (p. 13):

... There is just a single
circuit in a civilian BWR in which the water is at lower pressure (about 75 times atmospheric
pressure) compared to a PWR so that it boils in the core at about 285°C. The reactor is
designed to operate with steam comprising 12 to 15% of the volume of the two-phase coolant
flow (the "void fraction") in the top part of the core, resulting in less moderation, lower
neutron efficiency and lower power density than in the bottom part of the core...
posted by zippy at 1:06 PM on March 11, 2011

Fukushima-1 reactor pressure may have reached 2.1x design capacity

Careful. Design capacity is normal rated load. What to worry about is when it reaches the safety margin, which is much higher than 2.1x normal rated load.

I presume that what they mean is "the pressure inside the containment vessel is now 2.1 times the normal pressure." This is significant, and this is a cause for worry if they can't get the high pressure systems online, because it will reach a point where they'll have to vent that pressure, and at that point, the possibility of a significant release of radioactive materials will occur.

How they'll vent is through a designed vent system that runs through a series of pipes into a pool, acting as a condenser. If it works correctly, there will be a radioactive release into the condensing pool, but that's designed for. However, if you overload that pool's ability to cool the steam, pressure will rise there, and they'll be forced to vent it outside.

I do not know at what pressure they will vent, but they do -- there's a safety limit, if they reach a certain percentage of that, they'll vent the core and hope it stays onsite. After they do so, the pressure in the core will be low enough that the low pressure systems will be able to get a significant amount of coolant into the core -- the venting system is part of the safety design, for this very contingency -- rising core temps leading to pressures beyond the ability of the low pressure systems to cope with, and the high pressure systems being offline.
posted by eriko at 1:08 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

eleven M6+ aftershocks so far.

I counted 18 on USGS, 20 if you count the 6.2 near Nagano and the 6.6 in the northwest.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 1:09 PM on March 11, 2011

damn. the earth is hungry today.

Water sloshing above. Other stuff sloshing beneath. Volcanoes like... breaking... dams.
posted by zennie at 1:12 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

He heard that a tsunami was coming, and he went down to the harbor so he could take pictures of it. And the wave caught him and took him out to sea.

People underestimate danger all the time. Reminds me of that post where a mother, father and daughter were pushing the button to blow up a smokestack and it fell the wrong way. The kid was almost immediately out of there, but the others just kind of stood there watching it happen.

With the footage of this earthquake, you could see that one live shot of a bridge where cars are rolling in the water (left to right) like logs and there are a few people on the bridge, just taking pictures. As if the water couldn't just destroy that bridge and take them with it. Meanwhile houses in the background are being swept away. But still there were a couple of people on the bridge. Not rescuing anybody, not doing anything but taking pictures (one seemed to be) and watching.

Maybe it's harsh to criticize those who do that, but my first instinct is to run and get to safety. Maybe if you're young or you just don't care or this gives you the opportunity for fame, you go try to capture memorable pictures or video to show 10 or 15 years down the line. I don't know.

And to end this on a useful note - Economist chart of most powerful earthquakes since 1900.
posted by cashman at 1:14 PM on March 11, 2011

A few pictures from inside Tokyo Disneyland.
posted by incomple at 1:17 PM on March 11, 2011

For years, I have been harping on secondary (non-structural) earthquake hazards in my organization. Stuff like heavy projectors stored up high over desks, or unsecured water heaters or chemicals stored on non-lipped shelving. I usually get a lot of derision for this, but maybe there is a window now for some improvement.

The geology of the northwest is similar (OK not as chaotic) to Honshu in that it is a subduction zone involving a couple major plates. No reason, other than blind chance, it does not happen in the US, and it will one day, unless someone figures out how to shut off plate tectonics.
posted by Danf at 1:19 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

I haven't turned on the TV since waking up (it's still 6:00 here), but last night, before going to bed, my wife pointed out that while TV stations are showing an amazing amount of footage of the earthquake, and tsunamis, there's absolutely no footage from of Disneyland.
posted by Bugbread at 1:19 PM on March 11, 2011

Regarding aftershocks, the February 6.3 quake in Christchurch was technically an 'aftershock' of the 7.1 quake of September 2010.

Christchurch had been experiencing regular aftershocks during all the months in between. We'd been told to expect an aftershock of around 1 order of magnitude less than the original quake, but until the 22nd of February, I think none of the general public realised what that might mean - a possibly more devastating quake in a different location, at a different depth.

A grim lesson to learn, and a possibility I can't help considering for Japan.
posted by Catch at 1:20 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Okay, explanation of why the generators failed. When the quake hit, they scrammed the reactor, when offsite power was lost, the generators started. But Fukushima is on the coast. An hour after the quake, the tsunami hit and wrecked the backup generators on that reactor.
posted by eriko at 1:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

...Meanwhile houses in the background are being swept away. But still there were a couple of people on the bridge. Not rescuing anybody, not doing anything but taking pictures (one seemed to be) and watching....Maybe it's harsh to criticize those who do that, but my first instinct is to run and get to safety

It's entirely possible that's as close to safety as they could get, the highest point they could reach on foot in the small amount of time before the water got there. I don't know how many rescue opportunities there are while the tsunami is still washing through town. I nearly hyperventilated during a 4.X earthquake in Japan, which is considered "small". It's very humbling and shocking when the ground and buildings around you are moving and there's nowhere to run or hide, and these guys didn't have just that--they had the sea coming at them too. I wouldn't be comfortable writing those guys you saw on TV as rubberneckers or gawkers.
posted by Hoopo at 1:29 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I can't find details yet on the exact design pressure for Fukushima-1, but it uses a Mark-I containment vessel designl; Nine Mile Point Unit 1, built around the same time (1969) uses a containment vessel design of the same name (Mark-I) is rated at a Maximum Internal Design Pressure of 62 psig.

I had not heard of psig before, but it's psi calibrated relative to the environment. According to Wikipedia's entry on Pounds per square inch: "At sea level, Earth's atmosphere actually exerts a pressure of 14.696 psi") as opposed to a vacuum." The article goes on to suggest that here normal non-engineering use would be to call the above figure "62 psi."
posted by zippy at 1:30 PM on March 11, 2011

Catch, I see that you are in Napier, one of my favourite places in all the world. That's due in no small part to how the city was rebuilt after the 1931 quake there.

Let's hope Christchurch (and Japan) rebulids as successfully as Napier did!
posted by Herodios at 1:30 PM on March 11, 2011

For those who missed it, per ocherdraco in MetaTalk: flapjax at midnite is okay.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

^ One of my friends from dance works at TokyoDisney. He was off today, and out of the city with some Japanese friends who were able to post on Facebook for him. Those pictures from Disney are pretty crazy, especially when I compare them to the pictures he's posted from earlier.
posted by ChuraChura at 1:32 PM on March 11, 2011

NOAA Center for Tsunami Research has some animated models of wave propagation
posted by warbaby at 1:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

holy crap, hats off to engineers
posted by Mach5 at 1:35 PM on March 11, 2011 [19 favorites]

Al Jazeera just had a small blurb about how prepared Japan is for this sort of event: sirens, alerts on mobile phones, elevators and escalators that automatically stop, trains that do the same… incredible, really.
posted by reductiondesign at 1:39 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Update in Japan. Evacuation order around nuclear plant extended from 3 kilometers to 10 kilometers.
posted by nickyskye at 1:40 PM on March 11, 2011

Hi, Herodios, yes, we've just recently comemmorated 80 years here in Napier, and the history of this town shows that totally devastated areas can be rebuilt - although the 'where to start' is mind boggling.
When you look at the 'Art Deco' architecture around town, block after block of it in the CBD, whole suburbs of it, you have to remember why it is there.
posted by Catch at 1:45 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

From that page linked above with photos of Tokyo Disneyland, here is the Twitter feed of David Landsel, who is the Travel editor for the New York Post, who was stranded at Tokyo Disneyland and had to spend the night there with 30,000 other people. Quotes from his Twitter timeline:

"Crowds still inside DisneySea at close to midnite - restos now shelters. Dinner: seaweed rice and chocolates"

"What a bizarre (and wonderful) place to be trapped! Cast is being so good to us."

"Our neighbors here in the cafe are group of schoolgirls eager to practice English. Lots of laughs"

"All In our little corner here agree - its defo Suntory time!"

Props to the Disney staff and "castmembers" for taking care of so many frightened people so well while probably being so worried about their own homes and families.
posted by Asparagirl at 1:49 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

I'm actually now starting to worry about Fukushima-1. We know they've lost onsite and offsite power. The item about the US flying in coolant confused me -- BWR coolant is water -- until I realized that the coolant wasn't the normal coolant in the reactor, it was the neutron absorbing coolant in the last-line safety defense.

That implies that the system was damaged. Maybe just a punctured tank, but who knows?

They built the reactor to withstand a major earthquake, and it did -- then a major tsunami rolled over the site as well, and has done some real damage to the saftey systems.

The question is "what's left?" If they have to use the last-ditch core control coolant, will the pumping systems work?

They're worried now, with the secondary damage, they don't know what systems are going to work. They may already be out of redundancy. They're probably going to be forced to vent the core -- it's a shitload better than allowing the pressure to risk breaching a coolant line or whatnot, but I'm getting the sense that the plant operators are no longer confident that they can maintain cooling.
posted by eriko at 1:50 PM on March 11, 2011 [16 favorites]

Ugh. Where does that leave us, Eriko? What would venting the mean? Is this like a TMI situation (where I understand very little radiation was actually released), or a Chernobyl-level clusterfuck?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:54 PM on March 11, 2011

eriko, your commentary in here is much appreciated.
posted by mwhybark at 1:57 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Admiral Haddock: So far, TMI levels -- if you see a report of "1000x normal radiation", realize that normal radiation is incredibly low, so 1000x is still very low indeed.

I doubt there will be anywhere near as massive a release as Chernobyl. There's a real containment building here, even in the case of massive core damage, you're not going to get core material thrown out of the reactor like you did there. The heat that's causing the problem is all latent heat -- the reactor is scrammed, the chain reaction has stopped, but the core is very hot and will take a couple of days to fully cool down.
posted by eriko at 1:59 PM on March 11, 2011

[16:53:24] <Benetablet> radiation level from the uav at the fukushima main entrance gate (outside the plant) 8 times normal
[16:53:53] <Benetablet> radiation sensors on airborne uavs are overloaded, many have gone non responsive
[16:55:38] <Benetablet> pressure sensor on number 1 reactor containment vessel is now registering zero pressure, possible malfunction or breach of containment
[16:57:29] <Benetablet> fukushima has now overloaded the SPEEDI remote monitors

I can't provide a source for this (overheard on IRC) but, jesus fucking christ...

.
posted by yeoz at 2:01 PM on March 11, 2011

[17:00:17] <Benetablet> explosion just occurred at fukushima reactor building 1

!!!
posted by yeoz at 2:02 PM on March 11, 2011

Some less than positive news from 2002 about Fukushima-1's inspection history.

I really hope they got on top of this.

"On August 29 [2002] ... the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) announced ... that TEPCO has falsified the inspection records and attempted to hide cracks in reactor vessel shrouds in 13 units of the 17 nuclear power plants owned by TEPCO including Fukushima I...."

Here's the TEPCO Press Release from October 2002.:

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) received an order today from the Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) to stop the operation of Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Station´s Unit-1 reactor for a year because of the problem relating
to leak tests on the primary containment vessel at the reactor in 1991 and 1992.
TEPCO has humbly accepted the NISA order, and intends to take appropriate
measures in relation to it."
posted by zippy at 2:03 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Interesting picture of the wave entering the harbour at Emeryville, California.
posted by Rumple

The pictures I've been seeing have been incredible and have shown the sheer power that the planet can unleash. But for some reason that photo above may have been the most awe-inspiring (probably partly because I'm American and can relate to the scene in that photo). Just looking at that wave hitting the California coast and realizing it is literally a ripple from a massive tragedy on the other side of a gigantic ocean...it makes me feel very tiny in a way the other photos haven't.
posted by marxchivist at 2:03 PM on March 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

Where on IRC?
posted by anigbrowl at 2:04 PM on March 11, 2011

yeoz, I really hope that's just someone being a troll. A horrible evil, evil troll.
posted by royalsong at 2:05 PM on March 11, 2011

Al Jazerra and AP reporting that radiation has leaked outside
posted by lpcxa0 at 2:07 PM on March 11, 2011

The "8 times normal" quote is mentioned on the guardian liveblog attributed to "Japanese industry ministry's nuclear and industrial safety agency"
posted by pixie at 2:07 PM on March 11, 2011

WSJ reporting 8x normal radiation detected at plant gate, with source of info as Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).
posted by zippy at 2:08 PM on March 11, 2011

Someone...

Someone find confirmation on Fukushima, god dammit!

Did the core just cook off?

Jesus fuck this is not happening...

this is not happening...

fuck.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 2:08 PM on March 11, 2011

[17:04:14] <Benetablet> prime minister has announced 10km evac zone is now an emergency evacuation, citizens will be forcibly evacuated
[17:05:48] <Benetablet> nhk announces secondary explosions at fukushima reactor building 1, appear to be pressure explosions
[17:06:29] <Benetablet> tepco confirms loss of containment of core 1

i'm seriously feeling like throwing up here... anigbrowl: i sent you a mefimail
posted by yeoz at 2:08 PM on March 11, 2011

Dear God, if you exist please prove the Deists wrong and intervene in human affairs and suspend the natural laws of the universe. Thanks.
posted by tommasz at 2:09 PM on March 11, 2011

Also, TEPCO announced they were "implementing measures" to reduce pressure. Here's their press release.
posted by zippy at 2:09 PM on March 11, 2011

Please don't work yourselves up people, based on rumor and speculation based on Googling.
posted by smackfu at 2:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I mean, 8x normal levels at the gate? Isn't the gate going to be at practically zero?
posted by smackfu at 2:11 PM on March 11, 2011

LAT background on reactor.

Ferimi's pile in the squash court had a "suicide squad" on top of the pile holding buckets of cadmium solution as a last-chance damper if the control rods didn't work. The special coolant would be something like that: soak up all the neutrons.
posted by warbaby at 2:11 PM on March 11, 2011

So far, TMI levels -- if you see a report of "1000x normal radiation", realize that normal radiation is incredibly low, so 1000x is still very low indeed.

That 1000x reported by MSNBC.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 2:12 PM on March 11, 2011

For years, I have been harping on secondary (non-structural) earthquake hazards in my organization.

When I worked at a hinged Southwestern Bell high rise office in St Louis, on top of the New Madrid Fault, all of our equipment was attached to our desks with heavy duty velcro for this very reason.
posted by nomisxid at 2:13 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Nothing on the NHK english site about explosions
posted by pixie at 2:14 PM on March 11, 2011

yeoz, I really hope that's just someone being a troll. A horrible evil, evil troll.

Yeah, but he's saying it correctly. The only part that doesn't ring true is 'Explosion' -- but a massive steam release from a large breach or the venting system (deliberately) failing to vent the core would look like one from a remote camera.

If that's where we are, they don't have much choice -- vent, get a firetruck, and pump water into the containment vessel. Ideally, you throw borax in there as well, boron is a great neutron absorber.

(on preview)

Also, TEPCO announced they were "implementing measures" to reduce pressure

Okay, that's good -- they think the low pressure coolant system is online, then -- vent the pressure, eat the small TMI scale release and get coolant moving through the core and this all settles down.

Venting in this circumstance is by design and the system was built to do so safely -- but an offsite release of radioactivity is more likely.

As to the 8x at the gate? One particle, on a worker, bumping into a gate can read that. Call me when we hit 10⁵ times at any real distance, then I'll hop on the panic train.
posted by eriko at 2:14 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Yes. TBS and NHK would be freaking if this were the case. They aren't.
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 2:15 PM on March 11, 2011

As a Gen-Xer, I have prepared for this moment with a patented blend of terror and nihilistic glee.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:15 PM on March 11, 2011 [21 favorites]

I mean, 8x normal levels at the gate? Isn't the gate going to be at practically zero?

Yes. Indeed, it's so low that it could be random chance. 8x is a panic reaction. The 1000x is a sign that something is motile, but it could be from a core release, or it could be coincidence (guy working on primary coolant loop, earthquake hits, he runs outside without taking off the bunny suit.)
posted by eriko at 2:16 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The "1000x" figure, as far as I have tracked down, is from within the reactor, not outside.
posted by zippy at 2:16 PM on March 11, 2011

Deep breaths, everybody. Remember on 9/11, when the networks started reporting that over ten thousand people had been killed? Please, don't panic based on unattributed IRC comments.
posted by steambadger at 2:17 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

BBC live video on the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Radiation has apparently already leaked. Newscasters are now calling it Japan's Chernobyl.
posted by nickyskye at 2:17 PM on March 11, 2011

I plotted out the magnitude of the earthquakes as a function of time near Japan. The frequency of the aftershocks amazes me. I also found it interesting the large gap in time before the huge earthquake hit. I am going to try to keep updating this picture as time progresses. This begs for a Fourier analysis in the future.
posted by ozomatli at 2:17 PM on March 11, 2011 [11 favorites]

As a Gen-Xer, I have prepared for this moment with a patented blend of terror and nihilistic glee.


Protect and survive?
My brand is 100% terror nausea.
posted by Catch at 2:18 PM on March 11, 2011

Yomiuri newspaper says that radioactive steam is leaking inside the reactor but not outside yet (as of 10 mins. ago)
posted by Jeanne at 2:19 PM on March 11, 2011

UPDATE1: Defense force troops sent to area near Fukushima nuclear plant
posted by nickyskye at 2:19 PM on March 11, 2011

The "1000x" figure, as far as I have tracked down, is from within the reactor, not outside.

The Grauniad has this "The level of radiation in the control room of the No 1 reactor of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is "1,000 times higher than normal," according to Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency, visiting the site."

This could be another example of someone working near the primary loops, and running into the control room without fully decontaminating themselves, figuring that's better than not getting to control in the emergency.

Or, it could be venting -- but the control area is usually pretty well shielded and such, because they need the operators to be able to stay on station.
posted by eriko at 2:19 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

This guy still seems to be going strong: http://yokosonews.com/live
posted by crickets at 2:20 PM on March 11, 2011

Kyodo News reports 1000x normal radiation levels inside the control room (not outside), with NISA the source of the news.
posted by zippy at 2:20 PM on March 11, 2011

but an offsite release of radioactivity is more likely.

But note that not all radioactivity is equal, by any means. Some is dangerous; some hardly matters. That krypton release from TMI, for instance, was not a problem. Radioactive carbon, on the other hand, would be extremely bad, because that stuff gets bound into tissues. And some elements are just inherently dangerous; uranium, even the depleted kind that's barely radioactive at all, is very toxic.

In other words, if they do vent some radioactivity, it's important to find out exactly what's being flushed. It's quite possible that they could be irresponsible, and release dangerous gas to try to save their billion-dollar plant. Or, it could be entirely shrug-worthy.
posted by Malor at 2:21 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

While, I'm relatively confident that any failure of the reactor can be contained, this definitely seems to be alarming. However, even a little alarm x thousands of tweets can cause a panic. Hopefully people stay calm and avoid getting hurt in some sort of mass panic.
posted by vuron at 2:22 PM on March 11, 2011

All the channels here in Tokyo are reporting on cars being on fire, a garbage furnace electrical plant being shut down, and a smaller quake taking out a bridge. So, yeah, it's definitely too early to panic about radiation. If the situation were that serious, it would be the top topic of discussion on every channel.
posted by Bugbread at 2:23 PM on March 11, 2011

Also live streaming tv here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv
posted by nickyskye at 2:23 PM on March 11, 2011

Newscasters are now calling it Japan's Chernobyl.

That's not even a remotely fair comparison. Chernobyl was caused by unbelievably poorly executed experimentation by the wrong people with so many failure points along the way that it is mind blowing. That, followed by not informing anyone for days and allowing several hundred thousand people to get irradiated instead of evacuating due to the Soviet government's actions.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 2:24 PM on March 11, 2011 [12 favorites]

It's quite possible that they could be irresponsible, and release dangerous gas to try to save their billion-dollar plant.

Very true. At a certain point, that pressure *will* be released if the core cooling isn't restored, the venting system will fail and release the pressure before it reaches a level that could compromise the containment vessel.

An unregulated release from a vent system failure would be bad, but several orders of magnitude less bad that a full containment breach.

This venting will be mostly steam -- so the vast majority of the radioactive material will be gases, and anything heavy will condense out quickly and land in the condenser pool.
posted by eriko at 2:25 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Newscasters are now calling it Japan's Chernobyl

Not even wrong, given current information.
posted by zippy at 2:25 PM on March 11, 2011

Russia Today is about as reliable as Fox News.
posted by kmz at 2:27 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The amount of radiation released at the exterior gate is 0.59 microSievert per hour. Light radiation poisoning starts at 0.5 Sievert -- the current level is still less than you would get from an X-ray. This is worrying but not Chernobyl at all. Yet.
posted by Jeanne at 2:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

they have some news on nhk world
posted by atomicmedia at 2:30 PM on March 11, 2011

Right, Chernobyl was a poorly designed system that had a shit-ton of human wrongdoing and stupidity, followed by massive radiation leakage. Fukushima is a relatively modern design that got hit by two different Acts of God (massive earthquake plus massive tsunami) and has not released any radiation...well, not yet.

It's not right or fair for the media to paint all nuclear power plants, nor all nuclear power accidents, with such a broad brush. As scary as this is, we really don't have any other good long-term sources of power, unless you'd like more coal stacks in your backyard belching soot for decades to come.
posted by Asparagirl at 2:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The amount of radiation released at the exterior gate is 0.59 microSievert per hour.

Remember: human effects start at .5Sv, this is .00000059Sv.
posted by eriko at 2:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [11 favorites]

No, it's a lot worse than that. The difference in energy release between a 8.9 and a 6.3 is 103.9. Or nearly 8000x worse. I've been in 6.3 earthquakes. They're not fun but there is absolutely no comparison with a 8.9, which I can barely imagine.

People, can we just let the fucking magnitude numbers go already? It's all fun and games to calculate the energy released and to look at a table and say 'this one is a lot worse than that one.' But in reality there's no correlation whatsoever between the magnitude number for a quake and the resulting damage or death toll, because where the quake happens, how deep, near what etc all have a much greater are all variables with a much greater influence on the result. Actual death and destruction is the only meaningful indicator of 'worse', otherwise the Fiordland quake and the Kashmir quake were just as bad as each other at 7.6. I mean, one had 76,000 people die, but look at this equation!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

Japan's Chernobyl apparently means "biggest nuclear disaster in Japan", which means that even a tiny problem qualifies as a "Chernobyl" as long as it's bigger than all past nuclear problems.

I guess, by the same token, that time I dropped the vacuum cleaner down the stairs is "Bugbread's Tunguska", since it was a bigger impact than when I dropped a broom down the stairs.
posted by Bugbread at 2:31 PM on March 11, 2011 [43 favorites]

nhk live is reporting overheating with all 3 reactors
posted by atomicmedia at 2:32 PM on March 11, 2011

eriko, thanks for your comments in this thread.
posted by hat at 2:33 PM on March 11, 2011 [15 favorites]

Japan's Chernobyl apparently means "biggest nuclear disaster in Japan"

Wouldn't that make this Japan's Chernobyl?
posted by dersins at 2:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

radiation sensors on airborne uavs are overloaded, many have gone non responsive

This should be easy to verify, are there actual UAVs in the sky above the reactor? Anyone see that in the video footage.

The IRC log sounds very sci-fi. Like something out of a videogame. Maybe that's just me trying to deal with what could be a horrible situation, but it sounds fake.
posted by formless at 2:34 PM on March 11, 2011

For anyone interested, Malor's comment about the safety of Western nuclear reactors from the Deepwater Horizon disaster thread is worth a read if you need something to increase your confidence about the Fukushima plant.

Still gonna cross my fingers though.
posted by sambosambo at 2:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

@dersins I think Godzilla jokes were banned about 12 hours ago…
posted by bobloblaw at 2:35 PM on March 11, 2011

from the BBC:
Japanese authorities have warned there could be a small radiation leak from a nuclear reactor whose cooling system was knocked out by the earthquake. Technicians at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are set to release vapour from the unit in question to lower the pressure and prevent a meltdown.

It's scary, but not yet Chernobyl-scary.

The sun's coming in in Japan, which must be a comfort to the many people in shelters. It's not clear to me if the fires are under control at the refinery and gas-storage plant. The pictures of the tsunami, the sheer size of it hitting the coast, are awesomely terrifying. The image of a wall of water with burning buildings in it, moving at the speed of a fast river, just scares the living fuck out of me. As an atheist, I'm not sure what I'm praying to, but prayer seems the only task I can accomplish.
posted by theora55 at 2:37 PM on March 11, 2011

Japan's Chernobyl apparently means "biggest nuclear disaster in Japan", which means that even a tiny problem qualifies as a "Chernobyl" as long as it's bigger than all past nuclear problems.

There were those two bombs we dropped.
posted by smackfu at 2:39 PM on March 11, 2011 [19 favorites]

Yeah, 1000x in the control room seems pretty unlikely to me. I don't really know anything about that specific plant layout, but I think the control rooms are usually outside the second level of containment, within the outer containment dome.

I think it's more likely that they're seeing high levels of radiation around the control rods, inside the first level of containment. That's really, really bad -- if that's the case, they may very well lose the plant. It'll have to be mothballed, and they won't be able to get in there to clean it out for at least fifty years. But I think that's about the worst possible scenario.

If it really is the control room, remember that there's at least one more full containment dome around all that.... something like ten or twenty feet of reinforced concrete.

Nookular power is scary, so everyone overreacts and makes even small things sound much more serious than they actually are. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy -- people get scared about something that wasn't dangerous, so they incorrectly believe that it must have been dangerous after all, and then get even more scared about even smaller things. It's a self-amplifying feedback loop.

I'm sticking with my prediction: nothing particularly dangerous will be released. The plant may melt down, but civilians will be in no real danger.
posted by Malor at 2:40 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

YokosoNews: "We are kinda about 90% sure that there may be a leak."
posted by steambadger at 2:40 PM on March 11, 2011

ozomatli  I plotted out the magnitude of the earthquakes as a function of time near Japan.

ozomatli, it'd be great to see that replotted with the 10^1.5-increase-per-mag scaling on the y-axis, if you're up for it.
posted by hat at 2:40 PM on March 11, 2011

The fundamental, as I understand it, is that the reactor is still generating heat at an extreme rate, and that heat has to get out into the environment one way or another. Done well, the heat will get out without destroying too many internal components of the plant. To get the heat out you can: cool with normal systems, which isn't happening any more; vent radioactive coolant directly into the atmosphere, which is happening; or, the thing breaks up or melts or whatever resulting in the release of actual core material, which happened at Chernobyl. Case 1 is an interesting engineering story, case 2 is bad, case 3 is.. well.. Chernobyl.


the reactor is scrammed,

Do we know that? Hell, I don't really know what scrammed means.. I'm pretty sure in this case the reactor core is still critical, still maintaining a chain reaction, generating heat at completely unnatural levels.. I mean, as far as I know "scrammed" only means that they have done what they can to shut down the reaction, and it is still hours/days away from actually stopping.. Is that right?

Also, there is a lot of confused language in here--bizarre mix of technical details and laymens terms. Like Clinton's "coolant"--for a while I just thought they meant power back up for the coolant system--but I'm sure you are right that it is some kind of special neutron absorbent stuff. "scrammed" is kind of like that..
posted by Chuckles at 2:41 PM on March 11, 2011

I will say this from Eriko's post and other poster's on here - some very knowledgeable people in this thread.

On a lighter note - the safety of nuclear plants should be up for some serious consideration. If a plant can survive major earthquakes, and a tsunami and not explode right away; I'll take it any day. Mass hysteria be damned, I would rather invest in nuclear power then keep being in the pockets of oil companies.
posted by lpcxa0 at 2:42 PM on March 11, 2011 [17 favorites]

That, followed by not informing anyone for days and allowing several hundred thousand people to get irradiated instead of evacuating due to the Soviet government's actions.

Actually, it was something like several hundred million people that they irradiated, if not most of the planet, with Europe bearing the brunt of the direct fall out. Just because someone didn't immediately die from radiation sickness doesn't mean that they didn't absorb more than a natural background dose or later die of cancer. We're still dealing with that problem.

And, true, Chernobyl was a really bad mix of shoddy engineering, bad safety, bad government response and cover up - and is indeed apples and oranges.

And while I appreciate Malor and eriko's knowledgeable and tempered response - I really don't have a lot of personal faith that we're getting the whole story yet, and I don't have a lot of excess faith for nuclear engineers, either, who are arguably biased and more comfortable making grim calculations about the danger involved.

If human history is any guide, statements along the lines of "it's utterly fail proof and completely safe" from engineers are at best pure hubris. Nature and all of it's chaos and dynamic behavior has a nasty habit of responding with "Yeah, what about this? I bet you didn't think of this."

If I was near that reactor or any reactor during a quake this large the first thing I would be doing was getting the fuck away from that reactor. Granted, I'm paranoid and easily startled, but you wouldn't have to tell me to evacuate twice, precautionary measure or no.
posted by loquacious at 2:42 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Anyone watching CNN now? What's that building they're showing with the people on the roof and why does it appear to be the only building out in the middle of nowhere?
posted by CrazyLemonade at 2:43 PM on March 11, 2011

I'm a little confused about the seismic intensity. Japan uses a different scale than the West (not Richter), but the Japanese Meteorological Agency's site has both magnitude and Shindo numbers for all the quakes. The highest I'm seeing is 7.9 magnitude (Shindo 7) at 05:53 UTC. Is it because the 8.8 was at the epicenter, and it was 7.9 at the measurement site?
posted by Bugbread at 2:44 PM on March 11, 2011

That's the airport.
posted by bobloblaw at 2:44 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

the reactor is scrammed,

Do we know that?

Yes. NISA and TEPCO have reported this. All this means however is that the reactors automatically shut down in the earthquake, as they were designed to do. A SCRAM is an emergency shutdown.
posted by zippy at 2:44 PM on March 11, 2011

Yomiuri's confirming that radiation is 1000x normal inside the main control room.
posted by Jeanne at 2:45 PM on March 11, 2011

What's that building they're showing with the people on the roof and why does it appear to be the only building out in the middle of nowhere?

Not watching CNN, but it sounds like Sendai Airport from yesterday. The middle of nowhere was caused by the tsunami. It used to be somewhere.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 2:48 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

From Twitter, the Lady Gaga We Pray For Japan bracelet.
posted by nickyskye at 2:48 PM on March 11, 2011

No source I have seen from within Japan has said anything more serious than the 1000x figure within the control room and that NISA and TEPCO were likely planning to release pressure taking the wind direction into account (that is, waiting until the wind would blow any release to sea).
posted by zippy at 2:48 PM on March 11, 2011

TBS has live feed of the aftermath in Kessanuma, Miyagi. Just utter devastation. The train station, several kilometers inland, was wrecked by the Tsunami... Footage has switched to Rikuzen-Takada, several kilometers north in Iwate.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:49 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

50,000 now evacuated from around the nuclear plant
posted by atomicmedia at 2:49 PM on March 11, 2011

The Japanese urban search and rescue teams which had been helping in the search for Christchurch earthquake victims for two weeks, is heading back to Japan to help with the earthquake and tsunami crisis there (New Zealand Herald).

Damn but I feel for those guys. Flying long-distancce to spend weeks looking for bodies, thinking your work was nearly over, and then having to keep going - but back in your home, in a far worse situation.

Heard on BBC that Japan has asked for help from NZ; I think everyone who can help will do their utmost.
posted by Infinite Jest at 2:51 PM on March 11, 2011

Yomiuri reports on the control room radiation level (in their Japanese edition, via Google Translate) "Dose of 150 micro Sievert per hour control room ... equivalent to about one-fourth of X-ray examination of the stomach."
posted by zippy at 2:52 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Japanese authorities have warned there could be a small radiation leak from a nuclear reactor whose cooling system was knocked out by the earthquake.

...and the air downtown was safe to breathe after 9/11, yessiree bob....
posted by vrakatar at 2:52 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The reports that they are having issues with Fukushima no 2 as well as the significant problems with no 1 are troubling.

What % of the power needs of Japan are met by these plants? Significant interruptions are bound to make recovery significantly more difficult.
posted by vuron at 2:53 PM on March 11, 2011

I'm hesitant to copy/paste any more of the chatter i've seen on IRC without external confirmation, so I won't...

But, it did occur to me that these people still working in the control room have probably seriously considered that they might not make it out alive at this point, but, I presume they are still working as hard as they can to try to get things under control. I'm not sure I can fully understand what's going through their minds right now, but, I do think they are heroes.
posted by yeoz at 2:53 PM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

Aerial view in Ishinomaki shows a giant bulk carrier beached inland, plus a lot of smaller (but still big) ships. Can't even imagine cleaning up this mess.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:53 PM on March 11, 2011

I'm curious - if a coal plant were to be hit this hard, how nasty would the resulting conflagration, if any, be?
posted by zippy at 2:54 PM on March 11, 2011

On a lighter note - the safety of nuclear plants should be up for some serious consideration. If a plant can survive major earthquakes, and a tsunami and not explode right away; I'll take it any day.

An interesting twist that I hadn't thought of, but yeah, if those reactors come out on the other side of this in fair or at least inoperable but not-dangerous condition, it could very well change the dialog about how we generate clean, safe power.

It would be a very bizarre legacy for this earthquake to leave, but if something positive can be borne out of this tragedy, all the better.
posted by quin at 2:54 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

YokosoNews: "It's 7:53 Japan time. I've been broadcasting for... no, I don't want to keep saying that."

I think I love this guy.
posted by steambadger at 2:55 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'll say it for him — he's approaching 17 hours :)
posted by crickets at 2:57 PM on March 11, 2011

Background. The Fukushima plant has six reactors. At the earthquake, two shut down correctly and have cooling, three were offline for maintenance, and then there's #1, which shut down but lost at least some measure of cooling. At least, that's what I've seen from official sources. Other sources have all six reactors exploding and everyone in Japan dead.

...and the air downtown was safe to breathe after 9/11, yessiree bob....

You can spot a large leak of radioactive materials, just look for all the people throwing up a lot, then dying. 150μSv is a way above normal dose, but it is not a lethal dose by any means, and you've have to be there for a very long time for it to become so.
posted by eriko at 2:57 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

As a layperson, the lesson I'm taking from this about the relative safety of things is: nuclear power plants are less dangerous than land, which is less dangerous than water. But all three together are fucking dangerous beyond belief.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Other sources have all six reactors exploding and everyone in Japan dead.

CBC Radio's World at Six headline was just read, "Japan in Ruins". So ya, hyperbole is a problem.
posted by Chuckles at 3:02 PM on March 11, 2011

@KokuRyu "Aerial view in Ishinomaki shows a giant bulk carrier beached inland..."

Is there a screen cap of that? Not being morbid, job related.
posted by digitalprimate at 3:02 PM on March 11, 2011

nhk world said that 3 reactors were having thermal problem, but #1 was the worst.
posted by atomicmedia at 3:02 PM on March 11, 2011

Yeah, eriko, I was indicating that perhaps the government was understating the severity, but then I am a cynic about stuff like that.
posted by vrakatar at 3:02 PM on March 11, 2011

I watched a movie before bed and slept in late today. Ever so strangely, while all this went on, I was dreaming about surviving a tsunami without any awareness of the real thing going on in the waking world. Not the rarest dream, I think a lot of us get those. But it was prolonged and very grimly realistic. I was trying to make sure the pets were still fed though there was no food to be gotten. Then my mother in the dream explained to me that it was all in my head, a result of being out of my meds (side effects of sudden cessation of prozac: tsunami). So I woke up agitated at dream mom for not stopping me sooner, and relieved. Then disturbed.

Fuck, I'm glad there are islands between me and Japan. And I hope all the best for the wonderful people of that beautiful country. And no more prophecies, subconscious.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:05 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Nasa images of the Japan earthquake.
posted by nickyskye at 3:05 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Good morning from Tokyo, everyone. Lots of aftershocks, as you know, but nothing serious down here.

Kessennuma, a city northeast of Sendai, was engulfed in "a sea of fire" earlier this morning according to the Asahi Shimbun. Ōminato, somewhat northeast of Kessennuma, is under several meters of water.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police (who has jurisdiction over all the other prefecture police) is reporting that 184 people are confirmed dead and another 708 are missing, but this doesn't include the 200-300 bodies found yesterday in Sendai. The unofficial toll is over 1,000 dead and missing and will continue to rise.
posted by armage at 3:06 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

TEPCO's most recent press release on Fukushima-1.

Excerpts:

At 6:08PM, we announced the increase in reactor containment vessel pressure,
assumed to be due to leakage of reactor coolant. However, we do not believe
there is leakage of reactor coolant in the containment vessel at this moment.

Indication from monitoring posts installed at the site boundary did not show
any difference from ordinary level.

No radiation impact to the external environment has been confirmed.
We will continue to monitor in detail the possibility of radioactive material
being discharged from exhaust stack or discharge canal.

There is no missing person within the power station.

A seriously injured worker is still trapped in the crane operating console
of the exhaust stack and his breathing and pulse cannot be confirmed.

A worker was lightly injured spraining his left ankle and cutting both knees
when he fell while walking at the site. The worker is conscious.
posted by zippy at 3:07 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Somebody asked Katz, the Yokoso News guy, whether the Gundam statue in Odaiba was okay. Katz didn't know.

Geeksters gonna geek...
posted by steambadger at 3:07 PM on March 11, 2011

Apologies, the above were for Fukushima-2, not -1.
posted by zippy at 3:08 PM on March 11, 2011

Holy shit! This video shows the terrifying size and scope of the waves more clearly because it was shot on ground level instead of from a helicopter.
posted by Asparagirl at 3:08 PM on March 11, 2011 [18 favorites]

Hey, I'd just like to say thanks to everybody posting in this thread. I've been following the news all day from the East Coast of the US and metafilter has by far been the best source of accurate, timely information.
posted by something something at 3:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [27 favorites]

Ditto. I have a coworker with a lot of family in Japan (they're okay), and another who lived in Sendai several years ago for a college internship. They keep coming to *me* for updates.
posted by mudpuppie at 3:13 PM on March 11, 2011

Yokoso News guy is Katz Ueno.

Facebook.

Blog gateway. (not super active)

Self-hosted bio. Open source dude!
posted by mwhybark at 3:18 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks to those who answered but I don't think we're talking about the same thing. I've seen the airport, this wasn't the airport, it looked more like a hospital, or big government or academic building, with nothing else around it. It looked like some people might have been wearing lab coats? CNN had it on for a long time but Wolf Blitzer only said that people on the roof looked desperate, he never said what the building was.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 3:18 PM on March 11, 2011

I gave the wrong link above for the TEPCO press release for the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station. This is the correct TEPCO press release link
posted by zippy at 3:19 PM on March 11, 2011

We've been working all day trying to find out if my niece is ok. She arrived in Otsuchi (north of Sendai) yesterday morning at 5am our time to document the dolphin hunt.

Her page on Google Person Finder: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/view?id=japan.person-finder.appspot.com%2Fperson.2620121
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out at 3:20 PM on March 11, 2011

I've been keeping an eye on this thread on one of my screens all day while working, and keeping my roomies updated. Less of a firehose than twitter, but still at internet speed. Thanks guys!
posted by tempythethird at 3:20 PM on March 11, 2011

One worker has died at the Fukushima No. 2 reactor; another two at the No. 1 reactor are missing (Asahi Shimbun).
posted by armage at 3:21 PM on March 11, 2011

CrazyLemonade, I think that was the same one NHK World was showing a few minutes ago, but they just called it "an office building" and they were waiting for rescue because of flooding. They were talking about a hospital in the same segment but I don't think the footage was of that.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:21 PM on March 11, 2011

Thanks, Lyn.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 3:22 PM on March 11, 2011

From NHK World: they are going to vent
posted by atomicmedia at 3:22 PM on March 11, 2011

Some good news: 240 people confirmed to be safe in Rikuzen-Takada, a city between Kessennuma and Ōminato on the Iwate coast (Asahi Shimbun)
posted by armage at 3:25 PM on March 11, 2011

atomicmedia: "From NHK World: they are going to ven"

How I wish that were not eponysterical.

Japan does not need this on top of everything else.
posted by bwg at 3:25 PM on March 11, 2011

CrazyLemonade, if I half-heard right and have the right picture in mind, the building has nothing around it because all of the wooden houses around it washed away. I only half caught the segment on NHK.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:25 PM on March 11, 2011

NHK is showing a live feed of the SDF rescuing someone off the roof of a house surrounded by water and debris in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture.
posted by armage at 3:26 PM on March 11, 2011

*Govt To Declare Emergency At Tepco Fukushima Daini Plant *Tepco: Temperatures Rising At Fukushima Daini No.1, No.2 Reactors via Nikkei
posted by futz at 3:27 PM on March 11, 2011

I'm having a great deal of trouble trying to parse the truth about what's actually happening from English-language online and television news sources. Headlines and talking heads are ranging from "officials trying to prevent a nuclear meltdown" to "a little nuclear venting is nothing to worry about" to tasteless fucking Godzilla jokes.

Can any kind person here either point me to a 'just-the-facts' English-language news source or simply explain what the hell is going on and how bad it really is in relatively layman's terms? I understand medical lingo but I don't 'speak' nuclear physics! Venting seems bad to me, but I'm not understanding the toxicity levels.
posted by zarq at 3:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

swimming naked, the very best thoughts to you and your niece. Hang in there, and let us know when she turns up.
posted by steambadger at 3:32 PM on March 11, 2011

zarq: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 3:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

ozomatli, it'd be great to see that replotted with the 101.5-increase-per-mag scaling on the y-axis, if you're up for it.

No problem at all. Here is the energy release (normalized to a magnitude 6.0 earthquake). So a reading of 10 means 10 times more energy was released and 100 means 100 times, etc...
posted by ozomatli at 3:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Yeah, here's another (hypothetical) take on the Fukushima issue. I'm not freaking out. Yet.
posted by exlotuseater at 3:35 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Poor Yokoso News guy. He's going to pass out facefirst into that fuzzy microphone.
posted by saturday_morning at 3:36 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dodecadermaldenticles: "zarq: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/"

Thank you!
posted by zarq at 3:36 PM on March 11, 2011

...it sounds like Sendai Airport from yesterday. The middle of nowhere was caused by the tsunami. ...It used to be somewhere.

Here is Sendai airport on Google maps - the terminal buildings look to have been separated from the sea by 600m of land and a canal. The entire area of the airport looks like it was quite heavily urbanised - not really like a typical "middle of nowhere out of town" airport.

Earlier today I watched some BBC news reportage where the anchor was making phone call with a correspondent in the surviving part of the terminal building. The reporter said something like "I'm OK - the airport building seems fine and please can you hang on a moment while I rebook myself on the next flight back to Toyko". The news showed this conversation as a background to footage of the rest of the airport getting wiped out by the tidal wave. "Good luck with that!" said the anchorman.
posted by rongorongo at 3:36 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201103110812.html has the only properly detailed English language report I have seen so far, that plus the TEPCO bulletins seems like the most useful data sources.
posted by anigbrowl at 3:37 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

I'm not sure what language the broadcast is in, but it's not English
posted by desjardins at 3:38 PM on March 11, 2011

Tepco has been issuing announcements every 15 minutes or so over the local-area PA system to ask people to conserve power due to continued shutdowns of power plants.
posted by armage at 3:38 PM on March 11, 2011

loquacious: "If human history is any guide, statements along the lines of "it's utterly fail proof and completely safe" from engineers are at best pure hubris. Nature and all of it's chaos and dynamic behavior has a nasty habit of responding with "Yeah, what about this? I bet you didn't think of this.""

Engineers (at least competent engineers) don't talk about things being impossible to fail. When they say something is "fail safe" they mean they've thought about all the failure modes and designed the system to be safe when it fails.

Such is the case for Western reactor designs, as eriko and malor have mentioned. Of course not everything is 100% guaranteed, but I think when you get into the "anything is possible" mode of thinking, the things you're really talking about are like 'what if an asshole space alien fires a death ray directly at the reactor core' level of possible.

Worst case, they lose the reactor, it costs a lot of money, but thousands of people are not going to die.
posted by danny the boy at 3:39 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

desjardins: If they're just listing shit, right now it's French. They'll switch back to English when the lists are done-- they run through a lot of languages and list tsunami warning areas.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 3:39 PM on March 11, 2011

I'm not sure what language the broadcast is in, but it's not English

It was in English and they will go back to English in a little bit presumably. They switch it up.
posted by zachlipton at 3:39 PM on March 11, 2011

OK, the accent threw me off there.
posted by desjardins at 3:40 PM on March 11, 2011

NHK World appears to be doing a short multi-language roundup. Most of the coverage for the past couple of hours has been Japanese with a (very good) translator talking over. Occasionally it's subtitle-only.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:40 PM on March 11, 2011

Oh crud, Yomiuri's JP page reporting on Fukushima-2 (no news on their English page yet). Google translate says the headline is:

"Fukushima second primary emergency, loss of cooling function ..."
posted by zippy at 3:40 PM on March 11, 2011

zarq, I don't think any such resource presently exists.

From what they were saying on the BBC, they're planning on a release of 'slightly radioactive steam'. I assume that means that the water has absorbed some neutrons from the plant, and that either the hydrogen or the oxygen is therefore unstable and radioactive.

My guess is that the half-life on that kind of radioactive material will be very short; being small atoms, they're likely to be very unstable lugging around an extra neutron. I suspect that, within a few hours, any steam they release will be normal water again. It should just be a matter of staying out of the immediate downwind area of the plant for a day or so. You wouldn't want to breathe it, but it shouldn't be a long-term problem at all.

As long as they keep people out of the area until tomorrow, I don't think it'll be a hazard to anyone.
posted by Malor at 3:41 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

"THE SEA OF JAPAN COAST OF AOMORI PREFECTURE!"

There we go, English is back for a while.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 3:41 PM on March 11, 2011

Three of four runways are back in operation at Haneda Airport (TV Asahi)
posted by armage at 3:42 PM on March 11, 2011

JAL has cancelled 87 domestic and 14 international flights; ANA has cancelled 43 domestic and 18 international flights.

Narita Airport is only open for departing flights; no word on when they will begin accepting arrivals.
posted by armage at 3:43 PM on March 11, 2011

It's a boiling water reactor. Venting the pressure is like taking the weight off a pressure cooker: the escaping steam carries away some of the heat. It's a feature, not a bug. They are designed to vent in emergencies. You don't want to vent, but it's made so you can to avert worse problems. Better not to, but if you must, you must.

The reactor only has a pressure vessel. It is not surrounded by a containment vessel.

There is a lot of uncertainty about what kind of radioactivity will be vented because we don't know the details. Water is not going to be radioactive, but there can be stuff dissolved in it that can become radioactive by neutron capture. Three Mile Island was a worse situation because there was a hydrogen bubble that ignited inside the pressure vessel.

Don't be freaking out too much. The health effects from that burning refinery are probably going to be worse than radiation from venting. They are saying they're watching for an off shore wind. Dilution isn't the solution for radioactivity, but it does lower the potential dosage at one spot by spreading it around to a wider area of lower doses. We're still talking CAT-scan levels, not Chernobyl.

Keep Clam.
posted by warbaby at 3:43 PM on March 11, 2011 [13 favorites]

Malor, thank you. People on tv (and various other sources) keep mentioning Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, but it's obvious that they're speculating wildly. (And irresponsibly.)
posted by zarq at 3:45 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Kyodo news is in english too.
posted by futz at 3:45 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Warbaby, anigbrowl and futz, thanks!
posted by zarq at 3:46 PM on March 11, 2011

Ever wanted to watch footage from an idiot shooting and narrating his own (near) Darwin Award? Well, now you can! Here's some Tsunami footage from Kona, Hawaii this morning. That guy is damn lucky...and a total dumb-ass.
posted by Asparagirl at 3:49 PM on March 11, 2011 [11 favorites]

I want to take a moment to say that TEPCO has been really good about getting news out. I can't think of a situation in the US where an involved company has released apparently non-spin Press Releases about a disaster like this.

Here's their latest. Excerpts:

Evacuation has been instructed by the national government to the local
residents within 10 km radius of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
and Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station.

(I believe previously the evacuation orders were only for 10km around Fukushima Daiichi. Daini is 7km south IIRC)

Measurement of radioactive material (Iodine, etc.) by monitoring car
indicates increasing value compared to normal level. One of the
monitoring posts is also indicating higher than normal level. We will
continue monitoring discharge of radioactive material from exhaust stack
and discharge canal, etc.

We have decided to implement measures to reduce the pressure of the
reactor containment vessel for those units that cannot confirm certain
level of water injection by the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System,
in order to fully secure safety.

Hydro Power Station

11 stations in Fukushima Prefecture, 1 station in Tochigi Prefecture,
3 stations in Yamanashi Prefecture, were shutdown due to earthquake.
Power stations in Gunma Prefecture have been restored.

Blackout in TEPCO's Service Area
Total of about 1.17 million households are out of power.
posted by zippy at 3:51 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wow - according to a press conference, their earthquake monitoring in Japan is pretty much shot, the sensors too damaged by the intensity and duration of the earthquakes, so they're sort of working blind as regards further updates. USGS detection will obviously be delayed due to distance.
posted by anigbrowl at 3:57 PM on March 11, 2011

I'm trying to keep people in Japan as calm as possible. A friend lives within spitting distance of Mt. Fuji and is worried about the volcano waking up.

Does anyone have a link to a Japanese seismological agency tracking it or a USGS page tracking it so that I can calm him down?
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 3:57 PM on March 11, 2011

MSNBC wins the award for most sensationalist headline(s). Like seriously.

"Radioactivity surges at
stricken Japanese nuke plant"

In like size 40 font, then below it:

"Power company says it's lost control"
posted by cashman at 3:58 PM on March 11, 2011

zarq, it looks like I was wrong there. Warbaby implies that the water itself can't carry the radioactivity, but that there could be other trace elements that do.

If that's the case, the significance of the release will depend almost entirely on what, specifically, is in the water that's radioactive. If it's something like krypton (a noble gas), it's not especially worrisome. Noble gases don't bind with anything, so even if you get a snootful, you just breathe it right back out again. You get dosed by whatever broke down while it was in your lungs, but it doesn't stick around. And it rapidly dilutes into the air, so it has almost no effect.

If, however, it's something that bioaccumulates, especially if it has a fairly long half-life, it could be a problem. How much of a problem depends on the quantities released. They're making it sound like it's a very small amount, but we don't know. Without knowing the substance and the quantity, it's not really possible to make an informed risk assessment.

For some perspective, remember that coal plants are dumping hundreds of tons of radioactive waste into the atmosphere every year, and nobody really complains about that. Coal has lots and lots of uranium in it -- so much, in fact, that if we were to refine the U-235 in coal and use it in reactors, we could get more power than we do by burning.
posted by Malor at 3:59 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

I've just watched a video showing my niece and her companions after the quake, but before the tsunami. They were recording on a cellphone and stopped driving by the side of the road to look down into the bay where they talk about hearing the tsunami sirens. Therefore, I assume they were on or heading to higher ground when the tsunami hit. I'm going with the positive assumption that they are safe but unable to get cell signal.
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out at 4:02 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

zarq, one example: radioactive iodine is a common waste product in plants, and that's really bad to be exposed to, because it heads straight for your thyroid and stays there, dosing your brain for years. The normal treatment for that is to give people regular iodine, preferably pre-exposure, so that the thyroid 'fills up', and the radioactive stuff is mostly shed.

We just can't know what the risks are until we know what's in that steam, and how much of it there is.
posted by Malor at 4:05 PM on March 11, 2011

so much, in fact, that if we were to refine the U-235 in coal and use it in reactors, we could get more power than we do by burning.

I recently went on a tour of the Lawrence Berkeley Labs, and one of the people who works there pointed out that "burning" 1 gram of, I think it was uranium, in a reactor, is equivalent to burning 1 ton of coal in terms of energy released. The binding energy in an atom is so much greater than that between atoms in a molecule.
posted by zippy at 4:06 PM on March 11, 2011

Malor, I would think one primary danger would be tritium. Natural oxygen is O16, but O17 and O18 are both stable. Natural hydrogen is nearly all protium, but it's possible that some has converted to deuterium (which is stable), and some of that in turn to tritium, which is not. Tritium is a beta source, half life about 12 years.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:10 PM on March 11, 2011

NHK World is back to news in English
posted by atomicmedia at 4:10 PM on March 11, 2011

NHK just said that the "1000x" radiation WAS in the control room.
posted by atomicmedia at 4:11 PM on March 11, 2011

That's it I'm taking up smoking. If I'm going to breath in toxic slightly radioactive gasses, I'm at least going to get a buzz and a sexy deep voice out of it.
posted by humanfont at 4:14 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Guardian:

11.55pm GMT: For informed commentary on the nuclear reactor problems in Japan, those of you with Twitter accounts should follow @arclight who appears to know the stuff.
posted by psyche7 at 4:14 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was the source for the above comment
posted by atomicmedia at 4:15 PM on March 11, 2011

Chocolate Pickle, from the Wikipedia page:

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, which allows it to readily bind to hydroxyl radicals, forming tritiated water (HTO), and to carbon atoms. Since tritium is a low energy beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally (its beta particles are unable to penetrate the skin), but it is a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food or water, or absorbed through the skin.[14][15][16][17] HTO has a short biological half life in the human body of seven to 14 days, which both reduces the total effects of single-incident ingestion and precludes long-term bioaccumulation of HTO from the environment.

So not too big a deal. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to drink any, but it sounds like minor exposure isn't too much of a problem.
posted by Malor at 4:16 PM on March 11, 2011

Japan's Chernobyl apparently means "biggest nuclear disaster in Japan"

Well, there's always Tokaimura^ (which, as it happens, is not that far from Fukushima).
posted by dhartung at 4:21 PM on March 11, 2011

Time Warner Cable offers free phone calls to Japan.
posted by desjardins at 4:21 PM on March 11, 2011

Evacuation area around Fukushima-#2 plant just expanded to 3km.
posted by zachlipton at 4:25 PM on March 11, 2011

I think this is new -- emergency declared at second nuclear plant.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:26 PM on March 11, 2011

Worst case, they lose the reactor, it costs a lot of money, but thousands of people are not going to die.

I'm not sure what's up with the nuclear power love in this thread. Maybe it's to reduce the worry among readers. But there is definitely an increased risk of cancer to the residents in the local area if they're venting the reactor.

It's not just a choice between just coal and nuclear. Solar and hydroelectric are also options. I'm just not seeing this event as an argument in favor of nuclear power. I'm seeing it as the opposite.
posted by formless at 4:26 PM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

That @arclight feed is pretty good. I like this entry, presently at the bottom of the page:

"@aflatbeddarkly Welcome to the 24 hour news cycle. Nobody ever sold a paper by telling people not to panic ;)"
posted by Malor at 4:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

NHK reporting that they're beginning the venting of Fukushima-1 now.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 4:29 PM on March 11, 2011

humanfont: "That's it I'm taking up smoking. If I'm going to breath in toxic slightly radioactive gasses, I'm at least going to get a buzz and a sexy deep voice out of it"

Or end up sounding like Selma Diamond.
posted by bwg at 4:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

IIRC, the Hanford Downwinders biggest problem was Iodine. Trintium is very difficult to produce and is not a big deal in most reactors.

Depending how long the fuel has been in the reactor, it will have increasing amounts of waste elements. Old fuel is really dirty. It's only if the fuel gets broken up is there a really big problem (Chernobyl), TMI was not a big radiation problem and this reactor is going to be less than TMI, even with the venting. A meltdown is not likely, according to experts in the LA Times article

"These first-generation boiling water reactors have the least margin of safety of any reactor design," said Frank N. von Hippel, a Princeton University physicist and former White House advisor.

Without electrical power to circulate water inside the core, the cooling water would begin to boil off, he said. But operators still should be able to add new cooling water and keep the core fully immersed while it cools down.

"It doesn't sound like we are in meltdown mode," he said.

Don't be getting freaked out by the "1000x" - that's compare to normal background radiation which is virtually nil. Most of the news reporting is technically uniformed and more than a little hysterical.

formless - it's not love, but it's not unfamiliarity.
posted by warbaby at 4:30 PM on March 11, 2011

MSNBC wins the award for most sensationalist headline(s).

Nah. The Daily Mail retired that trophy a few hours ago, with a headline that said something like "Japanese Will Vent Reactor In Desperate Bid To Avoid Explosion". Never bet against the Daily Mail.
posted by steambadger at 4:31 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

oops - this LAT article.
posted by warbaby at 4:32 PM on March 11, 2011

formless: "I'm not sure what's up with the nuclear power love in this thread."

I don't think it's love. What it is is respect for the knowledge of some folks that are contributing here and a desire to hear more from them. Attacking the basis of their knowledge as the event itself unfolds might discourage further commentary. It's to be expected that folks with a deep knowledge of the technology have a positive opinion of it.

Once the event is past we can return to our regularly scheduled strong disagreements about the advisability of and risk-tolerance required for the deployment of nuclear power.

Also, up thread, it should be noted that zippy shared some pretty critical information about the trustworthiness of the administrative entity running the plants.
posted by mwhybark at 4:35 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

These videos on the LA Times site, taken during the quake, are amazing.

The one in the grocery store, when they're standing under the 6-foot shelves trying to keep all those bottles from falling down onto their heads, had me yelling at the monitor.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:37 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I collected all the links and videos that seem worth watching or reading about the earthquake/tsunami here.
posted by nickyskye at 4:37 PM on March 11, 2011 [30 favorites]

But there is definitely an increased risk of cancer to the residents in the local area if they're venting the reactor.

That's not necessarily the case. There's some evidence now, in fact, that ongoing low levels of external radiation exposure is actually cancer-preventive. Radiologists, IIRC, suffer from markedly lower cancer rates than the general population. And there was a study on dockworkers who worked on nuclear vessels in the 1950s and 60s... the researcher there said their overall lifespans were about three years longer than normal, almost exactly what you'd get if you removed cancer as a cause of death. She found this quite startling.

The hypothesis is 'hormesis' -- that the ongoing small amounts of damage keep your cell-repair mechanisms working better. High doses are still bad, internal doses are bad, and bioaccumulation (where you embed radioactive material into your cells) is very bad, but low amounts of external radiation may actually be beneficial, rather than harmful.
posted by Malor at 4:38 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

ozomatli  No problem at all. Here is the energy release (normalized to a magnitude 6.0 earthquake).

Ace, thanks a lot.
posted by hat at 4:41 PM on March 11, 2011

but low amounts of external radiation may actually be beneficial, rather than harmful.

[Citation Needed]
posted by loquacious at 4:42 PM on March 11, 2011

I am no lover of nuclear power, but I like panic even less.
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles at 4:43 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Good morning all. Lousy attempt at sleep around 3 am, followed by jumping up at every aftershock, panicky, until about 5, when I realized that most likely, nothing would happen, and that if it did, there'd be just about nothing I could do, so I managed to get some fitful sleep until about an hour ago.

Couple things: au, my cell phone provider, seems to have a new earthquake alert by text feature, which had my phone going off all night last night. It was interesting noting the distance between the quake and the time it took. The Nagano quake alarm went off well before I felt the quake, but the Chiba quake alert came pretty much after everything had started shaking, go figure.

I tried watching a little CNN, but it was way too much DOOM! TERROR! for me, so I flipped over to the Japanese news networks. Calm, measured tones, giving out information, being reassuring. I'm glad to hear Flapjax and Woodblock are okay. Any gc news yet?
posted by Ghidorah at 4:43 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

[Citation Needed]

The Wikipedia page on radiation hormesis seems pretty good.
posted by Malor at 4:46 PM on March 11, 2011

But there is definitely an increased risk of cancer to the residents in the local area if they're venting the reactor.

If there is (which is somewhat unlikely, as it sounds as if the vented steam is only slightly radioactive at worst), it will probably get lost in the increased cancer risk due to simple exposure to the debris from the earthquake/tsunami.
posted by jlkr at 4:46 PM on March 11, 2011

Radiation / Nuclear Exposure as Triggers or Causes of Thyroid Disease

All Levels of Radiation Confirmed to Cause Cancer
posted by nickyskye at 4:47 PM on March 11, 2011

It's to be expected that folks with a deep knowledge of the technology have a positive opinion of it.

As an engineer, I can respect that. I imagine the engineering that goes into nuclear reactor design is among some of the finest in history, Apollo-level in terms of safety and thoughtfulness. It's obvious the Japanese have put a lot of thought about safety from quakes into their engineering systems.
posted by formless at 4:47 PM on March 11, 2011

so I flipped over to the Japanese news networks.

The difference is truly staggering. I mean, I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. I always am.
posted by aramaic at 4:47 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I lived in Tsuruga, a nuclear power town (3 sites with 2 fast-breeder reactors and 5 conventional reactors) for 10 years, and I have to say that it's likely the people living near the TEPCO Fukushima plants have been receiving "hormesis"-level doses of radiation for years. For one thing, low-level waste is shipped by conventional transport trucks around town and on highways. As well, there are always minor accidents that never get reported.

Unsurprisingly, nuclear power is a tremendously political issue in Japan. It's used as a rural economic development tool, and for good reason. Many of the places in Japan that host nuclear facilities have nothing else driving their economies, especially after the hollowing out of Japanese industry over the past 15 years.

It's a sad state of affairs, really. In exchange for a healthy local economy with high-paying jobs (and not an inconsiderable amount of construction graft), residents are expected to live with the threat of being irradiated. It's possible to live in denial - most of the nuke plants are located out of sight in isolated locations, and people in other parts of Fukui would sometimes tease me for living in Tsuruga, despite the fact that they lived downwind from the plants, thanks to prevailing winds.

But what can you do? The ruralities in Japan that I've been to that don't have things like nuke plants are dying.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:48 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

As an engineer, I can respect that. I imagine the engineering that goes into nuclear reactor design is among some of the finest in history, Apollo-level in terms of safety and thoughtfulness.

This is true, but Zippy's comment upthread about poor maintenance records at this reactor worries me. It doesn't matter how well it's freaking engineered if they don't keep everything working properly.
posted by Malor at 4:51 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

IAEA press release 1133

Short version. Fukushima I reactor 2 has lost power to cooling systems, officials are working to restore, mobile electrical supplies (batteries? generators?) on site.

Fukushima I reactor 1 to be/is deliberately vented, will be filtered.

Water level in all three operating reactors remains over the fuel elements (this will limit the temperature the fuel rods can reach.)
posted by eriko at 4:53 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just read on twitter that the 81 people swept away on a boat have been found alive and are being airlifted to safety.
posted by jvilter at 4:54 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

I imagine the engineering that goes into nuclear reactor design is among some of the finest in history

That largely depends on the reactors. From what's public knowledge about places like Sellafield, and what I've heard from people who've worked in the British nuclear industry, I wouldn't want to share an island with the half-arsed crap they've built.
posted by rodgerd at 4:56 PM on March 11, 2011

formless: "I'm not sure what's up with the nuclear power love in this thread…

It's not just a choice between just coal and nuclear. Solar and hydroelectric are also options. I'm just not seeing this event as an argument in favor of nuclear power. I'm seeing it as the opposite."


I feel like a couple of posters stepped up to dispel what was basically a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt, which is pretty much endemic to any discussion about nuclear power, and even more so here since it's a rapidly developing news story. I think the earthquake isn't going to change anyone's minds about anything; people are going to fit this into whatever narrative they already have in their heads about nuclear, positive or negative.

But it's not useful to anyone to go on thinking the sky is falling when it isn't. This is a serious situation but they way it's being reported is entirely sensationalistic. And the average person's understanding of nuclear power is not based in actual, verifiable facts, but vague emotional reactions. Combine the two and you've created the perfect environment to produce the least sensible nuclear policy.

I don't want to further derail this, and we can chat further if you're interested, but you're absolutely right. Coal or nuclear is not the choice on the table. We need coal, nuclear, hydro, solar and yeah, oil. All of it, for the foreseeable future. Not having nuclear be a part of our total energy solution is magical thinking.
posted by danny the boy at 4:57 PM on March 11, 2011 [20 favorites]

I'm an engineer. I have a positive attitude towards nuclear power vs. coal. I also have a great deal of respect for the nuclear program in Japan, which, when hit with two huge natural events, managed to: a) plan in advance, b) shut down reactors, c) identify problems, d) call for help, and e) keep everyone up to date.

In the US, with Katrina, we failed to have a plan, the mayor and governor obstructed outside efforts for aid, and news was terribly thin on the situation.

With respect to venting gasses, one of TEPCO's press releases mentions testing for iodine in the atmosphere, among other elements.
posted by zippy at 5:00 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Fukushima 2: Reactors 1-4 all shut down automatically, however, cooling systems have failed on three of the reactors recently (that is, probably a case of battery exhaustion or generator failure.) This could be an issue, but these reactors had cooling after shutdown considerably longer than Fukushima 1 Reactor 1.
posted by eriko at 5:00 PM on March 11, 2011

BBC reports that venting has been done on one of the reactors (no word which one, probably Reactor 1 at Fukushima 1.
posted by eriko at 5:02 PM on March 11, 2011

This video from the LA Times page is pretty interesting, because the guy shooting the video clearly gets an automated alert on his computer desktop about twenty or thirty seconds before the heavier shaking really hits his location. Is that kind of early warning app common in Japan? And is there a version for the US or other areas? Having your computer or cellphone automatically give you even five or ten seconds of warning time for a quake would be nice.
posted by Asparagirl at 5:05 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

ENOUGH ALREADY MOTHER NATURE!
posted by Space Kitty

Maybe Mother Nature is saying 'Enough' to humans?
posted by yoga at 5:06 PM on March 11, 2011

Nebraska Professor Videotapes Japan Earthquake (from the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower)
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:08 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

They're saying that the venting is releasing only a small amount of radiation and that the wind is blowing it towards the ocean.
posted by spiderskull at 5:08 PM on March 11, 2011

Some more info on the venting.
posted by spiderskull at 5:09 PM on March 11, 2011

Because I am unaware of his credentials, is Malor a nuclear engineer or some other credible nuclear power insider?
posted by BeerFilter at 5:09 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Maybe Mother Nature is saying 'Enough' to humans?

Oh, give me a fucking break. Try saying that after watching someone get washed out to sea. Real people with real lives are being affected here.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [28 favorites]

au, my cell phone provider, seems to have a new earthquake alert by text feature, which had my phone going off all night last night.

Docomo and SoftBank, too. I kept getting woken up by them (four) throughout the night, regardless of how strong they actually turned out to be.
posted by armage at 5:12 PM on March 11, 2011

Asparagirl, last night was the first time I'd ever gotten an alert, and I got at least five during the night, for quakes in Nagano, Chiba, Fukushima, and elsewhere. I got, at most, a ten second warning.

Damn. Aftershock. Could whoever is in charge of making the earth shake just stop it already and make your nefarious demands? It's getting very, very old, very fast.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:14 PM on March 11, 2011

Having your computer or cellphone automatically give you even five or ten seconds of warning time for a quake would be nice.

I believe some of the energy generated by a quake is dispersed in waves that travel at different speed, some faster then others. I guess that's how the early warning app works? I am looking forward having that kind of application on my desktop or cellphone.
posted by elpapacito at 5:16 PM on March 11, 2011

Can someone comment on the number and size of the aftershocks with this event? Is this a common amount, and a common relative power for other large scale earthquake events?
posted by birdsquared at 5:18 PM on March 11, 2011

also, Asparagirl, there are multiple earthquake apps available for the iPhone, at least. They are mostly marketed as info apps, like weather apps, but I would bet there are one or two that provide configurable location-based notification alerts.
posted by mwhybark at 5:18 PM on March 11, 2011

ah, I misread the interest. Of course the info in those apps is based on past events.
posted by mwhybark at 5:20 PM on March 11, 2011

hm, on reflection, a quick roundup of the available apps (iPhone or not) would be a great post here. I have a couple of Twitter alerts but they deliver within a few minutes of the triggering alert and I use them mostly to be able to keep track of what's just happened somewhere *else,* as I have loved ones in two quake zones in addition to living in one myself.
posted by mwhybark at 5:23 PM on March 11, 2011

Found my own answer. Crap - looks like hundreds of shocks is par for the course.
posted by birdsquared at 5:25 PM on March 11, 2011

The Wikipedia page on radiation hormesis seems pretty good.

That Wikipedia article reads like homeopathy for nuclear medicine. Most of the information is "we don't know if this actually works outside a lab, and all other known and established evidence is contrary to this theory".

I'm certainly not going to be running out and getting some kind of voluntary inoculation dose based on that information.

I am indeed afraid of fission and ionizing radiation, and I am indeed very wary of the nuclear power industry and their engineering practices, and I don't consider nuclear power plants to be on the same level as, say, Apollo project grade engineering because the two things are really apples and oranges. The Apollo project had a blank checkbook and didn't have to generate an income to stockholders or be useful beyond some high flying science and a technology show-and-tell war involving a lot of hot-rodded ballistic missiles. And if the Apollo program blew up it wasn't a disaster involving millions of people, beyond the emotional tragedy.

And I felt this way before Chernobyl when I was a kid, but I don't think that's unwarranted when you're talking about an energy production scheme that has deadly byproducts that stay deadly for tens and hundreds of thousands of years, and we still haven't figured out what to do with that kind of waste in the long term. I think the whole thing is a fool's errand for cheap, easy electricity and people should really learn to turn off most of the lights in their houses and learn to use a lot less electricity in general, but I feel the same way about coal and oil, too.

Anyway, I'm contributing to the derail. I'll stop, but can you maybe tone down the nuclear energy fandom a bit? I also appreciate the information, and again, I'm admittedly prone to panic when it comes to nuclear power - but it feels like you're cheerleading a bit too eagerly for nuclear power and I think it's kind of creepy.

Even if the reactor operates within designed failure parameters and even if it can really slag itself in a total meltdown and not be a Chernobyl-grade crisis, it's still going to be a massive disaster and not ok or acceptable in any sense of the word.

For fuck's sake, they're currently venting radioactive steam to save money instead of quenching the core with neutron-absorbing coolant, which would be costly and time consuming to recover from. Someone just made that decision to release radiation instead of shutting the whole thing down. I'm glad I'm not that person, but I really wonder if the people around the plant feel the same way about it as the operators do. I wonder if there was time to actually put it to a vote if people would rather not have electricity for a while or more expensive electricity instead of venting steam and trying to be cost effective, but "safe".
posted by loquacious at 5:26 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

For fuck's sake, they're currently venting radioactive steam to save money instead of quenching the core with neutron-absorbing coolant

How do you know this is the case?
posted by KokuRyu at 5:28 PM on March 11, 2011

Large earthquakes generate a lot of large aftershocks, but this seems pretty extraordinary to my non-seismologist eyes. Here's information about the Chile 8.8 earthquake from last year, for comparison: "In the time period since the earthquake's origin at 2010-02-27 06:34 to 2010-04-26 21:00 UTC, the USGS NEIC has located 304 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or greater. 21 of these aftershocks have magnitudes of 6.0 or greater."

In comparison, I count 20 aftershocks of 6.0 or larger already, and it's not done yet.
posted by gingerbeer at 5:30 PM on March 11, 2011

Evacuation area around Fukushima-#2 plant just expanded to 10km.
The 3 Km evacuation has already been completed (via)
posted by Lanark at 5:30 PM on March 11, 2011

KokoRyo: I'm basing this on Eriko's comment upthread.
posted by loquacious at 5:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Radiation" is a "think of the children" word. If you fly much you've been exposed to all sorts of radioactivity you wouldn't have been if you had stuck to sea level, and people die horribly every day from radiation poisoning (skin cancer) induced by a nearby natural fusion reactor.

We should definitely hold nuke stations to the highest standards we can, but breathing in exhaust, coal fumes and tobacco smoke are things you should be more worried about, by a long-shot.
posted by maxwelton at 5:31 PM on March 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

Japanese helicopters have found a ship carrying 81 people that was swept out to sea by the tsunami, all rescued (Straits Times via Twitter)
posted by armage at 5:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

hm, on reflection, a quick roundup of the available apps (iPhone or not) would be a great post here.

Seconding this. Or even better, if anyone knows of a publicly available real-time API that provides earthquake sensor data. I would be interested in hearing about the heuristics used to determine when to send an alert.

Living on the west coast of the US, I'm like to prepare myself more for this kind of thing.
posted by formless at 5:33 PM on March 11, 2011

correction
Evacuation area around Fukushima-#1 plant just expanded to 10km. (80,000 people)
Evacuation area around Fukushima-#2 plant expanded to 3km.
posted by Lanark at 5:33 PM on March 11, 2011

Japanese officials may only have hours to cool reactors that have been disabled by Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami or face a nuclear meltdown.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T) is racing to cool down the reactor core after a highly unusual "station blackout" -- the total loss of power necessary to keep water circulating through the plant to prevent overheating.

Reuters story from about an hour ago.
posted by gerryblog at 5:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some expert commented about 10 minutes ago on BBC world news that:
- indeed if you multiply a very small number by 1000, it still is a very small number. Therefore, if the radiation leak is very small, even a 1000 times increase can still be well within non hazardous limits.
- what is odd, according to him, is that that more than one cooling systems failed at once, thus pratically negating the effects of redundancy. He speculates that it may take days, months or years to really know why all these system failed at once.
posted by elpapacito at 5:35 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nevermind building an early warning iPhone app -- we've got oarfish! This article was published exactly one week ago in the Telegraph:

Oarfish omen spells earthquake disaster for Japan

Japan is bracing itself after dozens of rare giant oarfish - traditionally the harbinger of a powerful earthquake - have been washed ashore or caught in fishermen's nets...

Those concerns have been stoked by the unexplained appearance of a fish that is known traditionally as the Messenger from the Sea God's Palace...

In recent weeks, 10 specimens have been found either washed ashore or in fishing nets off Ishikawa Prefecture, half-a-dozen have been caught in nets off Toyama Prefecture and others have been reported in Kyoto, Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures, all on the northern coast.

According to traditional Japanese lore, the fish rise to the surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending earthquake - and there are scientific theories that bottom-dwelling fish may very well be susceptible to movements in seismic fault lines and act in uncharacteristic ways in advance of an earthquake - but experts here are placing more faith in their constant high-tech monitoring of the tectonic plates beneath the surface.

"In ancient times Japanese people believed that fish warned of coming earthquakes, particularly catfish," Hiroshi Tajihi, deputy director of the Kobe Earthquake Centre, told the Daily Telegraph.

"But these are just old superstitions and there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake," he said.

Note to self: when a "Messenger from the Sea God's Palace" shows up, listen to him.
posted by Asparagirl at 5:35 PM on March 11, 2011 [33 favorites]

Some details from Wikipedia on the Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system in Japan. Unfortunately it's not available in English or overseas, as it is closely tied into domestic broadcast and communications systems.
posted by armage at 5:36 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Loq, maybe they don't have enough on hand. Think once, think twice, think chicken soup with rice, then post. I find when I don't follow this formula I have been known to fly off the handle.
posted by mwhybark at 5:37 PM on March 11, 2011

"they're currently venting radioactive steam to save money instead of quenching the core with neutron-absorbing coolant"

This is completely false and made up to cause fear and outrage.

"Someone just made that decision to release radiation instead of shutting the whole thing down."

This is completely false and made up to cause fear and outrage.
posted by y6y6y6 at 5:38 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

2010?! Arrrrgh! Sorry about that.
posted by Asparagirl at 5:40 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Okay folks, signing off for now. Many train lines in Tokyo are running again, so I'm going to check out what damage there might be at my friend's house. To Mefites in Japan: be careful of aftershocks, everybody.
posted by armage at 5:40 PM on March 11, 2011

Those oarfish are pretty wild looking. I can see why they're considered messengers from the Sea God's Palace.
posted by gingerbeer at 5:41 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Note to self: when a "Messenger from the Sea God's Palace" shows up, listen to him.

Mr. Oarfish...good evening. As a duly designated representative of the people of Japan, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:42 PM on March 11, 2011 [18 favorites]

Asparagirl: "Nevermind building an early warning iPhone app -- we've got oarfish! "

cf also Namazu.


Either "Oarfish" or "Namazu" would be a great name for a location-aware earthquake notifier app.

Hey, remember the sardine mass kill in Redondo Beach harbor a day ago? HMMM. NO, not really.

but HMMMM.
posted by mwhybark at 5:42 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Maybe Mother Nature is saying 'Enough' to humans?

FFS the Earth is not a person with conscious intent. Let's have a little respect for science here. This is plate tectonics, not a vengeful sky fairy acting out against her uppity subjects.
posted by modernnomad at 5:43 PM on March 11, 2011 [12 favorites]

Tsunami Waves Could Clear Dead Fish from Redondo Beach
posted by gingerbeer at 5:43 PM on March 11, 2011

gingerbeer: "Those oarfish are pretty wild looking. I can see why they're considered messengers from the Sea God's Palace"

"King of Herrings"

that thing is a HERRING?
posted by mwhybark at 5:43 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

gingerbeer: "Tsunami Waves Could Clear Dead Fish from Redondo Beach"

yeh, yeah, 'swhut'm SAYIN
posted by mwhybark at 5:44 PM on March 11, 2011

Latest TEPCO updates here, here, and here, summary:

Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power
Station Unit 1 [Fukushima-1 Unit 1] shut down at 2:48PM on March 11th due to the earthquake. Its Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System was used to inject water into the
reactor to cool it. Today at 3:48AM, water injection by Make-up Water
Condensate System began. Subsequently, at 5:22AM, the temperature of the suppression chamber exceeded 100 degrees [C]. Reactor pressure suppression function was lost, at 5:22AM.

Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power
Station Unit 1 [Fukushima-2 Unit 1] also shut down at 2:48PM. Its
Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System was used to inject water into the
reactor to cool it. Today at 4:50AM, water injection by Make-up Water
Condensate System begun. Subsequently, at 5:32AM, the temperature of the suppression chamber
exceeded 100 degrees. Reactor pressure suppression function was lost at 5:32AM,

Make-up Water Condensate System was used to inject water into the reactor
to cool it. Subsequently, at 6:07AM, the temperature of the suppression chamber
exceeded 100 degrees. The reactor pressure suppression function was lost at 6:07AM.

[All three bulletins conclude with this safety assessment]

Safety and Impact to the Environment
- Currently, water level to cool irradiated fuels in the reactor is
maintained.
- Indication of monitoring posts installed in the site boundary is not
different from normal. Currently, no radiation impact to the external
environment has been confirmed.

We will continue monitoring in detail discharge of radioactive material
from exhaust stack and discharge canal.
posted by zippy at 5:44 PM on March 11, 2011

Wikipedia says "king of herrings"
posted by gingerbeer at 5:45 PM on March 11, 2011

Also, quick update: amusing Japanese folk mythology DEBUNKED due to article publication date, please disregard, except for amusement purposes.
posted by mwhybark at 5:46 PM on March 11, 2011

I misread the TEPCO announcements. All three mentioned above are for Fukushima-1. The summarized text is correct, but my translation of Fukushimi Daini as "Fukushima-2" in one heading is not.
posted by zippy at 5:46 PM on March 11, 2011

I believe some of the energy generated by a quake is dispersed in waves that travel at different speed, some faster then others. I guess that's how the early warning app works? I am looking forward having that kind of application on my desktop or cellphone.

That would require updated infrastructure. Dunno if it's this way where you are, but as Katrina and the BP spill demonstrated, here in the US we are less interested in infrastructure than we are in day-late-and-a-dollar-short responses which minimize responsibility while maximizing private profit.

At this point, I can't imagine the magnitude of disaster it'll take before we have a serious national dialogue about reinvesting in our own safety. Alas, it seems likely that we'll find out.
posted by vorfeed at 5:47 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Argh, -2, not -1.
posted by zippy at 5:47 PM on March 11, 2011

I wish those Redondo sardines had been cleared by the tsunami, as a truckload of them were spilled on the freeway not that far from where I live. :)

The editors went all out on the headline:

"Fish foul freeway frenzy on Friday"
posted by Celsius1414 at 5:47 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

For mwhybark, and anyone else more interested in oarfish than nuclear panics: oarfish video.
posted by gingerbeer at 5:48 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can be interested in BOTH oarfish and oysters, i mean nuclear panics.

Celsius, clearly you guys need some oarfish. Or giant grunnions!
posted by mwhybark at 5:49 PM on March 11, 2011

mmm, oysters

/homer
posted by mwhybark at 5:50 PM on March 11, 2011

if you live in Seattle, comcast has unencrypted digital cable channel 245, the japan channel, which is showing all news instead of their regular programming.
posted by nomisxid at 5:50 PM on March 11, 2011

That would require updated infrastructure. Dunno if it's this way where you are, but as Katrina and the BP spill demonstrated, here in the US we are less interested in infrastructure than we are in day-late-and-a-dollar-short responses which minimize responsibility while maximizing private profit.

Uh, where I am you have to fight government from relaxing building construction code so as to please their mafioso friends; and to fight government from giving l'Aquila reconstruction business to their mafioso friends as well. It seems more or less like the U.S., but with Tony Soprano in charge.
posted by elpapacito at 5:52 PM on March 11, 2011

I believe the three TEPCO announcements above were legally mandated as the result of three separate ventings of gas at 5:22am, 5:32am, and 6:07am.
posted by zippy at 5:54 PM on March 11, 2011

mmm, grunions...
posted by gingerbeer at 6:00 PM on March 11, 2011

This just up at CNN:

Reactors at two Japanese power plants can no longer cool radioactive substances inside, a prominent electric company said Saturday, according to a news agency report that added that atomic material may have leaked out of one of the plants.

Citing the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japan's Kyodo News Agency said that radioactive substances may have seeped out of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of Tokyo.

...

Temperatures of that plant's coolant water was hotter than 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), the news agency said, an indication that the cooling system wasn't working.

posted by gerryblog at 6:00 PM on March 11, 2011

Because I am unaware of his credentials, is Malor a nuclear engineer or some other credible nuclear power insider?

*snort* I though he was an economist.

He's just making shit up, and maybe reading some wikipedia. Shit like this isn't even wrong.
posted by ryanrs at 6:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have to say, I'm impressed with the Japanese news. Not that they're being good on purpose, of course, but they somehow are managing to avoid going that extra mile to add as much FUD as possible, like they usually do. On a day to day basis, they're no better than the "Something in your house is killing your children! Details after the commercial break!" stuff in the US, but today they're all acting...I dunno...like professionals concerned with conveying news to people. I wasn't in the US for 911, but was it like that? Did they stop all the scary music and infographics and wild exaggerations for a day or two?
posted by Bugbread at 6:01 PM on March 11, 2011

Also, armage, other folks in Japan - any idea why neither my wife nor I (both AU users) have not gotten any alerts whatsoever?
posted by Bugbread at 6:03 PM on March 11, 2011

Bugbread, what I remember most about American news coverage of 9/11 was how they started with an 'estimated' 20,000 death toll and went down...
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:06 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have not yet seen this TEPCO press release translated from Japanese into English, but it appears to show radiation monitoring data, and if I am reading the table correctly, it shows readings somewhere around or in the reactor peaking at 1590 nGy/h. Could a Japanese speaker please translate this?
posted by zippy at 6:06 PM on March 11, 2011

Apologies if this has been linked to above, but I didn't see it anywhere: the IRIS Global Seismic Monitor -- a world map of all recent seismic activity updated in real time (or pretty close). It's something I check every so often, and it has made me realize just how common earthquakes, even relatively large ones (magnitude 6 to 6.5) are. Thousands of much smaller quakes happen every day, and dozens of large ones - it's just that most of the time they don't happen in exactly the right (or wrong) place and at the right (wrong) magnitude to cause the kind of devastation that we've seen recently in Christchurch and now in Japan.

Still, for as long as I've kept an eye on this thing, I've never seen it look the way it does now: the place on the map where Japan should be is just one gigantic red dot. Surreal. My thoughts are with everyone in Japan.
posted by Marla Singer at 6:07 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

By the way, the oarfish gets its "Messenger from the Sea God's Palace" name from Urashima Taro, one of the more widely-known Japanese legends. The story is quite worth reading.
posted by vorfeed at 6:12 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

"Someone just made that decision to release radiation instead of shutting the whole thing down."

This is completely false and made up to cause fear and outrage.

But it is true. As soon as the reactors lost primary cooling systems, they Could indeed have triggered the emergency systems that would have quenched everything down, but at the cost of permanent damage. What's missing from that statement is the truth that there are reasons other than just money at stake. Hospitals need power and can't run on backup power forever, especially when infrastructure for delivering fuel is damaged, for example.
posted by nomisxid at 6:12 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

Also, armage, other folks in Japan - any idea why neither my wife nor I (both AU users) have not gotten any alerts whatsoever?

Good question -- I don't have an au phone so I can't say for sure, but perhaps your location according to GPS was such that it didn't receive the notifications? Either that, or the general network congestion meant that the notifications never reached you (which would be more worrying to me).
posted by armage at 6:13 PM on March 11, 2011

I think what's most disturbing is that, as others have noted above, apparently the plants failed several safety checks (which is entirely, absolutely unsurprising given the track record of Japan's nuclear power industry), and the diesel generators just should not have shut down so soon.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:14 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

"We've been working all day trying to find out if my niece is ok. She arrived in Otsuchi (north of Sendai) yesterday morning at 5am our time to document the dolphin hunt."

@swimming:
I am on Richard O'Barry's Facebook, and he reported 16 hours ago:
"blood Dolphins team is currently working in Asia, but not threatened by the earthquake/ tsunami. Our thoughts go out to those who are"

I have left him a message. Hopefully, he can pass along any information he knows.
posted by markkraft at 6:16 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

and the diesel generators just should not have shut down so soon.

Are those generators made to endure a tsunami though? Can you possibly bolt down something like that in such a way that it doesn't get swept away and continues to function after the water has drained away?
posted by royalsong at 6:17 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

What's missing from that statement is the truth that there are reasons other than just money at stake. Hospitals need power and can't run on backup power forever, especially when infrastructure for delivering fuel is damaged, for example.

I also didn't think about the human cost of rebuilding or scrapping the reactor after that kind of shutdown, which would be messy. But so would a full melt down or serious leak.

I'm really glad I'm not the one who has to make those decisions. I'm not saying they're easy.
posted by loquacious at 6:22 PM on March 11, 2011

Arclight on Twitter, a fellow who works as a consultant to a reactor vendor ("they don't pay me enough to spin this," he says), seems to think that flooding might have killed the generators early.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 6:23 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Any gc news yet?
posted by Ghidorah

None yet. I'm really not sure what to think, either--he's in an area I didn't think would be as severely affected (Morioka). I haven't been able to find any news specific to that region other than the '6.1 aftershock near Morioka' blurb from earlier today. Does anyone know the status of that particular region in terms of phone/internet functionality, structure stability, landslides, anything? I've been combing everywhere but I think most anything on it is being drowned out by the state of other places.

I don't know how concerned I should be, but he's kind of a gadget geek and I would assume if he had any cell phone/internet connection he'd have let someone know.

Thanks so much for your concern, Ghidorah. I'm glad you and yours are okay.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 6:26 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Man, this stuff makes you think horrible existential thoughts. It's great that the Japanese enacted strict regulations and were as prepared for this as possible—and that matters tremendously and should be a lesson to those who think that government can't do anything or isn't worth subsidizing.

but those pictures are nonetheless apocalyptic and utterly terrifying. I feel guilty just sitting here and seeing those images even though I know awful disasters happen all the time about which I can do nothing other than send a donation and pray.
posted by Maias at 6:27 PM on March 11, 2011

Update here. Tokyo.

Sleepless night with aftershocks every 5-10 minutes. Slowly decreasing in strength, with occasional stronger tremor every hour or so. Even as I type this the house sways slightly, hanging lamps swaying. Makes you feel slightly seasick. Sometimes it is hard to tell if the movement has stopped or if you are just dizzy. When the walls creak, my heart crawls up my throat. I'm learning what PTSD feels like.

Last night was surreal. A huge stream of quake refugees - people fro
every walk of life, from school kids to grandmothers, corporate warriors to street punks - poured out of the city along all major routes. I followed the crowds for a while along the Ome Kaido, a main road running due west out of Shinjuku. So many faces, determined to get home and see their families. I was reminded of every zombie/apocalypse film you've ever seen, the roads jammed, trains stopped, people fleeing the urban core for the safety of the hills. But all was calm and orderly. People would help each other - young men offering to carry the bags of grandfathers, conversations struck up by strangers asking for news and directions.

My family is planning to walk over to a friend's place soon and take advantage of the fact that they still have hot water. Damn I need a
hot shower. It's those little things. A few stiff drinks wouldn't be out of order either.

All the best to everyone affected by this, especially those in the frozen north. At some point, when things have calmed down I hope us Tokyo Mefite 3/11 earthquake veterans can get together to trade war stories. Community is an essential element of humanity.
posted by jet_manifesto at 6:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [45 favorites]

I also didn't think about the human cost of rebuilding or scrapping the reactor after that kind of shutdown

I watched some documentary about Chernobyl years ago, and was amazed at the calmness of so many people working to put out fires and building the containment building over the site, all the while knowing they were going to die for doing it.

The entirety of my Japanese fluency comes from my dim memories of reading Shogun 30 years ago, does anyone watching the Japanese channel know if they have a flashing border around their image of japan in the corner to show the areas already affected, or is it to warn of places expected to be hit by additional tsunami caused by aftershocks?
posted by nomisxid at 6:29 PM on March 11, 2011

For fuck's sake, they're currently venting radioactive steam to save money instead of quenching the core with neutron-absorbing coolant, which would be costly and time consuming to recover from. Someone just made that decision to release radiation instead of shutting the whole thing down. I'm glad I'm not that person, but I really wonder if the people around the plant feel the same way about it as the operators do. I wonder if there was time to actually put it to a vote if people would rather not have electricity for a while or more expensive electricity instead of venting steam and trying to be cost effective, but "safe".

Billions of dollars in additional economic impact, additional power disruptions, the combination of which will which will result in additional deaths. Or expose some as yet unknown number of people to the risk equivalent of smoking a few packs of cigarettes. Ok let's vote.
posted by humanfont at 6:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

and the diesel generators just should not have shut down so soon.

They worked just fine for an hour. Then a tsunami hit them.
posted by eriko at 6:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

horrible existential thoughts...but those pictures are nonetheless apocalyptic and utterly terrifying.

Try this one.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [42 favorites]

Thanks for that, furiousxgeorge.
posted by Celsius1414 at 6:36 PM on March 11, 2011

nomisxid - the flashing borders are for warnings - the pink medium, the red high.
posted by birdsquared at 6:43 PM on March 11, 2011

I have not yet seen this TEPCO press release translated from Japanese into English, but it appears to show radiation monitoring data, and if I am reading the table correctly, it shows readings somewhere around or in the reactor peaking at 1590 nGy/h. Could a Japanese speaker please translate this?

The important part says roughly:

"As shown by the radiation situation below, confirmed by mobile monitoring posts around the power plant, values are normal. There is thought to be no effect on the outside environment at the present time."

The top chart is 計測結果, Measurement Results. Chart headings go Measurement Time (for example, ３月12日 is March 12 and 午前/午後 are AM/PM, 7時35分 is 7:35), Measurement Location (the most common being 正門付近, "Front Gate Area"), γ (Gamma) Rays, and Neutron Rays.

The bottom (boring) chart is 風向、風速, wind direction and speed.

I'll leave interpretation of the numbers to someone who knows something about nuclear science!
posted by vorfeed at 6:43 PM on March 11, 2011

Comcast has unlocked NHK World for its customers, if anyone wants to watch on tv.
posted by sugarfish at 6:44 PM on March 11, 2011

Thanks for that pic, furiousxgeorge. In all sincerity.
posted by KathrynT at 6:45 PM on March 11, 2011

The old guy doesn't look as happy when it's his turn and they have to trade places. :(
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:47 PM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

Thanks for that pic, furiousxgeorge. In all sincerity.

Thirded. That's a great picture. He looks so relieved and happy, and he's got some styling sneakers going on on.
posted by loquacious at 6:48 PM on March 11, 2011

loquacious:

For fuck's sake, they're currently venting radioactive steam to save money instead of quenching the core with neutron-absorbing coolant, which would be costly and time consuming to recover from.

That is not the only reason to not just dump shit tons of coolant straight into the core. There is a limit to how quickly you can cool the core, if it cools too fast, it'll crack from thermal shock (imagine moving a glass bottle from the freezer into a boiling water bath), coupled with the fact that Fukushima I unit 1 is from 1971, extra care needs to be taken (info from @arclight).
posted by thebestsophist at 6:50 PM on March 11, 2011

Maybe someone already posted this above, but the GOP proposed budget includes significant cuts to the tsunami warning system.

They probably want it to be privatized. Just imagine a subscription service with various options, the cheapest might be that you get sent a postcard by US Mail, the most pricey might include a rescue helicopter.
posted by mareli at 6:50 PM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

Make that "Main Gate" rather than "Front Gate" above. I think I was typing faster than my brain.
posted by vorfeed at 6:51 PM on March 11, 2011

New Zealand to send 48 Urban Search and Rescue workers to Japan.

It's a pitifully small drop in the bucket, but ...
posted by Catch at 6:55 PM on March 11, 2011

Thank you, vorfeed. Here's the chart, with vorfeed's translations:

Measurement Resuits
11 Mar

（計測時間）　  （測定場所）   （γ線）　 （中性子線）
 [  time  ]   [ location] [gamma]  [neutron]

午後５時30分　　体育館付近　　４９ nGy/h　　　　－
　　　　40分　　Front Gate　　　５６ nGy/h　　　　－
　　　　50分　　管理棟　　　　６４ nGy/h　　　　－
午後６時45分　　ＭＰ－６　　　５６ nGy/h　　　　－
午後７時00分　　ＭＰ－７　　　５７ nGy/h　　　　－
...

12 Mar

（計測時間）　  （測定場所）   （γ線）　 （中性子線）
 [  time  ]   [ location] [gamma]  [neutron]

午前０時00分　　Front gate　　　６０ nGy/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
　　　　10分　　正門 [portal?]　６２ nGy/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
...
　　　　50分　　正門　　　　　６４ nGy/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
午前４時00分　　正門　　　　　６９ nGy/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
　　　　40分　　正門　　　　８６６ nGy/h　　　　－
　　　　50分　　正門　　　１００２ nGy/h　　　　－
午前５時00分　　正門　　　１３０７ nGy/h　　　　－
　　　　10分　　正門　　　１５９０ nGy/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
午前６時25分　　MP-8付近　１．２１μSv/h　　　　　－
　　　　30分　  正門　　　３．２９μSv/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
       　　　　 MP-8付近　１．５３μSv/h　　　　　－
　　　　40分　　正門　　　４．９２μSv/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
午前７時35分　　MP-8付近　２．４７μSv/h　　　　－
　　　　40分　　MP-8付近　２．５６μSv/h　　　　－
　　　　45分　　MP-8付近　２．５３μSv/h　　　　－
　　　　50分　　正門　　　４．９７μSv/h　　0.001μSv/h未満
　　　　　　　　MP-8付近　２．５０μSv/h　　　　－

posted by zippy at 7:00 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

s/Front gate/Main gate/g per vorfeed
posted by zippy at 7:01 PM on March 11, 2011

any idea why neither my wife nor I (both AU users) have not gotten any alerts whatsoever?

I don't really know what the deal is. I got seven alerts between five pm yesterday and 6:50 this morning, but none since, but there have been aftershocks all morning long, and no alerts. With au, the alerts come as C-mail, and you might need to set your phone to receive them.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:03 PM on March 11, 2011

Luckily, working at home, I have been spared all the headaches that come with total train blockages, but a friend of mine, a single mother, had to walk from her workplace to her son's nursery school. She walked for 8 hours, finally getting there at 1 a.m.
posted by Bugbread at 7:05 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Mr. Oarfish...good evening. As a duly designated representative of the people of Japan, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.

That ought to do it. Thanks very much, furiousxgeorge.
posted by Servo5678 at 7:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks for that pic, furiousxgeorge. In all sincerity.

Fuck yeah, human kindness. Thanks from here too, george.
posted by steambadger at 7:10 PM on March 11, 2011

We should definitely hold nuke stations to the highest standards we can, but breathing in exhaust, coal fumes and tobacco smoke are things you should be more worried about, by a long-shot.

Remember when the Large Hadron Collider was going to spit out antimatter and destroy the universe? If you happened to sit down right then and rank all the risks you faced in life, you probably noticed that "being consumed by antimatter" was right at the bottom; or at least lower than anything that didn't involve vampires or poisoned gingerbread. But, still, a lot of people worried about it -- and most of us felt a little tingle when we thought about. Because, hey: end of the universe.
posted by steambadger at 7:20 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was just talking to my sister back home a little while ago, and she was worried about me not being able to fly out of here for a trip home on Thursday. While Sendai and the immediate area are going to be a long time recovering, I told her I thought Tokyo and the Kanto area would likely be back to normal by Tuesday at the latest, because this is what Japan does. It has a problem, then it fixes it so people can get back to work.

As I was telling her this, the doorbell rings, and it's a delivery guy with something Mrs. Ghidorah ordered online. I told my sister this, and she was floored. How the hell is there a delivery the day after an earthquake? I asked the delivery guy, and he told me "Work never stops." I thanked him, and told him to be careful, and he jogged back to his truck to make more deliveries.

This place amazes me sometimes.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [60 favorites]

How the hell is there a delivery the day after an earthquake? I asked the delivery guy, and he told me "Work never stops."

That is Japan, in a nutshell.
posted by gen at 7:33 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

The oarfish article is from 2010... which means those oarfish spent a whole year plotting their revenge!
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Thank you, vorfeed. Here's the chart, with vorfeed's translations:

正門 [portal?] -- sorry I didn't make this clear, but this is just "Main Gate" (as opposed to 正門付近, "Main Gate Area". I'm not sure why they specified a difference.) Likewise, all the MP-8付近 entries mean "MP-8 Area". 体育館付近 is "Gym Area" and 管理棟 is "Control Building". 0.001μSv/h未満 is "less than 0.001μSv/h".
posted by vorfeed at 7:48 PM on March 11, 2011

On the last leg of my journey home today, coming via a different route than I'd usually take home, I passed a temple and stepped into the graveyard. Snapped this picture of a wall of ojizousama, and this one of fallen ojizousama, brought down by yesterday's quake.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:49 PM on March 11, 2011 [28 favorites]

Well, hey, flapjax. Some folks have been asking about you.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:53 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Hey, flapjax. What's up with you, man?
posted by steambadger at 7:54 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I know, MrMoonPie! I posted an update in the MeTa thread!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:54 PM on March 11, 2011

I'll copy/paste what I put in the MeTa thread! Coming right up!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:54 PM on March 11, 2011

Hi friends. Thanks for your concern. My family and I are all fine and unscathed, I'm so thankful to report. I was waaay out in Saitama (north of Tokyo) teaching English to little kiddies at a classroom in a huge new shopping mall. I was on a 20 minute beak between classes, about to step into a food store, when the huge structure started to shake...

I made a beeline for the nearest exit. The quake was LONG. Standing out in the parking lot was like standing on a raft. The parking lot was doing a slow ripple, I ain't lying... All the cars in the lot were rocking back and forth on their wheels. A huge electrical tower nearby was swaying. The facade of the mall (enormous, and made of concrete and glass) was rippling and swaying. The whole scene was, well, damn, really something. And terrifying, of course.

And the reason I didn't post anything til now is that I just now got home. I was an hour and a half north of Tokyo (and that's on EXPRESS trains) and of course there was no train service last night. Had to stay at a 24-hour "family restaurant" called Gusto. Americans can just imagine Denny's, for atmosphere. Food's better, though, being Japan.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:56 PM on March 11, 2011 [17 favorites]

I'm glad the food was better than Denny's. Silver lining and all that.
posted by Wyatt at 7:59 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

heh heh!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:00 PM on March 11, 2011

More video of stupid people intentionally standing near the water's edge to film an incoming tsunami -- this time, from Crescent City, California. Not quite as bad as the guy in Kona earlier, but yeesh.
posted by Asparagirl at 8:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

tl;dr summary of the radiation measurements reported by TEPCO: the neutron readings ranged between 0 and barely detectable, while the gamma readings got as high as 4.97 μSv/h.

An airline pilot might get 2-4 mSv/year, so at the highest rate currently monitored outside of the reactor, you would have to stand in that place for, what, 1000 hours, to get the same dose as a professional pilot receives over a year of flying (never mind the levels only stayed that high for one ten minute period).
posted by zippy at 8:03 PM on March 11, 2011

On the way back from Ichikawa, on a bridge next to a graveyard, someone pointed out the older stones, placed on the hillside, had fallen over.

Still, Gusto? Better than Denny's? They have no pancakes. Saizeriya, maybe, but not Gusto.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:07 PM on March 11, 2011

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94: "The oarfish article is from 2010... which means those oarfish spent a whole year plotting their revenge"

I would deem they were trying to throw us off the scent. That's right: they had hoped to fire a red herring across our gunnels.
posted by mwhybark at 8:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

No pancakes? In the middle of the night? What's that you're saying?
posted by gingerbeer at 8:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Sounds fishy to me, gingerbeer.
posted by mwhybark at 8:12 PM on March 11, 2011

Just a quick note, for everyone who's asked, Mrs. Ghidorah just got home safe and sound. I gave her the hugs you'd sent, and all is well. I'm finally able to relax for the first time since about 2:30 yesterday afternoon. Thank you all so much for all the support.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:13 PM on March 11, 2011 [12 favorites]

Anyone else notice in Obama's quick speech on Friday at ~12:30 PM EST he misspoke and said the US currently has an aircraft carrier IN Japan? Ooof.
posted by BeerFilter at 8:13 PM on March 11, 2011

Speaking of Japanese 'keeping calm and carrying on', just got back from a concert by the world famous KODO drummers. I can't imagine how it feels to charge on stage in a country halfway around the world from your home and loved ones.

But they brought it, and it was a breathtaking show.

Oh, and about those awesomely-engineered Japanese skyscrapers waving...

Tuned mass damper baby, yea that's the shit!
posted by anthill at 8:15 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hawaii breathes a sigh of relief as islands escape major damage. Glad for some good news.
posted by nickyskye at 8:21 PM on March 11, 2011

Anyone else notice in Obama's quick speech on Friday at ~12:30 PM EST he misspoke and said the US currently has an aircraft carrier IN Japan? Ooof.

I don't understand the issue: The nuclear powered USS George Washington is currently based at Yokosuka, the first time a U.S. nuclear powered ship has been permanently based in Japan.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:29 PM on March 11, 2011

Hawaii breathes a sigh of relief as islands escape major damage. Glad for some good news.

Yeah now they only have that volcano to worry about.
posted by scalefree at 8:31 PM on March 11, 2011

Jeff Jarvis: A Wish for a Twitter Witness Tag

It would be terribly useful if there were a separate convention for tweets from witnesses to major events so their reports can be separated from the discussion that follows. How about !jpquake for witnesses vs. #jpquake for discussion?

posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

six-or-sixy-thirty: I think I've discovered why gc hasn't reported in. This press release (pdf) from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency seems to say that the entire Iwate Prefecture is without power.
posted by thebestsophist at 8:37 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Union of Concerned Scientists on the reactors.

From the BBC:

A similar warning, but with a more doom-laden tone, comes from Edwin Lyman, a senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He tells Reuters: "We don't have all the information but every indication is that the type of event that occurred there is one of the most serious things that can happen to a nuclear reactor."

Mr Lyman goes on to raise the spectre of Chernobyl: "In the worst case the entire core could melt through the steel reactor vessel and escape into the containment building, and then the containment is the only thing that is standing between the radiation in the reactor and the atmosphere. There is a chance if that does occur that there will be over pressure, the containment can fail and you might have a release on the order of the Chernobyl accident."

So, of course they focus on the worst case scenario, without going into detail about how likely such a scenario is...
posted by BungaDunga at 8:55 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

anthill, I saw those guys a while back. Good stuff.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:56 PM on March 11, 2011

That's right: they had hoped to fire a red herring across our gunnels.

Sigh. It's spelled gunwales. And, while we're at it, the senior deck guys are boatswains.
posted by eriko at 8:56 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

We have flapjax.

(had to do it. Had to.)
posted by eriko at 8:59 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

@Touruma: Fuel rod was exposed 90cm above the water inside the reactor core at 11:40AM. Now water for fire-fighting being injected. Fukushima No. 1 NP

Not sure of the original source. If true that's very much unhappy.
posted by scalefree at 8:59 PM on March 11, 2011

EMRJKC94: Black humor on a pun vector. My apologies but I thought it was grimacey humorous at the time. I would normally think of an aircraft carrier as being "offshore" of a country, or "off the coast" of Japan, not literally in the country.
posted by BeerFilter at 9:00 PM on March 11, 2011

For those who aren't following @arclight: At Fukushima 1 Reactor 1, they said that the fuel rods were exposed by 90mm (the rods are total about 12-15 feet long total). They are now injecting fire water (as in water from the hydrant), which is considered a last ditch effort. If this doesn't work, there aren't too many more options, and there is going to be core damage.
posted by thebestsophist at 9:00 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Interesting explanation of a licensed senior reactor operator/control room supervisor

I read earlier that the reactor did not have a pressure containment, only a pressure vessel. This means there's one, not two pressure barriers between the core & atmosphere.

People are not good at assessing low risk/high impact situations. Typically, they vastly overestimate the dangers of things that won't happen and ignore or minimize the dangers that stare them in the face. This is a huge disaster and the public health aspects will not emerge for at least a day or two.
posted by warbaby at 9:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I was in Japan two weeks ago to renew my work visa. Yeesh.

Best wishes to Japan, here's hoping the casualty number is as small as possible.
posted by bardic at 9:05 PM on March 11, 2011

Rod exposure is bad because if not in the water, they can get hot enough to be damaged by the heat. This can increase the amount of radioactive material in the water if the fuel elements get broken open.
posted by warbaby at 9:06 PM on March 11, 2011

Here's a diagram of a boiling water reactor to help visualize what @arclight is discussing in that Twitter feed.
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:13 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks, Dr. Zira; that helps, because a lot of the terms sound like random alchemical devices if you don't have much of a science background ("Once the Core leaves the Vessel, the Rod disperses additional Quintessence into the Aether," etc.)
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:22 PM on March 11, 2011 [8 favorites]

Is it still called the China Syndrome if it happens in Japan?
posted by scalefree at 9:26 PM on March 11, 2011

infinitywaltz: Yes, that is exactly why I posted it. To visualize SCIENCE, i.e., figure out this weird language of vessels and rods and melty cores.
As a wee Dr. Zira, TMI scared the living bejeebus out of me. Rather than get sucked in by the fear of OMGCOREMELTDOWNCHERNOBYL, I really appreciate arclight's technical explanation, because we're not really getting much of that from the TeeVee news right now.
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:33 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

90 mm? Is that really enough exposure to be a serious danger? I'm picturing a container full of boiling water around the rods; wouldn't the steam from the other 12 feet be enough to bathe the top few inches?

Is it even still boiling, if the temperature is 10% of what it was when it's running?
posted by bink at 9:36 PM on March 11, 2011

They're reporting temperature rises indicative of possible meltdown on TV now. Not confirmed, but not baseless speculation, either.
posted by Bugbread at 9:36 PM on March 11, 2011

Cringely has posted an analysis of Secretary Clinton's 'coolant' remark which largely confirms speculative analysis posted here over the past day. His slightly different take is that he thinks the worst-off plant is a write off and that TEPCO has known that since making the decision to initate the request for assistance. He presents his bona fides in the post as well, stating,

"I worked as an investigator for the Presidential Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, 32 years ago, and a few months studying the plumbing TMI’s Unit 2, which is actually younger than the errant Japanese reactor, gives me a very healthy respect for the danger in Japan."


Cringely runs hot and cold, so make what you will of it.
posted by mwhybark at 9:36 PM on March 11, 2011

According to @Tourouma whom @arclight has retweeted in the past: "Nuclear plant safety committee detected cesium, a substance that is not normally detected unless, according to an expert, fuel rod melts."
posted by zippy at 9:40 PM on March 11, 2011

90 mm? Is that really enough exposure to be a serious danger?

Centimenters not millimeters. That's 3 feet.
posted by scalefree at 9:40 PM on March 11, 2011

bink, the coolant really needs to surround the rods to cool them down -- think of the engine in a car. If you drive through the fog, it won't cool the engine as effectively as circulating coolant will. Plus the water can absorb free neutrons, which may not be a concern in this particular plant, i dunno.
posted by KathrynT at 9:41 PM on March 11, 2011

There's reports of a possible meltdown all over Twitter now, seemingly originating from these breaking news updates from Kyodo News:

BREAKING NEWS: Radioactive Cesium detected near Fukushima plant: nuke safety commission

BREAKING NEWS: Fukushima nuke plant might be experiencing nuclear meltdown
posted by gerryblog at 9:41 PM on March 11, 2011

eriko: "That's right: they had hoped to fire a red herring across our gunnels.

Sigh. It's spelled gunwales. And, while we're at it, the senior deck guys are boatswains"

right, bosuns, all spelt delibritly capn.
posted by mwhybark at 9:42 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes, Kyodo news is running those in a breaking news banner, no details though.
posted by zippy at 9:43 PM on March 11, 2011

Sorry, my mispelling, it was 90cm, not mm.
posted by thebestsophist at 9:43 PM on March 11, 2011

bink: Yes, we're not talking about a household tea kettle. Once the temp in those rods reaches a level where it affects their structural integrity all bets are off. The previous fog analogy is a good one. No exposed rod would be 'bathed' in condensation like a sweaty mug on a humid day or something, any liquid on them would flash to gas instantly with little heat lost in the transformation (compared to being submerged).

Sounds like this just took a turn for the moderately worse. I hope nuclear power bears this media hit as it should instead of getting a total black eye.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:44 PM on March 11, 2011

Oh fffffffuuuuuuuuu ...

Asahi Shimbun: nuclear meltdown may have occurred:

According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, "meltdown" Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Unit 1 Toukyoudenryoku may have occurred, the core cooling water is declining, one of the top of the fuel rods at about 4 m - exposed about 5 meters, it is a situation that can not cool enough. TEPCO and have a fire engine from the injection.

(via Google translate)
posted by zippy at 9:46 PM on March 11, 2011

The NHK's stance:

「燃料のごく一部が溶けて漏れ出たのだろうと思われるが、原子炉はすでに停止しているうえ、冷やされている状況だ。ほとんどの核燃料は原子炉の中におさまっているので住民には冷静な対応をお願いしたい」

"It does seem that part of the fuel rod has melted, but as the reactor is disabled it is currently cooling down as whole, so we ask that residents remain calm."

Many Japanese people are translating/retweeting this.
posted by shii at 9:49 PM on March 11, 2011

From Twitter, reports that Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokemon, died in the tsunami.
posted by Asparagirl at 9:49 PM on March 11, 2011

...followed by a flurry of tweets saying no, he's alive but he just fainted. And the only news story either way is 404'ed. Now I don't know what to think.
posted by Asparagirl at 9:52 PM on March 11, 2011

The title for the Something Awful thread all day: 8.9 Quake & Tsunami hits NE Japan: Pokemon jokes = Ban
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:54 PM on March 11, 2011

The tweets in Japanese are either commenting on the English rumor or saying that it's a false rumor that does not correspond to any information from within Japan.
posted by shii at 9:54 PM on March 11, 2011

TEPCO has updated its radiation monitoring chart (PDF, in Japanese).

There are significantly higher radiation peaks on it than previously, including:

12 Mar 11
- 10:20 gamma 180.2 µSv/h
- 10:30 gamma 385.5 µSv/h
- 10:40 gamma 162.9 µSv/h

all, I believe, taken at the front gate of the plant
posted by zippy at 9:57 PM on March 11, 2011

Remember folks, meltdown doesn't mean Chernobyl. It would still be contained.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:57 PM on March 11, 2011

The title for the Something Awful thread all day: 8.9 Quake & Tsunami hits NE Japan: Pokemon jokes = Ban

I only wish that standard could be applied to Godzilla jokes and the entire planet.
posted by gerryblog at 9:58 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

It would still be contained.

Well, we hope.
posted by zippy at 9:58 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Good for the SA mods! Next thing you know Anonymous will be declaring war on idiot newscasters that can't get facts right.

gerryblog: they did mention Godzilla jokes too btw.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:59 PM on March 11, 2011

Tajiri updated his Facebook after the earthquake, and the Nintendo Twitter feed says no one was hurt.
posted by rachaelfaith at 10:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

It could still be contained, but let's not forget that roads, bridges, and general infrastructure have been wiped out. Getting crews and equipment in to service the reactor may be impossible right now.

/paranoid
posted by bardic at 10:01 PM on March 11, 2011

NHK has a much clearer post -- cesium detected, implying a compromised fuel rod. There's not much you can do to save this reactor as a going concern -- dump water in and keep dumping and venting until you can get the pumps running, then wait for it to cool down.

Fukushima 1 Reactor 1 is basically now TMI Reactor 2 -- core compromised, containment holding. I'm worried about the nearly five orders of magnitude leap in radiation readings -- 162.9μSv/hr is still a very low dose, but any jump like that is bad news -- esp. since it's gamma.
posted by eriko at 10:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

good god. this can't actually be happening can it? not a meltdown, too?
posted by saulgoodman at 10:01 PM on March 11, 2011

With Chernobyl it literally was China Syndrome, uncontrolled chain reaction that melted straight through the floor. There's no chain reaction here, just very hot rods not cooling off fast enough.
posted by scalefree at 10:02 PM on March 11, 2011

One thing I will note -- the tsunami will have killed far more than this reactor will.
posted by eriko at 10:02 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

So what happened to the "neutron absorbing" stuff that was discussed upthread. Isn't it time to admit this reactor is a loss and dump it in?
posted by Windopaene at 10:03 PM on March 11, 2011

With Chernobyl it literally was China Syndrome, uncontrolled chain reaction that melted straight through the floor. There's no chain reaction here, just very hot rods not cooling off fast enough.

No, with Chernobyl, it was a huge power transient in a reactor made of flammable materials (RBMKs used graphite moderators) and no containment vessel. It didn't melt, it blew up. What was left melted, but the reason Chernobyl was such a nightmare is that it quite literally threw *tons* of core material out into the environment.

Not micrograms. Tons.
posted by eriko at 10:04 PM on March 11, 2011

Eriko, after that spike, the values at that monitoring location went to double-digits. 10-20x previous reported values, but 1/10th peak.

- 11:50 17.10 µSv/h
- 12:00 23.21 µSv/h
posted by zippy at 10:04 PM on March 11, 2011

Anyone have any thoughts on when/if they make the decision to coffin the reactor?

Note: this is the 'neutron absorbing' stuff injection.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:04 PM on March 11, 2011

Even if not a soul is harmed, I have a good feeling that this is going to be a dreadful blow to the politics of nuclear energy in the US.
posted by Windopaene at 10:05 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Even if not a soul is harmed, I have a bad feeling this is going to be a dreadful blow to the politics of nuclear energy in the US.

Not if containment holds, yielding a negligible impact on the surrounding area. It'll be a live demonstration that it's possible to engineer a nuclear power plant to be safe in the worst-case scenario.
posted by fatbird at 10:06 PM on March 11, 2011

Isn't it time to admit this reactor is a loss and dump it in?

Core reactions are under control -- the fuel rods are in. The problem is that the core is still very hot, and will remain so for a while, and there's not enough coolant flowing by to keep the core safe.

Borated water would just slow them down from dumping just water in.
posted by eriko at 10:06 PM on March 11, 2011

shii: "It does seem that part of the fuel rod has melted, but as the reactor is disabled it is currently cooling down as whole, so we ask that residents remain calm."


Isn't this somewhat contradictory? I mean, if there's exposed fuel rod which cannot be cooled, won't it start making it possible for the other rods to heat up as well by reducing the effectiveness of the, what, water, I guess?

eriko, I apologize for my spelling japery! explain away!

Also, I am now ready to ask why it seems that the special flown-in coolant hasn't been used, or was used on other reactors, or was used and failed.
posted by mwhybark at 10:06 PM on March 11, 2011

Yes, this is a great day for the coal industry.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:06 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Over the decades, the Japanese public has been reassured by the Tokyo Electric Power Company that its nuclear reactors are prepared for any eventuality. Yet the mystery in Fukushima is not the first unreported problem with nuclear power, only the most recent. Back in 1996, amid a reactor accident in Ibaraki province, the government never admitted that radioactive fallout had drifted over the northeastern suburbs of Tokyo. Reporters obtained confirmation from monitoring stations, but the press was under a blanket order not to run any alarming news, facts be damned. For a nation that has lived under the atomic cloud of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, total denial becomes possible because the finger on the button is our own.
posted by gerryblog at 10:07 PM on March 11, 2011

I've been following along with little to say. It may amuse you to know that I went straight to my local sake bar and kept the owner updated via this thread, all while NHK was on in the background. But I just wanted to say that I'm so happy to hear from those in Japan and I hope those we haven't heard from are ok.
posted by Errant at 10:08 PM on March 11, 2011

And it doesn't matter how "safe" a nuclear reactor can be. The fact is, it is always the human elements involved, and the huge economic consequences of operator's actions, or lack thereof, that scares the shit out of me.

We saw the same thing with the Deepwater Horizon.
posted by Windopaene at 10:09 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Note: TMI was the same sort of accident. The reactor was scrammed and no longer critical, but latent and decay heat wasn't removed and resulted in core damage.

Basically, there's two sources of heat in a reactor. There's the primary reactions when the core is critical, and then there's decay reactions from those. When you scram a reactor, the primary reactions stop, but you need to keep the core cool while the decay reactions take place.
posted by eriko at 10:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think you may have started to answer some of that right as I posted, specifically where you said,

"Borated water would just slow them down from dumping just water in."

I'm also curious about the differential between the 90cm exposed-rod information and the unclear-referent 4m / 5m in the Googlefish translation of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency report from Asahi Shimbum. I'm guessing Japanese isn't your string suit but maybe you can recognize the dimensions.

@arclight just posted he's getting set for a Skype appearance on CNN.
posted by mwhybark at 10:10 PM on March 11, 2011

Anyone have any thoughts on when/if they make the decision to coffin the reactor?

It's already housed in a containment vessel.

However, according to the Asahi:

　炉心溶融は、想定されている原発事故の中で最悪の事態だ。これが進むと、爆発的な反応を引き起こして広く外部に放射能をまき散らす恐れもある。

[My rough translation on the fly]: Core meltdown is the worst-case scenario... If the situation continues there are fears it may result in an explosion and the release of radioactivity into the environment.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:10 PM on March 11, 2011

And it doesn't matter how "safe" a nuclear reactor can be. The fact is, it is always the human elements involved, and the huge economic consequences of operator's actions, or lack thereof, that scares the shit out of me.

But this is, unfortunately, one of those weird human cognitive quirks. Because using coal for power causes far more toxic exposure, health risks, and death under normal operating conditions than nuclear power does under anything except the most extreme failure modes. But we aren't wired to process slow-burn risks the same way as sudden catastrophic ones, even if the former are way more problematic from a rationalist examination.
posted by Justinian at 10:12 PM on March 11, 2011 [35 favorites]

KokuRyu: This seems relevant, according to a couple of sources, but I can't read it.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20110312/t10014623511000.html

The only other good thing I could imagine coming out of this, but I won't get my hopes up, would be stronger investment in next-gen reactor designs.

Well, that and we'll start planning for a combination magnitude 9 earthquake *and* tsunami hitting a reactor within an hour.

Jesus, talk about hitting a perfecta.
posted by eriko at 10:13 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

We have to remember that Fukushima 1 Reactor 1 is a 40 year old design. The newer reactor designs emphasize passive cooling a whole lot more which makes this sort of situation a lot less likely.
posted by thebestsophist at 10:13 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Interactive NYT Map

Thank god this was 270km from Tokyo is all i can say.
posted by dydecker at 10:14 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

And of course solar and wind are very dangerous...
posted by Windopaene at 10:15 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

(citation for my last post)
posted by thebestsophist at 10:16 PM on March 11, 2011

KokuRyu: Poor vocabulary on my part, I meant kill the reactor by flooding the containment with neutron absorbers.

Justinian, you beat me to it.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:16 PM on March 11, 2011

It'll be a live demonstration that it's possible to engineer a nuclear power plant to be safe in the worst-case scenario.

The only other good thing I could imagine coming out of this, but I won't get my hopes up, would be stronger investment in next-gen reactor designs

Yeah, I think it's important that people understand that we're talking about a General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor ("BWR") that's almost 40 years old. Unfortunately, because we here in the US live in a society where there's not much room for subtlety (and, for that matter, facts) in public discourse, if it goes badly, then I suspect OMG NUKULAR DANGER DANGER DEATH is going to dominate the debate.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:17 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

Windopaene, take your jihad against nuclear energy (and your de facto emrace of burning fossil fuels) to Metatalk.
posted by bardic at 10:17 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

The newer reactor designs emphasize passive cooling a whole lot more which makes this sort of situation a lot less likely.

Yes. The ESBWR design doesn't need pumps, it uses convection to keep fluid moving around the core. You can ignore this reactor after a scram for three days with no core damage, so long as there's coolant in the vessel.

What killed this reactor is the lack of pumps, not the lack of water. What killed the pumps was, of course, water.
posted by eriko at 10:18 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Googlefish on that nhk.or.jp link eriko just posted:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww3.nhk.or.jp%2Fnews%2Fhtml%2F20110312%2Ft10014623511000.html

"According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency Ministry of Economy, in the vicinity of Unit 1 in the site of nuclear power plants Fukushima Daiichi "cesium", "iodine" is a radioactive substance called because it was detected, the reactor core in the No. 1 announced that melts out and try some of that fuel.

"Cs" or "iodine" is what happens to the fission of uranium fuel in nuclear fuel rods, NISA is "is filled with uranium fuel [cladding] melted tube of metal, called potential "is said. In Unit 1, but continues to inject water into the reactor, lower the height of the water to cool the reactor, a bundle of fuel rods, "fuel assemblies" is exposed to about 70 cm 1 meter up to The fact that, Nuclear Safety Agency, "the possibility of water leaking from the containment can not be denied," I explained.

Meanwhile, the evacuation of residents, "In view of weather conditions and the amount of leaking and need to extend the range of 10 km radius of the shelter is not" I said.

University of Tokyo professor Sekimura Naoto, "it seems to be a small portion of leaking fuel rods melted, most of the nuclear fuel inside the reactor is still 納Matsu. In addition, the reactor has already stopped to-ridden and badly, but the situation has cooled down. I want to ask residents to respond calmly, "I said. "

not sure what the out of place 'I said' stuff indicates. Looks like the info from upthread abit about the 70cm-90cm exposed rod and cesium.
posted by mwhybark at 10:18 PM on March 11, 2011

Isn't this somewhat contradictory? I mean, if there's exposed fuel rod which cannot be cooled, won't it start making it possible for the other rods to heat up as well by reducing the effectiveness of the, what, water, I guess?

Exposed doesn't mean fission is occurring or will occur. They stopped the reaction hours ago. This is just residual heat taking too long to cool off.
posted by scalefree at 10:19 PM on March 11, 2011

I wonder when CNN is going to air the Skype interview arclight just finished? Because apparently the only news that happens after midnight involves reruns of Anderson Cooper and Eliot Spitzer.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:19 PM on March 11, 2011

mwhybark, I'm not clear on that, but I have a number of other reasons to believe the situation won't escalate:

1) Workers were evacuated for their own safety, which makes it sound like the reactor is naturally going to cool.

2) The evacuation radius has not expanded from 10km.

3) Asahi TV which is making the most dire predictions is not even reporting on this on the moment.

eriko, a rough translation of the story:

According to the Nuclear Safety Agency, radioactive cesium and iodine have been detected around Fukushima Nuclear Energy Plant No. 1. They announced that it appears that some part of the core has already melted.

The Nuclear Safety Agency stated that "the metal pipe surrounding the uranium fuel appears to have melted". They are continuing to pour water into the reactor, but 1.7 meters of fuel rod remains exposed. [This statement was added 10 minutes ago] The Nuclear Safety Agency stated that "it is not infeasible that the coolant chamber is leaking."

As for the evacuation of residents, they stated that "in view of the weather conditions and the amount of leaking, there is no need to extend the evacuation radius from 10km".

Followed by the college professor's statement, "It does seem that part of the fuel rod has melted, but as the reactor is disabled it is currently cooling down as whole, so we ask that residents remain calm."
posted by shii at 10:20 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

To try to show myself as balanced, I don't understand why you are allowed to use reactors which don't make heavy use of passive cooling. Mark I BWR reactors should not be in operation in this day and age, and should be shut down by government regulation if necessary.
posted by Justinian at 10:20 PM on March 11, 2011

Because taking them offline would cause disruption of the energy flow, and would cost lots and lots of money and company profits?
posted by Windopaene at 10:22 PM on March 11, 2011

And of course solar and wind are very dangerous...

Frankly, the great danger of solar and wind is that we'll keep burning coal and ignoring nuclear power while paying vague lip-service to an all-solar-and-wind grid.
posted by vorfeed at 10:23 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

So replace them and take them offline as the new plants come online. Yeah, I understand that is expensive. Anything having to do with power generation is expensive. It's less expensive than running a plant, be it nuclear or coal, until the thing falls apart or explodes.
posted by Justinian at 10:23 PM on March 11, 2011

General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor ("BWR") that's almost 40 years old.

I thought is was an BWR/3, not a BWR/1 -- still a very old design.

Shii: Thank you very much for the translation. The 1.7m exposed rod is bothersome -- 80cm more than originally reported. But if they can keep water in, they can keep the core mostly intact.
posted by eriko at 10:23 PM on March 11, 2011

I love how network news broadcasts what I picked up from y'all here 2+ hours after the fact, leaves out non-uber technical and very useful details, and labels it 'BREAKING NEWS'.

@Justinian: Mandating the use of the bleeding edge, and nothing else, of the tech ladder has its own dangers, complications, and costs of course.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:24 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Japan: Radiation medical team en route from Tokyo to Fukushima via SDF Helicopter, will establish camp 5km from reactor in case treatment for radiation exposure necessary (via CNN.com's live stream)
posted by zippy at 10:25 PM on March 11, 2011

The Fukushima-1 Unit-1 reactor is designated BWR-3. It uses a Mark I containment vessel.
posted by zippy at 10:26 PM on March 11, 2011

Fossil fuels my butt. One of my cars burns biodiesel, the other, is soon to be replaced with a Nissan Leaf (all electric). My house is heated with biodiesel. And my hot water is heated with solar.

And I'm done with this particular thread derail. But I never intend to live within 10km of a nuke plant...
posted by Windopaene at 10:26 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fukushima I-1 was due for decommissioning in two years.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:26 PM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

It seems that arclight was too informative for US CNN so they only put him on CNN International? Anderson Cooper mostly showing old footage labeled breaking news.
posted by zachlipton at 10:26 PM on March 11, 2011

shii: "Asahi TV which is making the most dire predictions is not even reporting on this on the moment."

shii, a bit of media context for us would be helpful, if you are willing. Asahi TV and Asahi Shimbum are alligned media entities, with Shimbum being the older and a newspaper, correct? Both of these entities are privately owned, I think.

NHK is a national TV network. Is it private?

Is Shimbum, like, the 'liberal' paper/media org, like the Guardian in the UK, for example?

Helping to understand the editorial direction of the news sources clarifies the meaning of the stories we're scrabbling through.

Your presence and commentary, like eriko's, is appreciated. Thanks for taking the time.
posted by mwhybark at 10:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pokemon jokes = Ban

SA is winning the enforced decency wars compared to MeFi then.

Fukushima 1 Reactor 1 is basically now TMI Reactor 2 -- core compromised, containment holding. I'm worried about the nearly five orders of magnitude leap in radiation readings -- 162.9μSv/hr is still a very low dose, but any jump like that is bad news -- esp. since it's gamma.

I'm worried you're worried.

then I suspect OMG NUKULAR DANGER DANGER DEATH is going to dominate the debate.

Because that's the real tragedy here, right?
posted by rodgerd at 10:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

KokuRyu: This seems relevant, according to a couple of sources, but I can't read it.



経済産業省の原子力安全・保安院によりますと、福島第一原子力発電所の敷地内の１号機の周辺で「セシウム」、「ヨウ素」という放射性物質が、検出されたことから、１号機で炉心にある核燃料の一部が溶け出たとみていると発表しました。

Rough translation: Authorities say that they have recorded Cesium and Iodine radioactivity the No 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, which indicates a partial core meltdown.

「セシウム」や「ヨウ素」は核燃料棒の中のウラン燃料が核分裂して発生するもので、原子力安全・保安院は「ウラン燃料が詰まっている『被覆管』と呼ばれる金属製の筒が溶けた可能性がある」と話しています。

Rough translation: Basically the uranium fuel has fused with the metal jackets or sheaths containing the rods.

また、１号機では原子炉に水を注入し続けていますが、原子炉を冷やす水の高さが下がり、核燃料棒を束ねた「燃料集合体」が、最大で１メートル７０センチほど露出しているということで、原子力安全・保安院は「格納容器から水が漏れている可能性は否定できない」と説明しています。

Rough translation: Since approx 170 cm of the fuel assembly has been exposed, there is the possibility that coolant is leaking from the containment vessel.

一方、住民の避難について、「漏れた量や気象状況などから見て、半径１０キロという避難の範囲を広げる必要はない」と話しています。

Rough translation: 10 km radius evacuation is necessary.

東京大学の関村直人教授は「燃料棒のごく一部が溶けて漏れ出たのだろうと思われるが、ほとんどの核燃料は今も原子炉の中に納まっている。また、原子炉はすでに停止しているうえ、冷やされている状況だ。住民には冷静な対応をお願いしたい」と話しています。

Rough translation: A Tokyo University researcher said that although there may be a limited meltdown, the most of the nuclear fuel is contained, and the reactor is cooling off, so local residents should remain calm.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

The sun is a radiation leaking nuke plant.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:31 PM on March 11, 2011

And my hot water is heated with solar.
Cool.

Well, then, it's doing a lousy job at hot water, isn't it. :-)

RIGHt. We're all freaking out. BAD NUKE JOKES: GO!!!

I think I've lost an electron.

Are you sure?

I'm POSITIVE!!!!11!!
posted by eriko at 10:31 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

hey, come on, cut out the sniping. we can do that later. Matt and cortex are on the road and almost certainly relieved that we're playing as nicely as we are.
posted by mwhybark at 10:32 PM on March 11, 2011

floam, still more green a household than typical. And not glowing in the dark!
posted by carmina at 10:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Which is why I don't live within 10km of the sun.
posted by Windopaene at 10:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

not you, eriko, I meant upthread. we're commenting so quick the responses are offset.
posted by mwhybark at 10:33 PM on March 11, 2011

I thought is was an BWR/3, not a BWR/1 -- still a very old design.

Here's the source but it's from NIRS, so I'm trying to find an alternate neutral source.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:33 PM on March 11, 2011

KokuRyu: Thanks.

My biggest weakness is that I've never really learned another language -- I can often dope out anything in the Romance category, but when it comes to the Asian languages, I can clearly tell there's intelligence there, but I CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT, WAAAAHHHHHH.
posted by eriko at 10:33 PM on March 11, 2011

hey, come on, cut out the sniping. we can do that later. Matt and cortex are on the road and almost certainly relieved that we're playing as nicely as we are.

Sir, I must insist that you take your anti-sniping jihadery to MetaTalk forthwith.
posted by gerryblog at 10:34 PM on March 11, 2011

I want to know how the official statements went from "the rods are well under water, but we're going to have to release a little steam" to "170cm of the rods were exposed" with no statement in-between
posted by zippy at 10:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Matt and cortex are on the road and almost certainly relieved that we're playing as nicely as we are.

Oh, shit. *picks lock on scotch cabinet, drinks hella whisky*
posted by loquacious at 10:35 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

Which is why I don't live within 10km of the sun.

The technical term for what just happened there is "Oooh, SNAP!"

Well played, sir.
posted by eriko at 10:35 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just don't understand what the article means by "coolant leaking from the containment vessel". Is the containment vessel the big concrete dome or box housing the reactors? If so, how would the coolant get out?
posted by KokuRyu at 10:35 PM on March 11, 2011

Ah hell. @arclight was on CNNI and not CNN? You mean I turned that crap on for nothing? Anyone see the video online yet?
posted by thebestsophist at 10:36 PM on March 11, 2011

My house is heated with biodiesel.

CO2, is causing global warming.

Please bear in mind that the CO₂ released when you burn biodiesel was previously taken up by plants from the atmosphere, not released from petroleum reservoirs in the ground. So the process as a whole is carbon-neutral.
posted by teraflop at 10:36 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

zippy: I don't know what the official statements are, but the Japanese news has been broadcasting for over an hour that 90cm were exposed. Not that "there is a rumor", but that they were. Since that info can only come from Tepco, all I can think is that maybe they aren't translating every official statement into English?
posted by Bugbread at 10:36 PM on March 11, 2011

Which is why I don't live within 10km of the sun.

The leak is strong enough to cause cancer even at your current range. :(
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:37 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

KokuRyu -- I'm worried about that as well. There is a secondary containment -- the BWR design has "hot" water flowing through the turbine, so it's contained as well, and there's the venting pools and such for steam blowoff that might be where the primary coolant is leaking to.

But, boy I'd want to know where it's going. It's not anywhere near as bad as letting the core melt, but if the water pouring in is pouring out, that's a major release -- and we're now well beyond TMI. (we're nowhere near Chernoybl, though -- remember, *tons* of core escaped the reactor there.)
posted by eriko at 10:38 PM on March 11, 2011

mwhybark, first off, my apologies, I'm still in a news and beer-induced haze and confused Asahi TV with Asahi Shinbun. They are separate and unrelated corporations.

Japanese news media are very serious about attributing statements to sources which means that important events sometimes go poorly reported; for example, during the Ibaraki incident mentioned above the government simply made no statement, so the news reported no statement. Japanese society has always distinguished between these official reports and rumor. For example, everyone in Japan knew sumo was rigged before the official scandal came out (Americans knew the same about the WWF, right?). Similarly, the religious cult Soka Gakkai/SGI controls a medium-sized political party in Japan, all educated adults know this, but the news media scarcely if ever reports on it.

You can see above that the NHK quoted a long statement by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. This is the only confirmed information we have. The NHK is very similar to the BBC, although more responsible because it follows these reporting rules. TV stations also follow these rules for the most part.

Asahi Shinbun is the most liberal paper and more open to reporting analysis from scientists who don't just want to say "keep calm and carry on". It's possible they are speaking the truth but I am following the conservative line in thinking that it's all speculation right now.
posted by shii at 10:39 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Sorry, you're right Bugbread, I should have said "release steam" to "90cm exposed." I didn't find anything in-between these.
posted by zippy at 10:39 PM on March 11, 2011

Just wondering if it would be more helpful to have the nuke stuff in its own thread, seeing as how it's taking on the characteristics of a disaster-within-a-disaster.
posted by dhartung at 10:40 PM on March 11, 2011

> Americans knew the same about the WWF, right?

WHAT!?!?!
posted by djwudi at 10:41 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

gerryblog: "Sir, I must insist that you take your anti-sniping jihadery to MetaTalk forthwith"

ha-ha, not yet. keepin it on the down-low.
posted by mwhybark at 10:42 PM on March 11, 2011

If any good has come of this disaster it's that Bugbread has finally come out of hibernation. Nice to see you back, Bugbread.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 10:43 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

For those that don't know, the press in Japan is pretty well controlled through the press club, or Kisha Club system. Essentially, if reporters are good, and their media company plays within the rules, they'll be allowed to attend press conferences and get information directly from official sources. If they don't play by the rules, they can find themselves banned from the conferences, locked out of the official stream of sources, while their competitors get the 'real' news.

In Japan, the tabloid weekly papers are almost universally not allowed in, which is why they frequently can report things that mainstream club members can't. They print a lot of bullshit, but they also tell a lot of truth (like, say, the sumo thing, months and years before it became officially reported). I'll be interested in seeing what Shukan Post and Spa have to say about this in the coming weeks.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:45 PM on March 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

KokuRyu:

I just don't understand what the article means by "coolant leaking from the containment vessel". Is the containment vessel the big concrete dome or box housing the reactors? If so, how would the coolant get out?

Basics:

The ceramic fuel is stored in fuel rods.
The fuel rods are kept in the reactor vessel, which is where all the nuclear reactions take place.
The reactor vessel is in a containment building, kept far away from cities.

In order for for the bad stuff (technical term) to get out into the public, each of those barriers needs to be breached. Currently, only the rods have started to damage. Now this definitely a really bad thing (another technical term), but there are still layers of protection between the radiation and people.
posted by thebestsophist at 10:45 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

The aftershocks seem to be abating. Didn't sleep very well last night as they would hit every half hour or hour or so. At about 4 a.m. was a VERY big aftershock that woke us up completely.

Tokyo has been spared almost completely. The trains stopping all day and night yesterday turned the city into a weird refugee camp, with people walking home from their offices. I walked 7 miles and it took me something like three hours. The entire way there were people in front and ahead of me.

But we're the lucky ones. Japanese TV is, naturally, non-stop coverage of the quake, every network. The scenes in Iwate and Fukushima and Sendai and a hundred other places in northern Japan is just devastating. The vast majority of the deaths and damage comes from the tsunamis.

I don't know how much of this footage is filtering through overseas, but it's fucking incredible how much damage there is. Entire towns are destroyed. Tens of thousands of houses destroyed. Displaced people are staying in school gymnasiums and the like. At the time of this writing, they are saying 1,600 people confirmed dead, and that number is only going to climb higher.

Northern Japan, and all along the eastern coast (think, say, Maine to Georgia) has borne the brunt of this quake.

As I type this, another aftershock. -sigh- So ready for this to be over with. Guess I picked the wrong week to live in an earthquake zone.
posted by zardoz at 10:45 PM on March 11, 2011 [15 favorites]

WWF, WWE... you know, wrestling.

BTW, I only knew about the Ibaraki nuclear accident vaguely, but it looks like it was well-reported on: the NHK wrote a book and it seems like most Japanese people knew about it immediately.
posted by shii at 10:45 PM on March 11, 2011

Thank you very much, shii. That was more or less what I had imputed with regard to the media entities. Your backgrounder on unreported common knowledge was also very helpful.
posted by mwhybark at 10:46 PM on March 11, 2011

Thanks for dumbing it down; I had no idea I sounded so stupid!
posted by KokuRyu at 10:46 PM on March 11, 2011

shii: "WWF, WWE... you know, wrestling."

djwudi was pulling your leg, shii, feigning ignorance of rigged matches.
posted by mwhybark at 10:47 PM on March 11, 2011

At the time of this writing, they are saying 1,600 people confirmed dead, and that number is only going to climb higher.

I pray that I'm wrong, but Kobe killed 6000. If Japan didn't lose 10,000 people from this one, they're incredibly lucky. I saw the footage of that tsunami running more than a kilometer into Sendai -- and almost everyone who was hit by that water would have died.
posted by eriko at 10:47 PM on March 11, 2011

Damn it, I keep forgetting to cite my sources:

• defense in depth
• Ceramic fuel
• Reactor vessel and containment building
• how bad stuff happens

posted by thebestsophist at 10:48 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dr. Zira: I'm trying to find an alternate neutral source.

Here you go.
posted by zippy at 10:49 PM on March 11, 2011

one thing to look at, in terms of the Kobe quake, was how long it took the government to get into Kobe and start disaster relief operations. They were incredibly slow, leaving many to fend for themselves at first. I've heard about the local Yakuza in Kobe being, at first, the best at distributing aid after the Hanshin quake. This time, at the very least, the government seems to be doing a pretty amazing job.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:50 PM on March 11, 2011

shii: "Shinbun"

ALSO noted. I kept looking at the word I was typing and couldn't tell offhand if it looked right or not.
posted by mwhybark at 10:51 PM on March 11, 2011

I'm falling deeply in love with this arclight guy.

arclight responds to a recent tweet, 'Nuclear is not going to doom us. Paying more attention to Charlie Sheen & Lindsay Lohan than to energy needs & the environment will'

Anyone have a link to his interview with CNN(I)? I apparently was one of the lucky ones on CNN classic and missed it.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:51 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

KokuRyu: I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to come across that way. I wrote how I like to read when stuff is being summarized. (That's basically what my personal notes would have looked like.)

Basically, in order for the nuclear contaminate to break out, the fuel would have to melt through *everything.* From what I've read, it's pretty unlikely to go through the contamination building.
posted by thebestsophist at 10:54 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks, zippy. That .pdf you linked to is fascinating.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:55 PM on March 11, 2011

thebestsophist: but what happens when coolant liquid that's been in contact with the rod filling leaks into the environment? Isn;t that what they are afraid now?
posted by carmina at 10:57 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm watching ABC's 20/20 here in Los Angeles (near 11pm Fri) and they're showing Godzilla.

For more than a decade now the blue has been the first place I go when there is a "big" event. Even with the sometimes silly sniping, it's still the best news source on the 'net. Getting to read first-person accounts of things like this right here is -- even after ten years! -- just amazing.

So. Thanks, @mathowie. You rule.
posted by GatorDavid at 10:57 PM on March 11, 2011 [14 favorites]

"in terms of the Kobe quake"

Not to mention the fact that the hospitals turned away non-ethnic Japanese (Kobe being a port with a large population of Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.).

Hopefully Japan will do a better job this time around.
posted by bardic at 10:58 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Basically, in order for the nuclear contaminate to break out, the fuel would have to melt through *everything.*

The more likely scenario (according to this random source, and IANA nuclear engineer) is:

"following a loss of coolant accident, the temperature of fuel cladding could rise
and hydrogen could be generated by a water-metal reaction, which could impair the
containment integrity due to hydrogen gas combustion"

In other words, you don't need to melt through the steel containment vessel, necessarily, you could also rupture it via an internal explosion.
posted by zippy at 11:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

great mystery of life: CNN's live web feed of NHK's live web feed is 10 or more seconds ahead of the same feed on NHK's site
posted by zippy at 11:04 PM on March 11, 2011

Zardoz: Correction, 1,600 dead and missing. Which, of course, will rise, but 1,600 dead is very different from 1,600 dead and missing. (I'm watching TV Asahi, which says 1,400, but close enough).
posted by Bugbread at 11:06 PM on March 11, 2011

zippy: "great mystery of life: CNN's live web feed of NHK's live web feed is 10 or more seconds ahead of the same feed on NHK's site
"


remember @MayorEmanuel's time vortex? and that whirlpool this morning? and the international date line? and the 10cm axial shift?

See, the answer's just, like, staring you in the face

posted by mwhybark at 11:09 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

carmina: what zippy said. When releasing pressure, my understanding is that as long as they keep track of how much is released into the atmosphere, and hope for a good wind, radiation diffuses to safe levels relatively quickly.

(Note: My understanding of this is limited to the bits I can understand and remember from conversations with nuclear engineer and physics friends, this is not even close to my field of study.)
posted by thebestsophist at 11:10 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Besides evacuating the immediate area, can they get potassium iodide tablets to the communities that are likely to be downwind of any kind of leak? They're cheap to manufacture and store, they don't have side effects, and if taken before exposure they would prevent people's thyroids from sucking up radioactive bits. They don't protect against significant radiation exposure, of course, but they're better than nothing -- especially for kids, who IIRC had ridiculous rates of thyroid cancer after Chernobyl.

I lived in New York during and after 9/11, and my little hometown in Westchester county pre-emptively passed out free potassium iodide tablets to residents in case terrorists ever targeted the nearby Indian Point nuclear power plant. I can't imagine a well-prepared country like Japan wouldn't have a cache of them somewhere too.
posted by Asparagirl at 11:12 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I just got a message from gc, he says that they are doing well in Morioka. Without power or heat, but with water. Phone is dodgy, and internet is even worse.
posted by thebestsophist at 11:13 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

great mystery of life:

CNN is probably getting their feed directly through an analog or digital satellite link, which is then being encoded and streamed from an "earth station" that's physically closer to you, resulting in less hops.

NHK's internet feed probably has to hop through more internet hops to get to you (unless you're in Japan.)

HOWEVER... that's all probably moot. Streaming MP4 and/or FLV/flash video is notoriously laggy. You can induce a ten to twenty second delay just by loading the same stream in two different tabs or windows. Try stopping and restarting them. They'll almost always be out of sync.

Streaming media delivery isn't very time precise. Very little of the internet is. It was never designed to be an end-to-end circuit replacement of a direct connection like a plain old telephone system or a CCTV/Cable feed. There are many hops between you, your ISP and either CNN or NHK's servers. Not all of your packets may route the same way every time, either.
posted by loquacious at 11:14 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Skip the NHK World feed (which seems to be looping); get the real thing.
posted by clorox at 11:20 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

To give people a sense of scale with regards to the outer shell of the reactor, I found this on the SA post, referencing Sizewell A which is an older reactor. Please note the numbers are not intended as exact figures, only to give some scale of what surrounds similar devices around the world.

The foundations for the reactors and associated boilers are provided by a reinforced concrete raft 8 feet (2.4 metres) thick, founded on the sand with a designed net bearing pressure of 3.5 tons per square foot. The biological shields are 100 feet (30.5 metres) high and vary between 10 and 14 feet (3 and 4.3 metres) thick. The composite steel and reinforced concrete cap above each reactor is 12 feet (3.7 metres) thick.

Anyone want to refresh my memory on what effects the age of this reactor might have on the intended vs. actual strengths of the reactor vessel / structure? I remember that long term exposure to radiation does odd things to the metallurgical properties and weakens them (can make them brittle? sound right?) over time. Since this reactor was due to be decommissioned I can't help but wonder if it wasn't approaching that time anyway... Are similar structural degradations seen in the concrete as well?
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:24 PM on March 11, 2011

Japanese government, via NHK's live stream: "some fuel rods may have melted, some fuel may be outside the reactor."

TEPCO's latest statement on Fukushima-2 Units 1 and 2 have had coolant leaks inside the reactor containment vessels (they don't quite say this, but the levels are lower than expected, and for every other unit they say "we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage inside the reactor containment vessel."

Also:

"one of our employees working in the Unit 1 was irradiated at over
100mSv level(106.3mSv). Because of absence of industrial physician, so he
will be diagnosed at a later day."
posted by zippy at 11:32 PM on March 11, 2011

"Yet the mystery in Fukushima is not the first unreported problem with nuclear power..."

Given all the information we are getting from Fukushima, and the fact that we can see their rad levels in realtime... and we have access to their previous safety reports, and know exactly how they're made and what problems to expect... and the fact that they're getting a lot of media attention now, well...

Unreported?!
posted by markkraft at 11:34 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

and the fact that they're getting a lot of media attention now, well...

As mentioned above, the fact that the core was exposed went unreported until the core was exposed by nearly one meter. They went from "we've got it mostly under control, the core is under water, we're working and everything's going to be ok" to "ok, our bad, the core appears to have melted a bit and, hmm, it's now exposed by 90cm ... no, now 170cm."
posted by zippy at 11:45 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm so glad this is now the thread in which I can brag about the newly manufactured electric car I'm going to buy, and all the other totally conscientious steps I've taken to make my incredibly comfortable first world lifestyle as conspicuously righteous as possible.

Oh god what am I saying? You don't think all this earthquake business is going to delay shipment of my Nissan Leaf, do you??

hanbagu
posted by danny the boy at 11:52 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Crap. From the Reuters live feed:

Japan Nuclear Safety Commission: still trying to confirm if there was an explosion at Fukushima plant; Several people appear to have been injured after reported Fukushima plant explosion - Jiji
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:56 PM on March 11, 2011

...followed immediately by "Japan Nuclear Safety Agency has heard that explosion was not at reactor."

I've got my iPad out with NHK World running, but don't know how much information they'll give.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:58 PM on March 11, 2011

"They went from "we've got it mostly under control, the core is under water, we're working and everything's going to be ok" to "ok, our bad, the core appears to have melted a bit and, hmm, it's now exposed by 90cm ... no, now 170cm."

...and now there's an explosion.

Why, oh why, didn't they give us advance notice of this mysterious pending explosion *before* the earthquake hit?!
posted by markkraft at 12:01 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

TEPCO says workers on the ground injured. Explosion was at 4pm "near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant." Witnesses spotted smoke. That's about all NHK is saying.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:02 AM on March 12, 2011

The core height in Fukushima-1 Unit-1 is 3.66m, so being 1.7m exposed I believe means 46% of the core is above water.

The core diameter in this reactor is 3.44m. In a "conventional BWR" the reactor pressure vessel has an inner diameter of about 6.4m (necessarily the measurements of this unit).

Assuming the core is the only thing inside the vessel, and the entire core is exposed by 1.7m (rather than an individual rod) then we can come up with an approximate figure for the amount of missing water.

(a) core cross-sectional area = pi * (3.44m)²
(b) containment vessel cross-sectional area = pi * (6.4m)²
cross-sectional area of vessel not occupied by core: b - a = 91.5 m²

height of exposed core: 1.7m

1.7m of missing water = 1.7m * 91.5m² = 156m³

= 155 550 liters = 41 091 gallons

Again, I am not a nuclear engineer, I'm also terrible at checking my figures, but this seems like an enormous amount of water to just go missing.
posted by zippy at 12:08 AM on March 12, 2011

asahi is showing a recording of the explosion. Just a giant, sudden cloud of smoke. The time on the video seems to suggest this happened an hour and a half ago, but is just now being reported. They're showing video on Asahi, but the other channels just seem to be showing footage of the plant prior to the explosion.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:09 AM on March 12, 2011

a most inconvenient earthquake
posted by philip-random at 12:10 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Explosion footage.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:11 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

My wife just told me that the announcers on Asahi are saying that it was a planned explosion to release pressure. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:12 AM on March 12, 2011

Stuff keeps happening right when I have to go to bed...

Explosion footage.

Putain!
posted by clorox at 12:14 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

...doom doom doom-doom-doom I LIKE SAYING 'NUCULAR WESSLES' doom-doom doom doom-doom-doom doom...
posted by loquacious at 12:14 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

this seems like an enormous amount of water to just go missing.

For comparison, an olympic size swimming pool is about 600,000 gallons (2,271,247 Liters)
posted by sambosambo at 12:15 AM on March 12, 2011

The outer building of the 1st reactor has been blown apart. NHK video is showing before/after scenes. They are repeating over and over: people in the area ... get indoors, close the windows, seal all air vents. Wear a moistened mask.

Doesn't sound good at all.
posted by woodblock100 at 12:17 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah, about checking my figures. I should have used the radius, not the diameter. Doing so, I get:


(a) core cross-sectional area = pi * (.5 * 3.44m)2
(b) containment vessel cross-sectional area = pi * (.5 * 6.4m)2
cross-sectional area of vessel not occupied by core: b - a = 22.9 m2

height of exposed core: 1.7m

1.7m of missing water = 1.7m * 22.9m2 = 38.9m3

= 38 900 liters = 10 300 gallons
posted by zippy at 12:19 AM on March 12, 2011

That did not seem like a controlled explosion. What a nightmare.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:19 AM on March 12, 2011

NHK is just showing this still. What does it say?
posted by clorox at 12:19 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Anyone in .jp have the public announcement from the nuclear safety committee yet? I don't have it on NHK World.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:20 AM on March 12, 2011

I don't think you want an anything explosion, controlled or otherwise, with a nuclear reactor.
posted by zippy at 12:21 AM on March 12, 2011

What does it say?

Scene as of 9 this morning, and scene as of 4:30 this afternoon
posted by woodblock100 at 12:21 AM on March 12, 2011

clorox: They're comparing an image from 9am to an image at about 4am to show that an outer wall of one of the buildings is missing.

Nothing from the nuclear safety bureau here.
posted by shii at 12:22 AM on March 12, 2011

Ghidorah wrote: My wife just told me that the announcers on Asahi are saying that it was a planned explosion to release pressure. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

fairytale of los angeles wrote: Explosion footage.

That was planned? That was a huge and rather high velocity explosion. That also didn't look like it was purely steam. It looks like there's debris and smoke in that cloud.

Yeah, I'm admittedly crazy and jumpy and... but this is all starting to get really fishy.

On preview: The outer building of the 1st reactor has been blown apart. ... Doesn't sound good at all/

Holy shit no that doesn't sound good at all.
posted by loquacious at 12:22 AM on March 12, 2011

NHK is just showing this still. What does it say?

I don't know what it says but if it's a before and after still, the "before" pic seems to have four reactors, and the "after" pic seems to have three.

That can't be good.
posted by Avenger at 12:23 AM on March 12, 2011

TEPCO saying it might have been hydrogen used to cool the reactor, per the Reuters feed (here).

floam: Go play Bejeweled or something, get a bite to eat, do something else. Please take care of yourself.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:23 AM on March 12, 2011

There should be an announcement on NHK shortly. In the meantime, the on-air staff sound completely freaked out.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:24 AM on March 12, 2011

Reuters: "Explosion heard at Japan's Fukushima nuke plant"

An explosion was heard and smoke was seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) (9501.T) Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, Jiji news agency quoted the police as saying on Saturday.
posted by zippy at 12:25 AM on March 12, 2011

Japanese newscasters are pointing out that one of the reactor(?) buildings seems to be missing. I don't know what they're saying but they look pretty grim.
posted by Avenger at 12:27 AM on March 12, 2011

I have invited a friend who is a real-live actual nuclear plant engineer to participate here. I hope he accepts.
posted by pjern at 12:28 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Asahi was playing the footage at slow speed, and yeah, there were four buildings. Now there are three. 4 people injured, is what they're saying.

NHK seems to be saying to wear a mask or a wet towel over your face if you're in the area. So much for those feelings that the worst was over.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:28 AM on March 12, 2011

Somebody linked to actual video above
posted by KokuRyu at 12:29 AM on March 12, 2011

Avenger: NHK World announcer (who looks freaked out) is saying "some of the outer wall has fallen down."
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:29 AM on March 12, 2011

Christ. Please be something other than what it sounds like.
posted by danny the boy at 12:31 AM on March 12, 2011

I know next to nothing about nuclear plant design but I suppose it's possible that the core could still be contained even with the reactor building blown off? I want to believe that's true because the alternative is unspeakable.
posted by Avenger at 12:32 AM on March 12, 2011

Where's Malor? Wasn't he scoffing at how there's not going to be a problem with this?
posted by zardoz at 12:33 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

The guy on NHK1 just now was pretty pissed at TEPCO, and is recommending a thorough raking over the coals once things clear up.

They're recommending all kinds of radiation protection measures: don't use outdoor water, don't eat vegetables which are outdoors, change clothes when coming home, damp towel over face, etc.

Again, for MeFites unfamiliar with Japanese geography: This is for the local area. These warnings are not for the Tokyo area. Tokyo is 240km away.
posted by Bugbread at 12:33 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

The tone of the NHK anchors is unsettling, and they keep saying "microsieverts."
posted by clorox at 12:34 AM on March 12, 2011

We are now getting an announcement over the city-wide public address system about the explosion - and I'm nowhere near the event (I'm in Ome on the west side of Tokyo). They are asking people to turn on their TVs and keep themselves up to date with events as they progress.
posted by woodblock100 at 12:34 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

zardoz: "Where's Malor? Wasn't he scoffing at how there's not going to be a problem with this?"

1. We have no idea what the hell just happened, or what it means.
2. Maybe the most appropriate reaction here isn't "HA! YOU WERE WRONG, JERK!"
posted by danny the boy at 12:35 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Avenger: I'm no nuke engineer-- my former nukeE-major buddy is offline right now-- but my understanding is that it's a steel containment vessel inside a concrete structure. Arclight concurs, and adds that the fuel inside the fuel rods of a reactor is ceramic with a high melting point. This is called "defense-in-depth:" your fuel melts at a very high temp, and you keep everything far away from densely populated areas and bottled up in steel and concrete.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:38 AM on March 12, 2011

so, uh, what the hell is 1015 Microsieverts, and how bad is it?
posted by Ghidorah at 12:38 AM on March 12, 2011

Can someone please summarize the last four hundred comments that I missed? What has happened in the last six hours while I was away from the news?
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:39 AM on March 12, 2011

One hour's exposure to 1015mSv == your yearly exposure.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:40 AM on March 12, 2011

The NHK World woman is repeating that factoid very intently, over and over. One hour of 1015mSv exposure is equivalent to how much radiation you normally catch in a year (depending, of course, on location and elevation and so on).

(She's said it like five times in the last two minutes. Something has hit the fan, I fear.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:41 AM on March 12, 2011

Sievert: "1 Sv = 1 J/kg of absorbed energy." It's a measurement that shows how bad, for a living thing, exposure is.

1 Sv = 100 rem

"For acute (that is, received in a relatively short time, up to about one hour) full body equivalent dose, 1 Sv causes nausea, 2-5 Sv causes epilation or hair loss, hemorrhage and will cause death in many cases. More than 3 Sv will lead to LD 50/30 or death in 50% of cases within 30 days, and over 6 Sv survival is unlikely. "
posted by zippy at 12:41 AM on March 12, 2011

Am I missing something here? One of the containment buildings has vanished. From my layman's perspective, that means there is a tremendous amount of irradiated debris and fuel (ie, "fallout") in the area.

Am I totally out to lunch here and succumbing to hysteria?
posted by KokuRyu at 12:42 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

thanks fairytale. Floam, sorry, but I never really paid attention in science class.

It looks like there's about to be some sort of official announcement shortly.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:42 AM on March 12, 2011

"Can someone please summarize the last four hundred comments that I missed?"

Video seems to shows the power plant blowing up. You are now up to speed.
posted by y6y6y6 at 12:43 AM on March 12, 2011

Summary: explosion at nuclear plant, concrete wall 'blown away', fuel may be melting, venting halted, civilians in region ordered to seal homes, avoid consuming food, breathing exterior air. Not an event yet, but 'huge probabily...be prepared for worst.'

:-(
posted by anigbrowl at 12:43 AM on March 12, 2011

It looks like the concrete containment building has blown away and just a twisted(?) steel frame remains.
posted by Avenger at 12:43 AM on March 12, 2011

(also, 1000 microSieverts = 1 milliSievert = .001 Sievert)
posted by zippy at 12:43 AM on March 12, 2011

I know next to nothing about nuclear plant design but I suppose it's possible that the core could still be contained even with the reactor building blown off?

That's the idea - the outer building you see in those stills is really a relatively soft shell - there is a much stronger containment structure inside. Not that things do not look grim, but it is entirely possible Bad Stuff has not started happening yet.

so, uh, what the hell is 1015 Microsieverts, and how bad is it?

It is of the order of magnitude of exposure you get from natural sources in one year. Here is a chart that will give you a rough sense of scale.
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:43 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

"a planned explosion to release pressure..."

Perhaps what is meant is that they basically dumped a serious amount of something to cool things out, and that it hit the superheated core, immediately became steam, and caused an explosion as a result?

Obviously, they thought they had the problem under control, but it got away from them and got bad very, very quickly. They likely reacted in an emergency, last-ditch effort, and, well...
let's hope it helped cool things down a bit. Any news available on the radiation level out there?!

I don't think TEPCO can exactly be blamed for this distaster, as I suspect they've had a ton of expert consultation on this from early on, and probably did pretty much everything right with what they had to work with. Stilll... I wouldn't want to be their CEO right now.

So, what's the record for the deepest, deep bow in Japanese history anyway? Or if its that bad, do you just off yourself?!
posted by markkraft at 12:44 AM on March 12, 2011

I am in complete shock at how slowly the cable/tv newsfolk are at getting the news of this out. It's like none of the news producers are following this on the net at all.
posted by batgrlHG at 12:44 AM on March 12, 2011

How does something that visible stay unknown until now?

10km evacuation area?
posted by zippy at 12:45 AM on March 12, 2011

Photo of black smoke billowing out one of the power plants. (via @ilovetypography)
posted by thebestsophist at 12:46 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, sure, but his previous statements made it seem like anyone who thought there could be a problem were the jerks. But Malor knows what he's talking about far more than I.

Now, according to the Japanese announcers, people should avoid being outside. Fucking hell. Maybe that's just being overprotective, but it seems clear that no one really knows what's going on. I'd truly like Malor's insight given the change in circumstances.
posted by zardoz at 12:46 AM on March 12, 2011

Photo of black smoke

that's nothing to do with the current situation at the nuclear plant. That's an oil-fired generating station in the pic.
posted by woodblock100 at 12:47 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'll join you in your hysteria, KokuRyu. We're pretty freaked out, and were just about to head out to the store. As mentioned above, yeah, we're hundreds of kilometers away, and we decided to stay in. I know how unreasonable we're being, but fuck it. Why take unnecessary chances.

The problem, markkraft, is that Tepco has a pretty shoddy recent history with safety, honest reporting of incidents, and has been pretty untrustworthy of late.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:47 AM on March 12, 2011

Photo of black smoke

if it bleeds, it leads
posted by philip-random at 12:48 AM on March 12, 2011

Hey, guys. We just got power back here in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. It's been about 27 hours since the quake and just recently has AU been delivering messages. Internet started to work shortly after that. I am happy to report that myself and azuresunday are alive and well, though getting tired of all these aftershocks. I probably slept about three hours last night.

We did a tour of Morioka today. At Aiina, near Morioka station, a shelter has been set up and about four hundred people are inside. Everything has been calm and orderly, and we've been impressed with the way people are handling it.

I was in the teachers room of a school in Takizawa when the earthquake happened. As people mentioned above, my earthquake alarm went off before the quake happened, which gave me and the other teachers about 10 seconds to prepare. Several other phones had this as well. As far as I know, it's a standard feature on many flip phones here. We went outside after the main shaking died down and rode out the major quakes from there. I've been super impressed with the building construction in the area. There's been some damage, but far less than I expected.

Thanks for your concern, guys. I love you. I'll keep you posted if things change.
posted by gc at 12:48 AM on March 12, 2011 [31 favorites]

everybody take a deep breath
posted by philip-random at 12:49 AM on March 12, 2011

Good to see you, gc!
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:49 AM on March 12, 2011

Kokoryu, that's my layman's read on it too. Hopefully we'll hear from eriko again soon. @arclight went to bed but I would guess he's not asleep any more.

Oh my god, I sure hope that did not happen.
posted by mwhybark at 12:50 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Okay, this guy is giving a speech but I have no idea what he's saying, and furthermore he sounds really stressed and out of breath, which is making ME really nervous.
posted by shii at 12:51 AM on March 12, 2011

Unrelated to the nuke plant, here's a video of skyscrapers wobbling like jello molds in what i believe is Shinjuku. Which is actually a pretty amazing example of good building engineering that they can sway and move that much without shedding glass curtain walls or collapsing.
posted by loquacious at 12:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Another video of the explosion.
posted by Rumple at 12:52 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

The thing on NHK is the briefing on what just went down. TimeOutTokyo's Twitter feed has realtime translation, more or less.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:53 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Is that Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano?

Can anyone fill us in on what he is saying?
posted by Catch at 12:53 AM on March 12, 2011

The disaster guy speaking live at the press conference is providing absolutely no clarity: "Yes, there was an explosion, but we cannot confirm that it resulted in release of radioactivity."
posted by KokuRyu at 12:53 AM on March 12, 2011

Yes, that is Edano. @Touruma on Twitter is another fairly decent source for those of us who don't speak Japanese.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:54 AM on March 12, 2011

Oh shit, that's Edano I was watching. Basically, he's saying keep calm, carry on, we're going to help out everyone, no idea what that explosion was, be wary of tsunamis...
posted by KokuRyu at 12:55 AM on March 12, 2011

Video and story: Japan earthquake: nuclear disaster feared after power plant 'explosion'

Australia's Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan told Australian citizens Saturday to evacuate the area close to Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant

Two volcanoes in Eastern Russia , Kamchatka and one other in Indonesia, have erupted around the same time as the Japan 8.9-magnitude Earthquake on Friday.

Volcano Sakurajima erupted yesterday as well.

Video: Tsunami wave hits Kona, Hawaii

Latest Earthquakes in the USA - Last 7 days, a cluster of them in Arkansas and recently also in Yellowstone.
posted by nickyskye at 12:55 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Edano is now appealing to the media to use sound judgement when relaying information to the public in order to prevent panic.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:56 AM on March 12, 2011

I'm impressed that the building performed like that. I hope ours would hold up as well as those did. When I took the local earthquake safety course in SF their worst case scenario for the financial district was that streets could be under many inches of broken glass if we had a big quake centered here. Also they said that you could expect building sway of around 2in per floor.
posted by oneear at 12:56 AM on March 12, 2011

Worst speech ever. He's saying "stay in your homes, if you have to go outside wear long pants, it's probably not dangerous but we have no idea what happened". All of this while sounding very much like he's trying to stave off his own panic. I couldn't have heard a more terrifying official announcement if there was a bubonic zombie apocalypse.

I'm going to head out to the bar... PM Kan told us all to watch the news but this is a little too much news for me.
posted by shii at 12:57 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Holy crap look at Rumple's video.

At 0:47 you can see the roof(?) of the reactor building blow off in a flash. Then it just disintegrates. Holy crap.
posted by Avenger at 12:57 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Edano's just saying that they're still checking on what actually happened so everyone just please calm down. On preview, what KokuRyu said. And to me Edano always sounds like that, so it's not like he's panicking or anything. I think he's just exhausted. I would be too after all that's happened in the last 24 hours.
posted by misozaki at 12:58 AM on March 12, 2011

Avenger, I think the "white line" above the building right after the explosion isn't the roof but rather the shock wave, visible because the water vapor in the air condensed for an instant as it passed.

Still not at all good.
posted by The Tensor at 1:01 AM on March 12, 2011

That might have been a shock wave, rather than part of the structure.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 1:02 AM on March 12, 2011

Guy on NHK right now is a safety officer from NISA, apparently.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:03 AM on March 12, 2011

Could the shock wave pass through the building without destroying the building, though?
posted by Rumple at 1:03 AM on March 12, 2011

Yeah, I was just thinking on second thought that it looks like a shockwave. Still, awful.
posted by Avenger at 1:03 AM on March 12, 2011

Evacuation radius for Fukushima Daini (the second reactor complex, 10km south of the explosion site) is now up to 10km from previous 3km.

Rumple: Prefectural officials and local news, per Reuters, report that the Fukushima Daiichi 1 ceiling collapsed.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:06 AM on March 12, 2011

I'm just tuning in to hear this news about possible rolling blackouts and nuclear plant explosions. I feel like I should be worried.
posted by mariokrat at 1:08 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just woke up. When I went to be this seemed sort of under control. Now I'm watching NHK World via cable and am sort of bewildered. So station #1 has had an explosion and lost a tower, and station #2 has had the evacuation cordon extended to 10km like station #1? I think I somehow missed that we had an issue with two stations.

Must say I'm impressed with this anchor, she's doing a good job with breaking news and lots of papers literally being dropped on her with updates. It does make such a difference when the people reporting the news are factual rather than JAPAN'S CHERNOBYL fear mongering.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:11 AM on March 12, 2011

report that the Fukushima Daiichi 1 ceiling collapsed

That would appear to be an understatement.
posted by zippy at 1:12 AM on March 12, 2011

From Reuters: TEPCO says 4 people who were injured after explosion don't have life-threatening injuries - Kyodo

and

Japan chief cabinet secretary Edano: Confirms radiation leak at Fukushima plant
posted by bink at 1:12 AM on March 12, 2011

My Japanese coworker is watching NHK and SMSing me cynical little observations. He thinks Edano and the NISA guy are hiding something.

Zippy: Yeah, I just saw the better pic on NHK. "Appears to have been forcibly degloved of all its concrete at high speed" would be more accurate.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:14 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

The disaster guy speaking live at the press conference is providing absolutely no clarity: "Yes, there was an explosion, but we cannot confirm that it resulted in release of radioactivity."

I don't know if this is providing any comfort to anybody, but a release of radioactivity that would require emergency intervention is a pretty easy thing to detect: If we're discussing confirmation, their worries are about legal liability, not impending nuclear doom.
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:15 AM on March 12, 2011

report that the Fukushima Daiichi 1 ceiling collapsed

That would appear to be an understatement.

Yeah.
When walls vaporize,
ceilings tends to collapse.
posted by philip-random at 1:15 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

The general consensus amongst the Japanese people I know (including my wife) is that there is just no information. Given the circumstances, it's understandable. There is probably no telephone or phone service, and the few people on the ground are probably totally busy just keeping alive. At the same time, NHK apparently has not been rebroadcasting the "explosion" video, which I guess is all part of the effort of a media outlet using "sound judgement".
posted by KokuRyu at 1:15 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Asahi.com is saying that more than 40,000 people in the area are being evacuated, and that high levels of radiation were measured just prior to the explosion in the vicinity of reactor 1 at daiichi.
posted by mariokrat at 1:16 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

My Japanese coworker is watching NHK and SMSing me cynical little observations. He thinks Edano and the NISA guy are hiding something.

Yeah. Jesus wept.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:17 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can someone explain what sort of monitoring equipment they have/had in the containment buildings and reactor vessels? I was under the impression that at some level of radiation, electronics fry and stop working. Obviously they can't just lift the hatch and peek either.

Can someone explain how were they figuring out how much of the fuel rods were exposed? I mean, to us it seemed like the jump from 90cm to 170cm to "what the fuck just happened" was really fast, but how much earlier would the engineers on the ground have known?
posted by thebestsophist at 1:17 AM on March 12, 2011

This is what makes nuclear energy fucking scary.

Redundant redundant redundant backups would have been a good idea; underground, where a tsunami can't knock them out.

Christ in a sidecar.
posted by bwg at 1:19 AM on March 12, 2011

Arclight's awake.
posted by bink at 1:21 AM on March 12, 2011

A Korean (?) channel, YTN, broadcasts digital OTA here in Seattle on 44.4, and they are running the NHK explosion and b-roll over and over. The news structure appears to be earthquake news story, reactor explosion story, other earthquake story, reactor explosion story, etc.

Dammit, I was nearly asleep!
posted by mwhybark at 1:21 AM on March 12, 2011

Did not expect to see that today.
posted by Kevin Street at 1:21 AM on March 12, 2011

I wonder which Article & Clause of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness this is covered by.
posted by scalefree at 1:21 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I motion we ban Water. It is proving to be the greatest threat to human civilization on the planet.
posted by TwelveTwo at 1:21 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

thanks for the heads up, bink.
posted by mwhybark at 1:22 AM on March 12, 2011

@KokuRyu: are people generally calm? I'm trying to imagine what people would be like here, and the words that come to mind are "sheer panic."

(Wow, when I unintentionally start two paragraphs with the same phrase, I know I need to go to bed.)
posted by thebestsophist at 1:22 AM on March 12, 2011

Did not expect to see that today.

Things I didn't expect to see in the last 24 hours: shit on fire in moving walls of mud, a nuclear containment structure ceasing to exist in under a second, a shindo-scale 7/ Richter 8.9 earthquake... really, at this point, just take your pick.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:22 AM on March 12, 2011 [13 favorites]

Just as an FYI for those who haven't followed nickyskye's link to the BBC live feed page, it has pretty constant updates as they get anything. They're being pretty cautious about reporting incorrect info too...
0919: So, just to recap, there are growing fears about damage to two Japanese nuclear plants following Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake. There's recently been an explosion at a building at one of the plants, which is called Fukushima-Daiichi, or Fukushima I. It's not clear what the building contained.
posted by Zack_Replica at 1:25 AM on March 12, 2011

thebestsophist, just as anecdata, roughly thirty seconds into the news conference, my wife/translator fell asleep, and hasn't woken since. I don't know what it's like near the plants, in the evacuation zone, but if last night was any indication, I'd imagine acceptance of the situation, and doing what needs to be done to deal with matters people can't directly control. Sheer panic is probably not in the top ten of emotional states.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:26 AM on March 12, 2011

a shindo-scale 7/ Richter 8.9 earthquake

I read it's been bumped to 9.0. Oh & you forgot volcanoes, there's a couple of them gone off too.
posted by scalefree at 1:26 AM on March 12, 2011

Redundant redundant redundant backups would have been a good idea; underground, where a tsunami can't knock them out.

Christ in a sidecar.

"We'll get it right next time," said the bureaucrat.
posted by philip-random at 1:28 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Can someone explain what sort of monitoring equipment they have/had in the containment buildings and reactor vessels? I was under the impression that at some level of radiation, electronics fry and stop working. Obviously they can't just lift the hatch and peek either.

So, I am not an expert in this or anything, but in grad school I knew a few people who did ecological work in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. There are battery powered Geiger counters, both hand held and permanent installations around the place measuring the radiation levels which vary quite a bit over short distances. They know where the "hot" zones are pretty well exactly. Everyone wears a badge that monitors total radiation exposure over time: it's like one of those temperature strips you put on a kids forehead: requires no power and it turns colors as your exposure mounts and when it gets to red, or whatever color, you have to leave the Exclusion Zone because you've had your years worth of exposure. I believe badges like that are used at most nuclear facilities for workers.
posted by fshgrl at 1:28 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

@arclight just RT'd Katz at http://yokosonews.com/live - poor guy's still hangin' tough, looks like he got a shirt change in there.
posted by mwhybark at 1:31 AM on March 12, 2011

Better video of the explosion.

On this one they do a slow motion replay and you can clearly see the supersonic blast shockwave centered on the building.

That was not an intentional incident or release at all. That was a properly brisant explosion to be able to form a shock front like that. Something has very clearly gone seriously wrong.

Does anyone know what the prevailing jet stream travel time is across the Pacific? And is there a map or a way to determine where the jet stream currently is meandering?
posted by loquacious at 1:31 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

So is this the event that spawns Gojira?

Sorry, just trying to take the edge off a little.
posted by bwg at 1:31 AM on March 12, 2011

So, let's say there is an incident of undetermined quantities of radioactivity.....which way are the air currents going?
posted by jgee at 1:31 AM on March 12, 2011

I'm starting to freak out; my brother lives in San Francisco and I'm certain he's asleep, not following this. As a precaution, I want to wake him up and have him aware of what's going on. I know, I know, borrowing trouble.

Cell phone goes directly to voicemail. Could be on vibrate, could be off, could be in a coat pocket.

This is why I keep a land line, even though I never use it. You *hear* it when it rings.
posted by tzikeh at 1:34 AM on March 12, 2011

I don't know what things are like in the Fukushima area, but at the Bugbread place, there's not a great deal of worry about immediate danger. I (and my wife) feel bad for the people up there, but it is a long way away.

People are preparing for serious aftershocks here in Tokyo (technically, Kawasaki). The supermarket had almost empty shelves in the milk, water, and ramen areas. The shoppers were all calm and relaxed, but buying stuff just-in-case. If you've lived in a hurricane-prone area in the US, it feels like the buying before a hurricane: people buying supplies just in case, but not out of panic.

Chainmails have started: my wife got two in the last hour. One purports to be from a friend of a friend (FOAF) of someone who works at TEPCO, and the other from a FOAF of someone who works at the Chiba chemical works. Both are just general advice about avoiding possible chemical polluted rain in case it rains, to conserve power, to fill the bathtub, that kind of stuff. Good advice, but almost certainly not from anyone official anywhere.
posted by Bugbread at 1:34 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Jet stream: http://squall.sfsu.edu/gif/jetstream_pac_h48_00.gif
posted by anigbrowl at 1:36 AM on March 12, 2011

Hey folks, I'm back from checking on my friend's house in Jiyugaoka. (A belated welcome to flapjax -- glad you're safe, even if you did have to suffer through the food at Gusto.)

The Tokyu Toyoko Line was running, but stopping at all stations. Loads were moderate. Jiyugaoka itself, a pretty crowded shopping area on the weekend, had light crowds. I'd say about 30% of shops were closed for the day, and some of those that were open were due to close early or were only offering a limited menu due to supply chain issues. My friend's house was fine, fortunately -- no damage or shifting of furniture. It helped that she lives on the 2nd floor, I suppose.

On my way back I stopped off in Shinjuku; it seemed like any other day, to be honest. The weirdest thing was Yamada Denki -- they had turned off all of their TVs and about half the lights to conserve power. It was only about half as crowded as it usually is on a weekend. The employees I talked to said they were open as usual until 21:00... There were actually some good bargains to be had (like a 500 GB portable hard drive for under 5000 yen!).

The rumored rolling blackouts/brownouts have yet to occur. The local conbinis and supermarkets were pretty low on milk, bread, etc., but were operating normally. I saw lots of delivery men rushing around. The local Matsuya is doing a brisk trade in gyudon.

Tokyo is slowly getting back to normal -- now we need to look north and rebuild.
posted by armage at 1:37 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

"We'll get it right next time," said the bureaucrat.

I think you mean "the corporate officer".
posted by rodgerd at 1:38 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Scaremongering crap already being passed around: http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/438/fallout.jpg
posted by slightlybewildered at 1:38 AM on March 12, 2011

I suspect it's already in the thread somewhere already, but do we know how much time passed between the initial earthquake and the tsunami making landfall?
posted by philip-random at 1:38 AM on March 12, 2011

floam - I want him awake and aware so that he can follow the news and make his own decisions about his safety. I don't think that people should be fleeing the west coast, at the moment, but then, I couldn't have imagined anything like what's happened in the past 36 hours. I don't think any of us could.
posted by tzikeh at 1:41 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Weather forecast in Japan, winds blowing south from nuclear plant, could expose Tokyo.
posted by nickyskye at 1:42 AM on March 12, 2011

So the Japanese, you know, IN JAPAN, are casually going to the store to get milk and bread while the Americans halfway around the world are freaking out and running for the hills. Sounds about right.
posted by danny the boy at 1:44 AM on March 12, 2011 [37 favorites]

tzikeh: "I'm starting to freak out; my brother lives in San Francisco and I'm certain he's asleep, not following this. As a precaution, I want to wake him up and have him aware of what's going on."

Oh, let him sleep! There's no plausible chance that radiation from the plant will hit the US in quantities to be concerned about, and that wouldn't happen overnight anyway.
posted by mwhybark at 1:45 AM on March 12, 2011

I don't know about you, but I'm about to head out to buy water, food, and flashlights in case anything happens overnight. Also, cake. My wife wanted a piece of cake.
posted by mariokrat at 1:46 AM on March 12, 2011

I just signed up for an account on MeFi. I've casually lurked for a long time, but, tonight, glued to this thread and the Refresh button, it seemed like a good time to take things to the next level.

My ex-girlfriend lives in Nagoya City, in Aichi Prefecture. I met her a year ago, her first week in Vancouver. We broke things off when her year-long vacation was up, but it wasn't a clean break. We still care about each other.

I've been sending her e-mails pleading her to stay indoors. She sends me sporadic replies, when she's not doing something. Like so:

driving... im watching tv in car. already strong nuclear leaking.

This is something I won't forget anytime soon.
posted by monomyth at 1:46 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

tzikeh: Thing is, though, we do imagine these things. We simulate disasters on huge supercomputers. We devise means of dealing with them, point by point, incident by incident. We improve our handling of emergencies with greater scientific knowledge and more data.

Shit, people in my line of work simulate this stuff for entertainment purposes-- because it's possible to do so, given a reasonable render farm and some software.

I know you're worried for your brother. Certainly we're all worried. But these are not unimaginable occurrences beyond the reach of engineering to comprehend, and your brother will be in a much better place to make decisions after a solid night's sleep. It's OK. Hang out with us instead.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:47 AM on March 12, 2011

Danny boy, if you're referring to my comment, I am not talking about "running for the hills." I'm talking about wanting my brother to follow the news, because it's good to know what's going on in a case like this. I'm sure all the Japanese people "casually" going to the store to get milk and bread are also following the news as closely as they possibly can.
posted by tzikeh at 1:47 AM on March 12, 2011

YTN now showing b-roll of the plant's foundation excavations. Japanese guys in hard hats looking down into a hole by the ocean. How can I not think of Gojira?
posted by mwhybark at 1:47 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

So there's people at the site of the explosion, and they're not wearing protective gear or anything?
posted by Kevin Street at 1:49 AM on March 12, 2011

Anyone who checks out slightlybewildered's "scaremongering crap," it's very much worth pointing out that Australian Radiation Services is a corporation, and not a government entity. This is a very important distinction.
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:51 AM on March 12, 2011

How can I not think of Gojira?

I think it's obvious by now if you've been paying attention. They're just doing some very subtle priming to lessen the shock once word of what's really going down gets out.




< /hamburger>
posted by clorox at 1:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

@Kevin, that sounds like archival footage.
posted by slightlybewildered at 1:52 AM on March 12, 2011

Okay, moving away from my personal concerns, can someone who knows about things like this explain something to me:

"The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis."

Seriously? It shifted the Earth on its axis? Is this unheard of, or does this happen often and it's not really a big deal?
posted by tzikeh at 1:52 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some good news amidst the darkness, for swimming naked when the tide goes out and her previously missing niece, Carisa.

About an hour ago, Richard O'Barry posted the following in response to requests for information on volunteers, who were monitoring dolphin kill and captures near Japan.


"Cove Volunteers are OK. They have all just phoned in and everyone is safe. They spent the night on a hill. The town was destroyed. They walked out this morning, abandoning their cars"

The Sea Shepard Cove Guardians posted in greater detail here:

After more than twenty-four hours since we last heard from them, Sea Shepherd Director of Investigations Scott West was able to call his wife Suzanne to report that he and the entire Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian crew are alive and unharmed.

They had to abandon their two cars in the devastated port city of Otsuchi where they spent the night on a hill. The entire town around them was destroyed. They walked out over scattered debris, roads that were completely wiped out, and walked past numerous dead bodies amidst piles of rubble. At one point yesterday they saw and heard a woman in the water screaming for help, but she was washed out to sea before they could do anything to rescue her.

The Cove Guardians went to Otsuchi to document the slaughter of Dall’s Porpoise. Every year the fishermen slaughter over 20,000 of these gentle creatures. They had just filmed a fishing boat returning from a porpoise hunt when they saw the water in the harbor receding and they immediately headed for high ground. The time from the Earthquake to the Tsunami striking Otsuchi was about eight minutes.

The Cove Guardians were right in the midst of the most devastating Tsunami to ever hit Japan, and we are thankful they have all survived and are well.

Scott West was only able to send out this quick message, as his mobile phone was fading:

We are all 6 safe and out of Otsuchi. Now in Tono at hotel with no power, Internet, water, or food. Have IPhone until battery dead. -- Scott

From Wikipedia:
Ōtsuchi (大槌町, Ōtsuchi-chō?) is a town located in Kamihei District, Iwate, Japan.
As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 16,727

*sigh* What a horrible way for the dolphin kills there to stop. I doubt many of the local fishermen even had a chance, considering that the tsunami hit just minutes after the earthquake would've stopped.
posted by markkraft at 1:52 AM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

monomyth: "I just signed up for an account on MeFi."

Welcome aboard. Nagoya's pretty far south from the damaged plant, isn't it?
posted by mwhybark at 1:52 AM on March 12, 2011

Nagoya's really far from the danger zone, actually. Hundreds of kilometers. She's almost certainly fine.
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:54 AM on March 12, 2011

Also, cake. My wife wanted a piece of cake.

No matter what the situation or country, cake is the solution.
posted by armage at 1:55 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

tzikeh: It happens any time you change the distribution of mass. Think of yourself on ice skates, in a tight spin. Move your arms, shift your mass, and your spin changes. The planet works the same way.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:56 AM on March 12, 2011

So there's people at the site of the explosion, and they're not wearing protective gear or anything?

Neither of the explanations I can think of are pleasant ones.
posted by zippy at 1:57 AM on March 12, 2011

Kevin Street: "So there's people at the site of the explosion, and they're not wearing protective gear or anything"

no, not at all, it was, like, historical promo footage from when the plant was built.
posted by mwhybark at 1:58 AM on March 12, 2011

NHK's weatherman has an incredibly delicate voice!

I'm going to bed. Stay safe, everyone.
posted by clorox at 1:58 AM on March 12, 2011

....unless, of course, it's Yellowcake.
Grar. I started the day on this thread and still can't stay away. Metafilter I tip my hat to you.
posted by wowbobwow at 1:59 AM on March 12, 2011

So the Japanese, you know, IN JAPAN, are casually going to the store to get milk and bread while the Americans halfway around the world are freaking out and running for the hills. Sounds about right.

I don't really think that's constructive or considerate of the understandable fear in this thread.

This is scary shit, and for most of the thread, you've been dismissive of the critical arguments against nuclear power and downplayed the potential dangers. Your comments about nuclear power being off the table being "magical thinking" come to mind.

Hopefully, this horrible event can move us towards some more magical thinking.
posted by formless at 1:59 AM on March 12, 2011

mhybark: Thank you. MeFi rocks.

And well, it's all relative. tzikeh's worried for his brother in San Francisco. Distances IRL don't necessarily reflect felt distances.
posted by monomyth at 2:00 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Authorities have extended the evacuation radius from 10 km to 20 km from both Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear plants, TV Asahi is reporting.
posted by armage at 2:01 AM on March 12, 2011

Yeah, sorry. Too tired to post. Hard to go to bed after this, but it's time.

Hopefully it will turn out to be something non-vital that exploded, and they'll have a handle on everything in the morning. Got to believe that now.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:01 AM on March 12, 2011

tiny derail, sorry - monomyth, I'm a woman. I suppose it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of these events, but, just an FYI.
posted by tzikeh at 2:02 AM on March 12, 2011

Distances IRL don't necessarily reflect felt distances.

So true. I feel so close to so many of you wonderful, caring Mefites. Good night.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 2:04 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Japanese coworker says "they are not able to get into [the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1] facility." He's watching one of the Japanese feeds, dunno which one.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 2:04 AM on March 12, 2011

"Scaremongering crap already being passed around"

Ummmmm...... We're well into worst case scenario. Like for real. Real potential plumes of radioactive fallout floating around the globe. This is real. I think it's waaaaaaay past the point where we need to laugh at this stuff as crazy.

Give me facts, please. But don't giggle over this shit.
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:06 AM on March 12, 2011

formless: "I don't really think that's constructive or considerate of the understandable fear in this thread.

This is scary shit, and for most of the thread, you've been dismissive of the critical arguments against nuclear power and downplayed the potential dangers. Your comments about nuclear power being off the table being "magical thinking" come to mind."


What exactly is the virtue of panicking? What is to be gained from being irrationally afraid? Yes this shit is scary, but it's a lot scarier, and unnecessarily so, if we ignore reality. Dismissive is exactly right. I'm on Team Get-A-Grip.
posted by danny the boy at 2:07 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm not giggling at anything. The time for that graphic may come but it's not right yet.
posted by slightlybewildered at 2:08 AM on March 12, 2011

I think it's worth pointing out that mainland Europe is situated somewhat closer to Chernobyl than the west coast of the US is to Japan. The impact of nuclear plumes carried by winds - even huge ones likely to be far larger than what we're looking at in Japan in a worst case scenario - are not unknown. We know the impact, both immediate and long term. This is not a situation that requires evacuation, storing water, or hoarding food stuffs. There is little people can do except go about their normal business.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:08 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Heh. My apologies. And hello, tzikeh.
posted by monomyth at 2:09 AM on March 12, 2011

Real potential plumes of radioactive fallout

Is it real, or is it potential?

Seriously, there's a time for panic about this -- but now is not yet that time, especially if you don't live within a 20 km radius of either of those nuclear plants.
posted by armage at 2:09 AM on March 12, 2011

hello, monomyth. :)
posted by tzikeh at 2:09 AM on March 12, 2011

Boston.com's The Big Picture photogallery: Massive earthquake hits Japan
posted by Auden at 2:11 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

US Ambassador to Japan will make a statement according to a recent tweet he sent:
http://twitter.com/#!/ambassadorroos

Saw some info retweeted that news conference said to not spread rumors and thus panic, so I can understand why people want to be calm about the potential worst case scenarios.

I'm finding that Time Out Tokyo twitter mentioned above really good - and here I've grown up thinking the Time Out magazine was the place to turn for movie info, etc. - and now they're a news source for me. Suddenly it's a strange news world out there.
http://twitter.com/#!/TimeOutTokyo

Other twitters I'm watching (all new to me, just searching for info that's better than current US news which doesn't seem to have anyone on the ground):
http://twitter.com/#!/tokyoreporter

http://twitter.com/#!/nobi

http://twitter.com/#!/survivingnjapan

http://twitter.com/#!/Touruma

(Sorry if I'm repeating any, haven't finished reading this whole thread, too busy reading/watching everyone's links, rolling eyes at US cable news channels lack of info.)
posted by batgrlHG at 2:11 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Evacuation zone widened to 20km now, per NHK.
posted by anigbrowl at 2:12 AM on March 12, 2011

So, let's say there is an incident of undetermined quantities of radioactivity.....which way are the air currents going?

Ok, here we go.

The prevailing trans-pacific wind currents in the northern hemisphere are from east to west.

Considering the force of that explosion and considering that the reactor may or may not be on fire, we may actually be looking at a very serious radiation threat here in North America. It depends if the reactor actually burns and sends up a plume high enough to enter the jet stream.

Because it's not reactor of the type that Chernobyl was, even if the reactor completely melts down and burns it shouldn't release as much debris, especially in the form of radioactive carbon, which is noted up thread for being particularly dangerous to carbon based life forms because, well, we accumulate carbon.

But, yeah. I'm officially worried - for myself. This is exactly the sort of selfish self-preservation I was frustrated at trying to convey up thread when arguing against the safety of nuclear power, and why I'm personally concerned above and beyond empathy for all the crazy shit going on in Japan in the last 30+ hours.

If you're in the Western US you may or may not want to be worried as well.

Again, there's not much you can do about it. You can take iodine thyroid tablets to block your thyroid absorption of radioactive iodine isotopes. You can stay indoors. You can have indoor/outdoor clothes. Don't smoke or eat or otherwise stick your unwashed hands in your mouth, nose, or eyes. Basically all the things you would do if you were trying to survive being in the fallout zone of a nuclear weapon explosion. I'm having trouble finding a decent link to an oldschool Civil Defense style "How to handle radioactive fallout" guide, but basically you want to pretend to be Howard Hughes with a severe case of germ phobia. Wash your hands. Don't touch shit you don't have to touch. Don't go outside if you don't have to.

But you shouldn't panic. This isn't exactly the same as Chernobyl. It's not the same as a nuclear weapon's fallout either, which throws tons of radioactive dirt into the air and intentionally forms a massive fireball that rockets straight into the stratosphere. And even if it was the same as Chernobyl the fallout in Europe wasn't enough to immediately kill you or give you radiation sickness or poisoning.

Any precautions you take during a fallout incident like this are merely to prevent exposure to absorbing radioactive dust into your body where it can linger for the rest of your life and slowly irradiate delicate parts of your innards.

The international media is all over this, whereas Chernobyl was kept a secret for days. The explosion and plume doesn't look like it's big enough or hot enough to enter the jetstream, but this entirely depends on the severity of the explosion, if the reactor is burning or not and if it's still actually shut down.

If there is a serious plume of radiation it'll take at least 2 days to reach the West Coast of the US and Canada, or as much as 5-6 days. It will probably hit Alaska/BC/Washington first. Depending on wind and weather a fallout incident could last just a day or three or up to as much as 10 days, depending on what isotopes are released, how much, and how much of the smoke and dust actually made it to the jet stream.

A real worry should be that the control and fuel rods for the reactor have been so badly damaged that it's going critical again - without system controls in place. If the fuel/core is going critical again, watch out. It'll burn. Chernobyl didn't have an earthquake to deal with and as far as I know they never were able to actually extinguish it. If I'm recalling my history correctly it burned itself out and went mostly subcritical because the molten fuel slag mixed with the control rods and graphite. Bombing a small target the size of a reactor with sacks of boron from a moving helicopter is really difficult, and wasn't very effective during Chernobyl even when they did manage the odd direct hit.

Me? Beyond watching the web first and news second I'm just going to refill my jugs of earthquake water. I already packed my bug-the-fuck-out bag last night in case of tsunami evacuation. I have a couple of medical filter masks. I know where my towel is.
posted by loquacious at 2:13 AM on March 12, 2011 [18 favorites]

"There is little people can do except go about their normal business."

People on the west coast of the US will start waking up in a few hours, and seeing this. In 48 hours it will be impossible to buy water, plastic sheeting, or duct tape within 100 miles of the coast.
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:16 AM on March 12, 2011

"The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis."

That will probably mess with GPS and other geo systems I assume? I know it's a minor thing in all this, but that would have to be a headache. When you think of the world map, you think of it as constant. An immutable object. It's not supposed to move. Amazing.
posted by formless at 2:17 AM on March 12, 2011

Chernobyl is 2000 km from where I live. Japan to Hawaii is approx 6000 km. Let alone the rest of the US.
At the distance of 2000 km I remember that biggest impact was gras and produce couldn't be consumed for a while by respectively cattle and people.
So my suggestion is that people in the US take a deep breath.
posted by joost de vries at 2:20 AM on March 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

I summarized this for some folks out thread, so lemme see if I can get to a 'what we know now.'

A building at the site of the most heavily damaged reactor exploded. There has been very little direct information about this released.

After the explosion was announced, NHK has shown footage of the explosion and also images of the site before and after showing the exploded building's structure still in place.

Shortly after the explosion was announced, authorities recommended that members of the public in a certain area, which I don't think we've identified in here, follow minimal fallout procedures.

Before the explosion, the plant operators had announced that a portion of the reactor core had not been able to be cooled properly, apparently reporting two values, 90cm and 1.7m.

A report of cesium monitored near the plant was cited, but it may not have originated with the operators. Cesium is associated with melting fuel elements.

The operators had been talking about the necessity of venting the damaged reactor to lessen internal pressure. That building pressure was at least partially composed of hydrogen.

Since @arclight came back on line he has noted that hydrogen explosions are a known hazard of venting processes but in general has tried to to present interpretive information.

Prior to the explosion (?) atmospheric values for radiation doubled in the area of the plant.

After the explosion, radiation increased from 9.x value to 1000x value (guesstimating and blowing the units completely, but a hundred fold increase in radiation.

What we don't know:

Whether the reactor core vessel itself was blown apart
Precisely what sort of explosion took place

What seems likely
The explosion may have been an accident associated with venting and caused by the hydrogen igniting

----

Actually, this cheers me up somewhat. If the reactor core had blown up too, wouldn't that internal framework we can still see be blown up and bent? Instead, the explosion force seems to have only stripped the concrete off the building.

Additionally, can we hypothesize what local radiation values might be if the core was exposed? Can we get that from looking at Chernobyl?
posted by mwhybark at 2:22 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I don't really think that's constructive or considerate of the understandable fear in this thread.

What's not considerate is looking at this and reacting with obsessive concern for a "yes, but how will this affect the West Coast of the US?" scenario that Michael Crichton would be ashamed of.

If there's a serious leak/meltdown it will be a huge problem for Japan, since it's such a small country, and deliberately tries to be self-reliant for staple foods as much as possible. You've got 120 million people in a space only 50% larger than New Zealand's 4 million; the same size a Germany.

It'll also be pretty scary for South Korea and China, depending on what ends up where. But the US? Gimme a break.
posted by rodgerd at 2:22 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

(Incidentally, thanks heaps to eriko and zippy for some lucid and non-"Fuck you hippies"/"nuclear power will kill us all" information here.)
posted by rodgerd at 2:24 AM on March 12, 2011

joost de vries: "So my suggestion is that people in the US take a deep breath"

joost, my interest is explicitly NOT related to issues of my personal safety, and I would think that is true for most US participants in this thread.
posted by mwhybark at 2:24 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Plastic sheeting? That's kinda 2003.

formless- compared to the Banda Aceh earthquake? not so much. Nautical charts for pretty large areas of the Indian Ocean are still off by 15-20' in elevation. If you're in a boat 15' of elevation is a big fucking deal. The coastline moving 8' laterally is not a big deal for navigation purposes.
posted by fshgrl at 2:25 AM on March 12, 2011

rodgerd: What's not considerate is looking at this and reacting with obsessive concern for a "yes, but how will this affect the West Coast of the US?" scenario that Michael Crichton would be ashamed of.

Being concerned about people on the west coast of the U.S. is not mutually exclusive to being devastated about the situation in Japan, and all of the people there.
posted by tzikeh at 2:26 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

So dust doesn't cross vast oceanic scales?

"Significant amounts of plant nutrients have been found in atmospheric mineral dust blowing from a vast central African basin to the Amazon, where it could compensate for poor rainforest soils."

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100809/full/news.2010.396.html
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:28 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd just like to say that I never had a use for Google Chrome before last night. The auto-translate function is saving my ass. If you've never tried it, give it a whack on this Asahi article. It's not perfect, but it does help a great deal in getting the gist across.

(The first sentence of the first paragraph is talking about "elevated possibility of meltdown in Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1," in a very general way; I had Japanese coworker help me out reading it.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 2:28 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Let's not get all derail-y here.

I keep this thread open to get the latest updates from the hive mind, as it's much faster than the news agencies.
posted by bwg at 2:28 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Pacific wind pattern forecast.
posted by anigbrowl at 2:29 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

loquacious: "If you're in the Western US you may or may not want to be worried as well."

Ha, loquacious lives in my old neighborhood and we are less than 10 miles away from one another. My reaction is more-or-less diametrically opposed. There will not be any local effects, unless you count the complications to nuclear power in the US that will certainly follow on this. Which is not something that distresses me in the least. It should be really hard to build nuclear plants - but I really think we should keep that debate out of this thread.
posted by mwhybark at 2:34 AM on March 12, 2011

y6y6y6: "So dust doesn't cross vast oceanic scales?"

Sure it does.

But the small size of the plant, plus the inherently low altitude of any dust-plume from this explosion - or god forbid others - combined with the inherent heaviness of radioactive elements, pretty much guarantees no US fallout. I'm no expert and do not claim special insight, so feel free to ignore my analysis. But I do urge you to think about it as well.
posted by mwhybark at 2:38 AM on March 12, 2011

I'm personally not all that keen on "there will not be X" statements, given the number of "there will not be X" statements that have since been violated in this incident.
posted by zippy at 2:38 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

I've got to punch out; my translator just headed to bed, so I'm not much use for picking out bits of Asahi articles and NHK broadcasts, and my speed-Twitter skills decay past 2:30am.

(Also, you wish you had coworkers as awesome as my translator. He's a badass.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 2:40 AM on March 12, 2011

I take it back, Locquacius' factual analysis is not so far off mine. But I don't think an uncontrolled core fire is likely and therefore there won't be any lofting of radioactive materials.
posted by mwhybark at 2:42 AM on March 12, 2011

I, for one, am not so much worried about the effects of how anything happening in Japan today/tonight/tomorrow affects California, but there is this thing called the Ring of Fire, where Japan, New Zealand and Chile have recently been severely shaken. If you draw a straight line from Japan to Chile and another line at a 90 degree angle from New Zealand, that points pretty much straight at us in California, where the seismic activity has been rather quiet. As they say in the movies - too quiet.

And I live five miles from the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which has operated without significant problem for almost 30 years (it was the plant the "No Nukes" protest concerts failed to stop) and is coming up for 're-commissioning', because, yeah it's getting old but the local unemployment rate is already 12%... I'm adjacent to Highway 101 for a quick evacuation, but it hasn't been a thing I've thought about except when PG&E sends out their Annual Emergency Guide. So I'm not planning to sleep well anytime for the next several years.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:42 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

zippy: "I'm personally not all that keen on "there will not be X" statements, given the number of "there will not be X" statements that have since been violated in this incident"

ha, fair enough.
posted by mwhybark at 2:42 AM on March 12, 2011

Additionally, can we hypothesize what local radiation values might be if the core was exposed?

Not an expert in catastrophic nuclear reactor accidents (nobody is, really), but I'm pretty confident they would be in the glow-in-the-dark, detect-from-miles-away range.
posted by Dr Dracator at 2:42 AM on March 12, 2011

I'm adjacent to Highway 101 for a quick evacuation

Given the normal movement of traffic on the 101 (or any highway in Southern California), I would not count on any evacuation being quick. One thing I learned at my CERT training is that, in the event of an emergency, with 95% certainty I'd be walking it.
posted by mykescipark at 2:45 AM on March 12, 2011

Ha, loquacious lives in my old neighborhood and we are less than 10 miles away from one another. My reaction is more-or-less diametrically opposed. There will not be any local effects,

And I sure hope you're right.

To be clear, I'm not panicking. I'm not raiding a grocery store. I'm not taping my windows shut. Hopefully everything over here is going to be ok.

But I'm on alert and trying to be aware and prepared. There's a huge difference between wanting to be prepared and freaking out.

Sorry if the self-concern seems too selfish in the face of the very real trauma and loss of life and limb going on in Japan, but I'm concerned about both places. There's not a whole lot I can do about Japan except express my sympathy. But I can be prepared here, just like I prepared to be ready to evacuate to higher ground early this morning, however unlikely it was.
posted by loquacious at 2:45 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Two new updates from TEPCO, Japanese-language only:

東北地方太平洋沖地震における当社設備への影響について 【午後５時現在】

and

福島第一原子力発電所の現状について 【午後４時40分時点】
posted by zippy at 2:46 AM on March 12, 2011

At the distance of 2000 km I remember that biggest impact was gras and produce couldn't be consumed for a while by respectively cattle and people.

Interestingly, the restrictions are still in place in parts of Wales.
posted by biffa at 2:47 AM on March 12, 2011

Not an expert in catastrophic nuclear reactor accidents (nobody is, really), but I'm pretty confident they would be in the glow-in-the-dark, detect-from-miles-away range.

Eyewitnesses will confirm that Chernobyl did indeed glow rather faintly above the shattered roof of the reactor complex, but from all accounts I've seen it was reported to be very faint, like aurora strength light or less.

The miles away detection part happened, too. But it was days and days later when radiation monitoring stations started lighting up with things like cesium and other signs of a reactor gone wrong.
posted by loquacious at 2:48 AM on March 12, 2011

@arclight points at this as a best-data source for the moment:

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Battle_to_stabilise_earthquake_reactors_1203111.html
posted by mwhybark at 2:49 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

OK so I'm watching NHK World (which features on the fly Japanese to English translation) and they are saying that the fuel rods are melting, but that what they are investigating now is the integrity of the container. They are still reporting no change in the radioactivity readings outside the plant.

Are other people also watching this and is my understanding correct?
posted by DarlingBri at 2:49 AM on March 12, 2011

loquacious: "But I can be prepared"

I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad you're doing it. Being consciously engaged in that is something important.

I seem to remember that NOVA on Chernobyl actually was able to show a bit of that, in a fuzzy VHS-quality video kind of way.
posted by mwhybark at 2:52 AM on March 12, 2011

Thanks for that summary mwhybark.

I just got back from shopping at the home center and supermarket. All the bottled water was sold out, and people were buying remaining drinks by the box. Cup ramen was also generally gone, and many other ready-to-eat foods were running low. At the supermarket, there was no bread and no milk, save for a a few 500 ml cartons. No prepared meals were left, but that's not necessarily unusual for this time of night.

I stopped at a convenience store on the way home to look for bread, but the clerk said that they didn't receive any shipments today.

I know it's not time to panic, but this is going to mess with my breakfast tomorrow. (And in the back of my mind, I remember that it's because of a massive earthquake and its aftermath, but it's not been serving me to dwell on that.)

I did find cake though.
posted by mariokrat at 2:56 AM on March 12, 2011 [12 favorites]

I'm located midway between San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach and will make it at least several miles down the 101 before the South County realizes something's wrong and the inevitable gridlock occurs... assuming I'm constantly vigilant. That's why I'm not getting any sleep.

I need to restock my water and Spencer's Market has Crystal Geyser in gallons for 69 cents.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:58 AM on March 12, 2011

Norwegian newspapers are reporting that the Japanese military have found 300-400 dead in the town Rikuzentakata alone. Fuck.
posted by Dumsnill at 2:58 AM on March 12, 2011

in California, where the seismic activity has been rather quiet. As they say in the movies - too quiet.

Man, I'm with you on this. For however worthless and unscientific it is, my earthquake intuition, radar or spider sense or whatever has been been on high alert for most of the year, and pegged for the last week, like I can feel a really big quake coming, particularly for California. Particularly for mid/central California along a major fault line.

Something is just... really weird about the quake activity lately. Something seems to be afoot, and I can't seem to shake that feeling. No, it's not a doom and gloom, end of the world or otherwise eschatological feeling at all, but more of a "Holy shit some really big change and challenges are coming on real fast, and I have no idea what it might be."

Anyway, superstition set aside, try an 9.0 on a populated segment of California and it's not going to fare anywhere near as well as Japan. The structural damage from North Ridge was intense, and that was only a 6.7.
posted by loquacious at 3:00 AM on March 12, 2011

The miles away detection part happened, too. But it was days and days later when radiation monitoring stations started lighting up with things like cesium and other signs of a reactor gone wrong.

You are talking about fallout reaching the monitoring stations, which definitely did happen - you can still detect fallout Cesium from Chernobyl in most of Europe today (this is not necessarily dangerous, it's just easy to detect at minute levels).

What I was referring to is direct radiation from the exposed core, it would probably be detectable, e.g. with a helicopter-mounted portable detector although I don't know if we have any actual readings from Chernobyl.
posted by Dr Dracator at 3:00 AM on March 12, 2011

loquacious: "But I can be prepared"

I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad you're doing it. Being consciously engaged in that is something important.

I seem to remember that NOVA on Chernobyl actually was able to show a bit of that, in a fuzzy VHS-quality video kind of way.

I'm crawling back into bed. No more reactor explosions overnight, m'kay? See you in the morning.
posted by mwhybark at 3:01 AM on March 12, 2011

mariokrat, that's just uncanny. I just got back, too. No milk, eggs, bread, or much juice. Most meat gone, few fruits/veggies left. Cup noodle gone. No prepared food. Oil, soy sauce, miso (Japanese staples) all gone, and only the giant bags of rice left behind.

Still plenty of beer.

On the way home, I stopped at the local yakitori guy (a store front operation with a gas grill, and skewers of chicken and assorted pork gizzards, damn tasty), and he had been busy all day, and was nearly sold out. We talked about the quake, and told each other to be careful. I check the convenience store, no milk, no juice, no cup noodles, no bento meals, no bread of any kind. No onigiri.

No cake.

Talked to the neighbor, seeing as his shutters were down, after having been up all last night. He'd been stuck in western Tokyo at his university campus, and just been able to get a train this morning.

A friend is coming over to stay tonight. His apartment is in an ancient building, and he said there were cracks in the walls, and it didn't feel safe. Still feeling minor aftershocks here.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:03 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

The Guardian has shifted its live focus somewhat to the nuclear alert along with the quake aftermath.
posted by hat at 3:03 AM on March 12, 2011

oops, sorry about that, not sure how that doubled. I flagged it for deletion. I'm still going to bed. Take care, all.
posted by mwhybark at 3:04 AM on March 12, 2011

Looks like three comments got duplicated. Weird. NOT OMINOUS. Just let pb know when he wakes up.

I know the Northridge (one word); I was 3 miles from the epicenter with my home relatively unharmed although my father's apartment 5 miles farther away was 'red flagged'. That's why the intensity of the second Christchurch did not particularly surprise me.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:07 AM on March 12, 2011

I know the Northridge (one word)

Whoops. I'm an LA-born native, I swear.
posted by loquacious at 3:11 AM on March 12, 2011

Though on the face of it they seem very banal, you can imagine the kind of ground movement it would take to topple these paper and household products off of their carts sitting on a flat parking lot. Snapped those at a drug store parking lot on my way to the train station, shortly after the quake.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:13 AM on March 12, 2011

The cake selection was slim... And the beer was ample here as well. I picked up a few, because beer's calories in an emergency, right?

I just remembered that I walked past a gas station which was closed early and had big "Sold Out" signs out front.

"That's Japan," says my wife.
posted by mariokrat at 3:15 AM on March 12, 2011

/me eats cake after midnight in NZ to show solidarity with Ghidorah.
posted by Catch at 3:15 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I tried to sleep for a few hours. I think I made it two hours before I got restless and logged on to MeFi to see news of the explosion. And then video of the explosion and Edano's (not very reassuring) statement.

This is not good for someone with major anxiety issues to wake up to. I'm just really scared for a lot of people right now... hopefully those people feel fairly calm, since I'm probably producing enough anxiety for the lot of 'em.
posted by rachaelfaith at 3:16 AM on March 12, 2011

these paper and household products

Wait, what in the hell is that in the second picture? Is that some kind of strawberry flavored or scented food-wrapping cling film or paper or something?
posted by loquacious at 3:17 AM on March 12, 2011

Video of the tsunami from inside Sendai airport.

There's no way you could outrun that on foot. One moment it's dry, the next moment cars are floating.
posted by loquacious at 3:22 AM on March 12, 2011 [11 favorites]

I was reading an Ask Metafilter question about fallout, and in an answer, Muirwylde linked to this fascinating description of nuclear meltdowns (for some horrified version of 'fascinated').

In the light water reactor section, there's this list of the steps involved in a meltdown:

1. Core uncovery.
2. Pre-damage heat up.
3. Fuel ballooning and bursting.

"In less than half an hour, the peak core temperature would reach 1100 K. At this temperature, the zircaloy cladding of the fuel rods may balloon and burst. This is the first stage of core damage. Cladding ballooning may block a substantial portion of the flow area of the core and restrict the flow of coolant. However complete blockage of the core is unlikely because not all fuel rods balloon at the same axial location. In this case, sufficient water addition can cool the core and stop core damage progression."

4. Rapid oxidation.

"The next stage of core damage, beginning at approximately 1500 K, is the rapid oxidation of the Zircaloy by steam. In the oxidation process, hydrogen is produced and a large amount of heat is released....

5. Debris bed formation. "When the temperature in the core reaches about 1700 K, molten control materials [1,6] will flow to and solidify in the space between the lower parts of the fuel rods where the temperature is comparatively low....

6. (Corium) Relocation to the lower plenum. "In scenarios of small-break LOCAs, there is generally. a pool of water in the lower plenum of the vessel at the time of core relocation. Release of molten core materials into water always generates large amounts of steam. If the molten stream of core materials breaks up rapidly in water, there is also a possibility of a steam explosion. During relocation, any unoxidized zirconium in the molten material may also be oxidized by steam, and in the process hydrogen is produced. Recriticality also may be a concern if the control materials are left behind in the core and the relocated material breaks up in unborated water in the lower plenum."

Putting on my speculative, not a nuclear engineer hat, for a moment, based on what official sources have said, we've had: 1) core uncovery, 2) pre-damage heat-up, 3) believed fuel damage (Cesium detected, indicating ...).

Now, the question is whether we've had 4) rapid oxidation. It does seem a decent explanation for why the building blew apart. I guess I'm wondering whether there was a steam explosion, a hydrogen explosion, or both.

The article continues:

"Though most modern studies hold that it is physically infeasible, or at least extraordinarily unlikely, Haskin, et al state that that there exists a remote possibility of an extremely violent [fuel-coolant interaction - hot stuff landing in cold water] leading to ... an alpha-mode failure, or the gross failure of the RPV itself, and subsequent ejection of the upper plenum of the [reactor pressure vessel] as a missile against the inside of the containment, which would likely lead to the failure of the containment and release of the fission products of the core to the outside environment without any substantial decay having taken place"

Given the visible shockwave going straight up, I'm wondering whether the top of the reactor pressure vessel blew straight up and out as described in that scenario.
posted by zippy at 3:24 AM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

Jesus, loquacious, in that Sendai Airport video, I could see at least two people outside walking or running before the water hit.
posted by zippy at 3:28 AM on March 12, 2011

loquacious: "Video of the tsunami from inside Sendai airport.

There's no way you could outrun that on foot. One moment it's dry, the next moment cars are floating"

Jeebus, I kept thinking: get off the ground floor, people!
posted by bwg at 3:28 AM on March 12, 2011

I'm in Yokohama right now, and I'm wondering if it's time to head to Kyushu. Can anybody tell me if I should get as far away as possible from the reactor up in Fukushima? There are still tickets available for the shinkansen. Would a difference of a few hundred miles from where I am now make much of a difference if things do get worse?
posted by farce majeure at 3:28 AM on March 12, 2011

Here's a highish res picture showing the extent of the damage in Rikuzentakata.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:30 AM on March 12, 2011

For probably inappropriate comic relief, here's a squid-obsessed webcomic illustrating part of what I wrote about the "Ring of Fire"
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:40 AM on March 12, 2011

Sorry, not the extent, a small part of the devastation.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:43 AM on March 12, 2011

"Wait, what in the hell is that in the second picture? Is that some kind of strawberry flavored or scented food-wrapping cling film or paper or something?"

Hehe, no. Just regular cling wrap. Each size has a different fruit, which makes it easy to tell between them in a crowded drawer. The box with the strawberries is the small one, and the grapefruit one is the big one.
posted by Bugbread at 3:44 AM on March 12, 2011

There is a news conference on right now, and they've announced that the explosion occurred in the outer parts of the reactor. Severe amounts of radiation don't seem to have been released.
posted by mariokrat at 3:44 AM on March 12, 2011

Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano is telling us that there wasn't a nuclear meltdown; hydrogen release caused the explosion of the building.

This is bad but not worst-case scenario.
posted by gen at 3:46 AM on March 12, 2011

According to translation from my hero at Yokosonews:

Some reaction involving what was vented from the reactor resulted in an explosion that affected the container building, reactor itself is in tact. Armageddon averted, for now, according to this.
posted by tempythethird at 3:47 AM on March 12, 2011

As mariokart said, they're saying the containment vessel (?) didn't explode, the building around it did.
They also said that detected radiation levels were actually lower after the explosion.
posted by Bugbread at 3:47 AM on March 12, 2011

Wait, other Japanese speakers - I was typing, and I missed something. Did he say they're going to flood the reactor with sea water or something like that?
posted by Bugbread at 3:48 AM on March 12, 2011

He did say that, yes.
posted by mykescipark at 3:50 AM on March 12, 2011

Yes. He's said their going to use sea water and boric acid(?)
posted by mariokrat at 3:50 AM on March 12, 2011

Hehe, no. Just regular cling wrap.

Oh, good. You probably just prevented my head from exploding in disbelief at the idea of fruit flavored cling wrap. Though Roy Orbison would be pleased, if only reluctantly and with resignation.
posted by loquacious at 3:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

Man, the kids finally went to bed, and I want to watch this news with a beer, but I don't want my reflexes dulled in the event of another quake...
posted by Bugbread at 3:52 AM on March 12, 2011

For those afraid of how this would effect the west coast of the US, consider the fact that the US dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan that carried radiation in our direction, as well as numerous above-ground nuclear tests on numerous Pacific islands, several using full-scale hydrogen bombs, which threw huge amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere.

... and then, get a sense of proportion and half a clue.

I'm in San Francisco, and happily aware that I am about 100 miles further away from the nuclear power plant in Japan than the Japanese were from Chernobyl. The Pacific is a *BIG* ocean, you know...
posted by markkraft at 3:53 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Edano loves to say 未曾有. I can't help thinking about what this press conference would sound like if it were PM Aso.
posted by Bugbread at 3:54 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes. He's said their going to use sea water and boric acid(?)

This combined with the 20km evacuation zone means the reactor has suffered at least a partial meltdown, and it's still critical or undergoing fission. They wouldn't be bombing it with sea water if it wasn't an emergency to cool it down, and they wouldn't be using a neutron poison like boron or boric acid if it wasn't fissioning.

We haven't heard the full story yet.
posted by loquacious at 3:56 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Time Out Tokyo is giving a translation of the news conference. Question to Yukio Edano, Chief Cabinet Sect.: Is there really no risk of a radiation leak?

Answer: No, because we're filling the container with boric acid and sea water.
http://twitter.com/#!/TimeOutTokyo/status/46538470113554432

Isn't the boric acid a bad sign?
On preview - heh, guess I'm not the only one wondering about that.
posted by batgrlHG at 3:56 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Containment vessel?!

Was it a nuclear wessel?!
posted by markkraft at 3:59 AM on March 12, 2011

They're saying that after the explosion, the radiation level dropped to 860.
posted by Bugbread at 4:00 AM on March 12, 2011

Boric acid would do a great job of neutralizing the radiation, right?! And lots of cold sea water would cool things down?!

Sounds like a great idea to me, considering the options available.
posted by markkraft at 4:00 AM on March 12, 2011

It may be too late to mention, but if you're in Japan, the guy they're talking to on 日テレ is very knowledgeable about reactors.
posted by Bugbread at 4:02 AM on March 12, 2011

There was a really excellent posting here on adding boric acid to the reactor. The boric acid will permanently kill the reactor. Good in the short term, but long term it could cause a serious electricity production problem.
posted by chrisulonic at 4:03 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is anyone else listening to Yokoso? He said that the radiation levels decreased from 1015 microsieverts to 800 and then all the way down to 70 microsieverts.
posted by rachaelfaith at 4:05 AM on March 12, 2011

"The boric acid will permanently kill the reactor."

Yes please, thanks! Besides, the last time I heard, blowing the top and walls off of a nuclear reactor kills the reactor too.

Gee, I guess they'll have to decommission this plant two years early...
posted by markkraft at 4:07 AM on March 12, 2011

Bugbread who knows how long the state of emergency will last, have a beer, your kids need you to be sane too.
posted by tempythethird at 4:08 AM on March 12, 2011

> Something is just... really weird about the quake activity lately. Something seems to be afoot, and I can't seem to shake that feeling.

My wife said the same thing. I said that people are hard-wired to interpret patterns in things even if there are no patterns to be seen and that if you dropped disasters onto the timeline of history randomly, they would seem to cluster just because they'd be in a Poisson Distribution.

(Remember, there's a huge evolutionary penalty for not seeing a pattern - you get eaten by the leopard - and very little for seeing one where it doesn't exist.)

Don't worry, there are more disasters coming - but they'll mostly be man-made...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 4:10 AM on March 12, 2011 [9 favorites]

... and then, get a sense of proportion and half a clue.

Hi. I have some sense of proportion and more than half of a clue. I grew up in family where my grandpa was the neighborhood cold war Civil Defense coordinator and a retired Colonel in the USAF and was involved in OSI during WW 2 and SAC during the cold war. He kept bulk unmilled wheat in lead boxes for long term emergency food storage among other things. I grew up reading CD survival/incident publications and, yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with our collective atomic history.

As a child of the Cold War I'm probably pretty well informed and aware. As an example of my sense of proportion and well-adjusted nature to these threats I actually have no desire to store bulk wheat in lead boxes. As I noted above it's extremely unlikely that appreciable or notably dangerous amounts of radiation will reach the US from this incident.

However, wanting to be aware of and prepared for the risks of a radiological event is not lacking in clue. If anything, saying "this will never happen" about an event where a bunch of "this will never happen" events actually have happened is lacking in cluefulness.


Last - you do realize that they've banned atmospheric nuclear weapon testing for a reason, right? That the entire world is now measurably more radioactive than it was before nuclear testing began, right? You know that most metals like lead and steel made after/during atmospheric testing are all now measurably radioactive, and that material old lead is prized by scientists who need it for radiologically sensitive instruments and experiments?

Fallout from atmospheric testing wrapped around the entire world, and may be responsible for the increased post-nuclear global cancer rates. Those tests all had an effect on the planet. Each and every last one of them.
posted by loquacious at 4:11 AM on March 12, 2011 [27 favorites]

My friends are in Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa. How worried should I be about them at this point?
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:11 AM on March 12, 2011

Not worried at all, Alia. They might be a bit upset, but more than likely they're just fine.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:13 AM on March 12, 2011

Thanks, Ghidorah.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:14 AM on March 12, 2011

Bugbread, I know exactly how you feel. I just had a kirin stout, thinking it would be a nice release from all this shit. The whole time I'm drinking it, I was thinking that, in case something happens, it would be better to be sober.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:15 AM on March 12, 2011

Kanagawa is not an area for concern.
posted by gen at 4:17 AM on March 12, 2011

The whole time I'm drinking it, I was thinking that, in case something happens, it would be better to be sober.

It's that thought (and the remains of a cold) that have kept me from breaking open a bottle of Hakkaisan.

I settled for some tea and some episodes of The Wire. Compared to the news right now, light entertainment.
posted by armage at 4:18 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Here's a good pic of what remains of the reactor building.

It looks like a steel/metal framed building that had metal panels or tiles for a skin. This would explain the big square chunks of debris that were flying away in the explosion.
posted by loquacious at 4:21 AM on March 12, 2011

"Last - you do realize that they've banned atmospheric nuclear weapon testing for a reason, right?"

Sure. That said, any reasonable scientific analysis of the likely radioactive leakage here relative to just a single one of those hydrogen bomb tests would come up with a result with a 1 in front, before the slash, and a *whole* lot of zeroes after the slash. So many zeroes, in fact, that the digit immediately after that slash would hardly matter.

As far as radioactive explosions go, this is strictly for amateurs. For people in the West Coast, this is like having the neighbor's kid take an old watch with glow-in-the-dark hands on it, and light it off with a few M-80s.
posted by markkraft at 4:22 AM on March 12, 2011

Anybody else feeling a little washed out inside the cranium at this point?
posted by bwg at 4:24 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

So here's some things that are concerning. What's the need for the seawater and boric acid if the case wasn't compromised.
posted by gen at 4:30 AM on March 12, 2011

The Cringely post that chrisulonic linked to above is solid analysis from someone who was directly experienced with Three Mile Island's meltdown.

Key points:

I’m guessing the US Navy delivered a load of sodium polyborate from some nuclear aircraft carrier reactor supply room in the Pacific Fleet. Its use indicates that the nuclear threat is even worse than presently being portrayed in the news.

and

An earthquake with such loss of life is bad enough, but Japan has also just lost 20 percent of its electric generating capacity. And I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that none of those 11 reactors will re-enter service again, they’ve been so compromised.

Which is really not good news at all.
posted by loquacious at 4:31 AM on March 12, 2011

What's the need for the seawater and boric acid if the case wasn't compromised.

I suspect that we're not getting the full story, unfortunately. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they're not even releasing factual radiation measurements to the public at this point.

The more I've been reading about TEPCO and hearing from others about the company the less I trust that they're actually telling the whole truth.
posted by loquacious at 4:37 AM on March 12, 2011

"They wouldn't be bombing it with sea water if it wasn't an emergency to cool it down, and they wouldn't be using a neutron poison like boron or boric acid if it wasn't fissioning."

First off, we already know that they were/are/are still trying to cool it down. And, judging from what we know, it's a safe bet that it has been cooling.

But seriously, the plant was clearly a complete write-off once they had that explosion... one which was almost certainly caused by rapidly overheating coolant, rather than a breach in the reactor core. If you had a problem like this with leaking radiation, wouldn't you want to do whatever it took to bring the radiation levels back to normal and cool the core down ASAP, in order to avoid the level of risk / liability?!

Sounds to me like they're making the best possible choice available to reduce that risk and liability for their company, no longer constrained by efforts to actually keep the plant operational.
posted by markkraft at 4:40 AM on March 12, 2011

I wouldn't assume they are telling the whole truth.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:41 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Regardless of how dishonest this company is, the whole planet is watching this right now. Any dishonesty from them at this point will be uncovered and just damage their reputation even further, and I think they know that.
posted by tempythethird at 4:41 AM on March 12, 2011

TEPCO has a history of lying to the public (see wikipedia.) I don't trust them at all right now.
posted by gen at 4:43 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't think TEPCO is lying, because they know that the truth will come out, and they would totally shoot themselves in the foot. I wouldn't be surprised if they're holding information back, however.
posted by Bugbread at 4:43 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Whatever the case, let's just hope they are 100% focused on mitigating radiation leakage; the folks who live in that area and indeed all of Japan need a break right now.

The earthquake and tsunami knocked them down, they don't need to be kicked as well.
posted by bwg at 4:44 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm with gen and flapjax on this one. They've just been involved in too much covering up in the past. Something will come out at some point, either the plant not having been maintained, or some sort of negligence with something. It's Tepco we're talking about.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:47 AM on March 12, 2011

Noriyuki Shikata (Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Relations, Director of Global Communications at Prime Minister's Office of Japan.) "Trend of μ Sv/h of Unit 1 this afternoon. 1,015(at 15:29), blast (15:36), 860(15:40), 70.5 (18:58). After blast, radioactive level lowered."

Discuss.
posted by gen at 4:48 AM on March 12, 2011

I place no trust in TEPCO either, and they may sure be crooked, but they're not cartoon evil. I'm sure their first priority is shutting down the reactor safely. I'm sure their second priority is covering their asses. But I'm not worried about the order of those priorities.
posted by Bugbread at 4:52 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I believe TEPCO when they're describing the status of the reactor and what's being done to contain it.

I don't (and won't) believe them when asked to account for their maintenance history up until the earthquake.
posted by armage at 4:53 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

My God. In Miyagi Prefecture, there's a small town of 10,700 people that was hit by a tsunami. 700 people are accounted for. Ten thousand people are missing. This is just one town. Ten thousand people, gone.

This is gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.
posted by zardoz at 4:57 AM on March 12, 2011

Off the TEPCO subject, I know, but this little clip from the 22nd floor of a Tokyo building will give folks an idea of how loooong this damn thing was. Not to mention how scary.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:58 AM on March 12, 2011 [18 favorites]

Off the TEPCO subject, I know, but this little clip from the 22nd floor of a Tokyo building will give folks an idea of how loooong this damn thing was.

Question: Why do all of those office workers have hard hats? And why are most of the women wearing face masks even before the quake really starts rocking?
posted by loquacious at 5:07 AM on March 12, 2011

Fuji TV reporting: 10,000 people missing in tsunami-hit town of Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi prefecture (population: 17,800)
posted by gen at 5:08 AM on March 12, 2011

loquacious: "Question: Why do all of those office workers have hard hats? And why are most of the women wearing face masks even before the quake really starts rocking"

I would guess they have hard hats for earthquakes. The face masks, if Japan is anything like Hong Kong, are for people who are sick and don't want to infect their co-workers.
posted by bwg at 5:10 AM on March 12, 2011

Why do all of those office workers have hard hats?
Par for the course. My apartment came with a hat, several flashlights, and a couple fire extinguishers. If there is anything Japan is neurotic about, it is safety... perhaps with good reason.

Why are most of the women wearing face masks even before the quake really starts rocking?
Allergy season, and I have been told this year is worse than average.
posted by whatzit at 5:11 AM on March 12, 2011

Loq: Dunno about the hard hats, but masks are common in Japan starting in winter (to keep others from getting a cold if you have a cold) through late spring (due to severe hay fever allergies).
posted by Bugbread at 5:11 AM on March 12, 2011

loq, bwg nailed it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:11 AM on March 12, 2011

I think it's part of the building code: everyone has to have helmets. I was wearing mine on the 22nd floor all the way down to Hibiya Park.
posted by armage at 5:12 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

"The earthquake and tsunami knocked them down, they don't need to be kicked as well."

And yet, we've heard nothing lately about the fires that are, presumably, still raging in some parts of Japan, which are far more of a threat to human life than this incident appears to be.

Hell, I posted about what seemed to be an entire town of 16,000 people being swept out to sea, and nobody batted an eye.

Yes, I know nuclear is scary, and radiation leaks are bad, but the thing is, very few people were particularly scared when they said they would be venting some radioactive steam from coolants. Well... sounds like they did that. Unfortunately, not in a particularly controlled manner, but hey... it cooled things down pretty quick, it seems. So yes, by all means, flood it in boron and water, bury it in concrete, and stop pussyfooting around, dragging things out with half-efforts, in order to try saving a 40+ year old power plant. It's not worth it.

I am frankly far more concerned about fires. About disease. About Japan's ability to get food and water, gas and electricity to all its people. To get raw materials to those who process them, so as to meet the needs of those who use them, oftentimes in very critical ways. (It's not just food... it's the plastic and paper that they come in, too, oftentimes by boat, truck, and train. But what do you do when the harbor -- and the fishing fleet -- has been destroyed, the train tracks are trashed, crops are submerged under salt water, and the gas refinery just burnt to the ground? )

All of this isn't the least bit easy, considering just how much the Japanese need to import, just to maintain their society. If Japan has one of the world's greatest infrastructures, it's largely out of necessity, in order to meet their people's needs. As such, when that infrastructure is ruined, Japan is especially vulnerable.

But right now, I'm mostly aghast at the thought of whole towns being washed out to sea, left to wonder how many towns and cities we're talking about here, how many tens of thousands of people may have died, and how many of them could or could not evacuate to high ground from their coastal towns, only a scant few minutes after a nauseatingly huge and lengthy earthquake.

The nuclear situation is unfortunate. And its outcome in completely uncontrollable, too. But what the Japanese people need, now, when it still could perhaps help people, is a sense of perspective.
posted by markkraft at 5:13 AM on March 12, 2011 [42 favorites]

That video was surreal. The guy shooting it seems to waver somewhere between fascination and boyish glee, and he gets quite a few shit-eating grins on camera from his co-workers. No idea if I would or wouldn't respond in the same way though.
posted by tempythethird at 5:14 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Re: Hardhats, To: All.

That... that is fucking awesome. Office workers keep hard hats around, and apartments come with them? I've been known to keep a first aid kit and space blanket and shit in my backpack or pockets, but I've never even thought about keeping a hard hat around w/r/t earthquake preparedness. Granted many of the places I've lived aren't very vertical.

*adds bike helmet to quake supply list*
posted by loquacious at 5:16 AM on March 12, 2011

People are worried about the nuke plants because they pose a potential serious risk to the rest of the world. Japan is already a disaster, and no one doubts that or doesn't sympathize. But it would sure be nice if this could be, you know, contained to the current scale of tragedy.

Folks are always going to pay more attention when the disaster might affect them personally. Human nature.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:18 AM on March 12, 2011

Yokoso reporting large aftershock hitting Sendai and Fukushima.
posted by marsha56 at 5:21 AM on March 12, 2011

That aftershock looked massive, news cameras on Japan TV shaking violently. A commenter on Yokoso's feed said they felt it in Singapore.
posted by rachaelfaith at 5:23 AM on March 12, 2011

Hell, I posted about what seemed to be an entire town of 16,000 people being swept out to sea, and nobody batted an eye.

Sky News just broke in to report that with a figure of 9.5k people. That is so horrifyingly hard to take in, I'm pretty sure I didn't even absorb it the first time I read it. It sounds like a made up impossibility. I'm so sorry it isn't.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:28 AM on March 12, 2011

For future reference only, the video I had pointed out above is at a more permanent link here
posted by vacapinta at 5:31 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes please, thanks! Besides, the last time I heard, blowing the top and walls off of a nuclear reactor kills the reactor too.

This represents a misunderstanding of how nuclear reactors work. Blowing the thing to bits or melting it into a pile of slag will not stop the reaction, and is arguably the worst thing that you can possibly happen. (A combination of those two things happened at Chernobyl -- the reaction still hasn't stopped)
posted by schmod at 5:31 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

This site has Yokoso side by side with Japanese TV feeds.
I think they are the same channels he is watching on his monitors.
I don't speak Japanese, so I just mute the other two feeds.
posted by at the crossroads at 5:33 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

As someone with many friends in Japan (mostly accounted for now, thankfully), I've been doing a lot of phoning and skyping and reading for the last couple days... and I just had to pop in here to say that the technical / reactor information in this thread is better than anything else I have read on the internet or seen on television for the last two days.

Who knew that this would be something MeFi did so well?
posted by rokusan at 5:34 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

markkraft: ""The earthquake and tsunami knocked them down, they don't need to be kicked as well."Hell, I posted about what seemed to be an entire town of 16,000 people being swept out to sea, and nobody batted an eye."

Don't misunderstand my comment; the threat of nuclear contamination would be getting kicked while down, but the implied meaning is that Japan is down, and down hard.

No one knows the full extent of the catastrophe, and at this point it looks as though more horrific reports will be made, such as yours.

All I'm saying is that I hope this reactor situation can be dealt with swiftly so that people can get back to helping those devastated by the quake and tsunami.
posted by bwg at 5:36 AM on March 12, 2011

According to the guardian, NHK is reporting a magnitute 6 earthquake in Fukushima at 22.15 Japan time.
posted by Admira at 5:36 AM on March 12, 2011

Yeah, at the crossroads link is better than mine. I would favorite it if I could, but I just ran out of favorites for the day. (sigh...)
posted by marsha56 at 5:40 AM on March 12, 2011

This last aftershock was pretty big. A 6.0 quake on any other day would be news -- today, it's just a footnote.
posted by armage at 5:42 AM on March 12, 2011

A commenter on Yokoso's feed said they felt it in Singapore.

Exceedingly unlikely. Again, I'm as close as you can be to Japan and not actually be in Japan, pretty much, and we've not felt a wobble.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:44 AM on March 12, 2011

The human suffering is immeasurable.

Let us hope that the environmental devastation, whether it's caused by radiation or the billions of tons of non-biodegradable debris, will compel us to re-evaluate our addiction to consumerism and the human-led devastation of the planet that it requires.
posted by mareli at 5:44 AM on March 12, 2011

Not likely.
posted by ryanrs at 5:47 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Japanese TV stations are gradually moving away from news and back towards "news" -- gripping stories of tragedy and hope, backed by dramatic music. Reporters obviously thrilled to be able to ask questions to someone sobbing while looking at a pile of rubble that used to be their house. Now they just need to find a heroic firefighter or self defense force member, and they'll have the hat trick.
posted by Bugbread at 5:48 AM on March 12, 2011

I noticed the same thing, Bugbread. Good (?) to see a sense of normalcy returning to the country, if only in part.
posted by armage at 5:50 AM on March 12, 2011

Okay, good to hear. T'was just a commenter on his feed, so not a totally reliable source. But it sure looked powerful.
posted by rachaelfaith at 5:50 AM on March 12, 2011

One thing I was noticing when watching NHK yesterday was how often the reporters 噛んだ - sometimes four or five times in the same sentence, and they didn't apologize for it like they usually do.
posted by emmling at 5:59 AM on March 12, 2011

emmling, care to explain for people unfamiliar with the language or culture?
posted by lizzicide at 6:02 AM on March 12, 2011

I've got a friend staying over because his apartment building is riddled with cracks. We're all pretty nervous, but I think I'm in my element, which is, essentially, trying to calm other people, because it keeps me from realizing how freaked out I am personally. And I've been trying to calm everyone down, then the new Fukushima quake just hit, and we finally just went all out and got ready for whatever. The earthquake kit was just restocked with basically whatever we've got onhand, without worrying if the expiration date is in a couple months, as we might need it tonight. We've all got bags packed, my wife is making rice just so we'll have onigiri in case we do lose power (I've got a couple chicken breasts going. Trust me, chicken onigiri are awesome).

And the thing is, I'm realizing just how fucking panicked we are, and just how fucking ready I am for this shit to stop. I'm tired. I'm nervous. The new Fukushima quake makes me feel like this isn't about to calm down anytime soon. I was vaguely thinking/hoping that the shaking would all be over by tonight, or tomorrow, and things could maybe start to get back to normal.

I will use up my last bit of rational thought here, before I just go bugshit. To all of the people worried about Japan's future, and it's ability to recover, Japan has, economically, been in the toilet for the last twenty years. Construction, which had been a backbone of the economy, has been in the same toilet. Honestly, I think this could have the same effect that war has traditionally had for the u.s. economy. The construction industry is suddenly necessary and vital in a way it hasn't been for years. This is, and will remain, a hideous tragic natural disaster. There is a chance, though, that Japan will come through this stronger than before.

And now I'm going to let myself panic a little.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:03 AM on March 12, 2011 [47 favorites]

Ghidorah- where was your friend's building that was cracked? In my neighborhood (Minato-ku) I cannot see any evidence of a 9.0 M quake.
posted by gen at 6:05 AM on March 12, 2011

Hang in there Ghidorah, we're all pulling for you and all the other Japan MeFites.
posted by bwg at 6:05 AM on March 12, 2011

If any mefites in Japan are looking to flee to relative normalcy as can be found in Kyushu, I'd be willing to help as best as I can, although my apartment is relatively miniscule. It feels so weird to me that this is the same big but not too big country that I am living in, as everything is going pretty much as usual here.
posted by that girl at 6:09 AM on March 12, 2011

Would somebody mind whipping up a linklist (to post in this thread or on a Wiki) of comments of interest in this thread, so that I might link to it elsewhere? In other words, this thread is getting a bit unweildy, but, as it is a fantastic source of information (esp. wrt the reactor, links to feeds, photos, etc.) it would be nice to have a meta-organised point of reference for people to jump into it and navigate within ... especially for non-MeFite friends, family and lurkers who might want to read the good bits in here, but are unfamiliar with the site and overwhelmed by the massive wall of text.

(I would do it myself, but I don't have the time and I didn't favorite comments consistently, so I'd have to reread the whole thread and I'm barely keeping up as it is!)

Also, thank you to everybody here. This truly is an amazing community of people helping, caring and informing. And most of all, comforting.

Personal anecdote: I remember sometime around 1997, there was a huge earthquake in California. It woke me up violently and I stayed awake the whole night through, terrified and shivering in my bed, listening to the radio (which was broadcasting stories of alien abductions; that didn't help). I had nobody to call and I felt so alone. It was one of the worst nights of my life. I just longed to connect to another human, but I was too scared to leave the house. To hear a voice from somewhere, anywhere would have been such a relief. I wish MeFi had existed; I wish I'd known about this place through the many disasters that I've personally and collectively weathered through in the decade since.

There are many people out there, just wandering the internet, seeking out an echo. Which is why I am so grateful for each and every one of the voices heard here; it is because all of you that my tears aren't those solely of sadness, but also joy and comfort. Keep on.
posted by iamkimiam at 6:09 AM on March 12, 2011 [16 favorites]

"This represents a misunderstanding of how nuclear reactors work. Blowing the thing to bits or melting it into a pile of slag will not stop the reaction..."

Actually, your comment represents a misunderstanding of basic logic.

Large parts of the area outside of the core blew up. Last I heard, that makes a nuclear plant unsafe to operate, to the point that it's basically a complete write off. And if you know you've got a complete write-off on your hands, then what you can do that's most effective to stop the reaction -- even if it destroys the nuclear plant -- is suddenly on the table.

As Cringely wrote, the nuclear plant had "a huge plumbing system that was likely compromised and vulnerable" after the quake. It seems likely that some of the pipes burst, but that containment was still maintained on the core.

The whole gradual venting of steam idea was, in reflection, an unwise half-measure, trying to save a plant that likely should've been written off entirely from a safety standpoint. It made it through over 40 years, existing into the modern age with outdated cooling technology that, tragically, required working pumps to maintain.

Does Japan need the power? Sure, it could use it... but I disagree with Cringely. I think we'll see old, somewhat dangerous nuclear power plants -- as many as can be somewhat justified -- staying online for a few years, perhaps at diminished output, only to be replaced by a whole bunch of new plants with newer safety standards. It'll be a gamble, but then again, not having power for their people isn't much of an option.
posted by markkraft at 6:10 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ghidorah, sending you lots of internet hugs! Take good care of yourself. Get some rest when you can. Thanks for all your posts here. It's good for all of us on the other side of the planet to get a feel for what so many are going through.
posted by marsha56 at 6:10 AM on March 12, 2011

Chiba-chuo. Old, old building. Where I live, in Inage, and Chiba Chuo registed at lower five on the Shindo scale. Not fun. Getting fucking tired of this.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:11 AM on March 12, 2011

Everyone in Japan, we're rooting for you.
posted by arcticseal at 6:11 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is a chance, though, that Japan will come through this stronger than before.

There's more than just a chance - it's nearly the only certain bet in this thread.

Life will go on. Japan will be rebuilding and back to living in the future before we know it. And we'll all grow and adapt from this, not just Japan.

Be safe, and go forth and kick ass. The world has your back.
posted by loquacious at 6:12 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ghidorah--if it's any consolation, I'm going bugfuck, too. The constant aftershocks are freaking me out, even though it's unlikely we'll get another Big One. It ain't over yet, but you're not the only one.
posted by zardoz at 6:13 AM on March 12, 2011

Well, I'm off to bed.
posted by Bugbread at 6:18 AM on March 12, 2011

And, yeah, they're now showing multiple clips of people being reunited with lost dogs on the news here. I dunno if the worst is over, but the TV stations are definitely returning to normal.
posted by Bugbread at 6:20 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Stumbling over your words is rather a big deal here, especially if you're on TV. On non-news shows, if you misspeak (the word in Japanese is 噛む - kamu - to bite/chew, to stumble over your words) they make fun of you. On the news, the announcer tends to apologize and then say it properly and continue with the news story. Most of the time announcers don't kamu so hearing that many mistakes without any mention of it was strange.

Life in Kansai is normal, so if any of you are needing a break, I've got a spare futon.
posted by emmling at 6:21 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm off to bed, too, I hope there aren't any big goddamn earthquakes to wake me up.

The footage I've watched today is mind-blowing. Forget Kobe, this outdistances Kobe by a mile. This is Japan's biggest disaster since WWII.
posted by zardoz at 6:21 AM on March 12, 2011

The news is returning to normal, all right.

This video report by CNN kind of pisses me off.

Maybe it's time I hit the sack too, before I blow a gasket.
posted by bwg at 6:24 AM on March 12, 2011

Folks who skipped over it: flapjax' earthquake on the 22nd floor clip is another one of those extra-vivid "you are there and horrified" experiences.
posted by mediareport at 6:36 AM on March 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

Judit Kawaguchi
# town of 17,000 seems to have only 3 buildings standing, hospital, some wedding place and one more building. rest are gone. #japan about 2 hours ago via web
# This town in Miyagi prefecture is just gone, incredible devastation, all buidlings except hospital are gone, highway in pieces., ppl missing about 2 hours ago via web
# Minamisanrikucho town is the name, 10,000 ppl missing. horrible, whole town is gone. highway broken into bits, in mud, all mud, all gone
posted by adamvasco at 6:38 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Maybe it's time I hit the sack too

BREAKING NEWS: Reports are coming in from an overpressurized Big White Guy in Hong Kong that's threatening to blow a gasket. Crisis response teams are standing by with gallons of cold beer in an attempt to cool the core of the BWG before a gasket breach... uh, sorry. I should probably sleep, too.
posted by loquacious at 6:41 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Deep breaths, everybody. Remember on 9/11, when the networks started reporting that over ten thousand people had been killed? Please, don't panic based on unattributed IRC comments.
posted by steambadger

everybody take a deep breath
posted by philip-random

So my suggestion is that people in the US take a deep breath.
posted by joost de vries

Not to sound alarmist but AIRBORNE CONTAMINANTS ARE POTENTIALLY SLOUCHING THEIR WAY TOWARD MY HEMISPHERE AND YOU'RE ALL ASKING ME TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH?!

OK, that sounded alarmist
posted by mazola at 6:45 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Not to sound alarmist but AIRBORNE CONTAMINANTS ARE POTENTIALLY SLOUCHING THEIR WAY TOWARD MY HEMISPHERE AND YOU'RE ALL ASKING ME TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH?!

Relax. Here, have a cigarette.
posted by loquacious at 6:48 AM on March 12, 2011 [20 favorites]

> Yes please, thanks! Besides, the last time I heard, blowing the top and walls off of a nuclear reactor kills the reactor too.

> This represents a misunderstanding of how nuclear reactors work.

> Actually, your comment represents a misunderstanding of basic logic.

markkraft and schmod, are you perhaps talking at cross purposes rather than disagreeing so much? markfraft you're talking about "killing the reactor" in the sense of it ever being useful for the generation of power again? And schmod you're talking about "killing the reactor" in the sense of the nuclear fusion no longer happening? Yes?
posted by adamt at 6:49 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Woah. Video of cracks forming on the ground in realtime with possible liquefaction.
posted by loquacious at 6:53 AM on March 12, 2011 [27 favorites]

How a Nuclear Plant Works.
posted by ericb at 6:54 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which opposes nuclear energy, told msnbc.com Friday that TEPCO was facing a potential catastrophe.

"What's critical is, are they able to restore cooling and prevent fuel damage? If the fuel starts to get damaged, eventually it will melt through the reactor vessel and drop to the floor of the containment building," raising the odds that highly radioactive materials could be released into the environment, he said.

But Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the U.S.-based Nuclear Energy Institute, said that while the situation was serious, a meltdown remains unlikely and, even if it occurred would not necessarily pose a threat to public health and safety.

"Obviously that wouldn't be a good thing, but at Three Mile Island about half the core melted and, at the end of the day … there were no adverse impacts to the public," he said. *

posted by ericb at 7:00 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

possible liquefaction

Correction: Very obvious and remarkable liquefaction on reclaimed coastal landfill land in Chiba City. I didn't make it to the end of the video before posting the link. Of all the quake videos I've watched today ever in my life, that one is the most surreal and strange. (And relatively harmless/anxiety free.)
posted by loquacious at 7:06 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

That's an eerie video, loq. It's one thing to watch videos of buildings shake and sway, but watching cracks in the earth narrow and widen just blew my mind.
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:09 AM on March 12, 2011

Holy shit ... that video is wild. Yeah ... the Marina District in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake was hit hard due to liquefaction, as it sits on landfill. If Boston were to have an earthquake, much of the city would be affected, since Back Bay, the South End, etc. is all land fill ... not to mention the amount of brick-and-mortar construction used here. Brick buildings crumble easily. New England sits on a fault. As a matter of fact, the Cape Ann quake of November 1755 was estimated at a magnitude of 6.2.
posted by ericb at 7:16 AM on March 12, 2011

七転八起
Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight.
posted by tommasz at 7:22 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Words, I have none.
posted by klue at 7:27 AM on March 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

I have to go bleach my monitor after that
posted by troll on a pony at 7:30 AM on March 12, 2011 [14 favorites]

Klue, holy fuck. That's crazy.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:31 AM on March 12, 2011

That was awful.
posted by gen at 7:31 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

What the fuck is wrong with people?
posted by zerbinetta at 7:33 AM on March 12, 2011

klue, wow. I wish I'd never seen that. And I was actually getting excited about being able to go home for a short trip.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:34 AM on March 12, 2011

Wow, you were able to find reprehensible comments from a few douchebags on the internet. Congratulations?
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 7:34 AM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

> Not to sound alarmist but AIRBORNE CONTAMINANTS ARE POTENTIALLY SLOUCHING THEIR WAY TOWARD MY HEMISPHERE AND YOU'RE ALL ASKING ME TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH?!

A gentle reminder to our friends on the west coast of North America: In the worst-case scenario (which is not happening), the only direction you can go is downwind. Please consider that before acting on your instincts to flee.
posted by ardgedee at 7:34 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Words, I have none.
posted by klue at 9:27 AM on March 12 [1 favorite +] [!]

OMG. Sick, twisted. And I bet they would all claim to be Christians. Where's a WWJD bracelet when you need one?
posted by marsha56 at 7:38 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Where's a WWJD bracelet when you need one?

I challenge anyone to find a passage in the Gospels where Jesus gloats over other people's misfortunes.
posted by tommasz at 7:42 AM on March 12, 2011

Words, I have none.
posted by klue at 9:27 AM on March 12 [1 favorite +] [!]

I have words for the people in that link.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

If you know what I mean. And I know you do.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:42 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Nice derail, klue.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:43 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

what a weird awful trend. as a non-psychologist, I wonder if this is an ugly manifestation of a) compassion fatigue and/or b) increasing isolationism
posted by angrycat at 7:43 AM on March 12, 2011

tommasz, there is no such passage, as you knew. In fact, for those who want to judge others' misfortunes, He DID say the following:

1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

(from Luke 13, if anyone is interested.)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:45 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

That video was surreal. The guy shooting it seems to waver somewhere between fascination and boyish glee, and he gets quite a few shit-eating grins on camera from his co-workers. No idea if I would or wouldn't respond in the same way though.

I think making light of a situation and joking about it is a fairly common defence mechanism at times of stress.
posted by chill at 7:45 AM on March 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

And now let's spend the next half-hour talking about the .00005% of Americans who actually believe that Japan is suffering this tragedy as a result of karmic backlash from Pearl Harbor.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 7:46 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

That popped up in the Something Awful thread too, there isn't much to say. America is a nation of 300 million people 27% of whom are crazy right wingers. It doesn't represent the rest of the country. Japan is pretty well admired in American culture, especially among young people who don't know anyone who fought in a war 70 years ago.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:47 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

I came here for the smart.
posted by mazola at 7:47 AM on March 12, 2011 [10 favorites]

So based on layperson newsjunkie status I think the following incompressible news stories are unfolding:
-an extreme loss of life from the tsunami with whole towns sucked out to sea and tens of thousands missing
-multiple damage reports from the quake and aftershocks including fires from kerosene heaters
-two separate nuclear sites with multiple reactors are having problems one of the reactors at one site has had some kind of explosion. Expert reaction ranges from this is very bad to we don't know yet how bad.
posted by humanfont at 7:49 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Can we get back on track please?
posted by futz at 7:49 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

On a more productive note, is the Red Cross going to do what they did for Haiti and have a way for people to give by texting from their phones?
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:49 AM on March 12, 2011

Here is a map detailing how long the fallout will take to get to the US and where people will have to evacuate from.


It's fake, just trying to change the subject.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:50 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I got in a taxi today, and to my surprise the driver, although Panjabi, was a devout evangelical born-again Christian who proceeded to proselytize me immediately. It was all about how Japan was the beginning of the End Times and Jeremiah this and Revelations that and how I had my last chance now to find Jesus before it all came down. Weird as hell in a Panjabi accent I'd expect to be preaching the virtues of submission to the prophet. Perfectly friendly, utterly insane.

I was looking at 20 minutes on the West Side Highway with this shit, and Japan very much on my mind.

I rarely do this, but I told him I was a non-believer with dear friends in Japan and would he please shut up and just drive.

He took the hint. I tipped him rather well. I just wasn't in an ethnographic mood today.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [14 favorites]

Oh, and the remark that triggered my ire was something about how the Japanese worship idols and were paying the price.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:51 AM on March 12, 2011

St. Alia: Yes, text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10. More information is here: Redcross.org
posted by lizzicide at 7:52 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have to leave for a little while. But, I just want to apologize for participating in that derail. Flue's intentions were good, but I can see how that's not what we should be doing here. And I do sincerely regret feeling the need to jump in and thereby further getting off track. A learning experience. I'll do my best to be more thoughtful in the future.
posted by marsha56 at 7:55 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Just tuned into my local AM radio Saturday Swap Shop here in eastern North Carolina for a bit of something different. You know, those local yard-sale shows where Robby's got a dishwasher for $50 OBO... First thing I hear is someone calling in to relay a message to Megan that her brother in Japan is about 80 miles from Fukushima but is currently fine. Wasn't expecting that.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:57 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Shit. Can't believe I'm participating in this derail. BUT, the tweet that launched the "if you feel bad about the tsunami, google Pearl Harbor death toll" came from comedy writer Alec Sulkin handle @thesulk. He has written and produced episodes of Family Guy, is (was) the boyfriend of Sara Silverman, and is followed by many prominent actors/writers/directors/producers. His wikipedia page has already been hacked and someone has produced a highly editorialized opinion about the tweet. I've done my uber small part and tweeted to Patton Oswalt to get him to unfollow this douche. If we can get some highly prominent people to rebuke and unfollow this guy, perhaps he will take the hint and remove the post from his wall and offer an apology.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 8:03 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

And the thing is, I'm realizing just how fucking panicked we are, and just how fucking ready I am for this shit to stop.

Ghidorah--if it's any consolation, I'm going bugfuck, too.

Gidorah, zardoz, and any other Tokyo-area mefites: I'm scheduled to be in Yokosuka at the end of April/first week of May and will gladly buy you the libation of your choice. The natural disasters I've lived through were weather-related so they were over when the winds died down. The idea of aftershocks going on for days has got to be mind-blowing. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you folks in Japan.
posted by Runes at 8:03 AM on March 12, 2011

Somehow, amidst all the horrifying images and video, this gave me an urge to run...somewhere. The shot of that gaping, moving crack was amazing, like some earth elemental trying to chew the guy's leg off. Thanks for posting it.
posted by Shike at 8:04 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Runes, thanks for the offer. Going to try to get some sleep now. Take care, all.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:06 AM on March 12, 2011

Holy smokes, Shike! He was pretty calm for a guy about to be eaten by the earth.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:11 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Couldn't sleep right away, got up, saw this: WWJD?

What would Japan do? I think we all know: fight to get back up.

Flagged and back to bed. See y'all in the morning, hope to wake up to better news.
posted by bwg at 8:12 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

A bit of relevant news from the local Riverside, CA paper:

Local search and rescue teams ready to mobilize

Local disaster relief teams were standing by Friday to help with rescue operations following Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami, and political leaders pledged their support.

A 70-person urban search and rescue team based in Riverside was ready to go with pre-loaded pallets of equipment, including saws, radios and food and water for members. It is the same group that dug through rubble looking for survivors after the World Trade Center attacks in New York, Hurricane Katrina and the 1994 Northridge quake.

posted by Celsius1414 at 8:15 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Riverside, I should mention, is a sister city of Sendai, so there is an added tinge to what's going on I think. Also, at the bottom of that article is a list of donation possibilities, which might be useful for folks who missed them upthread:

American Red Cross, call 888-831-0031 or 800-RED-CROSS; online at www.redcross.org; or by mail to Inland Empire Chapter, 202 W. Rialto Ave., San Bernardino, Calif., 92408, with "Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami" in the memo field.

Salvation Army: Text the words "Japan" or "quake" to 80888 to make a $10 donation; call 800-SAL-ARMY; online www.salvationarmy.usawest.org; or by mail, The Salvation Army World Service Office, International Relief Fund, P.O. Box 630728, Baltimore, Md., 21263-0728, with "Japan earthquake/tsunami" in the memo field of the check.

Riverside-based Fuel Relief Fund, which provides fuel for cars and generators: call 909-322-1481; online at www.fuelrelieffund.org.

posted by Celsius1414 at 8:18 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

He's asleep right now, but as mentioned above @arclight has been awesome for reactor info.
posted by Artw at 8:19 AM on March 12, 2011

Can I just pay some respect here to the stoicism and community-mindedness of the people of Japan? America has many admirable qualities, but if we were facing an all-time biggest earthquake and huge continuing aftershocks and a terrible tsunami that took much of our coastal towns and a nuke plant facing an imminent meltdown, I think there would be outright panic and looting in a lot of cities. Kudos to the people of Japan for so far keeping their shit together.
posted by Asparagirl at 8:24 AM on March 12, 2011 [25 favorites]

Der Spiegel and several other serious news sources estimate the minimum number of dead at 11,000. This is bad indeed.
posted by Dumsnill at 8:28 AM on March 12, 2011

BBC are reporting Japan nuclear agency as defining current incident as a 4 on the international nuclear event scale. Chernobyl was apparently rated a 7, TMI a 5.
posted by biffa at 8:39 AM on March 12, 2011

via Guardian: The incident at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant is less serious than both the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, according to Japan's nuclear safety agency.
An official at the agency said it has given the incident a rating of 4 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which equates to an accident with local consequences. Three Mile Island was rated 5 while Chernobyl received the highest rating of 7, he added.
posted by adamvasco at 8:39 AM on March 12, 2011

New conference currently ongoing: They seem to be in process of cooling the reactor with seawater.

Have any nuclear-energy-literate mefites weighed in on this whole shutdown with seawater thing? Is this some improvised last-ditch stunt? Is it likely to work or to fail? Has it been attempted before?
posted by tempythethird at 8:42 AM on March 12, 2011

I could very well be wrong, but I think it's being cooled with seawater because the plant facility is so close to the ocean, and that water is readily available.

It should also be noted that contaminated seawater is most likely being flushed back into the ocean.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:46 AM on March 12, 2011

Long, long-time Meta lurker but had to join after this. You people are phenomenal. For all the hype, stupidity and lack of facts as well as simple, appropriate-at-times-like-these sincere empathy out there in the vast wasteland of what is now the U.S. media circus - all day yesterday as this unfolded I stayed here and was enlightened & informed instead of treated like a scared & ignorant sheeple. I got facts, perspective, and adored/appreciated reminders of how intrinsically *good* human nature is. Community in its truest and best form shines here. Had to say thank you for that. Carry on. So glad I am now a part of it.
posted by cdalight at 8:47 AM on March 12, 2011 [46 favorites]

The news conference off to a bumpy start, as a team of exhausted workers grope for words. Comments from viewers poke fun at the shiny pate of a bald teammember. Not sure if this is a good sign, but at least some are keeping their sense of humor.
posted by Gordion Knott at 8:48 AM on March 12, 2011

Welcome cdalight!
posted by iamabot at 8:49 AM on March 12, 2011

An official at the agency said it has given the incident a rating of 4 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which equates to an accident with local consequence

So far, but every hour the core vessel doesn't fail makes it that much more likely that it won't.

To my eyes, the reactor explosion could only have been hydrogen from the venting, combined with oxygen (both from the air and from ¹⁶N decaying to ¹⁶O via the n-p process. ¹⁶N decays rapidly -- half life is about 7 seconds -- but it generates fairly strong gamma radiation when it does so.


The thing that scares me isn't this reactor. It's the reports now coming in as they get further in to the north. We're now looking at entire villages that have been erased.
posted by eriko at 8:50 AM on March 12, 2011 [11 favorites]

news conference off to a bumpy start

My new love, yosoko news dude, basically has this to say about the press conference... "Yeah umm.. yeah, what the hell? Microsieverts something pressure something something... yeah... umm, I'm giving up."
posted by tempythethird at 8:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

FWIW, during the late 1970's the Chinese did an atmospheric H-bomb test. Way more radiation than this reactor. I had a geiger counter and did hourly background checks during the period when the Pacific Northwest was supposed to encounter the fallout. Nothing turned up.

While I slept, it sounds like they vented and lost too much steam so the water level dropped and exposed the core. Upthread, there are reports of 1m and 3m exposure. In that sequence, that was really bad news: they lost about half the coolant.

Reading this report, here's what I think happened next. The exposed rods started to heat up and got hot enough to rupture some of the fuel. Then it got hot enough to break the water down into hydrogen. That hydrogen vented into the secondary containment where it exploded. See this diagram.

from the linked article:

Television cameras trained on the plant captured a dramatic explosion surrounding unit 1 at around 6pm. Amid a visible pressure release and a cloud of dust it was not possible to know the extent of the damage. The external building structure does not act as the containment, which is an airtight engineered boundary within. Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano appeared on television to clarify that the explosion had damaged the walls and roof of the reactor building but had not compromised the [primary] containment.

There are three containment barriers: the pressure vessel (the reactor itself), the primary containment and the secondary containment. Only the pressure vessel and the primary are built to contain pressure. The secondary is just ordinary building. In more modern reactors, the secondary would be a big ass sphere of steel and concrete able to take an explosion like this one and not flinch.

Also, for what it's worth, eating seaweed is a good source of non-radioactive iodine. And it has other health benefits as well.
posted by warbaby at 8:54 AM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

How hot does this type of nuclear reactor burn, and if everything was working normally, how long would it take to cool down?
posted by royalsong at 8:59 AM on March 12, 2011

I am watching HNK World news on CNN International. It is showing a lot of footage that I hadn't seen before as well as before/after aerial videos. Truly devastating. I can't see the death toll only being 1000ish. This is catastrophic. Earthquakes, tsunamis & fire. Egads.
posted by futz at 9:01 AM on March 12, 2011

Cooldown from a SCRAM would be at least 4-5 days, probably twice that. Any operator could give a much more accurate answer, mine is seat of the pants. Reactors don't cool off like turning off an electric heater. They cool down with what looks like a half-life curve measured in days.
posted by warbaby at 9:04 AM on March 12, 2011

We're now looking at entire villages that have been erased.

Yeah, this was my fear from my first view of that tsunami footage from the airport, more than 30 hours ago now. And then it was confirmed somewhat yesterday by a friend who had taught and lived in north coastal Japan. When last we spoke, she still been unable to reach nine friends who lived in one of the coastal villages and had heard via her network that it had effectively ceased to exist. Now it seems that this is being "officially" confirmed.

The hope now lies in the amount of time that separated the initial earthquake from the tsunami making landfall which may have been as much as two hours. I imagine a lot of people managed to evacuate to higher ground. The flip of this is that initial shake would have made a mess of both transportation routes and communications, not to mention trapped a lot of people in rubble.
posted by philip-random at 9:05 AM on March 12, 2011

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper has some startling headlines:

東北太平洋沿岸の津波観測点、ほぼ壊滅　復旧めど立たず

Almost all of Tohoku Pacific coastline destroyed, grim prospects for rebuilding


確認中・わからない…原発爆発、保安院も東電も混乱 (

"We're still trying to confirm... We have no idea... There's been an explosion..." Government and TEPCO both in state of confusion
posted by KokuRyu at 9:08 AM on March 12, 2011

Okay, finally catching up.

1) The explosion was hydro-oxy. This has always been a risk, and it's why the external building was built on that massive frame -- note how it looks like the skin blows off the building, but the frame remains standing.

2) The coolant pumps must be damaged, because they just don't seem to be able to get coolant to circulate. So, now, they're going to heat sink it and fill the vessel with cold water. All that water could act as a neutron moderator and help fast neutrons from the decay products fission fuel, so they're also dumping in boric acid to make sure those neutrons are absorbed, not moderated.

3) Presuming they can get real flow rates into the core, and that there isn't any more damage, they'll be able to stabilize this. With the rods in and boric acid around the core, we're dealing with decay heat only, that's dropping over time.

Then again, who designs a reactor to survive a 9.0 quake, then a multi-meter tsunami, then a hydrogen explosion?
posted by eriko at 9:10 AM on March 12, 2011 [13 favorites]

I could very well be wrong, but I think it's being cooled with seawater because the plant facility is so close to the ocean, and that water is readily available.

This is not by accident: Nuclear plants are commonly sited close to water sources in order to have easy access to a coolant supply in case of emergency.

They cool down with what looks like a half-life curve measured in days.

This is due to the short half-life radioactive decay products that build up in the fuel as the reactor operates. Even after you get the fission reaction under control, you still get significant amount of heat produced in this way. This heat is of much less concern though, as the daughter products will eventually die out on their own - keeping things in control during this phase is a problem that is several orders of magnitude easier.
posted by Dr Dracator at 9:12 AM on March 12, 2011

Then again, who designs a reactor to survive a 9.0 quake, then a multi-meter tsunami, then a hydrogen explosion?

Someone who intends to put that reactor near the ocean in a known deadly earthquake zone?
posted by philip-random at 9:16 AM on March 12, 2011 [16 favorites]

Dr Dracator: keeping things in control during this phase is a problem that is several orders of magnitude easier.

Except not so easy that they are able to do it, apparently.

Erico: Presuming they can get real flow rates into the core, and that there isn't any more damage, they'll be able to stabilize this. With the rods in and boric acid around the core, we're dealing with decay heat only, that's dropping over time.

I'm trying to find out just how big a heat sink a flooded containment vessel represents. The temperature of this new volume of water will start rising itself as the reactor still pumps out decay heat. How long until it starts to boil itself? And if they are circulating the water, where are they dumping the (potentially contaminated) runoff?
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:18 AM on March 12, 2011

They've already said yesterday that they were dumping into the ocean...can't find the link
posted by atomicmedia at 9:20 AM on March 12, 2011

Questions about the power plant... Indulge my ignorance but this is somethings I've been wondering about. When we hear that they are going to pump in this or that, dump seawater on it, etc, doesn't that entail lots of people running around with hoses and gasoline-powered pumps, crawling all over the place and presumably blown up when the building came apart? Or is this all done with remote embedded systems from a safe distance? Is it normal for people to ever be inside the thing that blew up or what? It seems like eventually someone's going to have to start getting "hot" if the fail-safes continue to fail?
posted by BeerFilter at 9:21 AM on March 12, 2011

I have a deep admiration for the stoicism and equinimity that the Japanese have shown so far. Just like asparagirl.
It reminds me of the grit the British showed during the trials of WWII as witnessed by the much lampooned 'stay calm and carry on' poster.
We often think of ourselves as individuals. But in crises like this it's important as a civilisation to be able to control your group behaviour; to act wisely as a group.
In the Netherlands where I live we haven't had any crises in a long while. And to a large degree we just take care of ourselves and our family and let the government take care of others.

Anyhow my deep respect to the Japanese for battling through this and I especially doff my hat to the engineers who made sure that the worst high rises seem to have done is sway gently. Chapeau.
posted by joost de vries at 9:23 AM on March 12, 2011 [13 favorites]

The injection of seawater into the building started at 8.20pm and this is planned to be followed by addition of boric acid, which is used to inhibit nuclear reactions. However, Tepco reported at 10.15pm that a new tsunami warning has caused this to be suspended temporarily.

World Nuclear News via arclight.
posted by royalsong at 9:26 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

fshgrl writes "There are battery powered Geiger counters, both hand held and permanent installations around the place measuring the radiation levels which vary quite a bit over short distances."

Geiger counters don't even need a battery in their simplest implementation, the valve (IE: detecting tube) can produce enough energy to power to power the speaker similiar to how you could power an AM crystal set off the radio waves being received.

formless writes "That will probably mess with GPS and other geo systems I assume? I know it's a minor thing in all this, but that would have to be a headache. When you think of the world map, you think of it as constant. An immutable object. It's not supposed to move. Amazing."

GIS ase maps are updated on a regular basis partially for this reason, points on the earth the earth move around relative to each other a lot.

fshgrl writes "formless- compared to the Banda Aceh earthquake? not so much. Nautical charts for pretty large areas of the Indian Ocean are still off by 15-20' in elevation. If you're in a boat 15' of elevation is a big fucking deal. The coastline moving 8' laterally is not a big deal for navigation purposes."

15' horizontally is a pretty big deal if your lot is only 30 feet wide.

armage writes "I think it's part of the building code: everyone has to have helmets. I was wearing mine on the 22nd floor all the way down to Hibiya Park."

One of the things I've always admired about the Japanese is willingness to behave safety like this. Compare and contrast to the US where it has been a only mostly successful fight to get people to wear seatbelts.
posted by Mitheral at 9:27 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

They are going to fix this problem with boric acid. I use that for roach powder! I feel better already.

Hell. I don't know if that's sarcasm or just bemusement at the idea that something so simple can be employed to try to avert such an awful disaster.
posted by SLC Mom at 9:27 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've been keeping an eye on the USGS map for Japan since yesterday afternoon. Watching the steady increase in the number of earthquakes is truly terrifying - they're up to 260 in the past week.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:31 AM on March 12, 2011

Flapjax, that video is INSANE. My husband and I both laughed when you responded "Yeah, we noticed" to the sirens. But the most on-point thing about the video, to me, is that when the building stops shaking, your hands start. . . it's that delayed adrenaline reaction.

I'm so glad you're OK.
posted by KathrynT at 9:38 AM on March 12, 2011

This website says that FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI-1 power plant had an expected shutdown date of March 2011. Don't know how accurate/academic that website is though.
posted by futz at 9:39 AM on March 12, 2011

SLC Mom; just imagine how effective that boric acid would be against nuclear roaches!
I'd feel very safe with that powder in my hands.
posted by joost de vries at 9:42 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Tsunami Wrecks Marina in Santa Cruz California
posted by atomicmedia at 9:50 AM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

When I woke up this morning and opened this thread to see that the reactor building had exploded, I ran to my living room to turn on CNN to get up-to-date information about it. They were talking about how "social media" has been useful to people in Japan to communicate. No freaking shit. Then they had twitter "gauges" showing how many tweets people in Tokyo were sending and how it went up when the earthquake happened. This went on for 5 minutes before they went to commercial. When they finally came back they started showing the same couple of shots of the tsunami they were showing 24 hours ago.

"Fuck this. I'm going back to the internet, where we have nuclear experts explaining what the hell is going on."

In other words, Mefi, I love you, annoyingly irrelevant nuclear power debates aside.
posted by threeturtles at 10:14 AM on March 12, 2011 [38 favorites]

Rail operators lost contact with four trains running on coastal lines Friday and still had not found them by Saturday afternoon, Kyodo News agency reported. East Japan Railway Co. said it did not know how many people were aboard. via
posted by adamvasco at 10:17 AM on March 12, 2011

@threeturtles Yeah, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my first FPP would be a 9.0 earthquake, giant tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. :|
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:18 AM on March 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

This website says that FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI-1 power plant had an expected shutdown date of March 2011.
A week away from retirement!
posted by bink at 10:19 AM on March 12, 2011 [9 favorites]

In other words, Mefi, I love you, annoyingly irrelevant nuclear power debates aside.

It wouldn't be metafilter without a plate of beans.
posted by nomisxid at 10:21 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Rail operators lost contact with four trains running on coastal lines Friday and still had not found them by Saturday afternoon, Kyodo News agency reported. East Japan Railway Co. said it did not know how many people were aboard.

They have been found.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:24 AM on March 12, 2011

Oh, give me a fucking break. Try saying that after watching someone get washed out to sea. Real people with real lives are being affected here.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:10 PM on March 11 [has favorites +] [!]

No offense was intended, KokuRyu. I'm quite aware that it is a real event.

I'm also aware that it may have happened regardless of our influence (or non-influence, depending on one's) on the planet.

/end fucking derail
posted by yoga at 10:28 AM on March 12, 2011

*views
posted by yoga at 10:30 AM on March 12, 2011

The beans are an acquired taste, but the geek love is instant.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:33 AM on March 12, 2011

It feels so weird to me that this is the same big but not too big country that I am living in, as everything is going pretty much as usual here.

This has been a common comment in Wellington vis-a-vis the Christchurch quake. There's a certain free-floating low-grade sense of survivor's guilt.
posted by rodgerd at 10:35 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

mwhybark"It does seem that part of the fuel rod has melted, but as the reactor is disabled it is currently cooling down as whole"...Isn't this somewhat contradictory? I mean, if there's exposed fuel rod which cannot be cooled, won't it start making it possible for the other rods to heat up as well by reducing the effectiveness of the, what, water, I guess

I'm guessing that "cooling down as a whole" means that they've abandoned trying to cool the fuel rods normally, which have now likely melted somewhat. Instead, they're cooling the whole reactor vessel (currently with seawater injection). Basically, it appears they've written off the reactor.

Some people up-thread are suggesting they should have taken that step earlier, but we'll have to wait for the post accident report in a few months to know whether procedures must be changed. There are several other operating BWR Mk Is in Japan and the US.
posted by Popular Ethics at 10:36 AM on March 12, 2011

FFS the Earth is not a person with conscious intent. Let's have a little respect for science here. This is plate tectonics, not a vengeful sky fairy acting out against her uppity subjects.
posted by modernnomad at 8:43 PM on March 11 [has favorites +] [!]

Uh, that's quite an interpretation of my comment, but ok. And at the risk of deletion, slapping around or further flameage, I was referring to humanity's damage to the earth's systems in general.

/resuming bean analysis
posted by yoga at 10:39 AM on March 12, 2011

Good afternoon from SATEX Fellow MeFites;

MeFites of Japan, Thank you for your updates and details as seen on the ground. I am glad that you are all safe and hope that conditions continue to improve. I also commend the unity and bravery that you have all shown.

I am glad that Cringely felt compelled to contribute to the reactor safety conversation and that others here have kept on the mark with accurate and helpful information. Let's hope that despite past transgressions, TEPCO can bring all these reactors down with as little environmental impact as possible.

As for all the news that is coming out about entire communities simply having vanished... well... my heart is with the people of Japan. This is going to be so hard to witness from thousands of miles away... being there would seem unbearable to me. May those who have perished know peace, may those who are lost be found, may all those who are stranded and buried be recovered to live on and rebuild the devastated Prefectures of Japan.

The world is watching, and will come to the aid of Japan and it's people. Those who are decrying our support are clearly a vocal minority that matters little... bitter, jagged people that they are. The world will stand with Japan as it begins it's recovery.

I will donate what I can.

Fellow MeFites, thank you for helping keep the discussion focused and cogent. This IS the best of the internet, and a fine display of what it truly means to be human.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 10:39 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Most of the time, I feel like I've curated a decent enough list on Twitter that those I follow comprise a pretty effective early warning system and/or useful information and commentary finder right as Big, Interesting Things are first happening. I feel like I find out about a lot of emerging memes, for instance, right as they're becoming a Thing.

But I've noticed before, in cases of severe weather in my area, and I'm noticing again during Japan's earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster, that the attention span on Twitter is so short that it doesn't take very long for people to move on from "What's happening with the disaster?" to talking about iPads and weird things they saw at the gym and what the true nature of dogs is and why they (still) like Sufjan Stevens and where they just checked in on Foursquare. (All real examples of what's currently in my feed.)

So I'm thankful for this thread, and the collective long attention span of MeFites.
posted by limeonaire at 10:46 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Being new here I'm gonna admittedly tread where I perhaps shouldn't - but - c'est la vie. Re yoga's commentary? Perspective is all on something like that. IF one operates from one that allows for the concept of a "spiritual energy" if you will - to play a part in the working of the world (and I refer to the type of energy that flows within nature, humans being a part of that) and IF one believes there is negative and positive energy therein - and IF one also happens to believe that the negative can build up to a point where it could affect the intrinsic energy of the planet itself ... then perhaps ALL of the natural disasters occurring are indeed Mother Nature's way of somehow ... venting?

I was in Haiti last year 2 months after their quake. The negativity those people have had to live under for AGES ... certainly in my mind could have built up to the point where it might possibly have had an affect on the shaking of the earth underneath her. Certainly no shortage of negativity all over the globe at the moment coming from no small number of us sentient beings.

I happen to feel there could be some truth found in my IF theory as stated. Do know I type this with full respect for those with a differing opinion. Too personal a thing to argue the point? But seems too like this is ultimately a place where opinions can be aired, and bright people and souls can thereafter use their own minds to make up their own opinions.

And when something tragic occurs on the level as this? Just looking for some kind of explanation other than "**it" happens ... is admittedly a kind of therapy. I don't ascribe to the "gods punishment" storyline; I can't entirely buy into the "nothing but science and logic" can explain it theories ... so I personally get left with my "what IF."
posted by cdalight at 10:48 AM on March 12, 2011

Could you take the New Age discussion to another thread? Some people have friends and family in Japan. It's a devastating situation, and this is just not the right place to start talking about "spiritual energy", "Mother Nature".
posted by KokuRyu at 10:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [61 favorites]

We're all just really, really small in the scheme of things. Think about it the next time you accidentally step on an ant hill. PROD_TPSL said it best just now, but me heart goes out to those whose lives have been torn apart by this, and I continue to hope for those still missing. Thanks to everyone in this thread who has worked pretty tirelessly to keep up the flow of info - it really has been the very best aggregator of breaking news on the web.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:56 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

cdalight, maybe too soon? Not a poke, but just a suggestion. Besides, trying to ascribe some sort of agency to tectonics is probably not an experiment that we can really produce. The human mind is built to want to find patterns, but even the emptiest reaches of the universe has all sorts of crazy-violent natural processes going on all the time.
posted by ntartifex at 10:56 AM on March 12, 2011

Just looking for some kind of explanation other than "**it" happens ... is admittedly a kind of therapy.

I understand the therapy part of it, but I'm waiting to find out whether friends and coworkers in Sendai are dead or not. I'd appreciate it if we didn't start speculating on how we might all be collectively responsible in some nebulous spiritual way.

Please don't let this dissuade you from fully participating here. It's just not the best place for the discussion you're proposing.
posted by fatbird at 10:57 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

World Health Organization weighs in on reactor health risk
posted by mykescipark at 10:58 AM on March 12, 2011

This has been on the whole more informative than BBC and the Guardian together since the thread is open. Thx for the relative calm & perspectives everyone!
posted by Namlit at 10:58 AM on March 12, 2011

Hey ... KokuRyu I understand and respect. Do not want to derail flow of incredible information and support being offered here. I offered my thoughts. Enough said.
posted by cdalight at 11:00 AM on March 12, 2011

Massive earthquakes and tsunami and other disasters formed the shape of the land millions and even billions of years ago, long before "us sentient beings" were on the scene. These things happened even before bacteria came into existence. Think about it: at some point something enormous came out of space, smacked into the Earth, and made the goddamn moon.

"Negative energy" is pocket change next to that, even if you assume, as you do, that it exists. These things do just happen.
posted by vorfeed at 11:01 AM on March 12, 2011 [9 favorites]

Would the people who find these things out much better than me please tell me i if there are new developments at Daiichi? It seems like there is a lull in activity. Maybe that is a good thing?
posted by SLC Mom at 11:06 AM on March 12, 2011

One thought on the recent ugly derail (before cdalight): if this quake/tsunami/etc disaster is payback to Japan for Pearl Harbor, what will America's punishment for Hiroshima/Nagasaki be? Yikes.

More seriously, about the 'cooling by sea water', my local nuke plant, Diablo Canyon, was located with an awesome location on the coast specifically to allow it to use sea water to cool NOT the reactor core, but the closed-circuit coolant that cools the reactor core, and there has been a lot of local controversy about how the warming of the immediate waters have affected local sealife. But in case of emergency, it's RIGHT THERE to cool down the reactor.

Still, as I've noted before, the two reactors are coming up for "re-commissioning" soon and the plant is the single largest employer in this depressed local economy. But then, I used to work in the Environmental Engineering business (as a bean-counter) back when it was doing something good and Remediation of contaminated sites created quite a few jobs when you did it right.

I can't think about the woes of the now-to-tragically-appropriately-named Fukushima plant without thinking of 'my local nuke plant', or the devastation of the tsunami without thinking of the prime beachfront locations in Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Los Osos, etc. (According to the Sea Level projection map linked here, it'll take 20 meters of rise to bring the ocean to my current location and the highest tsunami in this disaster was 10 meters... that's the kind of thing I'm paying attention to.)
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:06 AM on March 12, 2011

cdalight - I'm glad you've joined us (as I'm sure many others are) - but perhaps this is not the thread in which to try out your "I'm just offering my thoughts." This is not a reprimand or a scold--just a friendly nudge from a fellow MeFite looking out for how your opening salvos will color how we see you. No second chances to make a first impression, and all that.
posted by tzikeh at 11:06 AM on March 12, 2011

I think the lack of new news from the Fukushima plant is because it's the middle of the night in Japan right now.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:07 AM on March 12, 2011

I collected all the links and videos that seem worth watching or reading about the Fukushima nuclear plant situation here.
posted by nickyskye at 11:10 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Can someone explain how the explosion would cause the radioactivity in the surrounding area to fall? This keeps getting reported, but I can't see how that makes a bit of sense.
posted by Windopaene at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2011

iamkimiam: Would somebody mind whipping up a linklist (to post in this thread or on a Wiki) of comments of interest in this thread, so that I might link to it elsewhere?

I just created two new unofficial wiki pages: Live News Threads, as a gathering point for really active NewsFilter posts and a bit of information on them, and Major 2011 Earthquakes and Tsunami in Japan specifically for what iamkimiam mentioned. I haven't posted much in there, because I am going to get breakfast now.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2011 [12 favorites]

Nicky, Great work, and thanks! Let us hope that conditions improve at Fukushima Daishii and Daini. The plant operators are working in conditions that I certainly don't envy.

flt, good work, too. Hopefully now we can provide this information to more people. People living near those stations need to be informed.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 11:18 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thank you, flt!
posted by zarq at 11:19 AM on March 12, 2011

Residents test positive for radiation poisoning. According to the Washington Post a random sample of doctors and patients at a nearby hospital has resulted in some positive tests for radiation poisoning.
posted by humanfont at 11:21 AM on March 12, 2011

PROD_TPSL: People living near those stations need to be informed.

I think they have all the information they can handle, but I think it's helpful for this thread. Thanks nicky!
posted by filthy light thief at 11:22 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Could somebody please post the links again for people looking for loved ones. I just found out that a friend's brother is in Japan and his family can't get in contact. I know the links have been posted but they're lost in this massive thread.
posted by TooFewShoes at 11:22 AM on March 12, 2011

Google people finder:
* Japanese-language
* English Language
posted by zarq at 11:26 AM on March 12, 2011

Google Person Finder
posted by mwhybark at 11:26 AM on March 12, 2011

PersonFinder
posted by atomicmedia at 11:27 AM on March 12, 2011

Also:
Person Finder: Spanish
Person Finder: French
Person Finder: Russian
posted by zarq at 11:30 AM on March 12, 2011

I just feel bad for the 80,000 people living near the reactor. They have no idea when they can return home, if ever.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:32 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Before and after photos, by NHK - this is quite insane.
posted by atomicmedia at 11:35 AM on March 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

Can someone explain how the explosion would cause the radioactivity in the surrounding area to fall?

I don't think there's a cause-and-effect relationship there. It's more like "despite the explosion, the radioactivity is continuing to fall". My understanding is that:

* the secondary reactions are gradually decreasing, reducing the local gamma rays and the heat produced in the fuel bundles.
* Fuel bundles are being cooled with sea water (which is flashing to steam inside the reactor vessel). The resulting pressure is being relieved by venting the steam (and hydrogen/oxygen/cesium) to outside, which releases radioactivity to the surrounding area.
* Therefore, both gamma and ambient radiation should decrease with time as the reactions slow.
* The hydrogen-oxygen explosion didn't rupture anything in the reactor core or primary containment.
* Therefore things aren't any worse, and no new radiation sources are being spread into the environment.
posted by anthill at 11:35 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Google actually has a page consolidating a huge number of resources related to the disaster, including the people finder -
http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html
posted by y6y6y6 at 11:36 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

They've just increased the evacuation zone to 20Km radius
posted by warbaby at 11:40 AM on March 12, 2011

I can't entirely buy into the "nothing but science and logic" can explain it theories ... so I personally get left with my "what IF."

So... what? People unconsciously ask to be punished with natural disasters if they aren't happy enough? I suppose Christchurch was begging for it eh? Look.. plate tectonics and earthquakes are pretty well understood, and it has jack-shit to do with psychic energy, this isn't some great mystery of the universe. I understand we look for reasons for events out of our control, but there is no reason to delve into fuzzy headed speculation when the reasons are pretty easily explained. It is not a matter of just "it happens", but it happens because the earth is constantly in flux and the system doesn't really give a flying fuck if people want to build dense population centers on top of faults, or near volcanoes are in flood planes or in tornado ally. "Nature" doesn't say... oooh I guess the people of Gabbly Gook are happy enough I won't shift my crust around, but those bastards over in Zoog are too damned depressed I'll just vent my Volcano #45 at them, that should lighten them up a little"

It doesn't take much pattern recognition to see the recent level of misery and earthquakes has nothing to do with one another.
posted by edgeways at 11:41 AM on March 12, 2011 [9 favorites]

Edgeways - see my above reply to KokuRyu. Let it go and let this thread get back to what's important. This is indeed NOT the place for that discussion (and thank you for the measured and thoughtful nudges back to that right place previously offered. I get it .... my apologies for pulling this off its rightful intent.)
posted by cdalight at 11:46 AM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

That map that edgeways just linked to lists a 4.7 quake today at 17:54 in the Gulf of California. Are we missing something?
posted by Namlit at 11:48 AM on March 12, 2011

I have a friend traveling in southern Japan right now, who I haven't been able to reach. Her parents have posted her name on the Google person-finder as well, suggesting she hasn't contacted them since the quake. She was meant to be in Kyoto or Fukuoka or traveling between them... Does anyone know if there were transit disruptions or major problems that far south? (Forgive my ignorance)
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:48 AM on March 12, 2011

They've just increased the evacuation zone to 20Km radius
To be clear: this was (according to the article you linked) done at 6:30PM local time in Japan, about 10 hours ago.
posted by davar at 11:49 AM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Thank you! I found him on Facebook of all places. He's fine and actually went up North to help with the recovery (he's a doctor.)
posted by TooFewShoes at 11:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Street view of Minami Sanriku Cho. Apparently the entire town is gone: all these houses and businesses-- there's nothing left. Heartbreaking.

Me, I keep looking around at my apartment and noting that I don't even have my bookshelves attached to the wall, let alone an emergency kit. Total denial, and I'm betting that I'm far from alone here in Vancouver.
posted by jokeefe at 11:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Google translation of this article from Asahi.com: "In the afternoon, to all residents under the age of 0 to 40 years from the pharmacist began to drink the water dropper with potassium iodide dissolved in distilled water. Thyroid cancer and larynx associated with radiation exposure (Koutou) to prevent cancer, was explained. Queuing in the look of dozens of worried residents waited for their order."
posted by nickyskye at 11:52 AM on March 12, 2011

The slideshow from humanfont's link is excellent for anyone feeling tired, mushyheaded, or disconnected in one's disaster-free living room.
posted by Wyatt at 11:55 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also from Asahi.com, this article, Google translated: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is a "meltdown" occurs, in which radiation is emitted to the outside, "20 km radius," a situation that advanced to the residents to evacuate. The greater the damage to the core, the future situation of some massive release of radioactivity. Dressed in exceptional circumstances, continue to seek to avoid the worst of the last minute.

　12, exploded in the building of a nuclear hydrogen, broken buildings. The question is whether the extent of the damage inside the containment building by the explosion.
posted by nickyskye at 11:56 AM on March 12, 2011

eriko writes "Then again, who designs a reactor to survive a 9.0 quake, then a multi-meter tsunami, then a hydrogen explosion?"

The latter would be basically par for the course. The 9.0 quake is more extreme but it wouldn't seem out of the ordinary considering the location. I know infrastructure like that here is designed for loads expected when Vancouver island moves a few metres to the west. What would worry me is designed for 9.0 40 years ago is a lot different than designed for a 9.0 today. Whether on going upgrading and maintenance is done would be key.

Namlit writes "That map that edgeways just linked to lists a 4.7 quake today at 17:54 in the Gulf of California. Are we missing something?"

Earthquakes happen around the planet pretty well every day we just don't notice because we aren't paying attention.
posted by Mitheral at 12:00 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Reactors at two Japanese power plants can no longer cool radioactive substances...

I was going to post this in a new thread but it may still be a bit early to start pressing the panic buttons.
posted by clarknova at 12:07 PM on March 12, 2011

TEPCO press release roundup. Excerpts from ...

Plant Status of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (as of 8PM March 12th )

Unit 1(Shut down)
- ... unit is under inspection due
to the explosive sound and white smoke that was confirmed after the big
quake occurred at 3:36PM. 4 workers were injured due to this incident
and they were transported to the hospital.

Unit 2(Shut down)
- Reactor and Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System have been shut down.
Current reactor water level is lower than normal level, but the water
level is steady. After fully securing safety, we are preparing to
implement a measure to reduce the pressure of the reactor containment
vessels under the instruction of the national government.

[Implied Unit 2 coolant leak into reactor vessel as they don't say it's OK as they do for the other units.

Also, I think the RCIS should not be shut down - this is a cooling system. Slipping this in with 'reactor shut down' implies it's good - it's not]

Unit 3(Shut down)
- ... we continue injecting water by High
Pressure Core Injection System. After fully securing safety, we are
preparing to implement a measure to reduce the pressure of the reactor
containment vessels under the instruction of the national government.

...

The national government has instructed evacuation for those local
residents within 20km radius of the periphery because it's possible that
radioactive materials are discharged.
posted by zippy at 12:08 PM on March 12, 2011

Previous reactor explosion attributed to aftershock.
(See zippy's tl;dr above)
posted by Wyatt at 12:10 PM on March 12, 2011

Why Worry? Japan's Nuclear Plants at Grave Risk From Quake Damage; Ishibashi Katsuhiko - 2007
posted by adamvasco at 12:12 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Here's the link for the above TEPCO press release.

More TEPCO statements. This one shows what reactor systems they're using to cool down the cores - which also tells us how far gone each unit is. Fukushima Daiichi = Fukushimi-1

Current Status of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station(as of 7:00pm)

"In Unit 1, steam in reactor has been cooled by isolation condenser. In
Unit 2 and 3, we continue injecting water by Reactor Core Isolation
Cooling System."
posted by zippy at 12:13 PM on March 12, 2011

Namlit: "That map that edgeways just linked to lists a 4.7 quake today at 17:54 in the Gulf of California. Are we missing something"

Huh? That's well within the range of normal seismic activity on the Pacific Coast. And 4.7 is unlikely to cause much damage at all. Or am I missing what your concern is about?
posted by gingerbeer at 12:13 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

BBC ticker says three workers at the Fukushima plant are being treated for radiation poisoning. Don't think I've seen this previously. Chap from Chatham House on the BBC is fairly sanguine about the whole thing, and seems to think that the worst danger might have passed.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2011

Reactors at two Japanese power plants can no longer cool radioactive substances...

I was going to post this in a new thread but it may still be a bit early to start pressing the panic buttons.

I haven't seen this in the Japanese media recently. Besides the footage of the explosion yesterday, foreign media is somewhat inaccurate and at least 4-6 hours behind what's actually being reported in Japanese language media. And CNN is the last place to find accurate info about the quake/tsunami/nuclear accident.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:17 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

clarknova: "Reactors at two Japanese power plants can no longer cool radioactive substances...

I was going to post this in a new thread but it may still be a bit early to start pressing the panic buttons"

Clark, it's hard to tell from that article, but it looks like a rewrite of older information, possibly prior to the explosion, which is not mentioned in the piece (or if it is, I missed it).

Current status on the reactor which underwent the building explosion is that it is being cooled by seawater and boron, unless of course something's changed in the past hour or so.
posted by mwhybark at 12:17 PM on March 12, 2011

All I've heard reported in the past hour is that they've continued to cool down the reactor with seawater and the pressure has returned to safe levels (before the explosion it was at 800 kPa -- now down to 375 kPa, within levels it was designed for).

The prime minister and some cabinet officials are having a private conference. Not sure when we'll hear more about that.

Yomiuri just posted an article about the lack of clear information. But it's also still 5 a.m. in Japan.
posted by Jeanne at 12:21 PM on March 12, 2011

NHK is reporting the subway in Sendai won't reopen due to some structural damage, but bus service to some districts is resuming.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:22 PM on March 12, 2011

This has been a useful source of info, and it gets updated regularly.

It includes information about the workers who have been hurt at the very bottom. Two missing, one confirmed dead, and four, five, or seven workers hurt. The ambiguity stems from the construction of a sentence noting that a contractor was found unconscious.
posted by mwhybark at 12:22 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Not to minimise this, but radiation exposure and radiation sickness are not the same thing. Most news sources seem to be reporting that people in the hospital tested positive for exposure and are being decontaminated, which is, again, not the same thing as being treated for radiation sickness.

Having said that, NHK World just quoted a government official as saying there is "no evidence the radiation exposure is due to the nuclear reactor" on which I call bullshit.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:22 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

TEPCO press release for Fukushima-2 excerpts

Plant Status of Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station (as of 8pm March 12th)

Unit 1 (shut down at 2:48pm on March 11th)
- Reactor is shut down and reactor water level is stable.
- Offsite power is available.
- At 8:19am, there was an alarm indicating [one] control rod
was not properly inserted, however, at 10:43am the alarm was
spontaneously called off. Other control rods [are] confirmed [as]
are fully inserted
- [M]ain steam isolation valve: closed
- Injection of water [using] Make-up Water Condensate
System.
- At 6:08pm, [an] increase in reactor containment vessel
pressure, assumed to be due to leakage of reactor coolant. However, we
do not believe there is leakage of reactor coolant in the containment
vessel at this moment.
- At 5:22am, the temperature of the suppression chamber exceeded
100 degrees. [R]eactor pressure suppression function was lost
at 5:22am ...
- We decided to [perform] a partial discharge of air containing
radioactive materials ... [t]his preparation
work started around 9:43am and finished at 6:00pm.

[I won't paste the other three units' statuses, except to say that all had high pressure and all were vented]

A seriously injured worker who had been trapped in the crane operating
console of the exhaust stack was transported to the ground at 5:13pm and
confirmed dead at 5:17pm. We sincerely pray for the repose of his soul.
posted by zippy at 12:25 PM on March 12, 2011

You know you're having a complicated day when your press release mentions an earthquake aftershock near your reactor as an afterthought
posted by zippy at 12:31 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor Cliff Mass has posted a quick look at possible radiation-release fallout tracks in the event of a full-on core breach at the plants.

I want to stress, it looks unlikely that that will happen, in my layman's opinion. But it's come up in-thread here a couple times and I have been seeing some unsourced graphics attempting to convey the same info in Facebook, so here's a better source for that info.
posted by mwhybark at 12:34 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

They just had another press conference (Nikkei article in Japanese).

The water level seems to be falling despite pumping in seawater. At the last report 170 cm of the fuel rods was exposed -- now it's up to 175 cm -- but they're also speculating that the device for measuring the water may be damaged.
posted by Jeanne at 12:38 PM on March 12, 2011

On second look, I don't think he's modeling any load in particular. I misread it because I was assuming that he was positing lofting into the jetstream via a high-heat plume. I don't think he says one way or the other.
posted by mwhybark at 12:39 PM on March 12, 2011

Although any injections of radioactivity for the damaged Japanese reactors would be completely diffused by the time it got to us, just for "fun" I did a trajectory analysis using the NOAA Hysplit Model. - Cliff Mass
posted by warbaby at 12:44 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I posted a clarification request to Professor Mass on the blog and it's awaiting moderation. He reads and responds so hopefully he'll clarify soon.
posted by mwhybark at 12:45 PM on March 12, 2011

Reuters - "Japan's nuclear safety agency says Fukushima Daiichi [Fukushima-2] Nuclear Plant No. 3 reactor's emergency cooling system not functioning"

Also hearing about rolling blackouts for Tokyo due to off-line power plants.
posted by zippy at 1:04 PM on March 12, 2011

(sorry, Fukushima-1)
posted by zippy at 1:05 PM on March 12, 2011

At 8:19am, there was an alarm indicating [one] control rod
was not properly inserted, however, at 10:43am the alarm was
spontaneously called off.

Note -- all reactors are built to at least one-rod safe -- that one control rod can be completely removed without allowing the reactor to go critical. Google up SL-1 for why they make them this way.
posted by eriko at 1:11 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Reasonable roundup from the Guardian.

I learned a new word from the piece, "genpatsu-shinsai," which has its own wikipedia entries in French and Catalan, but not in English.
posted by mwhybark at 1:15 PM on March 12, 2011

That SL-1 story is awful. Jesus.
posted by zippy at 1:15 PM on March 12, 2011

Zippy, the actual Reuters tweet that builds their live blog says the latest issue is in Plant 3.

Failure in a plant that has been cooling effectively since the quake is presumably much less problematic than the situation in Plant 1...
posted by DarlingBri at 1:16 PM on March 12, 2011

Failure in a plant that has been cooling effectively since the quake is presumably much less problematic

I hope so. However it means that whatever resources are on site for controlling things have to deal with a new situation. It also means that reactors previously thought OK are now not OK, a concerning trend.
posted by zippy at 1:22 PM on March 12, 2011

Witness POV on the devastation in Kamaishi. I have no comment otherwise, because I can think of very little to say.
posted by jeanmari at 1:34 PM on March 12, 2011 [26 favorites]

major meltdown was no longer imminent.
posted by Dumsnill at 1:38 PM on March 12, 2011

Al Jazeera:

#
6:37am

Yesterday, we reported that three people had tested positive for elevated radiation levels. That number has now jumped to 160, says a Japanese nuclear safety official.
#
Timestamp:
6:29am

Fukushima nuclear plant - where a huge explosion yesterday blew the outer walls and roof off the No.1 reactor building - faces a new problem.

The emergency cooling system of No.3 reactor has now also stopped working, the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has announced.

Sea water is being pumped into the No.1 reactor chamber to cool its fuel rods - and officials are scrambling to secure a means of of supplying water to the No.3 reactor.
posted by futz at 1:49 PM on March 12, 2011

Also from AJ:

6:56am

AFP says the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, where a second reactor system is overheating, says there is a risk of a second explosion. We'll keep you updated right here.
posted by futz at 2:01 PM on March 12, 2011

That video is unreal, jeanmari.^
posted by Wyatt at 2:09 PM on March 12, 2011

The Skepchick blog has an excellent interview with one of the blogger's father, who is a retired nuclear engineer who used to work with BW reactors.

Not necessarily going to be news for anyone who's been following this issue in the thread here closely, but it's a pretty good breakdown and fairly up to date.
posted by ursus_comiter at 2:28 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

That link from jeanmari... my God.

Those poor people, standing on the ...bridge? Are they on a bridge? Watching their town wash away. And the children.
posted by torticat at 2:31 PM on March 12, 2011

Latest radiation measurement chart (pdf, Japanese) from TEPCO.
posted by zippy at 2:32 PM on March 12, 2011

(sorry, the children were not being washed away: yikes on my poor phrasing there.)
posted by torticat at 2:37 PM on March 12, 2011

They're repeating that they've lost all cooling abilities for reactor 3.
posted by Bugbread at 2:42 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think they're on a bluff, or halfway up a hill.
posted by thebestsophist at 2:44 PM on March 12, 2011

That video, jeanmari...my gods, it left me in tears. Words fail me.
posted by velvet winter at 2:51 PM on March 12, 2011

Wow, jeanmari. Thanks for posting that. Really hard to watch.
posted by gingerbeer at 2:54 PM on March 12, 2011

Uh, I just tuned in to the news again CNN is reporting a "catastrophic failure" of the reactor core and said that a meltdown is underway. Are they working off old news? Or did the shit just hit the fan again?
posted by Justinian at 2:54 PM on March 12, 2011

CNN has been reliably behind pretty much all day, so I'd assume old news.
posted by grapesaresour at 2:56 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

That video, jeanmari...my gods, it left me in tears. Words fail me.

The heartening part is that there seemed to be time and warning for many (most) to get to higher ground. But yeah. Words fail.
posted by philip-random at 3:00 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Not sure if this is helpful information or not, but the earlier explosion was said to be linked to the 6.4 aftershock.

The USGS just reported a 6.3 aftershock in nearly the same location.
posted by waxlight at 3:01 PM on March 12, 2011

Al Jazerra LiveBlog. 7:15am More on the danger posed by that second developing problem at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. A Tokyo Electric Power Co spokesman said:

All the functions to keep cooling water levels in No.3 reactor have failed at the Fukushima No.1 plant. As of 5:30am, water injection stopped and inside pressure is rising slightly.

An emergency report on the plant's condition has been filed with the government, he added.


BBC LiveBlog showing: Reuters - Operators are preparing to release radioactive steam from the number three reactor at Fukushima No. 1 plant, after the cooling system failed there.

I am monitoring those sites and here - because CNN is ................... ok, I'm gonna behave.
posted by cdalight at 3:03 PM on March 12, 2011

False claims circulating by e-mail

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in northeastern Japan, chain e-mails and misinformation are circulating on the Internet.

E-mails warn that a massive fire at an oil refinery in Chiba triggered by the quake could contaminate rainfall with toxic substances. They advise people to use umbrellas and raincoats for protection.

The oil company that operates the refinery says that what the message suggests is not true. It notes that the liquefied petroleum gas from tanks which has burned off hardly affects the human body.

The chain e-mails apparently aim to gain attention by propagating sensationalist misinformation.

On Twitter, groundless warnings, including one reading that "another quake will hit western Japan", have been posted. In some malicious messages, people pretending to be quake victims called for help.

The government warns such misinformation could spread fast on the Internet, hampering rescue and evacuation efforts of those actually affected by the quake.

It advises people to reference any claims found in e-mails with information provided by local authorities and relevant companies.

Sunday, March 13, 2011 07:09 +0900 (JST)

posted by zarq at 3:07 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

This seems to be a really good live feed with English translations: jibtv
posted by birdsquared at 3:13 PM on March 12, 2011

It'd be swell if I could get some reliable factual information about Chiba, since that's where my brother is currently asleep. Does my family need to finance his having a spontaneous trip to Kyoto or something?
posted by Mizu at 3:13 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oops: Jibtv
posted by birdsquared at 3:14 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Mizu:

Specifically, what kind of reliable factual info do you need? I don't know what your standards are for "having to take a trip to Kyoto", but by my standards, no, he wouldn't need to go.
posted by Bugbread at 3:17 PM on March 12, 2011

I think mostly air quality information that's accurate, it terms of "no worse than an afternoon in LA's smog" to "guaranteed to cause cancer in 5 years and black lung next week." Like, is he actively harming his health by staying in his structurally sound apartment building and breathing the air? My understanding so far is that he's totally okay, but the worry-cortex of my brain, a genetic trait, you see, isn't shutting up. And it's not like I can wake him up and ask him to please translate Japanese news sources for my peace of mind.
posted by Mizu at 3:23 PM on March 12, 2011

Japanese Government Confirms Meltdown

Japan's TEPCO preparing to release radiation from second reactor
posted by nickyskye at 3:26 PM on March 12, 2011

Mizu:

You'll have to do the groundwork, but:

http://soramame.taiki.go.jp/DataMap.php?BlockID=03

Yes, it's all in Japanese, but I can walk you through the basics:

Chiba is the peninsula at bottom right.

When you open the page, there won't be anything on the map. Go over to the section on the side with the little clock icon. You can use that section to pick measurement times. Either use the backward and forward arrows to move one hour at a time, or directly enter a time (the time is in Year / Month / Day / Hour form).

Once you've picked the time you want to see, go up left and you've got a list of chemicals. They're all in Japanese, but the chemical formulas are right next to it, so that shouldn't be a problem. Pick your chemical of interest.

Now you'll get a whole bunch of dots, indicating measurement values. At the top right of the screen is the key, telling you how many parts-per-million of the selected chemical were detected.

As for how to interpret that, and what safe levels are, etc., I've got no idea, but that's should be possible to research in English.
posted by Bugbread at 3:33 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

The New York Times have a photo of what they claim is the reactor building after the explosion. The steel frame and the bottom 2/3 of the concrete appear to be intact. It looks like the structure is designed to fail that way if there's a hydrogen explosion. It directed the blast up and away from other parts of the plant. That also explains why the shock wave was so well defined and directed upward. So the explosion does not appear to be as bad as the video made it look if the caption on that picture is correct. People get worked up about what the engineers could have missed. I this case maybe we should be impressed that the reactor building directed a HUGE explosion effectively.

Photo from the article posted by Dumsnill.
posted by Procloeon at 3:36 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

However, the real embarrassment for the Japanese government is not so much the nature of the accident but the fact it was warned long ago about the risks it faced in building nuclear plants in areas of intense seismic activity. Several years ago, the seismologist Ishibashi Katsuhiko stated, specifically, that such an accident was highly likely to occur. Nuclear power plants in Japan have a "fundamental vulnerability" to major earthquakes, Katsuhiko said in 2007. The government, the power industry and the academic community had seriously underestimated the potential risks posed by major quakes.

From the Guardian
posted by philip-random at 3:37 PM on March 12, 2011

Japanese Government Confirms Meltdown

Not sure how reliable this link is. Certainly it`s significant that the government has admitted a meltdown taken place, but the link states that the meltdown caused the explosion, which then breached the containment vessel, spewing radioactive debris into the atmosphere. I don`t think this is correct. Officially, anyway, the explosion was caused by hydrogen gas vented from the containment vessel; the hydrogen was created by chemical reactions caused by the meltdown. Still, officially anyway, the reactor vessel is supposed to be still intact.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:41 PM on March 12, 2011

Japan Earthquake Update (12 March 2011 2110 CET) from the IAEA Alert Log

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the explosion at Unit 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred outside the primary containment vessel (PCV), not inside. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has confirmed that the integrity of the primary containment vessel remains intact.

As a countermeasure to limit damage to the reactor core, TEPCO proposed that sea water mixed with boron be injected into the primary containment vessel. This measure was approved by Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the injection procedure began at 20:20 local Japan time.

I'm not sure how this jibes with the NISA statement that the explosion could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core from the Nikkei article referenced by stratfor.com.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:41 PM on March 12, 2011

Just wanted to comment here that there's essentially zero danger to the public here;

Fixating on the nuclear reactor is pretty weird.

I'm confused. Way earlier in the thread we had all these experts telling us that Japanese nuclear plants were absolutely state of the art, completely safe, designed nothing like Three Mile Island or Chernobyl at all, and there was absolutely, assuredly, no possibility of any danger from them whatsoever. A meltdown was absolutely not a plausible scenario, and any possible associated risk was described as similar to flying in a plane.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said March 12 that the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core,

So, I went to bed, and get up to discover that one of the buildings has now exploded, and that everything is, in fact, not under control. Now we are hearing stories about radiation releases, radioactive fallout tracks, and possible meltdown.

So which is it? Is this hysterical fear mongering for no purpose, or were those experts here assuring everyone that there was absolutely no danger whatsoever wrong?
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 3:41 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks, Bugbread. If I find myself not managing to do anything but worry this afternoon, I'll play around with that site. It's not like I can do anything in particular to help anyone, but at least I'll feel busy!
posted by Mizu at 3:42 PM on March 12, 2011

Japan’s Nuclear Safety Board DID NOT Confirm Meltdown

Fucking Stratfor are unreliable assholes.
posted by warbaby at 3:45 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

People didn't say it wasn't designed like Three Mile Island, people said that it wasn't designed like Chernobyl, and that even at Three Mile Island the damage was mostly contained.
posted by maledictory at 3:46 PM on March 12, 2011

Citizen Tube, a YouTube channel with a collection of videos connected with the tsunami and earthquake in Japan
posted by nickyskye at 3:47 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Mizu, LPG and Oil Refinery generics wikipedia pages may or may not ease your mind. LPG is about the best of the petro chemical stuff that could be burning, mostly propane and butane which burns "more 'cleanly' than heavier molecule hydrocarbons, in that it releases very few particulates". It's what people cook with in many places in the world and what cities put in their 'clean and green' busses and vehicle fleets. It's probably not *that* health hazardous in the short term.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:50 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have information or updates from the search and rescue groups on the ground?

I hate asking this. This event is entirely heartbreaking and overwhelming. I've only seen a couple of media mentions of trapped and screaming survivors, and it is haunting me.
posted by vers at 3:55 PM on March 12, 2011

People didn't say it wasn't designed like Three Mile Island,

Well, it is a massive thread and it took me a couple hours to get through it, so it is possible that I misinterpreted or conflated something. That said, I really wonder what the actual danger is. More quakes are still occurring. What if there is another big one right now, for instance? Is that reactor core built to such a standard that it couldn't be breached?
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 3:57 PM on March 12, 2011

"So which is it? Is this hysterical fear mongering for no purpose, or were those experts here assuring everyone that there was absolutely no danger whatsoever wrong?"

Neither.

1) I don't see any "expert" up thread saying there was zero risk of anything, every procedure would work, and the plants were guaranteed 100% safe.

2) It doesn't look like there was an out of control catastrophic meltdown. The explosion seems to have been related to venting, which is one of the expected procedures. Everyone agrees they need to cool things, and that's what's happening.

So........ It's gone pear shaped and it's bad. But this isn't Chernobyl at this point.
posted by y6y6y6 at 3:57 PM on March 12, 2011

Japanese Government Confirms Meltdown

As usual, Stratfor's load of crap press release isn't confirmed by any source other than themselves.
posted by elizardbits at 3:58 PM on March 12, 2011

Is this hysterical fear mongering for no purpose, or were those experts here assuring everyone that there was absolutely no danger whatsoever wrong?

I can't be sure without re-reading the entire thread, but I think this comment by Malor was the most certain about "no possible way it could take enough damage to leak anything." He seemed to be assuming the reactor was a modern one, though, and we've since found out it was built on a 40-year-old design and was close to being decommissioned. I do look forward to hearing Malor's take on events in light of his early comments, and think his credibility as a commentator on nuclear reactor issues has probably taken something of a hit, but I'm not sure we need to hammer on the point.

It's a rapidly evolving situation. 100% certainty from afar is generally going to be a bad idea.
posted by mediareport at 3:58 PM on March 12, 2011

Feeling pretty helpless over here, but I want to reiterate my appreciation for all the info and analysis you guys are providing, and of course continued safety for those of you over there. We're thinking of you.
posted by Errant at 4:01 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just for the record, stratfor was quoting this Nikkei article which reported that the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said Saturday afternoon the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:03 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Which is not to say that stratfor sometimes posts first and asks questions later.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:06 PM on March 12, 2011

Jesus, when will people quit mixing up terminology here (not to mention elsewhere, I've just got higher expectations for your guys and gals), perhaps even intentionally being obtuse.

So far these reactors and their staff have faced amazing adversity and are still standing and performing the most important function the defense systems are designed to perform: containment of the fissile material inside the containment vessel.

I'm far from a professional here but I've been following closely and the terminology is not alien to me, here's roughly what I've seen regarding the various reactors' containment systems in question.

Earthquake of staggering magnitude hits: survived intact and coolant backup systems operational, automatic scram [shutdown] successful.

Loss of external grid power occurs: survived intact and coolant backup, backup systems [high pressure coolant diesel pumps] kick in successfully.

Monster Tsunami washes in: survived intact and coolant backup, backup, backup systems [low pressure battery operated coolant] kick in successfully but can't keep up with the heat still being generated by the down core.

Increasing heat and pressure far beyond normal operating ranges are experienced: containment still intact and rods still whole, they decide to vent slightly dangerous steam (which as I understand it is not completely unheard of and does not even begin to approach Chernobyl-like situation)

Coolant is evaporating and can't keep fuel rods submerged: containment still intact and fuel rods are at risk of taking damage.

Cooling can't keep up and some fuel rods are physically damaged: containment still intact and holding.

[Seemingly] huge explosion rocks the building housing the containment shell and reactor: containment still intact and holding (or we would have seen higher numbers from sensors).

Oh, and this is not a 'new' reactor. It's older and was due for decommissioning soon. I fail to see where anyone with a clue has given any guarantees of anything besides something along the lines of the following:

As long as containment is maintained, even if the core melts down to a glowing pile of slag, this is not going to cause people to be injured on anything approaching the actual deaths we've seen so far. Probably not even as bad as any of the other secondary stuff we're seeing elsewhere.

If they lose containment... I don't even want to go there...
posted by RolandOfEld at 4:06 PM on March 12, 2011 [13 favorites]

Why is everyone wearing face masks? Is it to prevent radioactive dust from getting into the lungs? I would assume if dust were that radioactive you'd have other problems.
posted by geoff. at 4:09 PM on March 12, 2011

The facemasks are most likely allergy-related, as people have been pointing out. People wear facemasks in Japan, it's no big deal.
posted by misozaki at 4:12 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

geoff., see here.
posted by armage at 4:12 PM on March 12, 2011

Geoff:

I dunno which video you're referring to, so, off the top of my head:

1) It's still hay fever season here (ok, technically cedar pollen season, I think, but you get the idea), and this year is 10 times as bad as last year. Having a natural disaster doesn't make allergies go away, so that's one possibility.
2) Lots of dust in the air from the quake.
3) Lots of smoke in the air from fires.
4) Worried about older buildings with asbestos.
posted by Bugbread at 4:12 PM on March 12, 2011

Just wanted to comment here that there's essentially zero danger to the public here;

Yep, that's what I saw, along with some extremely strong rhetoric from other commenters that any concerns about building nuclear plants on tectonic fault lines was misplaced. Those who have expressed reservations about this technology have been dismissed by the nuclear camp as excessively risk-adverse. Sadly, I think that this type of incident shows that their overwhelming confidence might have been misplaced. All technology ages, and excusing a failure here because it was 40 year old technology only underlines the point that this technology is inherently more risky than they have admitted. Lets hope that containment isn't lost, indeed.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:15 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

RolandOfEld: "Jesus, when will people quit mixing up terminology here (not to mention elsewhere, I've just got higher expectations for your guys and gals), perhaps even intentionally being obtuse."

I doubt anyone here is being "intentionally obtuse." We're not all well-educated on this topic, and the news sources we normally rely on have obviously been struggling to keep up with the story as it unfolds. Since the average American reads at an 8th grade level the way this has been reported is accordingly "dumbed down" so it will be most accessible.
posted by zarq at 4:18 PM on March 12, 2011

I really have to say, I wish that these nuclear reactors were commanding less of the world's, and this thread's attention.

Sure they're scary, but even the worst case scenario will affect much fewer people and cause much less damage than the waters, fires, lack of electricity, and sheer exposure have probably already caused.

The reactors deserve attention, but so do the desperate search-and-rescue missions, countless people trapped god-knows-where-and-how that no one even knows about, all the newly homeless, the looming humanitarian and health crises, and the mammoth international relief effort (and coordination nightmare) that is already starting.
posted by tempythethird at 4:24 PM on March 12, 2011 [17 favorites]

My dropped-out-of-nuke-eng not-his-fault best friend, who is also a MeFite, says the seawater and boric acid dump is pretty much the Hail Mary last-ditch effort to stop Unit 1. "Adding boric acid directly implies that they're at a loss as to how to proceed, and hoping that the huge neutron cross section of the boron saves their collective asses."

He's waiting for more information from his own sources before he figures out what the impact on the American West Coast might be, if any. (He's not out here, but I am.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 4:24 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

For those of you with ham radio licensure/ an appropriate receiver and antenna and Morse Code skills, though, there are Japanese hams, Geiger counters included, on 80m and 160m running CW pileups.

(Damn my Tech No-Code license, which I'm not even sure is still legit, and lack of a shortwave or set right now.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 4:29 PM on March 12, 2011

Sure they're scary, but even the worst case scenario will affect much fewer people and cause much less damage than the waters, fires, lack of electricity, and sheer exposure have probably already caused.

Well, except that very few of us are in Japan (although there are a few) and a lot of us are in areas that are at least potentially in a fallout path of the reactors. People can be concerned with more than one thing at a time.
posted by Justinian at 4:30 PM on March 12, 2011

fairytale of los angeles, the ARRL EMCOMM Twitter feed has news on the specific frequencies in use.
posted by tommasz at 4:33 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Those who have expressed reservations about this technology have been dismissed by the nuclear camp as excessively risk-adverse. Sadly, I think that this type of incident shows that their overwhelming confidence might have been misplaced.

No, I think the confidence is correct. The frustrating thing is that what replaces nuclear is coal, which not only injects almost all the mercury into our environment, but also injects particulates into the atmosphere that have been definitively linked to large increases in CVD and lung diseases. But, even when presented with those facts, people will choose coal over nuclear, despite the comparative safety of nuclear.

The freakout about nuclear energy is disproportionate to its true risks. Is nuclear energy risky and dangerous? Yes, but on the whole, so long as your reactors aren't run by incompetent bureaucrats and actually have a redundant containment system in place, your risk is low.

It would be far better to come up with solar/wind/tidal/fuel cell energy generation systems that don't rely heavily on rare earths, but right now for generating electrical power in bulk we have four options: coal, petrochemical, hydro, and nuclear. And Japan doesn't have much of the first three.
posted by dw at 4:36 PM on March 12, 2011 [15 favorites]

My dropped-out-of-nuke-eng not-his-fault best friend, who is also a MeFite, says the seawater and boric acid dump is pretty much the Hail Mary last-ditch effort to stop Unit 1. "Adding boric acid directly implies that they're at a loss as to how to proceed, and hoping that the huge neutron cross section of the boron saves their collective asses."

I got the same impression from the skepchick interview above.
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:37 PM on March 12, 2011

Very few of us are in Japan
Thus its only natural for us to focus on our own skins, right?

People can be concerned with more than one thing at a time
Odd, we seem to be giving voice to only one of our concerns, I wonder what happened to the rest.
posted by tempythethird at 4:38 PM on March 12, 2011

He's waiting for more information from his own sources before he figures out what the impact on the American West Coast might be, if any. (He's not out here, but I am.)

Cliff Mass' analysis says that unless the radiation reaches the jet stream, the West Coast has nothing to worry about. So long as containment continues to hold, we're fine. If the whole thing goes up, start taking your potassium iodine.
posted by dw at 4:45 PM on March 12, 2011

zarq: I guess you're right about the mefi crowd, however, it is frustrating to see the terminology problems abound even though there have been at least one (not counting mine, see above, I'll let you find it) post defining the terms for the situation in question because it is complex. I know it's a long thread so I guess I should chill. And you're also right about the news media's use of short simple words, but that doesn't excuse their use of them in such a grandstanding/fear mongering fashion. I should expect no less, but *shrug* I guess it just gets me.

tempythethird: Odd, we seem to be giving voice to only one of our concerns, I wonder what happened to the rest.

I guess the thread has zoomed in on this topic a bit but I haven't seen anyone getting shouted down for mentioning other going's on in other parts of the country or with other events. The opposite in fact, people have thanked them and went with the flow. Perhaps you could add something along those lines instead...
posted by RolandOfEld at 4:47 PM on March 12, 2011

The frustrating thing is that what replaces nuclear is coal, which not only injects almost all the mercury into our environment, but also injects particulates into the atmosphere that have been definitively linked to large increases in CVD and lung diseases

And radioactivity. Vastly more curies are emitted by every running coal plant that have been emitted by this damaged reactor. Do you honestly think there are no isotopes of the various elements in coal? Do you know how nasty fly ash really is?
posted by eriko at 4:47 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

None of the other issues involved are still ongoing. This is the only crisis that is still happening, and could still get worse/better. Should we simply be posting links to death counts?
posted by Windopaene at 4:47 PM on March 12, 2011

What would worry me is designed for 9.0 40 years ago is a lot different than designed for a 9.0 today. Whether on going upgrading and maintenance is done would be key.

This is where a lot, possibly most, of the damage happened in Christchurch - buildings built to old standards not being upgraded over the years. The worst collapses appear to have been stuff built before New Zealand introduced any real rules around earthquake strengthening, and in Christchurch the council had never forced even partial compliance on older structures.

That SL-1 story is awful. Jesus.

Windscale was terrifyingly close to being apocalyptic.

The numbers missing are just horrifying for me, mostly because the recent experience in Christchurch so many of those reprted missing died. The tsunami... it's hard to see how the 9,500 reported missing from a small town swept into the see aren't going to be dead.

And the uncertaintity for those left behind. Awful, awful stuff.

Yes, but on the whole, so long as your reactors aren't run by incompetent bureaucrats

Fed to the back teeth with this shit. The villains in Western nuclear infrastructure are not likely to be "incompetant bureaucrats", they are most likely to be commercial interests. Or do you believe the bad ol' government made BP spill oil all over the gulf, too?
posted by rodgerd at 4:51 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Your point is germane tempythethird, and it was suggested at one point that a new thread for this side-bar be started, but it didn't happen.

One of the points raised here has benn about appropriate responses, and aside from contributing to the Red Cross there, is not much else we can actually do. But the current apparent threat from the reactor is something that is ongoing now, and thus worthy of discussion.

There might be steps that those of us on the West Coast of North America should be considering taking. Asking knowledgeable people here about the possible effects is an entirely legitimate line of inquiry, just as such as a discussion about the likely affects of the tsunami on the beaches here was properly engaged in when it was happening.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:51 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

And radioactivity. Vastly more curies are emitted by every running coal plant that have been emitted by this damaged reactor. Do you honestly think there are no isotopes of the various elements in coal? Do you know how nasty fly ash really is?

Except, where I live (Washington State), hydroelectric is the major source of power. I'd like it to stay that way, and part of that fight is pointing out the risks of nuclear, of which there are many. Many that have been discounted throughout this thread.

And to point out that those concerned about the west coast are not inhuman bastards who care only about themselves, a friend linked to ShelterBox online. If you're looking for something in addition to the Red Cross to donate to, this looks like a good charity.
posted by formless at 4:55 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Have there been any recent reports as to the state of the fuel rods and the coolest level? I know we were previously at 90cm exposed, then 1.7 meters. Does anyone know if that figure is still rising or whether they have managed to get more water going in than was being lost?
posted by zachlipton at 4:56 PM on March 12, 2011

tempythethird: " Odd, we seem to be giving voice to only one of our concerns, I wonder what happened to the rest."

We've spoken in this thread at length about rescue efforts, our own concerns and efforts to find people we know and are generally concerned about, posted various links (including to charity efforts,) videos and photo galleries about the devastation and discussed them all at length. Right now yes, some of us are talking about the reactor. 1700 comments in, we've already covered a lot of ground, and the potential for some sort of nuclear problem or disaster seems immediate. Immediate ≠ More Important. But it's natural: Nuclear fears overshadow rescue efforts in Japan

If you'd like weigh in on another topic, no one is stopping you, of course.

" The reactors deserve attention, but so do the desperate search-and-rescue missions, countless people trapped god-knows-where-and-how that no one even knows about, all the newly homeless, the looming humanitarian and health crises, and the mammoth international relief effort (and coordination nightmare) that is already starting."

I know the aftershocks have been hampering rescue efforts, and that a number of international relief organizations have mobilized. The UN is sending a group to coordinate, as they usually do.
posted by zarq at 4:56 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

That's right... I didn't take my deep breaths before posting, and its true there isn't much we can do right now, we all know how to contribute money already.

The reactor-talk just got under my skin... I love mefi for the wonkiness and depth of expertise and political back-and-forth, but it just feels out of place in this thread, like we're all falling back on our usual happens for lack of anything else we can do.
posted by tempythethird at 4:59 PM on March 12, 2011

^I have a friend traveling in southern Japan right now, who I haven't been able to reach. Her parents have posted her name on the Google person-finder as well, suggesting she hasn't contacted them since the quake. She was meant to be in Kyoto or Fukuoka or traveling between them... Does anyone know if there were transit disruptions or major problems that far south?

I live in Hiroshima Prefecture, pretty close in the middle of Kyoto and Fukuoka, and everything's OK. Aside from getting the same news as everyone in Japan, it's like whole 'nother country... She's probably not thinking to contact Google person-finder because we're really in no immediate danger. So, I wouldn't worry too much. That being said, I was e-mailing and "social media-ing" ASAP. Communication has been tricky anywhere north-east of here. Trains are running, but some are on a different schedule. I know several friends without power in Chiba (power's just fine here), but their mobile's are OK.

In other news, what can we - folks in Chugoku/Shikoku - do so far from the scene, yet so close? I'm going to check with my boss on Monday, but there's got to be something, right? Co-workers on Saturday couldn't muster much to say yet, except, "Yeah. How sad..." Everyone's still in shock.
posted by serf4luv at 4:59 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Dammit - "falling back on our usual habits"
posted by tempythethird at 5:00 PM on March 12, 2011

"So which is it? Is this hysterical fear mongering for no purpose, or were those experts here assuring everyone that there was absolutely no danger whatsoever wrong?"

Looking at multiple sources, my take is that it's possible NO ONE knows what's really going on. And that perhaps includes the people on the scene. Conflicting reports of an out of control meltdown. Reports that the last ditch "hail mary" strategy is now being used. Evacuation extended to 12 miles. Iodine tablets being distributed. And of course the question of what that massive explosion may have done to monitoring equipment.

No one seems to know. Which in itself is a bad sign.
posted by y6y6y6 at 5:03 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

The villains in Western nuclear infrastructure are not likely to be "incompetant bureaucrats", they are most likely to be commercial interests. Or do you believe the bad ol' government made BP spill oil all over the gulf, too?

Can we please not have a political argument here?
posted by philip-random at 5:04 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Japan: Onagawa, the Hometown I Once Knew at Global Voices. Just some comments and a few photos - a look at the destruction by someone returning home.

(Again, forgive me if this is a repost, things moving fast in here.)
posted by batgrlHG at 5:09 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

No one seems to know. Which in itself is a bad sign.

I do suspect they're dealing with a severe instrumentation failure as well -- which is making it hard to know the exact state of the core.
posted by eriko at 5:10 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

(Really want to thank folks for the courtesy, self-awareness, and clarity of focus we're seeing in this thread. Thank you, thank you, thank you.)
posted by ottereroticist at 5:12 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

like we're all falling back on our usual habits for lack of anything else we can do.

Really? I think this thread has truly been Metafilter at its best (minus the strange connections above between plate tectonics and psychic energy, which were short lived and we've moved on from). This thread has been more informative than the vast majority of media sources. I thank you all for the amazing knowledge, resources, and humanity in this thread. Ultimately, this discussion is about sharing information and experiences, and most of the information that's out there now is on the nuclear issue, so that's mostly what we're talking about right now.

I, for one, appreciate any information and links on non-nuclear parts of the disaster that people have to share too.
posted by zachlipton at 5:13 PM on March 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

like we're all falling back on our usual habits for lack of anything else we can do.

Well, if you wish, I can have an utter flameout....
posted by eriko at 5:15 PM on March 12, 2011

I think this thread has truly been Metafilter at its best

I'm not disagreeing, this thread has been a lifesaver. I'm just talking about the politics and technical speculation of the last hour or so.

And, that said, I'll get off the derailing.
posted by tempythethird at 5:18 PM on March 12, 2011

I was going to make this into a MeTa, but the consensus seems to be that is unwarrented.

As far as the state of the core at Fukushima Daiichi 1, at this time NHK and Nikkei are reporting that the NISA, Japan's nuclear regulatory authority, have said that a partial meltdown has occurred. However, the most recent NISA press release available in English [PDF], the IAEA, and industry sources make no mention of a meltdown, or as @arclight on twitter suggests they might core melt or core damage.

The confusion over the state of the core is perhaps due to the fact that all parties are in agreement that the events at Fukushima Daiichi 1 are an INES Level 4 'Accident with Local Consequences'. The criteria for this classification are

• People and Envrionment
  • Minor release of radioactive material unlikely to result in implementation of planned countermeasures other than local food controls.
  • At least one death from radiation.


• Radiological Barriers and Control
  • Fuel melt or damage to fuel resulting in more than 0.1% release of core inventory.
  • Release of significant quantities of radioactive material within an installation with a high probability of significant public exposure.

It is unclear at this time whether this event has been classified as INES Level 4 under the People And Environment criteria, the Radiological Barriers and Control criteria, or both. According to the World Nuclear News,

Monitoring of Fukushima Daiichi 1 had previously shown an increase in radiation levels detected near to the unit emerging via routes such as the exhaust stack and the discharge canal. These included caesium-137 and iodine-131, Nisa said, noting that levels began to decrease after some time.

Nevertheless the amount of radiation detected at the site boundary reached 500 microSieverts per hour - exceeding a regulatory limit and triggering another set of emergency precautions. It also meant the incident has been rated at Level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) - an 'accident with local consequences'.

This would seem to indicate that no core melt has occurred, despite reports to the contrary by the NHK and the Nuclear Energy Institute.

That's all I've got for now.
posted by ob1quixote at 5:33 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones has been doing some interesting updating of her story on the reactor:

UPDATE 5:13 PM: [...] Some news organizations are reporting that the reactor may have been breached, noting the presence of iodine and cesium isotopes detected in the area. O'Donnell notes that some level of those isotopes could be present in the water because the cooling system is broken down, causing what are usually two separate loops of water in a boiling water reactor system to intermingle. If the levels are high, though, it could be evidence that the reactor core has, in fact, been breached. Reporting on the levels of those isotopes is fuzzy right now though.

UPDATE 6:02 PM: The unit in question is a General Electric Mark I reactor design, also called a "pressure suppression" system. It's a pretty common model; of the 104 reactors in the US, 23 are this type. But there are concerns that this design doesn't necessarily provide the best containment in the event of a meltdown.

If they are unable to cool the core and it does melt through the reactor vessel, this model doesn’t have most robust containment system, says Bergeron. If it did meltdown and the reactor core slumped to the floor, it likely "would result in containment failure in less than a day," he says.

Critics of nuclear power say that this has been a known issue for decades and these reactors simply aren't designed to sustain a meltdown. Greenpeace's nuclear policy analyst Jim Riccio writes:

In 1986 Harold Denton, former director of NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, again acknowledged this vulnerability while speaking to utilities executives at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Denton noted that, according to NRC studies the GE Mark I reactors had “something like a 90% probability of that containment failing."

That last link will be, of course, red meat for some folks. Not meant that way; just pointing to MoJo as a good place to keep up from a relatively nuke-skeptical perspective.
posted by mediareport at 5:34 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Does anyone have information or updates from the search and rescue groups on the ground?

CNN had Japan's Ambassador to US on, who said 3000 people have been rescued so far.
posted by scalefree at 5:35 PM on March 12, 2011

The New York Times has been updating their "Japan" page. Three or four of the articles and graphics on that page were posted earlier in the thread.
posted by zarq at 5:37 PM on March 12, 2011

For those of you curious about the situation in Sendai: Girlfriend is in the downtown area. She hasn't been able to get home yet and is sleeping at the office. She has power, water, and internet. Food is being more difficult. Transportation is down everywhere. No trains, no busses, no cars, no bicycles.
posted by yeolcoatl at 5:37 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm a nuclear engineering PhD student, and a member of the American Nuclear Society. ANS just sent the following email out to the whole organization a few minutes ago -- I think that it gives a good, clear assessment of events and future risks (though of course the organization and I myself are both wholeheartedly pro-nuclear), and it's an interesting perspective on what's been happening:

Dear ANS Members:

I'm sure you are aware of the rapidly developing situation in Japan. The ANS is working on multiple fronts to collect credible information on the incident, and distribute that information through mainstream and social media outlets.

We have communicated with our counterparts at the Atomic Energy Society of Japan to offer any technical or other assistance which may be of help.

We have set up a special page on the ANS blog (http://ansnuclearcafe.org) to aggregate media reports and provide additional information when we consider it to be credible.

We are also working to organize television appearances and other media availabilities for our members so that some of the misinformation that has been presented by anti-nuclear groups can be rebutted with facts. Our goal is not necessarily to be the first on the air, but to be the most credible.

Attached you will find some talking points, along with our current analysis of the sequence of events at Fukushima I-1. I encourage you to talk to your social networks to ensure that people have the right facts and the proper perspective on this incident.

Let me know what other actions our Society should be taking during this nuclear incident.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan.

Respectfully,

XXXXXXXXX


The transcription of the talking points memo is as follows:

American Nuclear Society Backgrounder:
Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami; Problems with Nuclear Reactors

3/12/2011 5:22 PM EST


To begin, a sense of perspective is needed... right now, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami is clearly a catastrophe; the situation at impacted nuclear reactors is, in the words of IAEA, an "Accident with Local Consequences."

The Japanese earthquake and tsunami are natural catastrophes of historic proportions. The death toll is likely to be in the thousands. While the information is still not complete at this time, the tragic loss of life and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami will likely dwarf the damage caused by the problems associated with the impacted Japanese nuclear plants.

What happened?

Recognizing that information is still not complete due to the destruction of the communication infrastructure, producing reports that are conflicting, here is our best understanding of the sequence of events at the Fukushima I‐1 power station.

* The plant was immediately shut down (scrammed) when the earthquake first hit. The automatic power system worked.

* All external power to the station was lost when the sea water swept away the power lines.

* Diesel generators started to provide backup electrical power to the plant’s backup cooling
system. The backup worked.

* The diesel generators ceased functioning after approximately one hour due to tsunami induced damage, reportedly to their fuel supply.

* An Isolation condenser was used to remove the decay heat from the shutdown reactor.

* Apparently the plant then experienced a small loss of coolant from the reactor.

* Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) pumps, which operate on steam from the reactor, were used to replace reactor core water inventory, however, the battery‐supplied control valves lost DC power after the prolonged use.

* DC power from batteries was consumed after approximately 8 hours.

* At that point, the plant experienced a complete blackout (no electric power at all).

* Hours passed as primary water inventory was lost and core degradation occurred (through some combination of zirconium oxidation and clad failure).

* Portable diesel generators were delivered to the plant site.

* AC power was restored allowing for a different backup pumping system to replace inventory in reactor pressure vessel (RPV).

* Pressure in the containment drywell rose as wetwell became hotter.

* The Drywell containment was vented to outside reactor building which surrounds the containment.

* Hydrogen produced from zirconium oxidation was vented from the containment into the reactor building.

* Hydrogen in reactor building exploded causing it to collapse around the containment.

* The containment around the reactor and RPV were reported to be intact.

* The decision was made to inject seawater into the RPV to continue to the cooling process, another backup system that was designed into the plant from inception.

* Radioactivity releases from operator initiated venting appear to be decreasing.

Can it happen here in the US?

* While there are risks associated with operating nuclear plants and other industrial facilities, the chances of an adverse event similar to what happened in Japan occurring in the US is small.

* Since September 11, 2001, additional safeguards and training have been put in place at US nuclear reactors which allow plant operators to cool the reactor core during an extended power outage and/or failure of backup generators – “blackout conditions.”

Is a nuclear reactor "meltdown" a catastrophic event?

* Not necessarily. Nuclear reactors are built with redundant safety systems. Even if the fuel in the reactor melts, the reactor's containment systems are designed to prevent the spread of radioactivity into the environment. Should an event like this occur, containing the radioactive materials could actually be considered a "success" given the scale of this natural disaster that had not been considered in the original design. The nuclear power industry will learn from this event, and redesign our facilities as needed to make them safer in the future.

What is the ANS doing?

ANS has reached out to The Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) to offer technical assistance.

ANS has established an incident communications response team.

This team has compiling relevant news reports and other publicly available information on the ANS blog, which can be found at ansnuclearcafe.org.

The team is also fielding media inquiries and providing reporters with background information and technical perspective as the events unfold.

Finally, the ANS is collecting information from publicly available sources, our sources in government agencies, and our sources on the ground in Japan, to better understand the extent and impact of the incident.

posted by leslietron at 5:39 PM on March 12, 2011 [63 favorites]

yeolcoatl, it's good that she's safe, at least. Hopefully she'll be able to get home soon.
posted by zarq at 5:39 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

mediareport's comment is in-line with my nuke geek's notes from his schooling; he summarized them to me as "my prof bitching that the GE design is BAD."

My friend is not a nuke skeptic in the least, so Mother Jones doesn't seem to be overstating the case. I'm glad mediareport could round up the sources; I didn't want to just post my geek's ranting.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 5:39 PM on March 12, 2011

Good to hear, yeolcoatl. I've heard limited bus service has restarted in Sendai as of 6:30 this morning, however.
posted by armage at 5:40 PM on March 12, 2011

what can we - folks in Chugoku/Shikoku - do so far from the scene, yet so close?

I've been thinking about this, too. I'm in Tokyo. Right now I'm waiting for the Red Cross to open up their donation account, and when the roads start clearing up I might send the things the local governments ask for, through the proper channels. My close relatives live in Kobe and survived the Hanshin Awaji Daishinsai, and I've often heard how random donations like used clothes and "help" from clueless volunteers were more harm than help, and how they appreciated a longer-term support (as in months and years later). So, a sustained concern for the plight of the people hit by the disaster is the key here IMO. Recovery is going to take a long, long time... But this is just my stance as someone who doesn't have anything to contribute in terms of medical or scientific knowledge or other useful skills, so I'm sure people should help in the ways that they can.

Also, I know that human safety and well-being come before those of animals in times like this, and it's probably still not the time to be voicing concern for pets yet, but I'm also thinking of sending pet-oriented items like better quality dog/cat food along with the things for people when the time comes. There's got to be a demand for that, too.
posted by misozaki at 5:41 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Here's a useful mashup map that shows the earthquakes, Youtube videos and Flickr photos by location in Japan.
posted by eye of newt at 5:41 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I will tend to view with skepticism anything that comes from an "industry group" such as this that includes the words "talking points".
posted by Windopaene at 5:43 PM on March 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

leslietron, thank you for sharing that. That's some amazing information that most of us would never have access to.
posted by jbickers at 5:44 PM on March 12, 2011

I see people's perspective on the focus on the nuclear issue here... it's such a dramatic story that ties into all of our deep-seated fascination with movie-style apocalyptic plots that it definitely grabs my attention more than the more pragmatic issue of people dead from the tsunami. The tsunami is so big, and the human impact so huge yet vague, that it's almost impossible to get your head around it.

On the other hand, the nuclear power plant has lots of technical details, which are easy to focus on and pay attention to. You might find them comforting or alarming, but they're there and you can try to learn about them and understand them. But with the tsunami, what is there to say? Watery death and destruction. It's beyond easy comprehension.

I personally wish I could turn off my fascination with the whole thing. It's probably not great for my state of mind, and I have more important things to do (er, final exams...) yet here I am, following it. Woke up at 5 this morning, only to learn about the explosion. Couldn't get back to sleep for an hour.
posted by BungaDunga at 5:45 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

From the mashup map, shut off all but Flickr, and clock 'Show All', and click around the tsunami site. Some really amazing photos really help indicate the level of devastation.
posted by eye of newt at 5:46 PM on March 12, 2011

leslietron, maybe you should have the mods remove the name of the sender of that email? Just a thought...
posted by futz at 5:48 PM on March 12, 2011

futz: he's the president of the American Nuclear Society and the email was sent to all of the society's members. I don't think there's a privacy issue here...
posted by zachlipton at 5:51 PM on March 12, 2011

thanks @armage. I'm letting her know.
posted by yeolcoatl at 5:52 PM on March 12, 2011

From the BBC:

#
0147: The legal limit for radioactivity has been passed at the Fukushima plant, AFP says, quoting Japan's Kyodo news agency.
posted by Windopaene at 5:55 PM on March 12, 2011

I was Skyping with my wife when this 6.2 aftershock took place. She is near the border with Saitama in Tokyo prefecture. According to her, it was "no big deal" - just another shake. Even my two month old son didn't react. It's amazing how quickly people get used to a new paradigm...
posted by birdsquared at 5:56 PM on March 12, 2011

NHK reporting that #3 reactor at Fukushima-1 is experiencing difficulties, but no additional evacuation needed as that was already done for the #1 reactor. Apparently #3 reactor uses a high pressure cooling system unlike #1 and #2, was working well but stopped functioning. They started using passive low-pressure efforts to inject water (like they were using at reactor #1) and are trying to restore power but they have been unable to reconnect to the generators so far.
posted by zachlipton at 5:56 PM on March 12, 2011

futz: thank you; I hadn't though of that. The email was sent out to all ~11,000 members, so I'm not sure whether it's necessary to block out the sender's name, but I'll email the mods and see what they think.
posted by leslietron at 5:57 PM on March 12, 2011

Thanks, leslietron. That was the most informative piece of info in a fantastically informative thread, talking points or not.

Keep up the good work, everyone.
posted by karst at 6:01 PM on March 12, 2011

NHK reporting that the chief cabinet secretary is about to brief on the reactor situation: http://jibtv.com/program/fullscreen.aspx?page=0.
posted by zachlipton at 6:02 PM on March 12, 2011

Word, thanks for the timeline Leslietron, glad I wasn't far off base but man his detailed rundown is really informative to us that have been following things closely.

Ditto for how the US preparedness plan 'seemingly' covers this contingency. Though we all know about the best laid plans of mice and men.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:04 PM on March 12, 2011

Chief Cabinet Secretary: At #3 reactor, water injection had stopped completely, causing water level to drop in the pressure container and exposure of the fuel rods. As a result, they opened the safety valve at 9:05 to reduce pressure and began injecting freshwater. At 9:20, they started to vent from the container to reduce pressure, resulting in a radiation release. At 9:25, they started dumping boric acid into the pressure container as well. Now, at 9:30, they observed a radiation level of 70.3 and they continue to monitor the situation. A minor level of radiation release, not unsafe to human body.

People are evacuating and they are working with the prefecture government to set up centers for medical screening for "anxious" evacuees.
posted by zachlipton at 6:08 PM on March 12, 2011

Looks like they've written off Unit 3, then?
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 6:13 PM on March 12, 2011

He continues with more information. At one point they observed a level of 1200.42. Lots of fluctuation in the radiation level, but not a sudden rise. Rod is now underwater at the #3 reactor. At #1 reactor, "a possibility that a meltdown has occurred," but we can't see because its inside the reactor. Government acting with the assumption that a meltdown has occurred. Reactor #1 is still being vented as seawater is added, which is why the levels are increasing. Same operations [with freshwater per earlier statement] happening at #3. "We do not see that this would effect human health immediately." If levels continue to rise or high readings are measured at several points, that would cause a greater alert, but fluctuations are expected due to winds.
posted by zachlipton at 6:14 PM on March 12, 2011

TIME SENSITIVE UPDATE: Bill Nye the Science guy chimes in on CNN in 2 mins!
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:14 PM on March 12, 2011

Looks like they've written off Unit 3, then?

No. It might require work, but boric acid isn't auto-death of a unit. It is the auto-death of unit #1, because that unit was on the verge of retirement, it wouldn't be worth the cost of the overhaul.
posted by eriko at 6:17 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I will tend to view with skepticism anything that comes from an "industry group" such as this that includes the words "talking points".

Skepticism is always good, but in cases like these, a clear media talking points memo from a scientific group is vastly different from some political hack's spin memo about gay marriage. "Talking points" really just means "let's get on the same page when we talk to the press."

Another thanks for a great thread. The new "show comments" thing has changed how we do this, I think.
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:18 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Finally, no problems at any other nuclear plants. #3 reactor is not leaking radiation except in controlled condition from venting. Tokyo Electric Power now describing the situation as an "emergency."
posted by zachlipton at 6:19 PM on March 12, 2011

I will tend to view with skepticism anything that comes from an "industry group" such as this that includes the words "talking points".

Oh, I completely agree -- the "can it happen here in the us?" and "is a reactor meltdown a catastrophic event?" sections are absolutely no more than talking points. (But, to be clear, all the information presented in those sections is accurate, despite its bias.) I just think it's interesting to see what the ANS is doing in terms of damage control.
posted by leslietron at 6:20 PM on March 12, 2011

leslietron, thank you for sharing that. That's some amazing information that most of us would never have access to.

Yeah, it's also the totally-expected self-serving reaction of an industry spokesperson whose income and career is entirely dependent on propagating the idea that nuclear power is a benign entity. I'm more interested in the actual increased threat-potential of this event than I am in any predictable "there's really nothing to see here folks" responses from a spokesperson whose organization's existence is entirely reliant on the casual dismissing of people's concerns about nuclear energy.

Based on a worst-case scenario, such as if another major quake hits there now, and the containment vessel is breached, would it be prudent for those of us directly downwind to be out stocking up on iodine and plastic-sheeting before Home Depot closes tonight? Or would any resulting fallout here on the West Coast be more equivalent to the analogy of taking a plane trip, as was suggested earlier.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:21 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wow, CNN just gave Meriam-Webster definition of meltdown. Groovy right? No, they immediately added their own addendum that a meltdown will be followed by an expulsion of radioactive material into the atmosphere as if it was part of the actual definition.

Bill Nye's interview was seemingly uneventful.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:22 PM on March 12, 2011

Skepticism is always good, but in cases like these, a clear media talking points memo from a scientific group is vastly different from some political hack's spin memo about gay marriage. "Talking points" really just means "let's get on the same page when we talk to the press."

PareidoliaticBoy is correct, I'm afraid.

I write public relations talking points for a living, often for scientific experts and less frequently, organization spokespeople. It's never a good idea to assume talking points are objective just because they were generated by a scientific group. There is bias in their agenda, which does need to be considered whether or not their facts are accurate. Facts can of course be "spun." What was emphasized? What was left out?

I'm thankful it was posted. It's fascinating. But I certainly won't take it as gospel unless additional evidence presents itself from people who have nothing to gain from taking a side in this matter.
posted by zarq at 6:28 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

PareidoliaticBoy, if the worst were to happen, you would have most of a week to take action in one way or another, since the particles have to be pushed your way by air currents. Take it easy and see what happens first.
posted by ardgedee at 6:30 PM on March 12, 2011

U.W. Nuclear Experts Worry About Possible Japan Reactor Meltdown - WSJ

Offered FWIW (trying to make up for earlier indiscretion? :-)

I don't think I've seen it linked to yet. What Bergeron says is worth the read ... he's the physicist formerly from Sandia Nat'l Labs who wrote Tritium on Ice: The Dangerous New Alliance of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power
posted by cdalight at 6:35 PM on March 12, 2011

It appears that Sendai Airport was lucky -- of its 40 scheduled services on Friday, none was actually on the ground at the time of the earthquake. I had wondered about that, seeing several skyways but no planes, especially given the large crowds in the terminal and the high number of parked cars. General aviation (mostly small) planes, however, were caught in the tsunami.

An IT manager's experience offers lessons on the resiliency of network technologies, from cloud computing to social media. (There are lots of these personal stories being shared by expats, but this one has some broader relevance.)

Official casualty figures remain fairly low, although some much higher numbers are being reported in the media. Authorities seem to have placed great confidence in the tsunami warning system that sent so many to higher ground, or are exercising great caution in identifying people as unaccounted for. In a key difference from the Kobe (Hanshin) quake, Japan has swiftly requested international assistance with search and rescue efforts (which, to be sure, are very formalized and reflexive nowadays).

I'm pretty curious about things like this apparently lane-isolated construction of a minor road, not the only photo I've seen of this, as it seems to be deliberately designed to allow parts of the road to fail separately. The roadbed itself seems somewhat elastic versus normal asphalt, and may even be segmented or reinforced judging by the transverse bars. Can anyone enlighten me?

It's not that the nuke stuff bores me, but it seems to be crowding out the rest of the disaster.
posted by dhartung at 6:36 PM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Thanks ardgedee. My comments sounds snarkier than I intended. I was hoping that the more-qualified people here could give us some useful answers. I was one of the people here downplaying the worries about wave effects here, based on my marine experience.

Will take a breath as well, and try to be more positive going forward. I have a friend who is a qualified underwater rescue-diver, and I might be baby-sitting his kids if he is deployed to Japan, so I am trying to get as organized as possible.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:37 PM on March 12, 2011

I'm working on a detailed timeline of Fukushimi-1 Unit-1 - a spreadsheet - based on official annoucements. If anyone would like to collaborate, contact me via my profile. I need people who can read corporate press releases and distill them into 'event date/time' entries.
posted by zippy at 6:37 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

lane-isolated construction of a minor road

It's kind of cute that it unzipped down the centerline, but I really doubt it was by design. Pretty sure the "ribs" are shadows from the guardrail posts, for instance. Do you have any corroborating links about the supposed construction technique?
posted by ryanrs at 6:45 PM on March 12, 2011

So maybe I fail at the politics/subversive-but-public email messages game, but really, please, can someone tell me how an email like this that presents three things be differentiated from 'honesty'?

My view of his email's contents:

* a heading and greeting with some background information on what's unfolding and his thought that the tragic loss of life and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami will likely dwarf the damage caused by the problems associated with the impacted Japanese nuclear plants . While he's obviously on one side of the debate, does this one phrase of opinion, combined with his position really damn him into the realm of lost credibility?

* a timeline (that as far as I can tell matches what we've been mentioning/observing here quite closely and therefor gains credibility by association)

* a "can it happen in the US" section, which I'll admit is open to speculation but, if indeed what he mentions about US blackout power requirements then is true, doesn't seem to be all that pushy

* a "what our society is doing" section that I didn't even pay attention to since I'm sure it's irrelevant to the events happening on the ground and don't care about anyway since it tends towards 'self appreciation' more often than not, really there's not much meat there concerning the average watching-the-situation-right-now joe, here or japan.

I understand that his tone could be characterized by the things he may not be mentioning or the things he may be, theoretically, actively hiding but I just don't see that happening in this actual email. Not to mention the fact that these people are not dumb and know that the eye of the world is on this situation and ANYTHING sketchy or misleading could be thrown into the limelight very quickly. I guess I could dig up citations for his "can it happen section" but I really don't doubt it enough to bother.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:46 PM on March 12, 2011

* a timeline (that as far as I can tell matches what we've been mentioning/observing here quite closely and therefor gains credibility by association)

Indeed. It matches most of what I thought had happened, though it implies that at least part of the core was uncovered earlier than I thought.

It may be a press release, but it sounds factual -- at least, the timeline of events rings true to the evidence we have.
posted by eriko at 6:51 PM on March 12, 2011

To me, RolandOfEld, it's stuff like this that raises the eyebrow:

* Diesel generators started to provide backup electrical power to the plant’s backup cooling system. The backup worked.
* The diesel generators ceased functioning after approximately one hour due to tsunami induced damage, reportedly to their fuel supply.

I don't think it's reasonable to claim the backup worked; it's more accurate to say the backup system started but failed. The formulation in the talking points is pure spin.
posted by mediareport at 6:53 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

"None of the other issues involved are still ongoing. This is the only crisis that is still happening, and could still get worse/better."

I'm sure that will be of great comfort to those who live in places where fires are still raging out of control, for grocers who are wondering how they will restock their stores, with the local port closed and no petrol deliveries in their region, due to the refinery fire, for the factory owners who can't get reliable power to operate, much less the raw materials needed through the broken rail network, and, of course, all those people out there whose personal health and welfare depend upon having the basic services that everyone takes for granted, but which suddenly aren't available.

Not everywhere in Japan is Tokyo. Some places are considerably worse off.
posted by markkraft at 6:55 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

True, but even when I surf around the Internet not much is being said about those other things because we don't have any or much information on them.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 6:57 PM on March 12, 2011

The way I look at it, 'honesty' isn't the best way to analyze industry responses. In a fast moving disaster such as this one, plant operators and regulatory officials are far more likely to confirm events that have already occurred, rather than predict things that are going to happen. For example, if right now there was a 10% chance of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe, I wouldn't expect to hear about it in any press release or official statement.
posted by ryanrs at 6:58 PM on March 12, 2011

mediareport: Pretty much read that as "the failover system that starts the generators worked," not as a statement about the generators themselves.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 6:59 PM on March 12, 2011

I don't think it's reasonable to claim the backup worked; it's more accurate to say the backup system started but failed. The formulation in the talking points is pure spin.

No, it's perfectly correct. The backup functioned as designed -- then was destroyed by a later element. If this reactor wasn't on the coast, this thread would be about 1000 comments shorter.

The point here is that the earthquake proofing of this reactor worked. The tsunami protection, that needs work, but if it wasn't for the tsunami, this reactor responded to the earthquake exactly as desgined.
posted by eriko at 6:59 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

But none of those things. while truly horrendous, are still in crisis mode. So thanks for trying to belittle the ongoing danger that these damaged nuke plants represent. Clearly, I think that Japan has totally recovered from these disasters...
posted by Windopaene at 6:59 PM on March 12, 2011

mediareport, I guess that's where we differ and I fail the PR game. Because those exact lines you quote seem reasonable. If you want to get into semantics of if they were designed properly to resist a Tsunami that's fair, but as far as the timeline's accuracy it's spot on.

The generators started and worked properly. They ceased functioning later due to an outside influence that wasn't adequately accounted for. Semantics, I know, but still not worth noticing as un-reasonable.

If that's pure spin I have no idea what the terminology would be for what the tobacco companies do in their press releases.

Feel free to memail me if you have more to talk about, I welcome it but I fear we may end up agreeing to disagree.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:59 PM on March 12, 2011

I don't think it's reasonable to claim the backup worked

Nonsense! Everything worked as designed. This is all going according to plan.
posted by ryanrs at 7:00 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

My question, which may not be answerable by those of us here on Mefi, is what happens to reactor #1 if #3 goes critical, or vice versa? Do the mitigating efforts continue on the stable reactor if the other has a core breach? Are the efforts actually workers running around with hose/cable/pumps/tools, or is it somehow automated? It seems to me if one goes critical, the other could go, too.
posted by karst at 7:01 PM on March 12, 2011

We have no real way of knowing whether the systems worked as reported or not. What might have happened due to just the earthquake, was compromised and changed because of the tsunami.
posted by Windopaene at 7:01 PM on March 12, 2011

The tsunami protection, that needs work

I think we have a winner for Understatement Of The Thread.
posted by dw at 7:01 PM on March 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

Read that as the backup worked, then a rat ate through the generator's fuel line causing it to fail.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:02 PM on March 12, 2011

And, indeed, the backups to the backups worked -- the RCIC system kept the core under control, until the batteries were exhausted, then it fell off line. They couldn't get generators or batteries quickly to the site because of the massive damage of the quake basically making transport impossible.

This isn't a black swan -- this is a mutated black swan with an attitude problem on crystal meth. If the tsnuami hadn't hit *and* if the roads hadn't been so horribly damaged, they could have kept enough power in the plant to keep the RCIC systems online, and this would have been a non event.

Even this 1960s era reactor had defense in depth -- Mother Nature, however, threw one too many curveballs. The reactor core is still contained, despite the multiple threat disaster that's struck the plant.
posted by eriko at 7:03 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

ANd who could have anticipated a tsunami on the Japanese coast, especially right after a devastating earthquake? It is such an unfortunate coincidence.
posted by ryanrs at 7:03 PM on March 12, 2011 [9 favorites]

what happens to reactor #1 if #3 goes critical

In the simplest analysis, the worse #3 gets, the more it will take away from resources going into #1 (and vice versa). If there were a serious venting of radiation at #3, it would put at best sever limits on how long workers could spend on site. They'd have to rotate out, and that could be a problem with the roads and infrastructure so damaged - how many people can they get on and off site?
posted by zippy at 7:04 PM on March 12, 2011

BBC: #
0232: The plant operator says the top of the fuel rods is 3 metres above water - AFP, quoting Kyodo.

Don't know if this is reactor 1 or 3 but not good either way.
posted by Windopaene at 7:04 PM on March 12, 2011

I`d add to what markkraft says above by saying that it`s still really unclear just how profound the damage is. I was listening to CBC Radio who somehow sent a reporter to Kessanuma, and there are still people trapped in the wreckage, with no apparent help on the way. Kessanuma itself was wiped off the map, and what little remained was destroyed in a firestorm. The scale of the disaster is, as the politicians are saying, unprecedented.

While it is what it is, the nuclear disaster has overshadowed the earthquake and tsunami the same way the Aum attacks overshadowed Kobe.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:06 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

210k people to be evacuated from region around reactors (via @Touruma)
posted by zippy at 7:06 PM on March 12, 2011

If the tsnuami hadn't hit *and* if the roads hadn't been so horribly damaged, they could have kept enough power in the plant to keep the RCIC systems online, and this would have been a non event.

If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass on the ground so much, would he?
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 7:07 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think we are about to see a double meltdown. What happens to the other 4 reactors if 1 & 3 go critical? Those should be running on automatic. I think I remember reading 3 were on standby, so presumably they are "cool".
posted by karst at 7:08 PM on March 12, 2011

Asahi Shimbun is reporting 4X levels of radiation at a different nuke plant in Ichimaki-Onnagawa, 120 km north of Fukushima.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:09 PM on March 12, 2011

Four through six were already shut down for scheduled maintenance.

I don't think it's useful yet to speculate on what we're going to see at Daiichi.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 7:09 PM on March 12, 2011

The plant operator says the top of the fuel rods is 3 metres above water

If that's the case, they're done. They're typically 4 meters in length, this would mean that they're basically uncooled at this point. It also flies in the face of the seawater add -- the water can't be leaking or boiling off that fast.

But if it is true, we're down to the last line on that reactor -- the containment vessel.
posted by eriko at 7:11 PM on March 12, 2011

NHK World now reporting that the meteorological agency has upgraded the earthquake to magnitude 9.0 after a review of the data.
posted by zachlipton at 7:13 PM on March 12, 2011

Echoing mediareport, it's not that the base facts are in dispute as much as the way it's framed and editorialized. I would point to the construction of lines like the following:

"All external power to the station was lost when the sea water swept away the power lines."
Absolutely true, but it sort of connotes to me a sense that, "well gosh, we did everything we could but gol' durn Ma Nature was determined to knock the power out. How in the world can you deal with THE POWERLINES BEING SWEPT AWAY."

Same thing with the bit about the deisel generators. If the things actually REALLY worked, there would be no need to imply "Well they worked until they didn't. Really there was nothing we could do."

"Apparently the plant then experienced a small loss of coolant from the reactor."
The inclusion of the word "small" is meant to downplay the significance. You could convey the exact same factual information ("experienced a loss of coolant") without the connotations that, eh, it's nothing really much to worry about.

That's my reading-between-the-lines of it as a layperson. I supposes we might all read into it what we want. Basically imagine Paul Reiser's character in Aliens reading that talking-point list and squinting at Ripley tiredly, is how I see it.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:13 PM on March 12, 2011

Earthquakes, Waves and Nuke-Speak: Never Believe Anything Until It's Officially Denied
posted by The Emperor of Ice Cream at 7:17 PM on March 12, 2011

I wrote a poem a time back. It seems to be appropriate.

The earth is an egg. A dragon waiting to be born.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:18 PM on March 12, 2011

And I still don't see why they haven't been dumping the boron into these reactors.

Is there a reason, other than the fact that it will ruin the reactors? Has it been happening, but is just not being reported? Or are the financial implications/consequences of doing this staying their hand...?
posted by Windopaene at 7:18 PM on March 12, 2011

If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass on the ground so much, would he?

And if a giant meteor struck the earth, EVERY POWER PLANT WOULD FAIL!!!111!!!!

Your point?
posted by eriko at 7:18 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Meltdown may be occurring at nuclear plant, Japanese official says
posted by The Emperor of Ice Cream at 7:19 PM on March 12, 2011

0232: The plant operator says the top of the fuel rods is 3 metres above water - AFP, quoting Kyodo.

I never saw resolution but somebody upthread was questioning the reliability of Kyodo as a source, saying they had lots of stories nobody else did but it seemed driven by rumor rather than fact. So this is still suspect to me, until confirmed independently.
posted by scalefree at 7:20 PM on March 12, 2011

And I still don't see why they haven't been dumping the boron into these reactors.

They've already been pumping in a mix of borax and saltwater.
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:22 PM on March 12, 2011

Al Jazeera - Japan on High Nuclear Alert
posted by cdalight at 7:22 PM on March 12, 2011

And I still don't see why they haven't been dumping the boron into these reactors.

Huh? It's well-reported that they've been injecting boric acid and water into Unit 1. Straight from TEPCO:

* We started injection of sea water into the reactor core of Unit 1 at 8:20PM, Mar 12 and then boric acid subsequently.

I know it's a lot of information being delivered in languages not all of us speak fluently or at all, and from a lot of vectors, but if we stay off blanket statements before we get to legitimate questions, it'll help everyone keep things straight.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 7:23 PM on March 12, 2011

I'm watching Twitter and the Google news feeds and I haven't heard anyone reporting the 3 m above water figure. Kyodo also initially reported 88,000 people missing, which may have been true in one sense but seems alarmist.

They are reporting that the water level is under the top of the fuel rods at Unit 3 of Daiichi and melting is possible.
posted by Jeanne at 7:23 PM on March 12, 2011

CNN keeps going to their meteorologist for explanations regarding nuclear meltdowns, the reactors, and so on. Do meteorologists have qualifications of which I am unaware?
posted by Justinian at 7:24 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

And I still don't see why they haven't been dumping the boron into these reactors.

If the control rods are in and the core is covered, it won't do anything. Boron can't stop decay heat, it can only stop primary fission, just like the control rods.

The reason they're dumping it into Fukushima 1 Reactor 1 is that they're uncertain, at best, of the state of the core. If it starts to melt, you can't count on the control rods being in the right place. But if you know that the fuel assemblies are still covered and the control rods are in place, reaction poisons will just cause damage for no gain.

But dumping it now into the other reactors isn't helpful -- and it would suck if you dumped all of it into a few stable reactors then found out you had a runaway...
posted by eriko at 7:26 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do meteorologists have qualifications of which I am unaware?

Better fitting suits than mine. Otherwise, I've got nothing.
posted by eriko at 7:26 PM on March 12, 2011

All four TV channels in Japan are currently discussing rescue and evacuation programs. Evacuees are telling some pretty damn heartbreaking stories. One woman said that she hadn't yet eaten anything since lunch yesterday but yet returned immediately to her town to search for survivors. The nuclear issue doesn't seem too urgent.
posted by shii at 7:26 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do meteorologists have qualifications of which I am unaware?

They're the only ones on staff with science degrees.

Which in this case is like finding out your only doctor is a Boy Scout with his First Aid badge, but still, better than having the sports guy saying, "Well, I know Ichiro Suzuki is from Japan... I got nothing."
posted by dw at 7:32 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

I don't think it's been posted above in one piece but this is the higher-def source footage of so much of those shorter clips of waves of water we were seeing yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3K1w7u04Zo&hd=1
It's about 15 continuous minutes of that helicopter shot, except for a pause around 12 min.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:33 PM on March 12, 2011 [10 favorites]

CNN had a nuclear expert on earlier. Can't remember his name, mainly because my husband dubbed him "Professor Radioactive Pretzel" after he flubbed "radioactive vessel." I was wondering if they're going to the meteorologists for the inevitable "here's the fallout path to West Coast USA" reportage.

I would renew the proposal upthread to start a new, Fukushima-specific thread, curated by eriko, because eriko is awesome.
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:35 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Meteorologists also understand wind and stuff like that, which is helpful in understanding the potential path of radioactive material in the event of a release of said material. Again, though, like I said above, it all sounds suspiciously alchemical to me ("When the Rods of Art emerge from the Bath of Cooling, the Magus risks an emission of Phlogiston into the surrounding Aethyrs," etc.).
posted by infinitywaltz at 7:37 PM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

Are they using seawater because it's so readily available and not very useful for much else and they don't want to waste fresh water?

Or does seawater have some property that makes it preferable to fresh water?
posted by marsha56 at 7:37 PM on March 12, 2011

> While it is what it is, the nuclear disaster has overshadowed the earthquake and tsunami the same way the Aum attacks overshadowed Kobe.

We are splitting our attention between what are effectively two separate issues now:

1. The human toll caused by the earthquakes and tsunami: whole towns off the map, thousands of lives lost, millions more permanently changed, an entire coastline reshaped. This is horrible, and photos and videos continue to appear that renew our appreciation and horror of it. All the same, fundamentally we can only apprehend it emotionally and factually: It did not happen to (most of) us, it does not affect (most of) us; we worry for them until we are distracted.

2. The ongoing crisis in Japans nuclear reactors. These also affect millions, but it also may affect us. This crisis is our crisis; we can't merely gawk from afar and say "there but for the grace of God", we can't offer money and goods to palliate our feelings and help those in need, we can only watch, but we worry for ourselves, and this is distracting.
posted by ardgedee at 7:38 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Or does seawater have some property that makes it preferable to fresh water?

It's free, there's tons of it and it's easy to get to, since the reactors are right there on the coast.
posted by infinitywaltz at 7:39 PM on March 12, 2011

Im surprised they haven't gone full Chernobyl yet and started pouring sand and concrete over the reactors.
posted by Justinian at 7:41 PM on March 12, 2011

I read an interview with a researcher at Tokyo University that said that fresh water was preferable to sea water because it wouldn't rust the pipes over a long period of time. Sea water is being used because large quantities are immediately available, and the first priority is to cool down the reactor. (And this isn't going to take long enough to degrade the pipes.)
posted by Jeanne at 7:41 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks Jeanne. Had been wondering about this for awhile.
posted by marsha56 at 7:44 PM on March 12, 2011

Marsha56-my dad is a nuclear chemist and i asked the same question. Seawater is not a good option. There are too many potentially hazardous byproducts in saltwater to make it a first choice (chlorides,specifically, I think). That's why its a hail mary. But there is a lot of it at hand.
posted by karst at 7:44 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

And on top of that, by the time they get to the point of just pumping water in as fast as they can, they're not really worried about stuff like, "Yeah, but we'll have to replace the pipes a few years sooner" because they've already written the plants off.
posted by infinitywaltz at 7:44 PM on March 12, 2011

Sea water also doesn't depend on the municipal water infrastructure, which may or may not be intact right now.
posted by danny the boy at 7:45 PM on March 12, 2011

And on top of that, by the time they get to the point of just pumping water in as fast as they can, they're not really worried about stuff like, "Yeah, but we'll have to replace the pipes a few years sooner" because they've already written the plants off.

My nuke geek figures TEPCO have written off the entirety of Fukushima Daiichi by now, yeah.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 7:47 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

the reactors are right there on the coast.

And thank goodness, who knows what would have happened if the reactors weren't near such a nice big source of water! (kidding, kidding! But it's a teensy bit ironic that the last-ditch method of cooling is the ocean... which looks like it was what knocked the cooling system offline in the first place)
posted by BungaDunga at 7:47 PM on March 12, 2011

Okay, CCN now has Glenn Sjoden, a Nuclear Engineering Professor from Georgia Tech providing some analysis.
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:48 PM on March 12, 2011

As I said earlier, I'm not expecting to get a significant dose of radiation no matter how bad the Fukushima situation, but I am 5 miles from a coastal-located American Nuclear Power Plant (partly for access to ocean water for secondary or emergency cooling) and in all of the public discussions of earthquake preparedness, I've never heard anybody discuss the effects a quake-related tsunami would affect it. Is this something the nuclear power industry has totally missed?
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:49 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

My nuke geek figures TEPCO have written off the entirety of Fukushima Daiichi by now, yeah.

As a fellow Pogues fan and west coast U.S. resident, what else does your nuke geek have to say at the moment?
posted by infinitywaltz at 7:49 PM on March 12, 2011

Keep in mind that most power plants are near water -- coal/gas/oil/nuclear rely on it to run the boilers, while it's kinda obvious what hydro and geothermal do with it. Only wind and photovoltaic solar don't directly rely on water.
posted by dw at 7:50 PM on March 12, 2011

Only wind and photovoltaic solar don't directly rely on water.

I never trusted those guys to begin with!
posted by BeerFilter at 7:52 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Asahi Shimbun is reporting 4X levels of radiation at a different nuke plant in Ichimaki-Onnagawa, 120 km north of Fukushima.

KokuRyu, I'm not sure what your point was in linking to that article, but it says that there's currently nothing out of order at the Onagawa (it's Onagawa, not Onnagawa. And Kesennuma) plant, and that the 4x radiation was back to normal levels after two hours. Tohoku Denryoku think that it was the radiation from the Fukushima plant explosion that caused the rise.
posted by misozaki at 7:52 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

The guy on CNN got the talking points memo.
posted by karst at 7:53 PM on March 12, 2011

As terrifying as the nuclear news is, my mind keeps returning to the videos linked upthread and how all those buildings washed away were people's homes, businesses, workplaces. Regardless of whatever else happens there's a massive crisis of homeless refugees with no income already underway. I sincerely hope there is a worldwide mobilization also underway to get these people food, water, and supplies. That's what's breaking my heart tonight as I sit indoors - all those lost families stranded in high places.
posted by chaff at 7:54 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

mwhybark: "On second look, I don't think he's modeling any load in particular. I misread it because I was assuming that he was positing lofting into the jetstream via a high-heat plume. I don't think he says one way or the other"

In point of fact, I merely did not take the time to actively read the graph. He models distribution of materials released at 10, 100, 1000, and 7000 and 9000 meters.

So I still have questions, largely pertaining to released quantities of whatever it is he's modeling in his model. I would assume it's the same quantity in all five cases of some fairly heavy molecule.
posted by mwhybark at 7:58 PM on March 12, 2011

OK, since you asked....

The transcription of the talking points memo is as follows:

American Nuclear Society Backgrounder:
Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami; Problems with Nuclear Reactors

3/12/2011 5:22 PM EST

To begin, a sense of perspective is needed... right now, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami is clearly a catastrophe; the situation at impacted nuclear reactors is, in the words of IAEA, an "Accident with Local Consequences."

First of all, it's an event in progress. They cannot predict the future and have no way to determine at this moment whether or not the final outcome will be restricted to "local consequences" To state this the way they did (and it's quite carefully worded,) is pure spin, designed to reassure the public that anything that is happening now and in the future will probably not affect anyone other than locals.

Unless I'm mistaken, at this moment they cannot predict that with any degree of accuracy until the crisis is over.

The Japanese earthquake and tsunami are natural catastrophes of historic proportions. The death toll is likely to be in the thousands. While the information is still not complete at this time, the tragic loss of life and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami will likely dwarf the damage caused by the problems associated with the impacted Japanese nuclear plants.

Spin: "Likely."

They are painting a picture here. Trying to reassure the public that a specific outcome will happen.

What's missing? The worst case scenario. Responsible talking points would list possible outcomes and assign likelihood. They want to emphasize a specific outcome and this is framed accordingly.

What happened?

Each of the following statements is tailored to reassure the reader that everything was under control and the systems worked as designed. It was only due to the tsunami they failed. Which may be true, but it is still spin because these initial explanation defer responsibility and as we're about to see, they shouldn't.

Recognizing that information is still not complete due to the destruction of the communication infrastructure, producing reports that are conflicting, here is our best understanding of the sequence of events at the Fukushima I‐1 power station.

* The plant was immediately shut down (scrammed) when the earthquake first hit. The automatic power system worked.

Fact.

For accuracy's sake, this should expanded upon later, because on the one hand they're saying that cutting off the power is good, and then when a blackout happens later, it's problematic. But these are only talking points not a speech, so we'll grant them some leeway. :)

* All external power to the station was lost when the sea water swept away the power lines.

Fact. Also, perhaps a design flaw? That's not addressed until the very end. They don't want to point it out here.

* Diesel generators started to provide backup electrical power to the plant’s backup cooling
system. The backup worked.

Fact. But....

* The diesel generators ceased functioning after approximately one hour due to tsunami induced damage, reportedly to their fuel supply.

The backup worked until it didn't. Nitpick: I would have phrased "The backup worked." as "The backup worked initially."

* An Isolation condenser was used to remove the decay heat from the shutdown reactor.

Fact.

* Apparently the plant then experienced a small loss of coolant from the reactor.

Fact. Why? What constitutes small? Not stated.

* Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) pumps, which operate on steam from the reactor, were used to replace reactor core water inventory, however, the battery‐supplied control valves lost DC power after the prolonged use.

* DC power from batteries was consumed after approximately 8 hours.

Batteries cannot be expected to last forever, of course. What normally constitutes prolonged use? How long should the backups be reasonably expected to last? Is 8 hours typically enough in this sort of crisis? Not addressed until the end, when we find out that they apparently also believe that 8 hours is insufficient. That's glossed over. They don't want to emphasize this.

* At that point, the plant experienced a complete blackout (no electric power at all).

Fact.

* Hours passed as primary water inventory was lost and core degradation occurred (through some combination of zirconium oxidation and clad failure).

Fact.

* Portable diesel generators were delivered to the plant site.

Note that it took 8 hours for the batteries to die. Additional hours for the generators to arrive.

This timeline does not indicate when the diesel generators were called for (was it while the batteries were running or after they failled?) Nor whether they were stored close by. Why did it take so long to put them in place? Unknown. It's possible that this information isn't yet available.

* AC power was restored allowing for a different backup pumping system to replace inventory in reactor pressure vessel (RPV).

Fact.

* Pressure in the containment drywell rose as wetwell became hotter.

* The Drywell containment was vented to outside reactor building which surrounds the containment.

* Hydrogen produced from zirconium oxidation was vented from the containment into the reactor building.

* Hydrogen in reactor building exploded causing it to collapse around the containment.

* The containment around the reactor and RPV were reported to be intact.

* The decision was made to inject seawater into the RPV to continue to the cooling process, another backup system that was designed into the plant from inception.

* Radioactivity releases from operator initiated venting appear to be decreasing.

All facts.

What's being left out? At this point in the narrative, we're left with the impression that all of this all happened because of the tsunami. Keep in mind that they have a vested interest in encouraging that impression.

Can it happen here in the US?

* While there are risks associated with operating nuclear plants and other industrial facilities, the chances of an adverse event similar to what happened in Japan occurring in the US is small.

* Since September 11, 2001, additional safeguards and training have been put in place at US nuclear reactors which allow plant operators to cool the reactor core during an extended power outage and/or failure of backup generators – “blackout conditions.”

Here we are. What happened was initiated by the tsunami, but thanks to a series of design flaws and inadequate redundancies most likely turned into more of a crisis than it should have been. Why didn't they say so outright? Because in a moment they're going to emphasize the fact that redundant systems make nuclear plants safe. Dwelling on the idea that some of what has happened might be due to design issues would undermine that message.

Is a nuclear reactor "meltdown" a catastrophic event?

* Not necessarily.

Fact. Yet, there's something else missing. What would they consider a catastrophic event? The earthquake and tsunami. Why isn't this a catastrophic event? Some of the redundant safety systems failed, but they didn't ALL fail. How close did this come to being a catastrophe? Not addressed.

Spin, spin, spin.

Nuclear reactors are built with redundant safety systems. Even if the fuel in the reactor melts, the reactor's containment systems are designed to prevent the spread of radioactivity into the environment. Should an event like this occur, containing the radioactive materials could actually be considered a "success" given the scale of this natural disaster that had not been considered in the original design. The nuclear power industry will learn from this event, and redesign our facilities as needed to make them safer in the future.

They're safe. Let's talk about success and not dwell on potential dangers. We're going to make them safer. This is more spin and framing.

Objective talking points don't emphasize one narrative or perspective over another. The message of these talking points is that nuclear energy is safe. Therefore, they're not objective.
posted by zarq at 7:58 PM on March 12, 2011 [20 favorites]

Partial meltdown likely under way at power plant, Japanese official says

Meltdown Could Propel 'Death Cloud' to US West Coast

How much radiation has been released in Fukushima crisis?
posted by The Emperor of Ice Cream at 7:58 PM on March 12, 2011

oneswellfoop: "I am 5 miles from a coastal-located American Nuclear Power Plant (partly for access to ocean water for secondary or emergency cooling) and in all of the public discussions of earthquake preparedness, I've never heard anybody discuss the effects a quake-related tsunami would affect it. Is this something the nuclear power industry has totally missed?"

Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International, said workers would be monitoring "unusual small waves" that were likely to hit the coast.

"The San Onofre plant was designed with a 30-foot (9-meter) tsunami protective wall," company spokesman Gil Alexander said in response to a question on what safety measures the plant would be undertaking.

9 meters might not be up to the tsunami we saw in Japan, but no, I would say 'missed' is not the word.
posted by mwhybark at 8:01 PM on March 12, 2011

floam check you memail
posted by BeerFilter at 8:03 PM on March 12, 2011

Because in a moment they're going to emphasize the fact that redundant systems make nuclear plants safe. Dwelling on the idea that some of what has happened might be due to design issues would undermine that message.

Admittedly, the GE BWR design is also thoroughly discredited in nuke engineering circles, as others have mentioned. The reactor in question is 40 years old; designs have evolved and changed since then. I expect there will be a lot of public and legislative inquiry about decommissioning many other GE BWR reactors of this type now, and a lot more emphasis placed on how to reinforce existing plants and build new ones to handle this sort of all-out multiple-fronts natural disaster.

It would likely be more effective for ANS to focus on how nuclear engineering has advanced since the GE BWR design, yes-- for people who read above an 8th-grade level and know how to apply critical thinking to what they're looking at, and have some relevant background information.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 8:06 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

How long until. they change the name to Oh-Fukushima?
posted by I love you more when I eat paint chips at 8:08 PM on March 12, 2011

The Emperor of Ice Cream: that 2nd link (death cloud) looks extremely dubious. there is no evidence the containment vessel has been breached at any of the units thus far. that article is implying a whole lot, and pretty wild making wild comparisons to chernobyl.
posted by Mach5 at 8:09 PM on March 12, 2011

They cannot predict the future and have no way to determine at this moment whether or not the final outcome will be restricted to "local consequences" To state this the way they did (and it's quite carefully worded,) is pure spin, designed to reassure the public that anything that is happening now and in the future will probably not affect anyone other than locals.

No. They're saying it's an "accident with local consequences" because that is the EXACT description of Level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. And they themselves say this is what the IAEA says it is; it's not a subjective view by the organization.
posted by dw at 8:09 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Admittedly, the GE BWR design is also thoroughly discredited in nuke engineering circles, as others have mentioned. The reactor in question is 40 years old; designs have evolved and changed since then. I expect there will be a lot of public and legislative inquiry about decommissioning many other GE BWR reactors of this type now, and a lot more emphasis placed on how to reinforce existing plants and build new ones to handle this sort of all-out multiple-fronts natural disaster.

They should absolutely be talking about all of that!

It would likely be more effective for ANS to focus on how nuclear engineering has advanced since the GE BWR design, yes-- for people who read above an 8th-grade level and know how to apply critical thinking to what they're looking at, and have some relevant background information.

"The Fukushima plant's design is old and has been discontinued. New plants don't have these problems and are built to be safer. We don't build plants like that anymore, because we've learned how to make them better."

You don't need to have a higher than 8th grade reading level to explain this in a way that everyone will understand and be reassured by.
posted by zarq at 8:11 PM on March 12, 2011

Meltdown Could Propel 'Death Cloud' to US West Coast

That's an article from Helium.com, which isn't exactly known for calmness or objectivity, and written by Terrence Aym, who is an aspiring horror writer and whose other recent articles include such titles as "Why Watching TV Can Kill You" and "How BP Gulf Disaster Could Have Triggered a 'World-Killing' Event." So...uh...no hyperbole there or anything.
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:11 PM on March 12, 2011 [17 favorites]

Meltdown Could Propel 'Death Cloud' to US West Coast


Ummm, I've been on the pessimistic and nuclear power-cautious side throughout this discussion, but "Death Cloud" is kind of going overboard here. Can't really accuse the other side of spin when we're throwing terms like Death Cloud around, can we?

Although now I know what I'm calling my flatulence.
posted by formless at 8:12 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

And they themselves say this is what the IAEA says it is; it's not a subjective view by the organization.

Could the situation be upgraded to a higher than level 4 in the future?

If so, refraining to point it out and phrasing it the way they did is spin.
posted by zarq at 8:14 PM on March 12, 2011

The message of these talking points is that nuclear energy is safe. Therefore, they're not objective.

Unless of course, nuclear energy is safe.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:18 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

formless writes "Except, where I live (Washington State), hydroelectric is the major source of power. I'd like it to stay that way, and part of that fight is pointing out the risks of nuclear, of which there are many. Many that have been discounted throughout this thread."o

Don't know the details in Washington but if it is anything like BC Hydro is pretty well tapped out. Growth is going to force generation from other sources.

dhartung writes "I'm pretty curious about things like this apparently lane-isolated construction of a minor road, not the only photo I've seen of this, as it seems to be deliberately designed to allow parts of the road to fail separately. The roadbed itself seems somewhat elastic versus normal asphalt, and may even be segmented or reinforced judging by the transverse bars. Can anyone enlighten me?"

That's probably somewhat of a fluke. Because of the size of equipment, logistics, and often a desire to keep one lane open, roads are generally paved a lane at a time with a coldish joint between lanes. It's the weakest part of the road and so given the chance it'll break there. If you live some place with temperatures that get cold enough for the ground to freeze you can probably observe centre line cracking in a lot of roads once you start looking for it.

Justinian writes "Im surprised they haven't gone full Chernobyl yet and started pouring sand and concrete over the reactors."

No need for that unless containment is breached (and would that even do anything, concrete is going to turn to powder under that kind of heat, you might as well just dump sand) and considering the infrastructure it might be tough or essentially impossible to get the kind of heavy equipment you need for that kind of thing to the site.

oneswellfoop writes "I've never heard anybody discuss the effects a quake-related tsunami would affect it. Is this something the nuclear power industry has totally missed?"

Do earthquakes in California generate large local tsunamis? I don't remember it being hyped as a potential issue in previous events though that may just be luck.

zarq writes "This timeline does not indicate when the diesel generators were called for (was it while the batteries were running or after they failled?) Nor whether they were stored close by. Why did it take so long to put them in place? Unknown. It's possible that this information isn't yet available. "

I think it would be fair to speculate that a M9 earthquake immediately followed by a 10 metre Tsunami might have impacted the ability for the plant to procure offsite backup generators.

The Emperor of Ice Cream writes "Meltdown Could Propel 'Death Cloud' to US West Coast"

Are those anything like "death" panels?
posted by Mitheral at 8:18 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

eriko: "The point here is that the earthquake proofing of this reactor worked. The tsunami protection, that needs work, but if it wasn't for the tsunami, this reactor responded to the earthquake exactly as desgined."

All due respect, eriko, but we do not know that the loss of external power is tsunami attributable. Nor do we know for sure that the loss of the generator is tsunami attributable. We also do not know that the battery power horizon was tsunami attributable. That one, in particular, seems plausibly maintenance related.

Finally, the hydrogen explosion is something that has been described as both undesirable and a danger inherent in venting to maintain internal pressure during shutdown emergencies. While it's possible to assume the improper management of the hydrogen venting occurred due to tsunami related damage, it's also possible to assume that damage was cause by earthquake, or again, due to maintenance issues.

We're all hopeful the shutdowns continue without further incident. But it's clear the shutdowns have experienced multiple problems outside of desired functionality.
posted by mwhybark at 8:20 PM on March 12, 2011

"Except, where I live (Washington State), hydroelectric is the major source of power. I'd like it to stay that way, and part of that fight is pointing out the risks of nuclear, of which there are many.

What's the failsafe if an earthquake breaks the dam?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:20 PM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

If so, refraining to point it out and phrasing it the way they did is spin.

They also didn't point out that it could be lower than Level 4 in the future, so therefore they must be spinning this as if they want it to stay at Level 4, right?

Seriously. Stop. You're not helping. At all.
posted by dw at 8:20 PM on March 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

That's probably somewhat of a fluke. Because of the size of equipment, logistics, and often a desire to keep one lane open, roads are generally paved a lane at a time with a coldish joint between lanes. It's the weakest part of the road and so given the chance it'll break there.

I don't think asphalt is holding earth together like that.
posted by atomicmedia at 8:23 PM on March 12, 2011

I suppose if the couple people dead from radiation poisoning come back to life and the local radiation releases are vacuumed up, the situation could be downgraded from level 4.
posted by ryanrs at 8:24 PM on March 12, 2011

There is no one dead from radiation and no leaks requiring cleanup so far.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:26 PM on March 12, 2011

According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, they've managed to submerge the fuel rods in reactor 1, and they're thinking the situation won't get any worse if they can just keep them under water. The situation there is being more or less stabilized. Reactor 3 is what they're worried about. They're venting gases to relieve pressure -- which I guess is why the radioactivity went up to 1000 microSieverts. Which is higher than the law allows, but it still means that you would have to be exposed for over 2 full days to get the equivalent radiation to 1 CT scan.

The people who have died at the reactors have, as far as I know, died of trauma directly related to the earthquake and tsunami, not radiation. Only 20 people or so have been confirmed as exposed to radiation, and we still don't know how serious that may be -- no one has been confirmed to have radiation poisoning.
posted by Jeanne at 8:28 PM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

OK maybe "Death Cloud" is a little over the top; does "Airborne Doom" work?

Yes I admit the link is alarmist; I get it; but in the context of a breaking news story sometimes one forgets to filter out unreliable stories; mea culpa.
posted by The Emperor of Ice Cream at 8:28 PM on March 12, 2011

Actually from reports that I've read, at least one person has died from radiation exposure.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:29 PM on March 12, 2011

Link?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:30 PM on March 12, 2011

no leaks requiring cleanup so far

Only because it's not feasible.
posted by ryanrs at 8:31 PM on March 12, 2011

OK maybe "Death Cloud" is a little over the top; does "Airborne Doom" work? Yes I admit the link is alarmist; I get it; but in the context of a breaking news story sometimes one forgets to filter out unreliable stories; mea culpa.

It's OK, but for the record, the technical term is "cancer wind."
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:31 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

There was a road engineer on reddit talking about that perfectly unzipped road, and he was saying it was likely due to the "one lane at a time" technique creating a weakness along the cold joint in the asphalt, as well as the possibility they may have compacted the earth beneath one lane at a time as well. He was also pointing out that the road bed didn't have a base layer, that it appears to just be asphalt/tarmac over bare compacted earth, instead of a sand/gravel bed like they usually do for high traffic roads.

It actually makes sense. Asphalt/tarmac is very flexible and sticky. It'll stretch and bend with relative ease, and in a sense can literally be the glue or adhesive that keeps a chunk of earth held together in a shift, slide or break.

Put a landslide/shift perpendicular to the road and the road fails right along the cold joint. If the road wasn't there it probably would have slumped more naturally with more fractures, and there may be fracturing and gaps beneath the roadbed we can't see, so we shouldn't assume the earth itself also fractured only along the center cold joint of the two lanes of asphalt.

Whatever happened, it's a bizarre and stunning picture and I want to ride my bike back and forth over the wavy/hilly bits. I also have an explicable urge to stick my head in the crack and crawl around and otherwise look at it in person.
posted by loquacious at 8:32 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

KokuRyu's right; it was pointed out above that the criteria for a Level 4 event includes "at least one death from radiation."
posted by mediareport at 8:32 PM on March 12, 2011

One person is confirmed dead at the Daini nuclear power plant, which is also also in Fukushima, said Atsushi Sugiyama, a Tokyo Electric spokesman.
posted by mediareport at 8:34 PM on March 12, 2011

thanks mwhybark, that "tsunami-wall" at San Onofre wouldn't have been high enough where the highest waves hit in Japan, but probably would've helped the Fukushina plant. Of course, I'm near Diablo Canyon, not San Onofre. It's built on a bluff* several meters above the beach but without further seawalling.

Do earthquakes in California generate large local tsunamis?
Any off-shore earthquake would, but California's most infamous earthquakes (and most of the length of the faultlines that caused them) were several-to-dozens-of-miles inland. You couldn't get from the epicenter of Northridge '94 to the beach in less than an hour. Doesn't mean it can't happen, just less likely than Japan.

I'm seeing others reacting to this quote from the WSJ:

Tepco's last safety test of nuclear power plant Number 1--one that is currently in danger of meltdown--was done at a seismic magnitude the company considered the highest possible, but in fact turned out to be lower than Friday's quake. The information comes from the company's "Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 Updated Safety Measures" documents written in Japanese in 2010 and 2009. The documents were reviewed by Dow Jones. The company said in the documents that 7.9 was the highest magnitude for which they tested the safety for their No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima.

Of course, Fukushima was not near the epicenter of the 8.9 (or is it 8.8 or 9.0?) quake. Still, that is the highest magnitude Diablo is tested for and the potential largest quake from the nearest fault was recently upgraded from mid 6s to mid 7s.

*what I still want to know is whether all of Nuclear Power is built on a bluff...
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:35 PM on March 12, 2011

Link?

From zippy above: Plant Status of Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station (as of 8pm March 12th)



"Except, where I live (Washington State), hydroelectric is the major source of power. I'd like it to stay that way, and part of that fight is pointing out the risks of nuclear, of which there are many.

What's the failsafe if an earthquake breaks the dam?

I'm not sure to be honest. That's a good question. But it wouldn't go beyond the equivalent of a Level 4, meaning it would stay local to the area. There could be large loss of life, like in the Banqiao dam accident, but it would be relatively confined.
posted by formless at 8:35 PM on March 12, 2011

One person is confirmed dead at the Daini nuclear power plant, which is also also in Fukushima, said Atsushi Sugiyama, a Tokyo Electric spokesman.

I would guess the fatality wasn't from radiation but from an explosion or flooding or the like.
posted by Justinian at 8:38 PM on March 12, 2011

furiousxgeorge: ""Except, where I live (Washington State), hydroelectric is the major source of power. I'd like it to stay that way, and part of that fight is pointing out the risks of nuclear, of which there are many.

What's the failsafe if an earthquake breaks the dam?"

Same as if Rainier blows.
posted by mwhybark at 8:39 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

A seriously injured worker who had been trapped in the crane operating
console of the exhaust stack was transported to the ground at 5:13pm and
confirmed dead at 5:17pm. We sincerely pray for the repose of his soul.
A worker was lightly injured spraining his left ankle and cutting both
knees when he fell while walking at the site. The worker has returned
to work after medical treatment and rest.

He died of trauma, not radiation. The only other listed casualty is a sprained ankle. No one has died of radiation, calm down and skip the hysteria.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:39 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

I thought we didn't know under which set of criteria they were using "People and Environment" (the set that requires one death from radiation) or the "Radiological Barriers and Control" set of criteria, which was not. And the plant status report that mentions the death describes the dead worker as "seriously injured", which is not necessarily dead from radiation poisoning. The TEPCO report says he was trapped in an operating stack, which could have been a result of the earthquake and/or the tsunami. So we don't have a definitive death from radiation poisoning yet.
posted by immlass at 8:40 PM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

I just want to add that my reading of the INES Factsheet on the classification of nuclear events doesn't seem to imply that all the listed criteria must be met for a given level, i.e. a Minor release of radioactive material is sufficient to be a Level 4 event. One example of a Level 4 event they give in the factsheet is Fleurus, Belgium, 2006 — Severe health effects for a worker at a commercial irradiation facility as a result of high doses of radiation.

Which is to say, I haven't heard that anyone has died, and I earnestly hope that this is still true.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:40 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

What's the failsafe if an earthquake breaks the dam?

What's the failsafe if a nuclear reactor melts down and exposes the fission pile to the open air? Do you see what I did there?

That aside, while possibly disastrous in the immediate aftermath, it wouldn't render areas permanently uninhabitable.
posted by indubitable at 8:40 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

The Emperor of Ice Cream writes "Meltdown Could...

U guys know I did not actually write the death cloud headline right?
posted by The Emperor of Ice Cream at 8:40 PM on March 12, 2011

That aside, while possibly disastrous in the immediate aftermath, it wouldn't render areas permanently uninhabitable.

Neither would a disaster at a nuclear plant.
posted by Justinian at 8:41 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

formless, why would they replace hydro with nuclear power? It makes no logical sense to me - are they going to knock the dam down? Do hydro plants have a use-by date?

Is there a large push in your region to surplant hydro with nuclear power? Or just a push to build additional power plants (in this case, nuclear)? I can understand not wa
posted by coriolisdave at 8:41 PM on March 12, 2011

loquacious, thanks for that -- I think that's right, as there doesn't seem to be a real gravel roadbed as would be the case for all but private driveways -- pretty much -- in the US. It's just such a dramatically different outcome than you usually see (do a GIS for "earthquake road" and you'll see all sorts of perpendicular or completely fractal, random cracking patterns), and as I say, I saw another photo (that I can't find now) of a similar road damaged the same way from this same earthquake, so it was sparking my interest.
posted by dhartung at 8:42 PM on March 12, 2011

..nting to replace plants, but I'm curious if this is more than just fear of nuclear power?


(damnit, premature post. It's the first time it's happened, I swear!)
posted by coriolisdave at 8:43 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Neither would a disaster at a nuclear plant.

Sure it would. The area around Chernobyl is still uninhabitable, and likely to stay that way.
posted by indubitable at 8:43 PM on March 12, 2011

All due respect, eriko, but we do not know that the loss of external power is tsunami attributable.

Look back through all the links provided, there are multiple links from multiple sources stating that the loss of external and generator power was caused by tsunami effects.

The time of generator failure also matched the time of tsunami arrival in Fukushima.

One this that it clear is that 8 hours battery isn't enough. The assumption was that even if you lost offsite power *and* generators, you could truck in something in 8 hours. That turns out to be a mistaken assumption -- the same level of disaster that leaves you without outside power and generator power for 8 hours probably will leave you without transport links as well, at least ones capable of handling multi-ton loads.

KokuRyu's right; it was pointed out above that the criteria for a Level 4 event includes "at least one death from radiation."

Right, but the trigger list there isn't an all, it's an any. A death from radiation will raise an event to Level 4, as will Fuel Melt or "Release of significant quantities of radioactive material within an installation with a high probability of significant public exposure." Deaths by radiation here, so far, are unlikely -- note that at SL-1, all three deaths were from physical trauma. The radiation would have killed them, didn't get the chance to do so. There have been deaths from other events at the plant.

Fuel melt may have occurred. That last *certainly* has occurred, and is why it has been rated a level 4. Here's level 5 (TMI and First Chalk were both level 5.)

People & Environment:
Limited release of radioactive material likely to require i mplementation of some planned countermeasures.
Several deaths from radiation.

RB&C

Severe damage to reactor core.
Release of large quantities of radioactive material within an installation with a high probability of significant public exposure. This could arise from a major criticality accident or fire.

TMI was rated level 5 because of the damage to the core. I would not be surprised if this becomes a level 5 event. I would be surprised if it becomes a level 6 event, which is

"Significant release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of planned countermeasures."

Note, we're not talking pottasium iodide, we're talking leaving a large radioactive scar on the planet, such as Kyshtym.

Level 7? Chernobyl.
posted by eriko at 8:43 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

The push to replace hydro is because it interferes with the spawning of fish, even when there's a fish ladder, the death rates during spawning are higher than a natural river bed.
posted by nomisxid at 8:43 PM on March 12, 2011

What's the failsafe if an earthquake breaks the dam?

What's the failsafe if a nuclear reactor melts down and exposes the fission pile to the open air? Do you see what I did there?


Yes, I see that you didn't see what I did there. In so doing, you probably proved my point.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:44 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Remember what I posted about Otsuchi, a city of 16,000, best known outside Japan as being the subject of the documentary "The Cove"?

It was reported as destroyed by a dolphin monitoring team that managed to flee the area in time. Well, now we have photos, and a more in-depth story of what happened.
posted by markkraft at 8:44 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

mediareport: One person is confirmed dead at the Daini nuclear power plant[...]

Damn. However, this is a different location than the plant we've been discussing, and I can't find any information about the cause of death, i.e. perhaps it was not radiation poisoning.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:45 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

U guys know I did not actually write the death cloud headline right?

But it's fun to blame you for it, and the fact that your user name is a Wallace Stevens reference just makes it weirder.
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:45 PM on March 12, 2011

where I live (Washington State), hydroelectric is the major source of power.

Well, there's also this sucker over in Hanford. 9% isn't to be sneezed at.
posted by Artw at 8:45 PM on March 12, 2011

Link to oneswellfoop's WSJ article, which, btw, includes the following quote from the prime minister:

"The size of tsunami caused by the latest earthquake far exceeded what we had previously assumed," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference Saturday evening. "We've had a backup system designed to kick in when a nuclear-power plant failed, but this time, there has been a problem with that system."

Apologies for misreading the level 4 criteria.
posted by mediareport at 8:45 PM on March 12, 2011

loq, that reminds me, there's a stretch of Highway 101 going through Pismo where the northbound lanes were built a few feet above the southbound lane (on purpose) and I have imagined the possiblility of a sever enough quake realigning the road. There's an ongoing piecework process of widening 101 from 2 to 3 lanes and it looks like one of the hardest places to do it, especially since at the south end before the lanes realign, there is a BIG rock that they never bothered to clear between the sides of the highway.

</derail>

I recall after the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake (the biggest shaker I was close to before '94 Northridge), there was a breach at the Van Norman Dam at the north end of the San Fernando Valley; while not totally collapsing, it did raise enough of a risk for authorities to consider evacuating up to 40,000 people south of it. My family was over 10 miles south of the dam but just outside the potential evacuation area and some were saying we'd get up to a foot of water flowing (very quickly!) through our neighborhood if it collapsed.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:48 PM on March 12, 2011

American plants don't share the design flaws that made Chernobyl possible. A disaster at a large hydroelectric facility has a much greater chance of causing mass death than at a nuclear plant.

Now, can you trust the dam engineers? Will the dam corporations cut corners? How many redundant dam failsafes are there? Are you scared of engineers or corporations, or is it maybe just years of FUD about nukes and scary movies?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:49 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Deaths by radiation here, so far, are unlikely

Unlikely now or in the next 48 to 72 hours? Seems too early to tell, and we are all speculating here based on the initial reports as the news unfolds in real time, but as far as I can tell there is a) an exclusion zone; b) an evacuation underway; and c) an apparent tacit admission by authorities that there may be a meltdown; so I would be somewhat surprised if there were not at least some radiation-related deaths in the coming days--even if the situation is more under control than it currently appears.
posted by The Emperor of Ice Cream at 8:51 PM on March 12, 2011

On the other hand, dams don't fail when their batteries die.
posted by ryanrs at 8:51 PM on March 12, 2011

*done fighting furiousxgeorge on general politics, hopes others are too*
posted by mediareport at 8:52 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sure it would. The area around Chernobyl is still uninhabitable, and likely to stay that way.

No, no it won't. Hell, did you realize they operated the remaining reactors for 15 years after the accident? They only shut down operation about 10 years ago.

Do you really think the area around the plant is permanently uninhabitable?
posted by Justinian at 8:52 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Are you scared of engineers or corporations, or is it maybe just years of FUD about nukes and scary movies?

No, I'm scared of engineers and corporations. I admit it's probably not entirely rational, but I live both reasonably near the San Onofre nuclear plant and downstream from the Prado Dam, and both make me vaguely nervous.
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:53 PM on March 12, 2011

I haven't had time to read through all the comments but thank you everyone for your thoughts. Me and GC are fine, central Morioka has electricity, water and internet back in service. Phone service is improving but still spotty. The roads and train lines leading up into northern Japan are still out of service though, and they're rationing gas and heating oil - currently it's at 10 liters per customer. Store shelves are getting pretty bare, most places are running low on rice, instant & dried foods, bread, chips, et. cetera.
If you or anyone you know is in the central Iwate / Morioka area and needs help, please tell them to get to the Marios and Aiina buildings downtown, they're being used as the main disaster relief centers in the area.
Our apartment has plenty of space that we're happy to share too. We also have access to a car and can pick people up within about 40km. Please let me or GC know by mefi mail.
Thanks again everyone who's contributed.
posted by azuresunday at 8:53 PM on March 12, 2011 [13 favorites]

Hey, can we stop the world for a moment? I think this is my stop. I want a donut.
posted by loquacious at 8:54 PM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

*done fighting furiousxgeorge on general politics, hopes others are too*

I apologize for using facts.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:54 PM on March 12, 2011

For what it's worth, I have a set of a few pictures up on Flickr, mostly of waiting in line for food at a mall grocery store, in a school's teachers room right after the quake, and in Aiina, a makeshift shelter, all in Iwate Prefecture, either Morioka or Takizawa.
posted by gc at 8:55 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Mega quake's magnitude at 9.0, Japan revises from 8.8.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:55 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, I should point out that people do live in Chernobyl now. Both officially and unofficially.
posted by Justinian at 8:55 PM on March 12, 2011

Actually, there was a news story about unsafe dams...

Ah, here we go: From 2010, 2008, 2006.
posted by BungaDunga at 8:55 PM on March 12, 2011

It sounds like a 9.0+ with a tsunami in a close vicinity of any coastal nuclear plant is a dangerous prospect because it may break the containment structures along with all backup safety systems like pumps, generators, etc? Or is that not the case with newer designs? It's worth noting that reactor in question was rather far off from the epicenter, it's not clear how much worse things would be now if it was right nearby.
posted by rainy at 8:57 PM on March 12, 2011

British Columbia Hydro is almost certain to be given approval for their Site C dam on the Peace River.

Despite the current events I think I am still in favour of Nuclear over hydro. They aren't making any more prime river-bottom farmland either.

For some time there were serious plans being mooted to install a nuclear plant in northern Alberta with the main aim to provide power to process the tar sands and extraction of oil! That would be insane (talk about lose-lose), but modern nukes on their own probably win the cost benefit analysis - especially if you keep them off floodplains and above tsunami high stands.
posted by Rumple at 8:58 PM on March 12, 2011

"The ongoing crisis in Japans nuclear reactors. . . also affect millions, but it also may affect us. . . we can only watch, but we worry for ourselves, and this is..."

...cowardice? Somewhat insulting for those actually in Japan?!

Based on all the best science available, perhaps you should worry more about crossing the street next time.
posted by markkraft at 8:58 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is there a large push in your region to surplant hydro with nuclear power?

The big push seems to be supplementing it with wind. There are lots of wind farms sprouting up along the Columbia.
posted by the_artificer at 8:59 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

loquacious: "Hey, can we stop the world for a moment? I think this is my stop. I want a donut"

I think I'll go with you; I could use a latte.
posted by bwg at 9:00 PM on March 12, 2011

Can we please chill with the aggro dams vs reactors fightyness? All these ancillary arguments can be hashed out in other threads in coming days and threads. Mods are still SXSW.
posted by BeerFilter at 9:00 PM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

As is my sentence construction software.
posted by BeerFilter at 9:01 PM on March 12, 2011

Mods are still SXSW.

No, that's pretty accurate.
posted by bwg at 9:02 PM on March 12, 2011

Hey, can we stop the world for a moment? I think this is my stop. I want a donut.

Top Pot or Mighty O?
posted by dw at 9:02 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

In case anyone's wondering what happened to planes that were already in transit to Narita when the quake hit, they were redirected to Yokota Air Base.
posted by Runes at 9:03 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Honestly I wish we could all just hang out in the pony thread.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:04 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

The push to replace hydro is because it interferes with the spawning of fish, even when there's a fish ladder, the death rates during spawning are higher than a natural river bed.

There's that, and the fact that dams tend to block up sediment that normally flows down to replenish coastal wetlands. As sea levels rise, lack of sedimentation is one issue that prevents wetlands from keeping up with that rise (development along coasts, preventing wetland retreat upward). This may seem entirely tangential, but coastal wetlands are buffers against storm surges, hurricanes, and tsunamis.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:05 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

(as well as... development along coasts...)
posted by oneirodynia at 9:06 PM on March 12, 2011

It seems to me that what separates nuclear from fossil fuel power plants is that while fossil fuels cause pollution, deaths and injuries at a steady rate, nuclear plants are relatively safe and pollution free until they have a catastrophic accident, at which point all bets are off.

It seems to be that it's much like plane travel vs car travel -- planes are dramatically less dangerous than cars, but have spectacular accidents.

People quickly become adapted to small levels of regular misery, but catastrophes are always shocking and so attract unwarranted negative attention, when there is an ongoing catastrophe happening everywhere and all the time that people are just ignoring.
posted by empath at 9:06 PM on March 12, 2011 [20 favorites]

Given the choice between facts which have spin applied, and fear-mongering based entirely on rumour, I'll go with "spun facts". Spinless would be better, of course, but that doesn't seem to be one of my options right now.
posted by Bugbread at 9:07 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just made a post on the front page dedicated to the nuclear power plant issue and aggregating some of the links upthread.
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:08 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

markkraft: ""The ongoing crisis in Japans nuclear reactors. . . also affect millions, but it also may affect us. . . we can only watch, but we worry for ourselves, and this is..."

...cowardice? Somewhat insulting for those actually in Japan?!

Based on all the best science available, perhaps you should worry more about crossing the street next time"

uncool, man. we already cleaned up that derail and getting all fingerwaggy at this late date is a great way to revive it.
posted by mwhybark at 9:09 PM on March 12, 2011

Also: NukePills.Com! Getcha Potassium Iodide tabs heeya! As seen on NPR!
posted by BeerFilter at 9:11 PM on March 12, 2011

Dr. Zira: "I just made a post on the front page dedicated to the nuclear power plant issue and aggregating some of the links upthread"

I nominate we move the nuke plant emergency coverage to that thread if only to mitigate load times.

Should there be a tsunami recovery thread too, so people can check in and share experiences and the like?
posted by mwhybark at 9:12 PM on March 12, 2011

I live in Japan, and I'm more interested in this nuclear issue. TV stations are also pretty focused on the nuclear issue. So I don't think discussing the nuclear issue instead of tsunami damage or evacuees or the like is somehow insulting to Japan or the Japanese.
posted by Bugbread at 9:13 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Via the US ambassador's tweet:

False claims circulating by e-mail, NHK World

Is NHK World a reasonable media source? It's new to me, no idea.

Also on the the whole "death cloud" thing - someone in a tweet (lost track of who, am reading a lot of folk in Japan), said that the number 4 in Japanese sounds something like the word for death and/or is considered bad luck. Any chance there's a mistranslation going on, or did I just read the tweet wrong about the number 4?
posted by batgrlHG at 9:18 PM on March 12, 2011

batgrlHG: No, that's accurate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_superstitions#Numbers
posted by BeerFilter at 9:21 PM on March 12, 2011

Thinking of the hundreds of thousands of suddenly homeless Japanese, kids, babies, moms, dads, grannies, grandpas, students, pregnant women, blind people, mentally sick people, working people of all kinds, people who are ill, who were in the hospital, in the middle of the daily drama of their own lives now without a toothbrush or a change of clothing. Sleeping on the floor of some store or lobby, maybe with a blanket, maybe not.

Today no home, no town where they once lived, no neighborhood, no family albums, no pets, no music collection, no money on hand to buy anything with all the atms and banks washed away, no roads, no cars, no passports, no snuggly bed to lie in, no tv to watch. Just the clothes on their back and whatever identification they had in their pockets or bag when the earthquake/tsunami struck.

The sense of loss, confusion, discomfort, stress and shock must be staggering.
posted by nickyskye at 9:21 PM on March 12, 2011 [14 favorites]

Do you really think the area around the plant is permanently uninhabitable?

What's your definition of "permanent"? Within your generation? Habitable within 3 generations? 100 years from now? 1000?

For all intents and purposes the hot areas in the exclusion zone is going to be unsafe for habitation for generations to come - if not on geologic time scales. Depending on the isotope we're talking scales of 5,000 to 250,000 years and longer before radiation decays to just half what it was. The entire scale of known post-historic humanity fits in around 8000 years.

Seriously, go watch a good documentary or read a book about the exclusion zone. The wildlife that lives there is mutating and has really low life expectancy and high attrition rates.

Here, here's National Geographic on wildlife in the exclusion zone.

Here's a video documentary.

Yeah, life exists there. There's trees. There's wildlife and some rather foolish people. Sure, if you're not planning on reproducing and don't care about dying from cancer or radiation sickness - humans can live there. For a while.

But not all instances of "being alive" or "surviving" have the same quality of life. You want to live in a hot spot? Be my guest. It doesn't even have to be Chernobyl. Give Yucca Flat or Hanford or Rocky Flats a try. These places (including Chernobyl) are under armed guard for a reason.

In the case of Chernobyl, there are entire swaths of land in the exclusion zones that are "no go" without full protection and a damn good reason to go there. I know you've seen tourists in Chernobyl. Yeah, people kept working at the plant, too.

That's because they spent a lot of money, time and human life to decontaminate those zones and make them slightly less hot. Tourists and workers are confined to those less active zones. The people who worked (not lived) there go around with radiation counters and film badges. They have limits to their stay there. In theory, they're only allowed to work in the area for a set amount of time and they're sent away to be replaced by fresh, non-irradiated humans.

Ten thousand years. One hundred thousand years. Five hundred thousand years. Try wrapping your head around just ten thousand years.
posted by loquacious at 9:21 PM on March 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

I don't think it's been a nasty thread, unless there has already been clean-up. Nor do I think it's insulting to the Japanese for the thread to focus on the nuclear issue. I just hoped there would be a thread where the nuke discussion won't overwhelm discussion of what is also a very broad human tragedy.
posted by dhartung at 9:22 PM on March 12, 2011

My ex was of asian extraction. Her father had a frowny reaction to us moving into a house numbered 44, due to the "sounds like death" thing. It's real.
posted by deadwax at 9:23 PM on March 12, 2011

Ok nuke stuff goes in new thread
posted by BeerFilter at 9:24 PM on March 12, 2011

No, the nuke pissing match goes in the new thread.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:25 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

coriolisdave writes "Do hydro plants have a use-by date?"

The turbines wear out and any place where water flows experiences wear that needs repair and remediation.

dhartung writes "loquacious, thanks for that -- I think that's right, as there doesn't seem to be a real gravel roadbed as would be the case for all but private driveways -- pretty much -- in the US."

Plenty of surface streets in Canada are like this, mostly legacy. The road in front of my house is like a roller coaster right now because of abnormally bad frost heaving related to the weird weather and because it is pretty just asphalt laid over cold pack laid over chip sealed or ungravelled orchard road

On the other hand, dams don't fail when their batteries die

Nope, it usually takes a heavy rain. Or not enough rain.
posted by Mitheral at 9:25 PM on March 12, 2011

Floam wrote: I pity the mod that has to try to clean this thread up after the fact. Probably best to cap it with sand and hope for the best.

You can't do it while the thread is active. You have to wait until the discussion can be poisoned with boring. After a whole lot of boring is pumped into the thread's core you seal it off and hope that nobody touches it.

I hope we get lots of boring. Boring would be nice now.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:26 PM on March 12, 2011 [12 favorites]

My cat was given i-131 treatment a couple weeks ago, for hyperthyroidism, and I was sent home with a long list of aftercare instructions saying to avoid close contact, wash hands after any contact, save all of the first 2-weeks waste for 80 days unless you want a nasty visit from DHS for setting off their radiation detectors. But nothing about me needing to take iodine tablets.

I wonder if their advice would still be the same now.
posted by nomisxid at 9:26 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

KokuRyu: respectfully disagree
posted by BeerFilter at 9:27 PM on March 12, 2011

It seems to me that the road sep along the mid of the road was completely planned. Japanese engineering/paranoia at it's best.
posted by atomicmedia at 9:28 PM on March 12, 2011

What's your definition of "permanent"?

My definition of permanent is, well, permanent. Forever. I suppose if the planet gets swallowed up by the sun going red giant or something that is an acceptable endpoint.
posted by Justinian at 9:30 PM on March 12, 2011

Ah ok. So I'm thinking that the news re: things at level 4 could also get easily mistranslated when going into English. Just a thought for where some of the "big scare" info may be coming from. NOT that this isn't scary - but I've also read quite a few tweets from out of Japan that are along the lines of "stop with the misinfo, it's not helping."

Have also seen more than one person slam CNN, nice to know it's not just me who's annoyed with coverage. (Giving an expert only 1min to sum up something impt so you can cut to youtube type video where we learn nothing except people are scared does not qualify as news coverage. But that may just be me.)

I'm remembering how slowly info leaked out to us during Chernobyl - weeks, months, and no video. Compared to the past we're getting this info much more quickly, even if the facts seem murky. In fact it'd be more odd if the news wasn't murky - breaking news usually isn't ever 100% accurate.
posted by batgrlHG at 9:30 PM on March 12, 2011

It's just a pissing match between pro and anti nuclear power folks (plus folks on mobile who hate the long load time). It seems like this thread is still the best place for breaking news of the disaster, which includes an earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear accident and a humanitarian crisis.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:30 PM on March 12, 2011

Also, I've been waiting a couple of days and suffering a lack of power and internet to say that I'm very pleased Maru is safe.

I'm actually pretty serious.
posted by gc at 9:31 PM on March 12, 2011 [20 favorites]

gc, I'm sure Maru is pretty thrilled you're safe. That and- "Hey look, box!"
posted by Ghidorah at 9:33 PM on March 12, 2011 [7 favorites]

Maru doesn't have any old box. He appears to have his own little windowed tupperware compartment. Last night when I made the monumental mistake of firing up the BBC livestream instead of going to sleep, checking Maru's site to see that post gave me the peace of mind to turn off the computer and get some sleep.
posted by Mizu at 9:36 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

A Maru break.
posted by nickyskye at 9:38 PM on March 12, 2011 [12 favorites]

new train wreckage shots on cnn
posted by atomicmedia at 9:40 PM on March 12, 2011

The Various Hairstyles and Maru video is pure genius.
posted by gc at 9:42 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

also, the paint job on the (exploded) building is quite odd... camouflage? i just realized this...
posted by atomicmedia at 9:43 PM on March 12, 2011

Over an hour ago, @waxpancake tweeted "Stumbled into Team Metafilter at Parkside who ordered one of everything on dessert menu. Decadent!" They should be adequately sugar-reinforced to maintain any quake-damaged threads through the Spring Forward...
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:44 PM on March 12, 2011

Time Out Tokyo's twitter feed, mentioned upthread, is posting translations and updates the scheduled power outages in the coming week.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:44 PM on March 12, 2011

Just felt another aftershock here in Morioka, guessing about shindo 3.
posted by azuresunday at 9:49 PM on March 12, 2011

Yokoso News is back up after a well-deserved break. Or you can watch the three panel display that at the crossroads linked to hours ago.
posted by marsha56 at 9:50 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Holy shit. The New York Times: Interactive Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami
posted by hat at 9:52 PM on March 12, 2011 [28 favorites]

I figure the camouflage paint job on the buildings is meant to look like the ocean when seen from the land side.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:55 PM on March 12, 2011

@hat: Jesus, that's epic imagery. Is it only the one image or are there more?
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:58 PM on March 12, 2011

I was just wondering whether it was aesthetic or terroristic in nature. If it was new or old.
posted by atomicmedia at 10:00 PM on March 12, 2011

or anti-terroristic
posted by atomicmedia at 10:01 PM on March 12, 2011

High definitition footage of the devastation in NE Japan. Awesome images. Boats on buildings. Cars and planes thrown away like toys
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1738971192643&oid=157466287640348&comments#!/video/video.php?v=1738971192643&oid=157466287640348&comments

Map of the aftershocks
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/aftershocks/?event=c0001xgp&source=us&title=M8.9
posted by chaschas at 10:08 PM on March 12, 2011

@hat

Wow. There's just nothing left...
posted by Windopaene at 10:11 PM on March 12, 2011

RolandOfEld  Jesus, that's epic imagery. Is it only the one image or are there more?

Think it's only the one, if I see more I'll post the links. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
posted by hat at 10:15 PM on March 12, 2011

I posted this before
posted by atomicmedia at 10:18 PM on March 12, 2011

Just got another noticeable aftershock in Morioka.

I'm really fucking sick of this.
posted by gc at 10:20 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Before and after slides from ABC.net.au
posted by Catch at 10:22 PM on March 12, 2011 [5 favorites]

Shit, gc, I'm sorry to hear that. I feel like I'm tempting fate, but it seems like things are calming down in Kanto. There haven't been any noticeable quakes in hours.

^{/knocks on wood, throws salt over shoulder, looks nervously at the sky.}
posted by Ghidorah at 10:23 PM on March 12, 2011

Ghidorah, the aftershocks are getting shorter, at least, and not as strong, but I wish they would stop all together. Thankfully, it sounds like school has been cancelled for Morioka and Takizawa tomorrow.
posted by gc at 10:25 PM on March 12, 2011

KokuRyu: "It's just a pissing match between pro and anti nuclear power folks (plus folks on mobile who hate the long load time). It seems like this thread is still the best place for breaking news of the disaster, which includes an earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear accident and a humanitarian crisis."

It's stabilized and the pissing has not been much in evidence since it got off to a bad start. Still the best place for it, just scrolling through the recent stuff here. Glad to be able to see info about the rest of the situation again.
posted by mwhybark at 10:26 PM on March 12, 2011

Horribly, excellent link from AU, ty.
posted by atomicmedia at 10:27 PM on March 12, 2011

Where do they even put the reported 200K+ people evacuated away from the nuclear plants? Are there facilities for that scale? (I decided this question belongs better here than in the new thread.)
posted by girlhacker at 10:27 PM on March 12, 2011

Thanks, Catch, atomicmedia, unfuckingbelievable.
posted by hat at 10:28 PM on March 12, 2011

This was posted earlier but before and after aerial views from NHK. It's just insane.

So here's the Charity Navigator list of charities to donate to again.
posted by grapesaresour at 10:29 PM on March 12, 2011

girlhacker, standard places for evacuation here are schools (wide sports grounds in case of unsafe buildings), municipal buildings, and parks. There are a lot of places, a lot of facilities. The question is how well did they hold up, and more importantly, can they bring in enough water and food to take care of everyone. I've seen bits on facebook and twitter saying the roads north that are still functioning are packed, and the relief supplies are stuck in the traffic.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:30 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wait, there's a new thread? That's what I get for not leaving this thread for 2 days…
posted by atomicmedia at 10:33 PM on March 12, 2011

Ghidorah, I've seen a few Chinook helicopters that are likely JSDF, so maybe they're flying supplies in. I have no idea about the IC. And I haven't heard any trains running on the Tohoku Main Line, which is about 10 meters from my apartment. I imagine worse come to worse, there's helicopters to bring relief in.
posted by gc at 10:34 PM on March 12, 2011

New thread about Japanese nuclear power plant risks
posted by hat at 10:35 PM on March 12, 2011

Thanks Ghidorah. My brain is still frozen on processing the scale of this, on so many variables.
posted by girlhacker at 10:36 PM on March 12, 2011

Catch -- There's no there there anymore. Thanks. I think.
posted by jlkr at 10:39 PM on March 12, 2011

Does anyone have any information on Southern Hokkaido, specifically Biratori?
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:39 PM on March 12, 2011

Dr. Zira, I can't find any links right now, but according to TV news there has been one quake-related death in Hokkaido. I think Hokkaido is pretty much intact.
posted by misozaki at 10:55 PM on March 12, 2011

Dr. Zira, I haven't been able to find much so far, but I came across the Yahoo blog of a farmer based in Biratori with several posts up, latest is yesterday evening. They seem to be fine, no obvious damage in their photos. Link
posted by azuresunday at 10:56 PM on March 12, 2011

Thanks, I've been having some difficulty finding Hokkaido-specific news in English.
posted by Dr. Zira at 11:02 PM on March 12, 2011

According to this map the shaking in the Sapporo / Chitose area, which Biratori is close to, was magnitude 4 or less, indicating mild shaking and little to no damage. Haven't found any tsunami information yet.
posted by azuresunday at 11:03 PM on March 12, 2011

Wow, 63 year old man rescued from the sea 15km off of Fukushima.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:13 PM on March 12, 2011 [6 favorites]

Link in Japanese about tsunami damage in Hokkaido. Maybe I shouldn't have made it sound like Hokkaido came through unscathed. But the biggest damage seems to have been in the Hakodate area.
posted by misozaki at 11:13 PM on March 12, 2011

coriolisdave writes "Do hydro plants have a use-by date?"

Yep. and most US dams are well past theirs. Nor were many of them designed for this kind of earthquake. Also they fill up with sediment and lose capacity, and the sediment, as noted above, is not replenishing coastal wetlands as it should be leading to coastal erosion. There was a vast fertile delta in Southern CA until the middle of this century. The Bay Area too. All the salmon, sturgeon, jaguar, bears, elk, deer are gone. So really it depends if you want to die slowly or quickly I guess.

There is a lot of panic in this thread about a very remote, very distant threat. But so many people blithely live in flood plains or on coastal fill or downstream of a dam. Humans think they're logical but they're not at all.
posted by fshgrl at 11:17 PM on March 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Yeah, zengargoyle, I just saw that, too. After reading that the death toll will likely surpass the 10,000 mark, good news is so welcome.
posted by misozaki at 11:19 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have an accurate timeline of the events?
I cant find any reliable source for this: how many minutes between the initial quake and the first tsunami? How many minutes after tsunami warnings were sounded? Did people in immediate vicinity have a chance to evacuate? How many minutes did the tsunami take to hit land?
Etc...
posted by dougiedd at 11:21 PM on March 12, 2011

The Family Mart in Kitami is low on bread, salad, and porn. Source here from an eyewitness.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:21 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Before and after via ABC Australia
posted by the noob at 11:22 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Top Pot or Mighty O?

How about a couple donuts from both? I think there's a few pubs and bars in between.
posted by loquacious at 11:23 PM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Top Pot or Mighty O?

How about a couple donuts from both? I think there's a few pubs and bars in between.
posted by loquacious at 4:23 PM on March 13 [+] [!]

God, I'd love some Top Pot. Mr. Donut is such a poor substitute.
posted by gc at 11:25 PM on March 12, 2011

i hear good things about FROST doughnuts too
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:28 PM on March 12, 2011

63 year old man rescued 15km out at sea. (Japanese link)
posted by zengargoyle at 11:32 PM on March 12, 2011

Man, I wonder what it feels like to be that guy. I can't imagine he had high hopes for rescue.
posted by that girl at 11:53 PM on March 12, 2011

God, I'd love some Top Pot. Mr. Donut is such a poor substitute.

Would anyone like to help me fedex some donuts to gc in Japan? I live right down the street from Top Pot. I'm willing to do the packaging and legwork. I just can't afford the cash.

We could wait until things settle down a bit over there so the mail gets through. Maybe time it for their post-quake meetup. :)
posted by loquacious at 12:12 AM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Would anyone like to help me fedex some donuts to gc in Japan?

I appreciate it, but I'm out of here in less than two weeks, and then I'll be in Top Pot territory. I'm all for a post-quake meet up sometime after the 25th and before the 30th. I wonder if azuresunday is in, too. (I'll ask when he gets back into the room).
posted by gc at 12:19 AM on March 13, 2011

loq, the mail around here is being delivered. I'd be happy to, ah, 'hold onto' any delicious donuts you might want to send to gc, and make sure they got 'delivered' at a later date.

^{by hold onto, I mean eat, and deliver at a later date, I mean write gc a sympathetic memail saying that all I got was a note from customs saying they couldn't allow donuts to enter the country.}
posted by Ghidorah at 12:19 AM on March 13, 2011 [9 favorites]

Yeah, send them to Ghidorah. I got a good feeling about that guy.
posted by gc at 12:21 AM on March 13, 2011

/blushes

You're leaving, gc? Permanent-like? We'd planned a trip months ago back home, leaving Thursday, back on the 28th. Maybe we'll be able to cross paths at the airport or something.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:26 AM on March 13, 2011

Ghidorah, listen man, you let me hold those donuts for gc, and you *know* I'll make *sure* they wind up in the right hands.

want donut. now.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:33 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ghidorah

Leaving for goods, or until I try to take another job here again. The plan was to come down to Tokyo or Kyoto and bum around from the 25th to the 30th and leave on the 30th. Tokyo may be more likely now.
posted by gc at 12:35 AM on March 13, 2011

Japan news is currently reporting 420 dead, 387 missing, over 20,000 in shelters.
posted by gen at 12:40 AM on March 13, 2011

gen

There are 500 people in Aiina in Morioka, according to the news.
posted by gc at 12:41 AM on March 13, 2011

Before and after via ABC Australia

Jesus fuck. That slider is like God's own eraser.
posted by dersins at 12:44 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Miyagi Police Dept Chief said the death in the prefecture will exceed 10,000; 379 bodies are recovered as of noon NHK " Translation
posted by adamvasco at 12:44 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

That doesn't add up. On TBS, the top right banner says over 3,000 dead and missing.
posted by Bugbread at 12:44 AM on March 13, 2011

Sorry, "that doesn't add up" was in reference to gen's numbers.
posted by Bugbread at 12:46 AM on March 13, 2011

Some may be official numbers, others, estimates. At least that's how it was with Christchurch. There may also be overlaps between the numbers, too.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 12:54 AM on March 13, 2011

I'm seeing both. TSS says 3000 dead and missing, while NHK has (on their hand-held board) in quotes for Miyagi "10,000人". It's not confirmed, but that's how it was relayed to NHK. All the other numbers on their board are not in quotes, and they seem like actual numbers. My guess is other news services haven't wanted to give up and say 10,000. My girlfriend and I have been speculating and unfortunately expecting to see it the number quickly increase as reports come in. As there's more rescue crews making into the remote areas, I'm afraid it'll be more and more...
posted by serf4luv at 12:55 AM on March 13, 2011

Wikipedia says the Tohoku Shinkansen suffered considerable damage to power lines and elevated spans, and that it may be some time before it's up and running again.

I have to imagine they're working on getting a way to Tokyo open, whether it be bus or train. No word on the Tohoku Main Line, but I did see workers out investigating a crossing, and heard a train whistle from the train yard a couple hundred meters down the tracks.
posted by gc at 1:01 AM on March 13, 2011

I'm getting a very bad feeling about the potential numbers of victims after seeing town after town erased from the map.

Tsunamis make earthquake damage pale in comparison.
posted by bwg at 1:25 AM on March 13, 2011

Meanwhile, back at the volcano...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:34 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

yeah, I'd completely forgotten about the ongoing plumes in Kyushu. So, uh, Shikoku then? It'll be safe there, right?
posted by Ghidorah at 1:39 AM on March 13, 2011

While I'm not concerned about the impact of the nuclear situation on the west coast, I am concerned about the potential impact on Japan itself. I thought the Wikipedia article on the health effects of Three Mile Island - more like the Japanese situation then Chernobyl - was encouraging.

I'd love to see the power plant situation resolve so that attention can turn back to the aftermath of the natural disasters. The human numbers are just staggering and the stories are heartbreaking. NHK is reporting groups of dead in blocks of 100s region by region, plus the 10,000 people in a single town. There are 315,000 people in shelters, a logistics nightmare I can't even imagine beginning to deal with. Today was the first day I saw stories about groups of known survivors gathered in their hundreds in schools, hotels and stores that rescuers cannot currently reach; those people must be so anxious waiting for rescue.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:46 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ehh, Miyazaki is far from everything. Go to Kitakyushu or Fukuoka and you'll be fine.

Either that or Tottori. Nothing happens there, right?
posted by that girl at 3:09 AM on March 13, 2011

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but evidently (Japanese, sorry) NHK is saying there's a 70% chance of up to a 7.0 aftershock/new quake in the next three days or so.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:09 AM on March 13, 2011

gc: That news about the Tohoku Shinkansen really depresses me. My last remaining grandmother lives in a city near the Fukushima/Miyagi border. I'm in Japan with my wife and my three-month old son. We arrived in February, but had decided to postpone introducing my son to his great grandmother until the weather warmed up. We were planning to go in mid-April. With Sendai Airport the way that it is, I hope that there is a way for us to have them meet before we have to leave. I don't know if we'll have another opportunity.

I've been trying to call my relatives there from the minute I found out that the epicenter was near Miyagi. I've been trying on my cell phone, Skype, and public phones, but the message I get is "The network in the area you are calling is malfunctioning..." They live in an area that has not been affected by the tsunami, but with her age, I'm not quite able to accept that everything is ok without hearing from somebody.

I feel selfish to be sad about this while hundreds are stranded, towns have been wiped out, and thousands may be dead.
posted by mariokrat at 3:12 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I don't think it's selfish of you at all, mariokart. We all worry about our loved ones. I hope she's okay and she gets to see her great-grandchild. I'm sure that'd be a nice treat after all of this.
posted by gc at 3:22 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

NHK is saying there's a 70% chance of up to a 7.0 aftershock/new quake in the next three days or so.

Oh god dammit.
posted by gc at 3:23 AM on March 13, 2011

Mariokrat:

Even if your relatives are fine, I can't imagine you'd get through to them by phone. Have you tried the People Finder (http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?small=no)?
posted by Bugbread at 3:30 AM on March 13, 2011

Thanks for reminding me about that Bugbread. I checked early yesterday and again just now, but none of my relatives seem to be on it at the moment. I've been looking for the city name on Twitter, and it does look like there was minimal damage, but I also know that there have been a few deaths there. I know I'm overthinking it and that they're probably fine, but still...
posted by mariokrat at 3:39 AM on March 13, 2011

Did I misunderstand the weather presenter on NHK World when she said there might be a blizzard next week in the area effected by the tsunami? I had my back turned and didn't see where she was pointing on the map.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:49 AM on March 13, 2011

One of my co-workers is warning me about "no power tomorrow." So I wonder if we're scheduled for blackouts.
posted by gc at 4:00 AM on March 13, 2011

On the TV behind me, PM Kan has said that rolling blackouts have been approved.. I went looking for flashlights yesterday but no luck. I'm not sure, but did he also say that gas and water would be affected?
posted by mariokrat at 4:01 AM on March 13, 2011

TEPCO is warning of blackouts. Still looking to see about Tohoku Power.
posted by gc at 4:03 AM on March 13, 2011

I went looking for flashlights yesterday but no luck.

Ah, a run on flashlights, eh? Not surprising. We've been keeping one at the head of the futon for the past couple of years. It's there every night, just in case. Also recommended (and you can attach it to your flashlight, for example) is a really good whistle. A really loud one. Should you be buried/trapped in the rubble of a building, blowing that whistle, if you can get to it, might help rescuers find you.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:16 AM on March 13, 2011 [8 favorites]

Still looking for information on blackouts up here. Tohoku Electric is only saying 1.35 million households still don't have power. (Sorry, I don't have a link for that).
posted by gc at 4:26 AM on March 13, 2011

The freakout about nuclear energy is disproportionate to its true risks. Is nuclear energy risky and dangerous? Yes, but on the whole, so long as your reactors aren't run by incompetent bureaucrats and actually have a redundant containment system in place, your risk is low.

And what, precisely, would be the risks to the public and the environment if these were solar, or wind, or tidal power plants rather than nuclear? The risk inherent in nuclear power is so great because it relies, at its core, on deriving power from the most toxic substances imaginable. Any amount of chauvinistic Engineering Man willy-waving can't obscure this fact. Sorry.
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:26 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

There's a banner on the top of the screen saying "Close your windows and doors, turn off your ventilation fans, wear clothes that cover your skin, cover your mouth and nose with a wet towel", but it doesn't say for what areas that advice applies. I know it doesn't extend as far as down here, in Kawasaki, but does anyone know what region (specifically) it does apply to?
posted by Bugbread at 4:26 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sonny Jim the Nuclear Energy discussion is next door
posted by adamvasco at 4:30 AM on March 13, 2011

Trying to confirm: a co-worker has told me we could lose water, gas, and electricity tomorrow.
posted by gc at 4:34 AM on March 13, 2011

TEPCO is warning of blackouts. Still looking to see about Tohoku Power.

Tohoku Power has postponed proposed rolling blackouts for March 14 due to lower-than-expected demand (Asahi Shimbun).
posted by armage at 4:34 AM on March 13, 2011

So just to clarify: TEPCO will be engaging in planned rolling blackouts within their service area starting tomorrow, March 14. As far as I know they haven't announced what areas will be targeted when and for how long. (Their website is currently down.)
posted by armage at 4:46 AM on March 13, 2011

Twitter, via my translator, azuresunday, is saying Tohoku isn't included in the rolling blackouts.
posted by gc at 4:47 AM on March 13, 2011

gc, Tohoku isn't included (for now). TEPCO's service area includes Tokyo, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures, and AFAIK those will be the only regions to be affected by the planned blackouts.
posted by armage at 4:51 AM on March 13, 2011

gc, not entirely certain (Japanese politicians are really showing off their vagueness skills these days) but I think Kanto is going to have rolling blackouts specifically so that Tohoku doesn't have to.
posted by jet_manifesto at 4:52 AM on March 13, 2011

jet_manifesto

That's awfully sweet. I imagine all those rescue efforts could use the power.
posted by gc at 4:56 AM on March 13, 2011

Good news: The Sendai Subway will operate between Tomizawa and Daihara starting tomorrow, March 14.
posted by armage at 4:58 AM on March 13, 2011

Jet_manifesto:

I don't think TEPCO and Tohoku share power, so sparing power use in one doesn't help the other. What news sources are saying, which makes sense, is basically "Tohoku has lost a lot of its electrical production capabilities, but it has also lost a lot of its customers, so supply is low, but so is demand, hence blackouts are unnecessary." TEPCO, on the other hand, services Tokyo, which is relatively unscathed, so supply is low but demand is high (well, as high as it normally is). Hence rolling blackouts for TEPCO.
posted by Bugbread at 4:59 AM on March 13, 2011

What Bugbread said. TEPCO lost a good chunk of its generating capacity thanks to the Fukushima plants (and other TEPCO-owned plants) going down, but demand hasn't diminished to the same degree, so planned blackouts are required to "force" demand down to meet the new, lower limit of power that can be supplied.

Looks like some areas in Tochigi and Gunma will targeted first in the blackouts, according to the news right now.
posted by armage at 5:04 AM on March 13, 2011

Sorry, all areas of TEPCO will be affected, not just Tochigi and Gunma. Gotemba in Shizuoka is also affected.

Some of the affected municipalities: Nikko, Utsunomiya, Mashiko, Nasu, Isezaki, Maebashi, Shibukawa, Tsukuba, Toride, Yachiyo, Saitama, Tokorozawa, Yorii, Sayama, Iruma, Chichibu, Sakado, Noda, Matsudo, Ichikawa, Urayasu, Ichihara, Tomizu, Sodegaura, Chiba, Zushi, Kamakura, Fujisawa, CHigasaki, Sagamihara, Zama, Yokosuka, Ebina, Atsugi, etc.

Tokyo: Musashino, Mitaka, Nishi-Tokyo, Higashi-Kurume, Niiza, Kodaira, Higashi-Murayama, Kiyose.

These are all in the first group (early morning and early evening?)
posted by armage at 5:08 AM on March 13, 2011

Interesting also, that the 'tech' guy explaining the rationale for the blackouts mentioned that it was difficult for other areas of Japan to 'share' their power with Tepco and Tohoku, because the west is on 60Hz and the east is on 50.
posted by woodblock100 at 5:09 AM on March 13, 2011

Okay, I can't transcribe everything from the news, unfortunately, so I'll just summarize in general:

Blackouts will begin from 6:20 AM tomorrow and affect various areas throughout the day in blocks of 3.5-4 hours each. TEPCO expects these blackouts to last until the end of April (!!!) according to Asahi Shimbun.
posted by armage at 5:10 AM on March 13, 2011

IMPORTANT: The 23 wards of Tokyo (excepting Arakawa Ward) are EXCLUDED from the rolling blackouts. This is to protect vital governmental functions, according to Yomiuri Shimbun.
posted by armage at 5:12 AM on March 13, 2011

Woodblock100, surprised you didn't know that. It comes from the fact that when Japan was first modernizing, Osaka bought their generators from America (60Hz), and Tokyo bought theirs from Germany (50Hz).
posted by Bugbread at 5:13 AM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Well, I did actually know it; back when I first came here, appliances were always different for the two zones. I just put it up here to add to the general info ... (and I myself had been curious why we couldn't easily buy more power from the companies in the west ...)
posted by woodblock100 at 5:16 AM on March 13, 2011

Here is a complete schedule of the rolling blackouts planned for Kanto (PDF). If you have a particular municipality you'd like to know about, please post it here and I (or someone) can translate.
posted by armage at 5:16 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is there any effort to harmonize those power systems? One reason you'd want the same frequency area is that you become able to share the load, and in the case of emergencies you have a larger pool of spare capacity to draw from. In Europe there has been an effort for decades now that has standardized the frequency from Portugal to Poland due to this clear advantage.
posted by Catfry at 5:19 AM on March 13, 2011

Total side note: The antenna on the Tokyo Tower is now bent from the earthquake.
posted by gc at 5:20 AM on March 13, 2011

Armage

1) Thank you!!
2) How the hell are you finding this info so fast?
posted by Bugbread at 5:21 AM on March 13, 2011

TV Asahi just read out all of the affected municipalities, and I pulled that PDF off of Twitter (TEPCO's website is STILL down).

I only wish I was able to type faster :-/
posted by armage at 5:23 AM on March 13, 2011

Interesting also, that the 'tech' guy explaining the rationale for the blackouts mentioned that it was difficult for other areas of Japan to 'share' their power with Tepco and Tohoku, because the west is on 60Hz and the east is on 50.

I just saw an interesting if short article in the Nikkei about how two of Kansai Power switched two of their power plants in Nagano from 60 Hz to 50 Hz so they could feed power directly into the eastern Japan network.
posted by armage at 5:25 AM on March 13, 2011

IMPORTANT: The 23 wards of Tokyo (excepting Arakawa Ward) are EXCLUDED from the rolling blackouts.

And WHERE does flapjax at midnite live? Arakawa Ward? BINGO!

tepco hates me
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:25 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Great pdf link armage! And yes, looks like Tokyo is teiden-ing for the sake of Tokyo. Typical selfish Tokyo ;p
posted by jet_manifesto at 5:25 AM on March 13, 2011

Chiba City is listed in three different groups for tomorrow, only one of them mentions the different wards in the city. If that's not a mistake, we're going to have power out from 6:20-10:00, 9:20-1:00, 3:20-7, 4:50-8:30, and 6:20-10:00 (!). I hope to hell someone made a mistake somewhere.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:26 AM on March 13, 2011

Totally off topic, but Renho finally put her collar down. I saw her in her apparently government issue "we've had a disaster" jacket, and she had her collar up, again. I told my wife "I don't particularly care, but I think she's gonna get some backlash for trying to stay fashionable at a time like this." My wife said "She probably has a tattoo on her neck she has to keep hidden." But the video from the press conference showed her with her collar down.
posted by Bugbread at 5:26 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ghidorah, I think that's due to certain parts of the power infrastructure covering parts of multiple wards. Too bad they don't break it down even further by postcode or something, but I guess that's too hard to coordinate...
posted by armage at 5:27 AM on March 13, 2011

Renho? I tried to collar up once. She didn't answer.

she hates me too
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:28 AM on March 13, 2011 [10 favorites]

I hope there are no mistakes ... they've left Ome right off all the groups!
posted by woodblock100 at 5:28 AM on March 13, 2011

Ome sweet Ome.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:29 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Interesting. They also listed "Tama New Town", which is not the name of a municipality.

woodblock100, I believe this means Ōme won't be part of the blackouts this time around. However, TEPCO is planning to revise this schedule periodically (to ensure that the same places aren't blacked out at the same times each day), so Ōme could be added in later.
posted by armage at 5:32 AM on March 13, 2011

Just saw this on Twitter:

青梅市民の皆様へ 確認情報】15日（火）以降の停電予定時間については、前日の17時くらいに東京電力立川支店より青梅市に連絡が入るとのことですので、その都度、時間が変動致しますので、青梅市からの広報を注視して下さい。
posted by armage at 5:32 AM on March 13, 2011

Want any visitors? I figure if I time it right, maybe I can get there by next June. To sweet, sweet Ome.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:33 AM on March 13, 2011

All of Kawasaki is listed in two consecutive blocks. I hope that doesn't mean a continuous 6 hour power outage. The food in our freezer could probably do just fine powerless for 3 hours, but 6 hours is harsh. If these were spontaneous power outages, well, que sera sera, but for a planned outage, I hope, if we're going to lose power for 6 hours, they figure some way to break them into 2 separate blocks, with some up time in between.
posted by Bugbread at 5:36 AM on March 13, 2011

Lord I'm comin', Ome, to you.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:36 AM on March 13, 2011

woodblock100, I just saw this further update on Twitter:

【青梅市民の皆様へ　確認情報】ただいま防災安全部に確認したところ、PDF情報は間違いであり、青梅市も計画停電の対象地域となっています。14日（月）12:00～16:00くらいの間で停電があります。この後、防災無線や登録者へは携帯メールで広報されます。市のHPもご覧下さい。

So Ome will have blackouts tomorrow between 12:00 and 16:00. Apparently it was a mistake in the PDF, but the info above comes straight from the city office. Expect to hear an announcement over the 防災無線.
posted by armage at 5:37 AM on March 13, 2011

In Toe-kee-oh, they love the guv'nah...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:37 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

OK OK ... enough already with the Ome jokes! It's bad enough living in a place with a name that translates (literally) as Blue Plum ... "Do they really have blue plums in Japan?"
posted by woodblock100 at 5:38 AM on March 13, 2011

Armage, you are a god. Minister of Information Armage.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:38 AM on March 13, 2011

Apparently, this is either the time of day, or the amount of time after an initial disaster, where folks outside Japan stop commenting, and everyone in Japan comments.
posted by Bugbread at 5:38 AM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

It's bad enough living in a place with a name that translates (literally) as Blue Plum...

Guess that'll sometimes make you plumb blue, huh?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:39 AM on March 13, 2011

It's Sunday morning on the East Coast. Maybe due to the quake, everyone decided to go to church...?

(Either that, or they're only concerned about the nuclear power plant and are congregating in that thread...)
posted by armage at 5:40 AM on March 13, 2011

Translation of armage's first Japanese comment: (Confirmation Info for everyone in Aoume City) Regarding the planned blackouts on and after Tuesday the 15th, Tepco will contact Aoume city each day preceding the blackouts. The schedule for the blackouts is expected to change daily, so please pay close attention to announcements from Aoume city.
posted by azuresunday at 5:41 AM on March 13, 2011

folks outside Japan stop commenting, and everyone in Japan comments.

Man, we OWN Metafilter for the next few hours.

except I'm getting sleepy now... still haven't quite recovered from sleeping at a gaddam Gusto the other night...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:41 AM on March 13, 2011

Excuse me, Ome city. Not familiar with Tokyo place names.
posted by azuresunday at 5:42 AM on March 13, 2011

I just filled up some freezer bags with water, going to let them freeze, then use them, to try to keep the fridge cold in the morning in case that wasn't a typo, and the mayor of Chiba really pissed someone off.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:42 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

armage - It's just now turned 0830 on the east coast. Points west of us are even earlier. And it's the weekend. (Actually, due to the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, for those people who don't set an alarm, it feels like 0730.)
posted by jlkr at 5:43 AM on March 13, 2011

As one of the "lucky" residents of central Tokyo, I'll be doing my part to limit my electricity use over the next month and a half. Other 23-kuites, are you with me?
posted by armage at 5:44 AM on March 13, 2011

They're reading the PDF off (well, a fax which is clearly identical) on NTV, which is odd, because we already knows it has errors. Seems it would be easier to wait than to read out loud all several hundred place names, only to correct it later.
posted by Bugbread at 5:44 AM on March 13, 2011

I'm with you armage. Wife and I are already running on one light + TV and computer.

Also off topic, but I just took a look for the first time at woodblock's work as linked from his profile, and it really is quite fantastic. The Solitudes series is wonderful.
posted by jet_manifesto at 5:47 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Other 23-kuites, are you with me?

Um, excuse me, that's other twenty-TWO kuites. Since TEPCO is shutting me down for 3 hours tomorrow, I'm gonna DOUBLE my electricity use for the rest of the day. You non-Arakawa ward people are urged to limit use, however.

lucky bastards
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:48 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wait, armage, I thought the plan was for all of us to head to your place and plug in our laptops so we could keep commenting. MEETUP TOMORROW AT ARMAGE'S! WOOOOOO
posted by Ghidorah at 5:48 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Slight derail: after watching this video, Chiba seems like it had a hell of a ride compared to central Tokyo.
posted by armage at 5:48 AM on March 13, 2011

I agree, you guys... MeFi is OURS! But seriously, it's great to know all of you are here. I know Hiroshima's far away (and all we have is MisDo for donuts), anything I can do, just holler.
posted by serf4luv at 5:48 AM on March 13, 2011

woodblock's work as linked from his profile, and it really is quite fantastic.

Hell yeah! He ain't fooling around!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:49 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

::watching TBS::

Wow, Ren Ho has a neck! And she looks like she's about 15 in those 作業服.
posted by armage at 5:49 AM on March 13, 2011

Wait, armage, I thought the plan was for all of us to head to your place and plug in our laptops so we could keep commenting. MEETUP TOMORROW AT ARMAGE'S! WOOOOOO

Well, I won't be at home, so...

...wait, forget I said that.

::bars the door::
posted by armage at 5:51 AM on March 13, 2011

and all we have is MisDo for donuts

I think I've given MisDo a hard time. Their coffee is cheap and if you eat in it's a bottomless cup. I haven't found anywhere else in Japan that does this.
posted by gc at 5:52 AM on March 13, 2011

Y'all don't have Krispy Kreme out there in Hiroshima?
posted by Bugbread at 5:52 AM on March 13, 2011

armage, thanks for that PDF. I'm in the first group of cities affected..
posted by mariokrat at 5:52 AM on March 13, 2011

Um, excuse me, that's other twenty-TWO kuites. Since TEPCO is shutting me down for 3 hours tomorrow, I'm gonna DOUBLE my electricity use for the rest of the day. You non-Arakawa ward people are urged to limit use, however.

Sorry, flapjax, I didn't mean to pick on you. But look at it this way: you'll be saving electricity whether you want to or not!

Yay, enforced conservation!

okay, maybe not so yay
posted by armage at 5:52 AM on March 13, 2011

Slight derail: after watching this video , Chiba seems like it had a hell of a ride compared to central Tokyo.

hey, it ain't like Tokyo didn't get the shakes, Armage...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:53 AM on March 13, 2011

Vaguely seriously, does anyone else have the day off tomorrow? Huddled in terror together is always better than huddled in terror alone, and Mrs. G actually has to go to work, at her freaking department store tomorrow.

Also, have they said if the trains will be stopped, or will they run as normal?
posted by Ghidorah at 5:55 AM on March 13, 2011

I was on the 22nd floor of a building in Chiyoda, flapjax, so I definitely know how much we shook, but it seemed like it was much more of a swaying motion. The Narita video looked more violent for some reason. Perhaps the vast size of the space was playing tricks on my eyes?
posted by armage at 5:57 AM on March 13, 2011

Ghidorah, it's a normal school day for my daughter tomorrow. I'm tentatively scheduled to go teach one class, in the afternoon, in Kasai, but I'm pretty much expecting that to be cancelled. haven't heard anything about trains.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:57 AM on March 13, 2011

Ms. G just said they announced the trains won't stop during the outages.

And compared to Tokyo, Chiba is always a hell of a ride.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:59 AM on March 13, 2011

I'm going to work tomorrow (actually, a business trip to Osaka).

Also, have they said if the trains will be stopped, or will they run as normal?

As far as I know they're running almost entirely normally. Some far-flung parts of the Jōban Line and other smaller regional lines to the north (not including Tohoku, which is entirely shut down) aren't running, but otherwise Greater Tokyo is back to normal.
posted by armage at 5:59 AM on March 13, 2011

Does anyone else think politicians should just wear these uniform jackets at all times? (I mean "even when there aren't disasters", not "even when taking a shower")

Also, desperate hope: they're saying that they may bring power up early, depending on conditions at the time. TEPCO people: PLEASE don't bring the power up for a block, and then decide later to bring the block back down again. You will kill countless computers, unsaved files, etc. If you bring a block up, leave it up. If in doubt, don't even bring it up in the first place, leave it down!
posted by Bugbread at 5:59 AM on March 13, 2011

Perhaps the vast size of the space was playing tricks on my eyes?

There are so many variables, it's impossible to say. The type of building, the building's height, the types of things IN the building (like those big signs hanging in the terminal, which would of course sway visibly in a way that other things wouldn't)...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:01 AM on March 13, 2011

Folks in Japan: where would you recommend making donations? I just thought "Japan Red Cross", but for some reason my wife seemed cool on the idea (didn't say why) and was saying "wait for the bank to open up a charity collection".
posted by Bugbread at 6:03 AM on March 13, 2011

I have no problems with the Japanese Red Cross. Should I?
posted by gc at 6:05 AM on March 13, 2011

Folks in Japan: where would you recommend making donations? I just thought "Japan Red Cross", but for some reason my wife seemed cool on the idea (didn't say why) and was saying "wait for the bank to open up a charity collection".

I thought the same thing, actually. I don't know why the JRC would be a bad idea, though...

Related note: I was in Omotesando today and saw a group (they had matching vests and hats on, seemed pretty organized) soliciting donations for victims. Pretty fast turnaround.
posted by armage at 6:06 AM on March 13, 2011

There were groups of high school kids out on the streets of Kobe yesterday collecting donations, too. And a lot out in Osaka today.
posted by emmling at 6:09 AM on March 13, 2011

Supposedly, in Japan, Lawson's is taking donations, according to the Time Out Tokyo twitter feed. There were warnings of scams as well, so, matching vests or no, I'd be careful.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:09 AM on March 13, 2011

Yeah, when I donate I plan to do so either via secure online form or my bank, I think.
posted by armage at 6:11 AM on March 13, 2011

I'm sitting here wondering why in the world they would shut down Arakawa but not Adachi. What's here that's so important to keep running 24H? The garbage incinerators? Sorry, flapjax, but I giggled when I saw that you'd be shut down for a few hours. But I hope the kids will be all right.
posted by misozaki at 6:12 AM on March 13, 2011

Has anyone heard anything from Hitachi? I just noticed that they're RIGHT ON THE OCEAN. A good amount of my bosses are there and I'm concerned.
posted by gc at 6:12 AM on March 13, 2011

Maybe she's just not familiar with it. She didn't say anything against it, her reaction just seemed...muted.

And I figured there would be scams, so I told her "Hey, you should tell your mom not to donate to anyone who comes to the door, or anyone she encounters in town. Tell her to only donate to organizations she already knows, or who have been endorsed on TV, or by her bank. There will probably be lots of scammers, and your mom seems like one of the people who would fall for a scam like that." She later called her mom, and told her that. ALL of it, ending with "...and Michael says you seem like the kind of person who would fall for a scam like that."
posted by Bugbread at 6:13 AM on March 13, 2011 [10 favorites]

A Krispy Kreme? In Hiroshima? Nah... You have to go about two or three hours by train to get anything as cosmopolitan as a real glazed donut.

Also, I'm waiting to see if the local government (since I work for them) or my bank is setting up a fund. There's lots of sister-city relationships within the country, and I'm sure other local connections will be discovered and discussed. There's JHS kids at every major station, it seems.
posted by serf4luv at 6:16 AM on March 13, 2011

misozaki, the wife sez that Adachi is still probably more of a business area than Arakawa. Big factories and such. Arakawa is, well, just not important. Just a buncha old people and a few insignificant foreign musicians.

Ahem... one insignificant foreign musician.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:17 AM on March 13, 2011

And Arakawa ward has almost NO MisDos, either...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:18 AM on March 13, 2011

Lawson is allegedly taking donations (though when we visited we couldn't figure out how it worked). However, Family Mart is much easier to figure out: there's a 募金 (fundraising) button on the main screen of the FamiPort kiosk (where you order tickets for stuff) that you can press and choose the Red Cross, and then pick a donation amount and take it to the cashier for them to scan it and charge you for it.

Easy as pie, actually.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:20 AM on March 13, 2011

Oh, come now, I'm sure there are dozen's of insignificant foreign musicians in Arakawa!

^{But only one metafilter-posting musical badass!}
posted by Ghidorah at 6:20 AM on March 13, 2011

OK OK ... enough already with the Ome jokes!

So, you're asking for an ... Ome zing grace?
posted by zippy at 6:22 AM on March 13, 2011 [13 favorites]

gc: Hitachi was hit by the tsunami like the rest of the coast, but they seem to be somewhat better off compared to seaside towns in Miyagi and Iwate.

I found this article about the situation after some short Googling.
posted by armage at 6:22 AM on March 13, 2011

63 year old Shinkawa Hiromitsu rescued after being swept 9 miles out to see...more of that story.
posted by jeanmari at 6:23 AM on March 13, 2011

Here's a list of specific neighborhoods in Tokyo and what block they're assigned to for the power outages. NOTE: some 23-ku neighborhoods are included!
posted by armage at 6:24 AM on March 13, 2011

Thanks, armage.
posted by gc at 6:24 AM on March 13, 2011

BTW, woodblock100, Ōme is in Group 3.
posted by armage at 6:25 AM on March 13, 2011

Huh, according to armage's PDF, I'm still not included. Weird. Is that possible?
posted by misozaki at 6:28 AM on March 13, 2011

OK OK ... enough already with the Ome jokes!

So, you're asking for an ... Ome zing grace?

Ōme, oh my, I'm a fool for you, baby...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:29 AM on March 13, 2011

in the pdf url, if you replace the 'tokyo' with other prefectures, it will give you the list for where you are.

Chiba

Kanagawa
posted by Ghidorah at 6:29 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

At least I now feel a proper 'member of the club'!

But interesting to note that Fussa City (福生市) (where my girlfriend lives) is not on any of these lists we have seen so far. Just maybe ... this could be because that's where Yokota Airbase is?
posted by woodblock100 at 6:30 AM on March 13, 2011

Oops ... cancel last post ... Fussa is there. Where are my glasses ...
posted by woodblock100 at 6:31 AM on March 13, 2011

woodblock, I think you're probably right about that.
posted by misozaki at 6:31 AM on March 13, 2011

Huh, according to armage's PDF, I'm still not included. Weird. Is that possible?

You may still be excluded (I am as well). Most of the listed areas are primarily residential; why they weren't part of the initial list is a bit puzzling.
posted by armage at 6:31 AM on March 13, 2011

Oh, woodblock, I guess I was wrong, then. Heh.
posted by misozaki at 6:33 AM on March 13, 2011

in the pdf url, if you replace the 'tokyo' with other prefectures, it will give you the list for where you are.

Good find! Here are the prefectures I was able to confirm so far:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/images/tokyo.pdf
http://www.tepco.co.jp/images/chiba.pdf
http://www.tepco.co.jp/images/kanagawa.pdf
http://www.tepco.co.jp/images/saitama.pdf
http://www.tepco.co.jp/images/tochigi.pdf
http://www.tepco.co.jp/images/gunma.pdf
posted by armage at 6:35 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Okay, that's all I can handle for one day. Here's hoping to no aftershocks over night. See you guys in the morning.
posted by gc at 6:39 AM on March 13, 2011

Night, gc.
posted by Bugbread at 6:40 AM on March 13, 2011

All right, everyone, that's it from me for today. I may not have time to post much this week, so stay safe and good luck with the blackouts.

On preview: take care, gc. 明日からまた頑張ろう！
posted by armage at 6:41 AM on March 13, 2011

And, just for fun, my area, sonnocho, is listed 3 times, now in different groups, 1, 2, and now 3, rather than 4. It's a big area, but I've got no idea which area I'll be in.

^{sleep well, gc, and be safe.}
posted by Ghidorah at 6:41 AM on March 13, 2011

Yup, me for the bed too. Oyasumi, y'all.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:43 AM on March 13, 2011

Thanks for that list. I'm watching the news read off machi by machi, it's like torture. Looks like my home and my work will be full power, but I'll expect a blackout all the same. It's only a couple of hours anyway, perfect excuse to not do any work.
posted by zardoz at 6:43 AM on March 13, 2011

L8r, armage & Flapjax
posted by Bugbread at 6:44 AM on March 13, 2011

The USGS has prepared a handy-dandy poster in PDF form containing all the seismic information you could want.
posted by clorox at 6:46 AM on March 13, 2011

Sleep well, all. Gonna use lights while I got 'em.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:48 AM on March 13, 2011

No more aftershocks; no more shocks.

Sleep well; I too am off to the land of nod.
posted by bwg at 7:03 AM on March 13, 2011

Wow. I guess everyone is gone. I've got the thread all to myself!

Well, that was nice. Going to do the dishes, and get things ready for lights out tomorrow. Stay safe everyone.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:37 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

all to myself ...

Not quite ... But whoever is the last one out, don't forget to turn out the lights! :-)
posted by woodblock100 at 7:46 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

For reasons passing understanding, I'm awake on the US West Coast, so I guess it's baton-passing time. Really happy you're all keeping your spirits up. Good luck with the blackouts, please be well.
posted by Errant at 7:57 AM on March 13, 2011

I'm awake here in Berlin, keeping one eye on this thread as I work, which I think I'll be doing for the next week. Be safe guys, my thoughts are with you.
posted by tempythethird at 8:02 AM on March 13, 2011

I have been following but not posting in this thread, and it had meant so much to hear all the mefites from Japan checking in one by one. I was so worried about you all - it's a relief to see you here joking and letting off steam.

My God, poor Japan, poor people of Japan, this is beyond horrific. Those two sets of before and after pics are nightmarish. The enormity of this is too much to get my head around.
posted by madamjujujive at 8:12 AM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'm glad the thread went sans nuke--That chumming around amongst our Japan-residing MeFites was nice to hear (with interesting cultural sidenotes!).
posted by Wyatt at 8:25 AM on March 13, 2011

Second nuclear reactor at risk of explosion as Japan's crisis grows.
posted by ericb at 8:28 AM on March 13, 2011

This has been the most informative, MeFite-self-regulated, un-GRAR-filled, helpful thread on MetaFilter that I have ever been party to. Even with the nuclear derail, it was never at a level of fighty that took me to headdesking levels; it was handled with grace and thoughtfulness by taking it upon ourselves to create a new thread to redirect that derail. This just shows that we can take care of our own, given motivation and clear heads. I don't think that it's out of line to pat all of you on the back for this. I have been glued to this thread, because it it more informed, and a better discussion of, the facts and the images coming from Japan than anything I can find on television, or streaming online.

We have done this, and continue to do this, very well. I'm so thankful to be here.
posted by tzikeh at 8:31 AM on March 13, 2011 [14 favorites]

so much for that, wyatt. ericb is here to bring everyone back down.

dishes are done. Trying to get through to tepco's customer service line to clear up which group we're actually in for the blackouts. no luck so far. They've made a proper hash of this. We'll see how things go in the morning.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:31 AM on March 13, 2011

In the US, you can drop some change in any coinstar counter machine and have it go to the Red Cross without their regular transaction fee. The Red Cross points out that if everyone who lived within a mile of one of those stations donated just a dollar, they'd raise $65million. I know the pennies that were in my car are useless for parking meters, I won't miss them.

Discover card lets you donate your rewards balance to the Red Cross as well. It would have been nice if they matched that donation, but every avenue that is open is better than fewer.

If peeps in Seattle want to put together a package of stuff to send over to anyone in Japan, feel free to memail me and I will cover the postage.
posted by nomisxid at 8:34 AM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

If you are presented with back-to-back outages, I'm fairly confident in your ingenious freezer bag strategy. Though I'd guess you'd want the ice in the fridge and the freezer shut before the power goes out. It might actually be good to completely fill your freezer with iced freezer bags if you are worried about food spoiling.
posted by Wyatt at 8:37 AM on March 13, 2011

Checking the USGS page, there have been 220 aftershocks of 5.0 or more and 32 of 6.0 or more since the initial event. For 5.0 + earthquakes that works out to be about every fifteen to twenty minutes. I think this should be considered a cluster of earthquakes more than just the big one.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:37 AM on March 13, 2011

Wyatt, that's what I've done. I'm going to check on the bags before bed. If they're frozen, they go in a cooler, and more bags go in. Thanks.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:43 AM on March 13, 2011

Site with a collection of outage information (in Japanese):

http://gigazine.net/news/20110313_rolling_blackouts/

Time for bed for me too. Take care all.
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:48 AM on March 13, 2011

The news stories about the difficulties in getting supplies to the evacuation centres are distressing. I know FEMA did a particularly bad job managing Katrina, but there were only 35,000 people sheltering in two hubs in New Orleans and the logistics of provisioning for 10 times that just seems like it would insurmountable. Reuters is reporting this as a humanitarian crisis "not seen since World War Two."
posted by DarlingBri at 8:50 AM on March 13, 2011

so much for that, wyatt. ericb is here to bring everyone back down.

So, the new development isn't relative to the overall crisis -- despite the fact that we have a separate 'nuclear' thread? Okay got it. Riiiiiight!
posted by ericb at 9:03 AM on March 13, 2011

Radiation risk from nuclear plant seen as worrisome, not critical -- "Experts say leak from Fukushima reactor unlikely to pose serious threat to public health."
posted by ericb at 9:06 AM on March 13, 2011

I didn't mean that at all. I was just pointing out that, up until you (rightly) posted important information (that I'm glad to have heard about), most of us still posting had sort of relaxed a little, or as much as we can under the circumstances. It was an attempt at humor, nothing more. Please, do keep posting, because after a certain point, the news here just keeps going in a loop.

And now I'm really off to bed.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:08 AM on March 13, 2011

In Focus has some photos up.

Scrolling through those photos gives me chills overtime I view them.

MeFi's own Alan Taylor has posted updates" "Update, Sunday 3/13 - new entry added with Scenes from the Aftermath]."
posted by ericb at 9:14 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah Ghidorah, I read your comment as 'back to reality' and not any sort of criticism of a poster.

Don't know if this has been linked yet. No matter how much footage I see, it's still incredible, sobering, and quite unbelievable.
posted by mazola at 9:15 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is the best of the web, and just one of a million examples of why Metafilter is such a wonderful place. I'm relieved for our Mefites in Japan, proud of how well the discussion of this raw subject went, and profoundly grateful for the wealth of straightforward, non-hysterical information we've had throughout. Thanks, y'all.
posted by shiu mai baby at 9:21 AM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

i hear good things about FROST doughnuts too

With this new job in Bellevue I'm being besieged by co-workers with Frost Doughnuts and their love for Trophy Cupcakes. Just makes me want to reprazent Top Pot and Cupcake Royale all the more despite the issues with my waistline.
posted by dw at 9:34 AM on March 13, 2011

This is the best of the web, and just one of a million examples of why Metafilter is such a wonderful place. I'm relieved for our Mefites in Japan, proud of how well the discussion of this raw subject went, and profoundly grateful for the wealth of straightforward, non-hysterical information we've had throughout. Thanks, y'all.

I couldn't say it better than that, shiu mai baby. I've been quietly following the thread since Friday night, and there is not a place on the web that has more accurate, up-to-date, informed, and detailed analysis of the events in Japan than Metafilter. I am so proud to be a part of this community.

Good wishes and hopes for the safety of all in Japan, and many thanks to the mefites in Japan and all around the Pacific who are helping us to stay informed.
posted by Spinneret at 9:38 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Starting to sound like MLB is going to do a fundraising campaign for Japan, though I can't find an article saying what their plan is yet. Al-Jazeera mentioned it in passing, and it's mentioned here as well.
posted by dw at 9:44 AM on March 13, 2011

Jesse Jackson led prayers for Japan at the huge rally in Madison, WI yesterday. As important as the protests are, it's good to get some perspective.
posted by desjardins at 9:45 AM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

nomisxid: "If peeps in Seattle want to put together a package of stuff to send over to anyone in Japan, feel free to memail me and I will cover the postage"

I'd be happy to send a box via 2-day up to Seattle if that'll help. I can swing their large flat rate box, so that's as much as I could fit into a 12x12x5.5 box.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:51 AM on March 13, 2011

Either that, or they're only concerned about the nuclear power plant and are congregating in that thread
Skipped church to catch up with this thread.
posted by francesca too at 9:53 AM on March 13, 2011

woodblock100 writes "Interesting also, that the 'tech' guy explaining the rationale for the blackouts mentioned that it was difficult for other areas of Japan to 'share' their power with Tepco and Tohoku, because the west is on 60Hz and the east is on 50."

Wow, I didn't know this. I knew some countries had voltage splits but this is worse.

Bugbread writes "All of Kawasaki is listed in two consecutive blocks. I hope that doesn't mean a continuous 6 hour power outage. The food in our freezer could probably do just fine powerless for 3 hours, but 6 hours is harsh."

If you keep the door shut your food should be fine for 6 hours. Keeping your freezer full, even if the space is just occupied with water, will help.

woodblock100 writes "enough already with the Ome jokes! It's bad enough living in a place with a name that translates (literally) as Blue Plum ... 'Do they really have blue plums in Japan?'"

Plums are blue/purple around here, what colour are plums in Japan?
posted by Mitheral at 9:58 AM on March 13, 2011

Bookstore
posted by atomicmedia at 9:58 AM on March 13, 2011

>Bookstore

My god, the whole duration of the Earthquake the camera man is standing between the bookshelves when he could have easily gotten out. As much as I'd love for my tombstone to say "he died as he lived, under a pile of books," I'd have gotten the hell out.
posted by tempythethird at 10:08 AM on March 13, 2011

Interesting also, that the 'tech' guy explaining the rationale for the blackouts mentioned that it was difficult for other areas of Japan to 'share' their power with Tepco and Tohoku, because the west is on 60Hz and the east is on 50.

Does that mean you need to buy different appliances if you move from one region to the other?
posted by scalefree at 10:12 AM on March 13, 2011

Bookstore

It's videos like this that make me wonder how the hell you stay upright and filming during an earthquake like this. I mean, I imagine I could, but my first reaction would be "Oh, shit!" not "Oh, pull out my camera!" (and I'm the type inclined to try to document things). If I were in a high-rise in Tokyo, I could imagine filming awesome wibbly-wobbly shots out the window- but in a bookstore with books flying off the shelves? No thanks!
posted by BungaDunga at 10:13 AM on March 13, 2011

I cannot believe the before/after photos in the NYT (posted upthread). Seeing is NOT believing.
posted by futz at 10:35 AM on March 13, 2011

I just got around to watching the high-def tsunami footage that BeerFilter linked, above, and it's some of the most harrowing stuff I've seen through this whole tragedy. It's horrifying to see some of the people in the cars not realizing that they're driving towards the wave, and seeing those who do realize what's going on driving like hell to get away from it makes me panicky. At around 6:53, on the far right center part of the screen, there is a truck headed right for the tsunami, and at the last second he does a quick u-turn and takes off. It sort of looks like he might hit the wave anyway, given the vector of movement, and the helicopter camera pans away too soon, so I choose to believe he made it.
posted by shiu mai baby at 10:38 AM on March 13, 2011 [11 favorites]

Stuff.co.nz is reporting this:

6.30am: The cooling system pump has stopped at the Tokai No.2 nuclear power plant in Japan's Ibaraki prefecture, Kyodo news has reported.

The plant, located about 120km north of Tokyo, had suffered a nuclear accident in 1999.

6.16am: A state of emergency has been declared at Onagawa nuclear power plant.

Authorities say a partial meltdown could be in progress in two reactors, but they can't confirm this.

posted by Soupisgoodfood at 11:00 AM on March 13, 2011

I think those are NZDT times (UTC/GMT+13), BTW.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 11:04 AM on March 13, 2011

I think it's important that most English-language news is at least 12 hours behind the latest updates. Even the Japan Times is reporting yesterday's news. And at the moment according to the Japanese press (including the NHK live feed) Onagawa has been declared "safe", and things seem to under control in the Fukushima plant.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:06 AM on March 13, 2011

That NZ story about No. 2 is citing Kyodo as the source. I know people have questioned their reliability, so let's see if someone more solid reports on this.
posted by maudlin at 11:09 AM on March 13, 2011

The Al Jazeera Live Blog seems to keep up to date.
posted by futz at 11:11 AM on March 13, 2011

Shiu mai baby, holy SHIT.

I have to say, my understanding of a tsunami is much, much more accurate now than it was before this, and even more so if you go back before Banda Aceh. Previously I'd been thinking in terms of, well, of an enormous wave that breaks over the shoreline. I didn't realize that it's really just the whole fucking ocean coming in.
posted by KathrynT at 11:16 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

eriko: the same level of disaster that leaves you without outside power and generator power for 8 hours probably will leave you without transport links as well, at least ones capable of handling multi-ton loads.

As someone who works with critical facilities, getting generators onsite, hooked up and commissioned is not a trivial task.

That's assuming you just need to replace the generator and not the associated equipment (automatic transfer switches, etc.), and that's assuming you can get a large generator on site without having to take the other one out ... which is a poor assumption to make. Usually generators are in tight spots, the reason being that these generators are fucking huge.

All critical facilities I've encountered, albeit non-nuclear power plants, run on the assumption that batteries are meant only to keep things running until the generators can get started. Usually this is in a matter of minutes and batteries (which are expensive, need replacing after so many years, etc.), are kept to a minimum. The amount of batteries for 8 hours of power must be staggering.

In any case, simple things like "replacing a generator" are usually expensive, multi-month operations (and this is assuming there are generators on-hand, last I checked there was at least a 3-4 month lead time on most of these, I assume they could pluck one out of a warehouse).
posted by geoff. at 11:23 AM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

We're just letting you folks in Japan have the run of things around 8:30 a.m. EST because we're trying to be nice, in light of recent events.

It's totally not because we've been staying up until ridiculous hours reading this thread, trying to follow what's going on. Nope. Not at all.

Thank you guys for the helpful and measured updates. In addition to donating to the Red Cross, is there anything we could send you guys personally? Like a big box of flashlights? I mean, if nothing else, I would love to read the headline "An Interview With flapjax at midnite, Flashlight King of Arakawa Ward."
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:24 AM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

In any case, simple things like "replacing a generator" are usually expensive, multi-month operations (and this is assuming there are generators on-hand, last I checked there was at least a 3-4 month lead time on most of these, I assume they could pluck one out of a warehouse).

I think I saw some warehouses floating by in various videos, so that shouldn't be a problem.
posted by scalefree at 11:27 AM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

evidenceofabsence, the typical response is that money is infinitely more useful in these situations than boxes of goods that need to be handled by people and distributed by people - i.e., a flashlight donation would actually hog resources.
posted by lizzicide at 11:30 AM on March 13, 2011

Previously I'd been thinking in terms of, well, of an enormous wave that breaks over the shoreline.

Yeah, me too. I keep thinking of something more like this, the typical cartoon-CGI giant wave. Somehow that is less frightening than the reality of the ocean going way the hell up and submerging everything nearby.

And nthing the sentiment that this is what Metafilter does well - best of the web, absolutely. I've learned more from this one thread than all the rest of the news.
posted by cmyk at 11:31 AM on March 13, 2011

Oh, you said send to Japanese mefites personally. Send flapjax a solar wafflemaker.
posted by lizzicide at 11:31 AM on March 13, 2011

scalefree, presumably a generator could be airlifted in from another part of the country. Or were you trying to be funny?
posted by futz at 11:34 AM on March 13, 2011

shiu mai baby writes "At around 6:53, on the far right center part of the screen, there is a truck headed right for the tsunami, and at the last second he does a quick u-turn and takes off. It sort of looks like he might hit the wave anyway, given the vector of movement, and the helicopter camera pans away too soon, so I choose to believe he made it."

There is also a single trailer semi backing away from the wave at some point. And several places where it appears people abandoned their cars leading to traffic backups behind them.

geoff. writes "That's assuming you just need to replace the generator and not the associated equipment (automatic transfer switches, etc.), and that's assuming you can get a large generator on site without having to take the other one out ... which is a poor assumption to make. Usually generators are in tight spots, the reason being that these generators are fucking huge."

From what I've read the brought in generators were needed to power control circuits rather than pumps that were direct drive off the steam plant. This explains the eight hours of operation. You can run a heck of a lot of control circuitry, valves and actuators off of the power even a single modest 10 hp motor draws.
posted by Mitheral at 11:38 AM on March 13, 2011

lizzicide- Wait, what? The guy's name is flapjax, but he prefers waffles?? Huh!

"flapjax at midnite, Solar Waffle King of Arakawa Ward" does have a ring to it...
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:42 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, the solar-powered waffle maker would only work during the day, so he could still make flapjax at midnight.
posted by lizzicide at 11:44 AM on March 13, 2011 [16 favorites]

It's horrifying to see some of the people in the cars not realizing that they're driving towards the wave, and seeing those who do realize what's going on driving like hell to get away from it makes me panicky.

I watched it live the other night, and my eyes were drawn to the cars and people that seemed to be on a collision path with the rolling wall of death. It seemed to me that the person operating the camera in the helicopter always panned away to something else just before the inevitable happened. There were just so many opportunities to capture a person running away or a driver unaware, that I don't think there's any way it wasn't a deliberate effort to keep a big picture focus and avoid filming the individual tragedies. Thank you, anonymous camera person. I hope you get a big fat raise and whatever other awards and commendations are given for extraordinary work like that.
posted by Balonious Assault at 11:45 AM on March 13, 2011 [16 favorites]

I think the same. Those tragedies were constantly disappearing out of the picture just before they happened.
posted by Catfry at 11:47 AM on March 13, 2011

or behind the GIANT GREEN B0X
posted by atomicmedia at 11:50 AM on March 13, 2011

Learning about Renho's collar and the attention it receives in Japan was strangely reassuring in this epic thread about one of the greatest natural disasters that we'll hear about in our lifetime.
posted by nickyskye at 11:56 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

This morning the story on CNBC was "how is this going to affect Toyota sales?" Of course, they are the business channel, so maybe it's best they stick to what they know rather than interviewing geologists.

Larry Kudlow Devalues Human Life With Japan Earthquake Freudian Slip

"In these tough economic times, isn’t it nice to know that calamitous natural disasters needn't have an adverse affect on your investment portfolio? After the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan failed to induce a market nosedive, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow expressed his relief in terms that seemed to appall even his fellow cheerleaders for capitalism: 'The human toll here,' he declared, 'looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.'" [video]

posted by ericb at 12:04 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

'The human toll here,' he declared, 'looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.'

Arguably, he meant that "Well, thank goodness the economic impact isn't as severe as the human one." Probably the worst possible way to phrase it, though.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:08 PM on March 13, 2011

I didn't see either twinkie flanking him react.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:10 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seems like Larry Kudlow earned a mention on The Daily Show.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:16 PM on March 13, 2011

Shinmoedake volcano erupts.
posted by futz at 12:17 PM on March 13, 2011

Shinmoedake volcano erupts.

Geesh. Okay, what's next?
posted by ericb at 12:20 PM on March 13, 2011

This is apparently a video of the eruption.
posted by futz at 12:23 PM on March 13, 2011

I have been following but not posting in this thread, and it had meant so much to hear all the mefites from Japan checking in one by one. I was so worried about you all - it's a relief to see you here joking and letting off steam.

Hi, madamjujujive. I've been following but not posting in this thread, too.

As someone in Japan, I have to say:

MetaFilter does earthquakes well.

The information you've all provided has been invaluable to us here in Japan. Thank you all so much!

I guess I should check in, too. My wife, family and I are all safe and sound in Tokyo and Kanagawa. *knocks on wood*

A couple of days ago was the first time in eighteen years I truly thought I would die. I was on the sixteenth floor of a thirty-three story building in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. At the time, I didn't know but it seems the middle floors move the most.

Having lived here for over twenty years, earthquakes were nothing new. They'd usually end after fifteen to thirty seconds (and would be forgotten almost as quickly).

This one was different.

Pro Tip: If you are at home, go to the bath. It is the safest room in an earthquake because it has support pillars for the heavy bath and (usually) no windows that can shatter covering the floor in glass. You DON'T want to go outside where you'd be at the mercy of falling debris!

Usually when I went to the bath, the earthquake would end and life would return to normal.

But, no. This time, Mother Nature wasn't done with us yet.

For the first time in twenty years here, things throughout the room were crashing to the floor and doors that were *closed* were swinging and bashing loudly. Most unnerving, however, was the sound of the building itself.

It was groaning and snapping at its most fundamental level. If it had been alive, it'd be a deep guttural moan of pain and the snapping of bones. Snap, crackle and pop may be enticing in a breakfast cereal but not in an old building that is holding me sixteen floors above weak riverbed ground.

The intensity only increased and seemed to go on forever. When it reached what I thought was the point of no return, I was on my knees and praying fervently (and I am not a religious man). During the worst part, I was just repeating "Take what you want from me but protect my wife!" (who was in another part of Tokyo) and I even said her full name repeatedly so He would understand.

Minutes later, another big tremor hit.

For some reason, I noticed that I stank. I didn't want to die stinking. I figured: I'm in the bath already why don't I take a shower? If I am going to die I don't want them to find me dirty. I stripped and took a shower.

During my shower the next tremor hit. It was hard to keep my balance when soapy and sudsy but I was determined to die clean. I didn't want them to find me dirty. On all fours I cleaned myself with vigor.

Odd what you think of when faced with the real possibility of death.

When the tremors stopped, I crept out of the relative safety of the bath and phoned my wife. She was safe. I immediately went back to my taxes. As my fellow MeFi brethren here know, March 15th is the cutoff date for filing of tax returns in Japan.

While I slaved away at my tax returns (stressful under any circumstances) the earth beneath my feet would harass me constantly with earthquake after bloody earthquake. There were more than twenty big earthquakes that day. The first few tremors had me fleeing to the bath accepting my own mortality and praying to a God I had turned my back on but by the twentieth, I was like "Yeah. I get it already. Leave me the fuck alone so I can work on my taxes."

As was mentioned above, it's amazing how quickly we get used to things that should terrify us.

I kept this thread open as I worked on my taxes. It was a source of excellent information, a constant reminder of the brotherhood of mankind (people thousands of miles away were posting life-saving information for strangers they've never met) and of how fortunate we really were in Tokyo (the horrific video of the white car making a three-point turn as the cruel mistress, miles inland, approached relentlessly carrying burning debris and certain death).

This thread has been a touchstone in a chaotic whirlwind.

Although the mass media spreads FUD, only MeFi gave me the information I needed to remain calm. Maru is OK. Eriko's assurances about the reactor based on science, not speculation (I've been a fan of eriko's posts for years, not just in this thread). Ghidorah's OK and Ghidorah's cat didn't give a damn! I can't tell you how comforting these things were! And thank you Mathowie for the "X new comments, show" feature. As others have mentioned, it truly is a game changer.

With Benjamin Franklin's letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy dancing around in my mind, I finished my tax returns. After printing out one copy for the tax man and two for myself, I decided to get my drunk on. I quickly finished off a bottle of white wine and was working on a bottle of red when I read madamjujujive's comment:

I have been following but not posting in this thread, and it had meant so much to hear all the mefites from Japan checking in one by one. I was so worried about you all - it's a relief to see you here joking and letting off steam.

It's then that I realized that I needed to sound off. Besides eriko, I've been a fan of madamjujujive for years. I don't know if it was intentional but, given the incident at the nuclear power plant, the "it's a relief to see you here joking and letting off steam" comment gave me a much needed laugh.

Now the red wine is gone. I am working through a rainbow-colored birthday cake. A bottle of single malt scotch is winking and blowing kisses at me. My wife is by my side and the MetaFilter community is literally before (and figuratively behind) me.

I could not be happier.

When I thought I would die, I realized what is important.

It's the people in your life. Your wife. Your family. Your friends. People thousands of miles away bound by a wonderful community weblog like MetaFilter.

Even people you never met or will never know.

The earth is shaking again.

I tell you now: cast away your differences. Throw away pride and ideologies. Forgive and love one-another without fear or shame. Enjoy your time together.

And don't put money or material goods (which can be gobbled up by the sea in an instant) above your humanity. All the profit in the world is not worth the life or well-being of that poor, unfortunate soul who made a three-point turn in that video.

All your wordly possessions may be wiped away in second and a stranger you meet today may be dead minutes from now so please:

Be good to each other.

And...

MetaFilter does earthquakes well.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all.

You are truly marvelous!

P.S. The cake is gone as is the wine. It's time for scotch (neat) with a soda chaser and sleep. I will bid thee adieu and hope that we're all alive tomorrow. Please send your kind thoughts and prayers to those north of Tokyo who are without electricity, fuel, food, transportation or hope. I've traveled the north extensively and it breaks my heart because such horrific tragedy could not have happened to nicer people. The people in northern Japan are special. They are so kind and warmhearted. They open their doors and hearts to strangers. They don't deserve this. Nobody does. Please send them your thoughts and prayers.
posted by stringbean at 12:24 PM on March 13, 2011 [264 favorites]

Sorry if this has been posted already, but I found it somewhat neat. It's video of NHK news as the automatic warnings trigger and the reporting begins. Nice friendly warning tone.

That volcano has been active again since January 19, I'm sure they will be well prepared for it.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 12:24 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'm deeply sadden by watching the NHK page. There were interviews of at least two moms who lost their daughters when the daughters got swept away in the water. It's so horrible to hear and see.
posted by anniecat at 12:39 PM on March 13, 2011

Yes, furiousxgeorge, I read the article that I linked to. It had been inactive for 52 years prior and silent again since March 1st. They don't know if the earthquake and the eruption are connected.
posted by futz at 12:42 PM on March 13, 2011

Oh Stringbean .... I have tears in my eyes reading what you just offered here. What a gift in your thoughts. Thank you. Stay safe.

Truly ~ this is an amazing place. I thought that before. Now I know it.
posted by cdalight at 12:48 PM on March 13, 2011

Yes, furiousxgeorge, I read the article that I linked to. It had been inactive for 52 years prior and silent again since March 1st. They don't know if the earthquake and the eruption are connected.

Quite right, I'm just pointing out that connected or not they will be prepared enough that there should not be more of a human toll here.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 12:49 PM on March 13, 2011

Er, sorry. First major eruption in 52 yrs.
posted by futz at 12:50 PM on March 13, 2011

stringbean, if I could favorite your comment a hundred million times I would. Like so many others, I've been glued to this thread for three days and I agree, Mefi does it well. Best, I think.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:55 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I saw a report that said the death toll is 10,000+ at this point. Bless your souls, poor folks. :(
posted by cashman at 1:00 PM on March 13, 2011

Taking a shower while staring death in the face and then studiously getting back to work on your taxes as the Earth shakes below you is probably one of the most remarkable things I've ever read on the Internet. Thanks to everyone who's been posting information in this thread -- millions times better than the shit that they're pumping out on cable news.
posted by codacorolla at 1:11 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

jibtv appears to be showing new footage and updates right now. New to me at least and I've watched a lot.
posted by futz at 1:21 PM on March 13, 2011

Never mind. It looks to be more of a timeline.
posted by futz at 1:24 PM on March 13, 2011

I have to say, my understanding of a tsunami is much, much more accurate now than it was before this, and even more so if you go back before Banda Aceh. Previously I'd been thinking in terms of, well, of an enormous wave that breaks over the shoreline. I didn't realize that it's really just the whole fucking ocean coming in.

I'm no tsunami expert but I think the formation of a wave largely depends the contour of the ocean bottom. It looks like that some locations really did have a giant wave come in. It's hard to record something like that and survive.
posted by Procloeon at 1:24 PM on March 13, 2011

stringbean deserves some special prize for this. Like best post in best thread ever or something.
posted by Namlit at 1:45 PM on March 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

Destined for sidebar at least, I should think.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 1:50 PM on March 13, 2011

Japanese earthquake: Timeline

"5:46am (GMT): Japan hit by 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami about 250 miles north of Tokyo at a depth of 20 miles.

8:00am Initial reports show cars, ships and buildings being swept in by the tsunami that struck the north-eastern coast."
posted by nickyskye at 1:54 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

So many, many wonderful comments in here, but stringbean, yours really brought me to tears and laughter too. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us. You have enriched us all with your humanity.
posted by marsha56 at 1:59 PM on March 13, 2011

I'm glad you made it through, stringbean, and not only because I wouldn't have had the pleasure of reading that comment otherwise.

I think I can also speak for a lot of folks here when I say it doesn't matter to me what you smell like.

Hugs to everyone else over there too.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:07 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've been following this thread since news of the earthquake on (for me) Thursday night. The arc of this thread has been amazing and the contributions here bring together the things that make MetaFilter special- the community, the expertise, the humor, the honesty, the humanity. You all are awesome.
posted by ambrosia at 2:10 PM on March 13, 2011

image stabilizer applied to earthquake footage. pretty awesome, i've never experienced an earthquake and i have yet to see footage or descriptions that i can really imagine, but removing shakey-cam comes really close.
posted by Mach5 at 2:11 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Inside Minamisanriku (Channel 4 News, UK). Devastating. :(
posted by carter at 2:16 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

My god, carter. That video - there are no words.
posted by mygothlaundry at 2:31 PM on March 13, 2011

The picture of the bride in carter's video spoke of such loss and yet also the indomitable aspects of humanity: love, memory, the promise of better days.
May better days soon come to Japan.
posted by Wyatt at 2:43 PM on March 13, 2011

Dear God. I mean, I kept hearing "10,000 people" but I couldn't comprehend that because I couldn't understand how that could happen. Now I do, and I wish I didn't.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:45 PM on March 13, 2011

God. I know just what you mean. The view from the ground in carter's video makes me understand just how the ocean can come in and erase a city. It seems so unreal, but it happened. As horrifying as that is to even think about, I'd rather have the idea in my head than pretend everything is fine. It seems disrespectful, somehow, to want to go back to not knowing... even though I wish I could.
posted by cmyk at 2:52 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I know. This is an order of magnitude beyond what we can normally comprehend.
posted by carter at 2:53 PM on March 13, 2011

Man, watching the collected videos of the tsunami -- i know this is probably crass, but it makes me think of the end of akira -- an amorphous, unstoppable alien entity bent on complete destruction. I just can't even imagine the scale.

It just reminds me again of the small scale of human against the vast forces and energies the universe is capable of creating-- it would be nothing compared to a comet or asteroid striking the earth, or the sun expanding into a red giant and swallowing the earth.

We're very lucky to have a space and time where it's possible for humanity to exist at all, let alone to thrive.
posted by empath at 2:59 PM on March 13, 2011

'The tsunami swept my parents way' Harumi Watanabe, Shintona, Miyagi prefecture

Japan tsunami survivor Hiromitsu Shinkawa found 10 miles out to sea clinging to the roof of his home (Minami Soma, Fukushima prefecture)
posted by plokent at 3:10 PM on March 13, 2011

Another comfort I have to admit I find here - besides all the aforementioned incredible information and perspective - is the empathy and caring exhibited. Not that they're insensitive louts, but I think many people due to their own fears, have a hard time dealing with tragedy on this level. It's easier for them to ignore it - keep it at a distance, or even worse, let it in only on the sensationalist level and then not take it any further.

Thank you all here for rising above your fears and being vulnerable to feeling what comes when you watch all of this unfold with real caring and awareness ... it is heartbreaking and gut-wrenching when you do that. But like what that woman quoted in the video link carter provided spoke to - the one who was surprised that people cared - if I may invoke energy in a good way this time, I do believe our combined simple act of caring and paying attention offers some kind of healing into the world.

And besides ... (forgive me but I've got to put this zinger out there) ... we do have to counter-balance the insensitive stupidity of the Larry Kudlow's in the world.
posted by cdalight at 3:12 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Chilling street-level view as the tsunami approaches and then engulfs a town, with cars, trucks and then houses being washed away. The steady, inexorable rise in sea water as the cameraperson backs up the stairs is horrifyingly real.
posted by mediareport at 3:21 PM on March 13, 2011 [23 favorites]

Plums are blue/purple around here, what colour are plums in Japan?

Green/red. Yes, really.

Does that mean you need to buy different appliances if you move from one region to the other?

Now, all electrical devices, great and small, handle both 50/60 automatically (no need to even flip a switch or anything). According to Woodblock, in the past they had different "East Japan" and "West Japan" versions for each appliance.
posted by Bugbread at 3:22 PM on March 13, 2011

enough already with the Ome jokes! It's bad enough living in a place with a name that translates (literally) as Blue Plum ... 'Do they really have blue plums in Japan?'

Plums are blue/purple around here, what colour are plums in Japan?

I'm sure noooobody cares about this at this point, but "青" ("Ao," or the "O" in "Ome") in this case really means "green" as in "not ripe." Same reason why green traffic lights are called "青," it has to do with how the Japanese sorted colors a long time ago. So 青梅 (Ome) means "green plum," the stuff you make plum wine and umeboshi with.

/end derail
posted by misozaki at 3:31 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

mediareport, oh my god, the NOISE.
posted by KathrynT at 3:32 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Whenever they mention radiation levels exceeding legal limits, I get this ridiculous mental image of a cop (aviator sunglasses, big moustache) walking up to a power plant and scolding it. And the plant, embarrassed, saying in an enormous Rock Monster voice: "Sorry, I'm really sorry, I had no idea."

Wish it was so simple.
posted by cmyk at 3:34 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

in the past ...

Sheesh ... am I that old? I guess so ... (At least my grand-children are safely away from Japan these days).

Yes, when I came here first just over 30 years ago, many (all?) electrical appliances were designed to work on one or the other system. These days of course they automatically detect the current and adjust themselves.
posted by woodblock100 at 3:35 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

It seems they've cancelled the first group of blackouts (the one scheduled to start at 6:20) due to confusion about which areas would be affected. Not seeing any more clarity than last night as to when the blackouts will start, and which areas are in which groups.

Most train lines seem to be stopped, and where I am, the shutters are still down on station entrances. At the very least, Mrs. G no longer has to go to work, simply because there's no way for her to get there.

There was a report from Kyodo that the Tokaimura plant, in Ibaraki, is having cooling troubles, but I haven't seen it reported anywhere else (except in a very, very upsetting article by the New York Times which reported on a reactor close to Tokyo having trouble, without saying where it was). Supposedly it should be okay, as it was shut down during the earthquake, and the cooling system only recently started having issues, so it might have been able to cool down considerably in that time. This plant has had issues in the past, which is worrisome. Still, nothing so far on any of the news broadcasts about it.

So yeah, good morning everyone.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:43 PM on March 13, 2011

stringbean, big hugs to you, my friend, for sharing that frightening experience and the many changes you went through in the course of your not-so-excellent tax day adventure. Like marsha56, you brought me to tears and then back to laughter. The taking of the shower & the finishing of the taxes - oh, you poor guy, when we are not in control, we try to create order where we can ... and you were determined to go with dignity if that was your fate. And after facing the potential of your own death, your comments are so heartfelt and poignant - words to live by.

Thank you for checking in, stringbean! I am so happy that you and your family are all OK. Thank you for your story and your kind comments to me.

... cast away your differences. Throw away pride and ideologies. Forgive and love one-another without fear or shame. Enjoy your time together.

And don't put money or material goods ...Be good to each other.

Words to live by. Thank you.
posted by madamjujujive at 3:45 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Good morning, Ghidorah!

I haven't ventured out yet. Having a night of mostly aftershock-free sleep, I was determined to sleep in. And the company called and said I didn't have any school, so bonus. I'm curious about the food situation in Morioka. We're (my apartment) out of rice, but we have other staples here for now.
posted by gc at 3:50 PM on March 13, 2011

cdalight, I think you'll find, as stringbean noted, that MetaFilter is generally pretty good along those lines.

I'll also include among the "easier" choices those that are selfish or yet worse xenophobic or hostile -- and the "ironic" use of defense-mechanism humor (like the barely-there Gojira stuff) -- as things that are pretty explicitly outside of our culture here. Welcome.
posted by dhartung at 3:53 PM on March 13, 2011

train lines seem to be stopped

Here's the note on JREast's website about today's services:
Trains that will be running:
* Yamanote Line (The whole line)
* Chuo line (Tokyo ~ Tachikawa)
* Keihintouhoku Line (Kamata ~ Akabane)
* Joban line - kaisoku (Ueno ~ Matsudo)
* Joban line - locals (Ayase ~ Matsudo)）

All other lines - service will not operate
posted by woodblock100 at 3:54 PM on March 13, 2011

For some reason, whenever I watch I Love Lucy I always think to myself, "It's too bad people don't wear hats like that anymore. People just seemed a little more civil when everyone is wearing a nice hat."

2,192 comments later, I've come to the conclusion that MetaFilter is the internet with hats.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:12 PM on March 13, 2011 [45 favorites]

Metafilter: the Internet with hats.
posted by gc at 4:15 PM on March 13, 2011 [12 favorites]

Obligatory, people are not wearing enough hats (warning monty python filter)
posted by edgeways at 4:26 PM on March 13, 2011

FYI, there is an auction being organized on livejournal in the community help_japan to raise funds for recovery. You can offer or bid on services, food, graphics, crafted items, whatever. Doesn't require a LJ account to participate.
posted by threeturtles at 4:27 PM on March 13, 2011

Metafilter: the Internet with hats.

And one languagehat!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:27 PM on March 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

JR East lists both the Tohoku Main Line and the Tohoku Shinkansen as "Maintenance Work Underway." Both are not running at the moment.
posted by gc at 4:28 PM on March 13, 2011

Weather/forecast in Japan by city (scroll down for city names). Temperature overview of Japan.
posted by nickyskye at 4:29 PM on March 13, 2011

I like hats!

Also, out here in Fukui, things are eerily normal. There's definitely a vague sense of survivor's guilt just sort of lurking everywhere here today.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:33 PM on March 13, 2011

Woo Hoo! 11c today! And damn, Tokyo looks downright balmy. (this is according to my Dashboard widgets, because WU doesn't list any cities close to me. No Morioka? I mean, I know we're not that big, but we are a prefectural capital! Come on!)
posted by gc at 4:33 PM on March 13, 2011

From the Al-Jazeera live blog:

10:20pm
The US relief effort in Japan has been named Operation: Tomodachi - or "friendship".

Awww.
posted by gc at 4:36 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Odd but appropriate, among other things, this is one of the funnier mefi threads in recent memory. Hats....
posted by tempythethird at 4:42 PM on March 13, 2011

gc: "From the Al-Jazeera live blog:

10:20pm
The US relief effort in Japan has been named Operation: Tomodachi - or "friendship".

Awww"

I just popped in to give you guys a hug. Japan is constantly on my mind.
posted by gomichild at 4:44 PM on March 13, 2011

You got out just in time, gomichild. The morning wideshows are full of interviews with survivors, and it's just heartbreaking. This thread (and the hats) are pretty much the only thing that makes me smile at this point.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:45 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've been watching this thread carefully from the Netherlands with my heart in my throat and tears in my eyes. My thoughts are with you.

Mefites in Japan, heres a thought: DON'T EVEN TRY TO GET TO WORK. UNLESS YOU ARE A DOCTOR, NURSE, OR WORK IN THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN, CONCENTRATE ON MAKING SURE YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT FOOD, WATER, AND OTHER STAPLES. And just please know we care about your safety, and that of your families. and please, just stay home with your families.
posted by zia at 4:47 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just saw a report that 3 old people were rescued from a car after 20 hours of being swamped. I'm sitting here in tears. I feel bad for not being there for my family and friends but relieved that I don't have my little guy there amongst it.
posted by gomichild at 4:50 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Just another lurker voicing my appreciation here - this thread has been a wonderful source of accurate information, analysis, and heartwarming comfort in a difficult time, for me and I'm sure for many others especially those in Japan...

Thanks for the sharing, good vibes, and of course the cat (in hats?) updates! Stay safe everybody!
posted by monocot at 4:50 PM on March 13, 2011

I just saw a report that 3 old people were rescued from a car after 20 hours of being swamped. I'm sitting here in tears. I feel bad for not being there for my family and friends but relieved that I don't have my little guy there amongst it.
posted by gomichild at 8:50 AM on March 14 [+] [!]

I get the impression from some of the old people I've met that old people in Japan are BAMFs. A month ago a whole brigade of them were out on the roads around my apartment chipping away the three inch thick ice on the roads with pick axes.
posted by gc at 4:53 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

I've been taking periodic Maru video breaks throughout the day. Seems to make life a little better.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:54 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah some of the oldies in Japan sure are inspirational.
posted by gomichild at 4:55 PM on March 13, 2011

Speaking of Maru breaks: Kotatsu Maru 2
posted by gc at 5:02 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

old people in Japan are BAMF

They are indeed. You'll be up on a mountain hiking, panting your way up a steep slope, and then stop for a breather. Next thing you know, a chain of them comes into view, chugging their way up the path, each one cheerily saying "Ohayo Gozaimasu!" as they pass by, leaving you in their dust ...

Thinking about this a bit further, perhaps it's nearly time I stopped thinking 'they' ... and began to use ... 'we'.
posted by woodblock100 at 5:02 PM on March 13, 2011 [12 favorites]

My first encounter with the badass oji-san was on my first weekend here in Japan, when I foolishly tried to climb Fuji. I was horribly out of shape, and my friends and I kept leapfrogging a young Japanese couple who were kind enough to share their aerosol oxygen canister with us. During one of our pathetic walk 100 feet, take a break moments, this old guy, maybe late sixties or older, charges past us, puffing away on a cigarette. We were gasping for breath, and he was just charging on.

Later, when I was standing, staring at the stairs to the mountain hut where I was going to stay, another old guy was shouting encouragement to me as I took a couple minutes to gether myself. He was waving a bottle of sake at me the whole time, and poured a cup for me when I got to the top.

Ojisans and obasans are some of the toughest people in the world. Frequently, they're also some of the most amazing people I've met. Seeing them on tv, weeping, is breaking my heart.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:09 PM on March 13, 2011 [27 favorites]

This thread has been on basically all weekend for me as I finish writing my finals for this quarter. If anything gives perspective in the middle of slogging through papers I'd rather not be writing, it is the bravery and humor that Japanese mefites are showing. I'm drinking some sake tonight and toasting you all!
posted by ChuraChura at 5:10 PM on March 13, 2011

stringbean nailed it. I'm far from the carnage, surrounded by the Japan alps in the rice bowl that is Gifu. we barely felt the initial tremor here, but since we were already resident at the time of the Dai-Hanshin earthquake we know better than to assume a small tremor is actually that and immediately went to check on the epicenter. We did so at a shopping mall, then headed home to get more news, which for me meant opening this thread. And I've been giving silent thanks that I have this resource ever since....

I've been too overwhelmed to comment at all, and trying too hard to regain contact with friends in hardest hit areas. Fortunately, and almost unbelievably, almost everyone we know has responded one way or another.

Last night we received our first refugees from the area just south of Fukushima...they're absolutely shell-shocked and still think they are feeling aftershocks with every step. They and their cat (who reminds me of Maru!) are still crashed out in the guest room and they will spend today deciding whether to continue to flee, back to their home country. The mister and I were already scheduled to fly out of here the day after tomorrow, but it remains to be seen whether our connecting flights through Narita will take off according to schedule...and I'm feeling like I'd prefer to leave those seats for people who really need to get out or that area. Maybe I can switch to a flight out of Osaka....

either way, I will feel like I'm abandoning the ship if I get out, but I will try to convince these friends to simply stay at our house if they want to remain in country. Thank you all again for keeping this so informative and reassuring and providing a laugh or two in moments when it seemed impossible.
posted by squasha at 5:14 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Well to be fair smokers often have an easier time with high altitudes oddly enough.

Also my Japan peeps when you need a break from all of this catch a cheap flight to Cairns and I'll take care of you.
posted by gomichild at 5:15 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Room 641-A  2,192 comments later, I've come to the conclusion that MetaFilter is the internet with hats.

Well. Yes.
posted by hat at 5:35 PM on March 13, 2011 [28 favorites]

hat, I think that's the first time I've laughed out loud all weekend.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:39 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

That clip on NHK of the older lady being rescued from the car was the straw that broke this camels back.
It was a little bit of "Fuck you earthquake/tsunami!", then seeing the nurse comforting her in tears, my own tears began to flow.
Stringbeans post brought me close, then obasan pushed me over.
posted by Duke999R at 5:46 PM on March 13, 2011

Contributing friendly distraction, light relief: Confused little lamb, "Where's Bee" | Camera Capture, "If you've ever wondered what all those strange modes on your camera do, this may answer your questions" | Much peaness | Phil dancing on the subway! | Sathya Harishchandra - MJ Remix | ray of sunshine.
posted by nickyskye at 5:53 PM on March 13, 2011

Duke999R would you pls repost that link?
posted by zia at 5:54 PM on March 13, 2011

zia, I saw it on ABC TV in Australia.
posted by Duke999R at 6:01 PM on March 13, 2011

Zia:
Translated video here.
posted by neewom at 6:04 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

There's shaking in the studio of "SuperMorning" (?). I can't tell what channel that is, but it looks like they're in Tokyo.
posted by gc at 6:06 PM on March 13, 2011

gc: the epicenter of that one just now was off of Ibaraki. A 5 there, fairly strong. Here in Tokyo it was a 3, it seems. Gave our house a nice little jolt.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:08 PM on March 13, 2011

Yeah, there was just a 6.2 off of tochigi. There was enough shaking that we got early mail warnings on our phones. Lot's of shaking, but not nearly as bad as before.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:08 PM on March 13, 2011

Looks like Chiba and Ibaraki are getting 4 and 5 shindo shakes. Watching Asahi TV.
posted by gc at 6:08 PM on March 13, 2011

windows were shakin'
all night in my dreams
everything was exactly
the way that it seems
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:10 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

I feel so modern: we have a small bag by the front door to grab on the way out in case another big one hits. Clothes, flashlight, wallet, diapers, that kind of thing. And a removable hard drive backup of all data on my computer.
posted by Bugbread at 6:12 PM on March 13, 2011

Which Blackout Group Are You In? Just enter your postal code and it tells you which group. Might help clear up the confusion.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:13 PM on March 13, 2011

Awesome, Ghidorah.
posted by Bugbread at 6:15 PM on March 13, 2011

2011.03.13 Shin-Urayasu Japan Earthquake Aftermath
posted by nickyskye at 6:17 PM on March 13, 2011

So, that seems to be just some dude who made that blackout/postcode site.

i get this:

該当はありませんでした
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:17 PM on March 13, 2011

It's from the Time Out Tokyo twitter feed again. Lot's of good information and plenty of translations of NHK reports. It's been open in my tabs since maybe Saturday night.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:17 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Asahi TV is reporting a gas explosion at a department store in Morioka. Yikes.
posted by gc at 6:23 PM on March 13, 2011

Flapjax, what's your postal code? (Your MeFi profile coordinates show you as living in the Imperial Palace, but I remember when we rode on the train together back from the meetup, you got off at a different stop, so maybe you used to live in the Imperial Palace and forgot to update your profile)
posted by Bugbread at 6:28 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

friends just reported a powerful aftershock in Tokyo.
posted by peppermind at 6:28 PM on March 13, 2011

Bugbread, I looove to keep my domicile indicated as the Imperial Palace. But, yeah, my actual postcode here in humble Arakawa-ku is 116-0014.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:30 PM on March 13, 2011

From Ghidorah's link, Time Out's practical list of useful info for those in Japan Japan earthquake live report, News, emergency information, live reaction.
posted by nickyskye at 6:31 PM on March 13, 2011

More about the gas explosion in Morioka.
posted by gc at 6:33 PM on March 13, 2011

Bugbread, shh, you'll blow Flapjax's cover.

^{Flapjax at Midnight is the name the emperor posts under. UNLIMITED commenting power!}
posted by Ghidorah at 6:33 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

The awesome Second Harvest Japan is collecting food and supplies to send.

Second Harvest Japan is seeking food and supply donations for the people in the earth-quake-affected areas. Please see below for the list of what we need now. Thank you very much for your generous support!

You cannot send us expired food or opened packages.
Please pay for shipping. We cannot pay for your shipping fee on cash on delivery.
Please attach a list of what you send us. It would save us a lot of time to sort them!

Needed Items:

* Allergen-free food, food for infants, food for the elderly who need nursing care, food for diabetics;
* Snacks (this would help people psychologically a lot);
* Daily necessities such as portable gas stoves, batteries, flash lights;
* Diapers for children and the elderly;
* menstrual pads, portable toilets, wet wipes, sanitizers;
* Pet food and pet toilets.

Send to:
Second Harvest Japan Disaster Relief Food Drive
Mizuta bldg 1F Asakusabashi 4-5-1, Taito-ku, Tokyo
111-0053

Phone: + 81 03-3838-3827
posted by gomichild at 6:36 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

UNLIMITED commenting power!

And my own private platform at Harajuku station! Sweeeet!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:37 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Hiroko Yamashita, an elderly woman trapped under a bookcase with a shattered ankle, apologised to her rescuers for putting them to such trouble.

U.S. military ramps up Japan relief effort (Operation Tomodachi 友達作戦)
posted by plokent at 6:39 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

An acquaintance just URLed this on Twitter, which was useful info (to me; I've never visited Japan) on how the Japanese public is drilled to respond in an emergency.

Some Perspective On The Japan Earthquake: " Ogaki has approximately 150,000 people. The city’s disaster preparedness plan lists exactly how many come from English-speaking countries. It is less than two dozen. Why have a maintained list of English translators at the ready? Because Japanese does not have a word for excessive preparation.
posted by ardgedee at 6:43 PM on March 13, 2011 [10 favorites]

Strong aftershock here in Tokyo. We grabbed our emergency bags and bolted for the park. Everything calm now, and actually a beautifully warm early spring day. Plum blossoms in a variety of shades of pink in near-full bloom. Just saw our neighbor and his little son zip by on a motorbike yelling "Fuck this we're outta here!" Not sure where they're headed, they probably don't know either...
posted by jet_manifesto at 6:46 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Unless things have changed, they're not accepting shipments of materials up north, and have asked people NOT to try to send them clothes, food, etc. I believe (and this is just my understanding) that the idea is that people should just donate to the Red Cross, etc., who will then buy things in bulk and bring them up, far reducing the amount of man-hours involved in sorting individual donations.

Second Harvest Japan must know this, so I imagine that their idea is to sort and stockpile the stuff until other shipments are also allowed.

Again, this is all "off the top of my head" stuff, so take it with a grain of salt. Right now, money is needed more than supplies, but IF you are short of cash but have a ton of diapers or batteries or whathaveyou, and would like to donate to Second Harvest, I recommend that you send stuff other than food, and, if you send food, send stuff with the assumption that it might not actually get up there for months. Don't send anything that will expire in the near or even medium future.

But, if possible, donate money instead.
posted by Bugbread at 6:47 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Irreverent thought. I haven't hear the name Miyagi this much since wax on wax off.
posted by nickyskye at 6:51 PM on March 13, 2011

BungaDunga: "It's videos like this that make me wonder how the hell you stay upright and filming during an earthquake like this. I mean, I imagine I could, but my first reaction would be "Oh, shit!" not "Oh, pull out my camera!" (and I'm the type inclined to try to document things). If I were in a high-rise in Tokyo, I could imagine filming awesome wibbly-wobbly shots out the window- but in a bookstore with books flying off the shelves? No thanks!"

I can't remember what the industry jargon for it is (at least I think there's a word for it) but there's a tunnel vision that some camerafolk get from staring through the viewfinder and losing their sense of peripheral vision, and forget that "hey, I could be in danger here." Happens to both the pros out covering news and regular folk just taking photos. So in the end it's a very human response. Though not a safe one, of course. This is when the pros are glad to have a sound person (or other crew member) to watch their back. I remember seeing some footage on tv where a woman in a pink coat is talking to the person shooting the footage and pointing at the ground - and somehow I just knew she was saying "you are too close to the edge, move back!" Or that was my guess anyhow.

I hope very soon all the search and rescue will be over (and I'm still in "hoping thousands will be found" mode, just because I really want that to be true) and that we'll all be reading info from structural engineers who are going out trying to see why those one or two houses survived the waves while the neighboring buildings disappeared. I think the rebuilding will be something we'll all be happy to see, since it'll mean lives will be back to normal. Though having been through a few tornadoes I know that sometimes they can't find a reason why some structures make it through.

And just like any other media, there's a lot of misinfo (I assume not malicious, just misheard things passed around) - here's a translation of a blog post about rumors going around:
Japan: Toxic Rain, Earthquake Weapons and Other False Rumors via Global Voices, blogger described as "Prolific blogger, editor and critic Chiki Ogiue"
posted by batgrlHG at 6:52 PM on March 13, 2011

There was a big one about 30 minutes ago, biggest aftershock since the big one on Friday. Shook things up pretty well, but was short, only about 30 seconds.

I came into work. Damn, why did I come into work? I took the train and it was PACKED. Now it seems to be not running at all, which means I'll be walking home. Again.

One good thing about today, it's sunny and warm everywhere, even up north. A silver lining to all this madness; at least we don't have to deal with the cold.
posted by zardoz at 7:01 PM on March 13, 2011

Flapjax: 東日暮里? It's not showing up on that site because it's not on the official TEPCO list, either. So either they forgot about you, or your power's not going down.

I really wish TEPCO's list didn't just include power outage groups 1 to 5, but also listed a "No Power Outage" group. It's so hard to tell whether there will be no power outage, or if the list is just missing something.
posted by Bugbread at 7:01 PM on March 13, 2011

we'll all be reading info from structural engineers who are going out trying to see why those one or two houses survived the waves while the neighboring buildings disappeared.

It seemed like an unusually large number of homes manager to stay together, even when floating around, even after impacts, as compared to every video I've seen of a house in America getting pulled into a river, where it usually shreds apart 5 seconds into the water. I wonder if it's a sign of improved earthquake codes in construction over the years.
posted by nomisxid at 7:04 PM on March 13, 2011

Another long-time lurker here, chiming in with gratitude and admiration.
You intelligent, compassionate and witty folks really are the best of the web, especially when it matters.
Aside from donations of cash there doesn't seem to be much that inappropriately-skilled people can do.
Over here on the opposite side of the Pacific (Vancouver Island) we feel connected but frustratingly far away from those suffering in Japan. Perhaps we can reach out to members of our substantial Japanese ex-pat community (lots of Japanese students at our local universities and schools) and see what we can do to help them.
posted by islander at 7:09 PM on March 13, 2011

ardegee, that article is terrific.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:09 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

The commenters on NHK's live feed seem to be worried.

Unit 3 What I went out smoke!
Iwate Miyagi Hukushima! Hill people to the coast!
I'm having a panic from a light Ntsutere
Do the same situation as the No. 1, I think it is all right Tetsu?
Hey, mushroom cloud! !
Hey, mushroom cloud! !
I'm less white smoke
If the huge smoke worse than No.1
How aftershock their safety! !
Iyo tsunami ass. . . Get the hell rescue party.
ーーーー to run away
Height of about 100m smoke

Here are some screenshots from NHK showing live feeds of the coast: 1, 2, 3
posted by clorox at 7:17 PM on March 13, 2011

NHK reports that that there are 3-5 meter tsunami forecast to hit the northeast Pacific coast of Honshu shortly. As well, NHK reports there may have been a hydrogen explosion at #3 reactor.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:17 PM on March 13, 2011

TokyoTimeOut says there is live footage of a 3-meter high tsunami on NHK.
posted by merelyglib at 7:18 PM on March 13, 2011

NHK stream
posted by clorox at 7:19 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

English NHK site, with live video.
posted by maudlin at 7:23 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Smoke from reactor #3
posted by clorox at 7:23 PM on March 13, 2011

there may have been a hydrogen explosion at #3 reactor.

if the angle of the shot on NHK is what I think it is, there's another framework where a building used to be.
posted by nomisxid at 7:24 PM on March 13, 2011

if the angle of the shot on NHK is what I think it is, there's another framework where a building used to be.

I think you're right.
posted by clorox at 7:26 PM on March 13, 2011

Cable provider Shaw TV in Canada has un-scrambled TVJapan, if you have a digital box. Currently showing the NHK stream.
posted by islander at 7:27 PM on March 13, 2011

nomisxid is spot on. Probably another explosion due to hydrogen gas buildup...

Fukushima Daichii will probably never bring any of it's reactors back on line.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 7:32 PM on March 13, 2011

The images of waves broadcast earlier were not a tsunami, but were high waves that will often precede tsunami. The meteorological agency is now reporting that no tsunami have been reported yet in Ibaraki (on the south) or Aomori (in the north).
posted by KokuRyu at 7:33 PM on March 13, 2011

They just switched to a landside view, #3's damage looks like it extends lower than the prior one. =(
posted by nomisxid at 7:36 PM on March 13, 2011

On TV they're reporting it as a hydrogen explosion (not that one "may have" happened, but that one "did"). They meteorological association is also saying they have no evidence of a tsunami.
posted by Bugbread at 7:36 PM on March 13, 2011

They're saying that no earthquakes have been detected that were strong enough to cause another tsunami, and the USGS backs that up.

Clearer shot of the reactors.
posted by clorox at 7:36 PM on March 13, 2011

There were warnings this might happen with reactor three many, many hours ago.

The building itself is a facade that is not important for containment.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:36 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

New York Times: U.S. Detects Radiation 60 Miles From Stricken Plant. via.

Live feed of info re new tsunami and nuclear situation, in Japanese.

*posted the above in the nuclear thread by accident. Now it seems the Meteorological agency says the new tsunami info was a false alarm (11.30am, NHK).
posted by nickyskye at 7:42 PM on March 13, 2011

Edano is saying that the explosion poses very little risk over the long term of radiation exposure near the power plant, but in the short term (elements associated with the hydrogen venting and explosion) may be harmful. The 600 people remaining within the 20 km evacuation radius are being told to stay indoors.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:44 PM on March 13, 2011

Edano: Low possibility of massive amounts of radiation released; #3 showing higher levels of radiation than #1 did. However, container vessel still safe.
posted by clorox at 7:45 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

arclight: "Given that we have already seen a H2 explosion at unit 1 we can only assume the same at unit 3; also that core is in similar damaged state."
posted by nickyskye at 7:47 PM on March 13, 2011

Yeah, really, the MeFi nuclear engineering club assures us there is nothing to see here, nothing to worry about, just move along. Because nuclear power is perfectly safe. Really.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:50 PM on March 13, 2011

^ Wrong thread.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:54 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

The weatherman is on NHK. He sounds cheerful as he explains that southerly winds (blowing away from Tokyo) will warm the archipelago. They even had little happy cartoon characters for the warm air mass.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:57 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Then what are you doing here reassuring us? I don't accept that this is the wrong thread, anyway. See my comment in the related Metatalk.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:57 PM on March 13, 2011

I'm very sorry, guys. Should have waited for more confirmation before I posted.
posted by merelyglib at 7:57 PM on March 13, 2011

A) Wrong thread, and
B) Nobody said nuclear power was perfectly safe. They said it was safer over the long run than fossil fuel based power generation.
posted by Bugbread at 7:58 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm finding it immensely useful that the nuclear argument is in one thread, and the humanitarian stuff is in another. This is a long ass thread and it's taken me days to get to the end of it, between work and other things.

I am terribly impressed that the death toll is not higher - Japan has a lot to be proud of right now.

Stay safe, guys. We're all thinking of you.
posted by Jilder at 8:03 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Even if you think nuclear power is inherently too dangerous for use, that doesn't mean that the explosion that just happened is itself super-dangerous. It looks so far like another hydrogen explosion, same as yesterday, and while it's most definitely Not Good it's also not the end of the world. Hence, the reassurance that the worst-case scenario has not happened.
posted by BungaDunga at 8:04 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

From CNNi: Approximately 2,000 bodies found Monday in Miyagi Prefecture on Japan's east coast, Kyodo News Agency reports.
posted by Dr. Zira at 8:07 PM on March 13, 2011

It seems that several workers have been injured and may have died in the explosion at #3. Something to keep in mind when discussing how "dangerous" the explosion is.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:09 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

I don't accept that this is the wrong thread, anyway. See my comment in the related Metatalk.

I actually read your comment in the Metatalk after I saw your comment here, becuase I wanted to see whether you even read the Metatalk.

and frankly, it doesn't look like you did -- people who were nuclear power advocates were admitting that this incident had them concerned, and then you dropped your little mouse turd about "oh noes we're all supposed to shut up and embrace nuclear power" or whatever.

So, again. wrong thread. Take it to Metatalk, and maybe read what people are saying in there this time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:11 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

From CNNi: Approximately 2,000 bodies found Monday in Miyagi Prefecture on Japan's east coast, Kyodo News Agency reports.


The estimates they have been floating for Miyagi are up to 10,000. It's pretty incomprehensible. At the same time it's easier to comprehend than the quarter of a million for the 2004 tsunami. We need to declare war on tsunamis instead of terrorists or drugs.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:16 PM on March 13, 2011

fourcheesemac, after reading your MetaTalk comment, I think you're a little confused what people meant about "wrong thread". They didn't mean "The thread in the blue is for being pro-nuclear. If you want to be anti-nuclear, go to the grey." They meant "This thread in the blue is no longer for discussing the cons or the pros of nuclear power. A new thread has been opened for that."
posted by Bugbread at 8:17 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

KokoRyu I don't think anyone is attempting to downplay how dangerous the explosion is as an explosion, but this particular explosion is no more dangerous than any other. It's most certainly Not Good, but it's not OMG-contaiment-has-been-breached, either. (we think. based on what information we have.)
posted by jlkr at 8:20 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

3 injured, 7 *missing* after the explosion... more reason to take the pro/anti nuke talk to a different thread.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:21 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure anyone's posted this yet (because, frankly, this is a gargantuan thread and I have probably missed a few comments), but the Nevada Geodetic Laboratory has posted a couple of displacement maps, courtesy GSI and the head of the Satellite Geodesy Division, detailing the horizontal and vertical shift of the landmass along with explanation.
posted by neewom at 8:22 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

stringbean's comment above prompted me to finally finish my taxes this morning. I usually hate doing it (who doesn't?), but it was actually nice to put my mind on something so mundane for a change, even with NHK reporting unsettling stuff re the nuclear power plant(s) on TV in the background. I feel a small sense of accomplishment, so thanks for that! Now I'm wondering if I should venture out and make the trip to the tax office (haven't made arrangements to do everything online) at the next station, or if I should just stay put for the day. I don't trust the postal system very much right now...
posted by misozaki at 8:23 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

stringbean's comment above prompted me to finally finish my taxes this morning.

I think it's about doing something that we can control; I did mine last night.

D'oh, I just discovered the NHK feed on comcast has a secondary language track with an english translator.
posted by nomisxid at 8:28 PM on March 13, 2011

"NHK: The 7 missing people at the nuclear plant, as reported earlier, are now found. 6 people in total were injured." ^
posted by nickyskye at 8:28 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah, sorry, bad phrasing on my part, floam. In fact, looking at the actual post (as opposed to its comments), I'm now a little confused about what that thread is for.
posted by Bugbread at 8:37 PM on March 13, 2011

I find it oddly, morbidly noteworthy that KokuRyu's comment on the actual, direct meaning of a single explosion where "several workers have been injured and may have died" came directly after BungaDunga's post that 2,000 bodies had been found elsewhere.

Which is the real issue if you're really worried about keeping human beings in mind?

The technical discussion of nukes has been moved and is a different discussion altogether. Perhaps heeding recommendations to move your thoughts elsewhere shouldn't be swept off the table.
posted by RolandOfEld at 8:41 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Looks like there won't be a power outage for group 3 either. Fingers crossed that this continues on to group 4. As long as people don't get cocky, I can't see a reason why power usage would spike after noon, so if supply has outstripped demand for the morning, perhaps there won't be any power outages in the afternoon, either. Nighttime, when people turn on heaters, I have less hopes for.
posted by Bugbread at 8:42 PM on March 13, 2011

No, that thread, to my understanding, is the one to talk about the whole nuclear aspect of the disaster. Which is a terrible aspect, don't get me wrong, but the fearmongering of Americans about it is beginning to make me kind of ill. Some friends of mine in eastern Colorado announced today on Facebook that they went out and bought Geiger counters. This makes me want to throw up. Give that money to the goddamn Japanese Red Cross or send doughnuts or something, jesus. I remember the terrifying radioactive Chernobyl cloud which was supposed to hit us on the east coast back when I was in college, a cloud that started out about 600 miles closer to us in South Carolina than Fukushima is to San Francisco. We all lived through it just fine: NOTHING HAPPENED. OK I will shut up now.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:43 PM on March 13, 2011 [11 favorites]

Edano: 15-20 micro Sv/hour at the plant; 1 micro Sv/hour away from the plant . . . 6 people injured at plant . . . about 500 people being evacuated from the 20 km radius around the plant, staying indoors advised if you're in the evac zone . . . little possibility of massive amounts of radiation being released
posted by clorox at 8:46 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

What I'm wondering is, if NHK reports something about the nuke plants, should I post it here? Not my opinions on it, but stuff like "NHK reports another hydrogen explosion" or the like? Or does ALL nuclear stuff go over there.
posted by Bugbread at 8:47 PM on March 13, 2011

Heading out to forage for roots and berries/check the supermarket. Looking at friends pictures on facebook, it doesn't look promising, but it's a nice day, feeling a little stir crazy, and there's only so much DOOM one can take while the sun is shining.

We'll see how things go with the outages. Group 1 comes back for round two at 4:30. Sounds like a good night for Carcasonne, some yakitori, and whatever we can find at the store.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:49 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I gather factual reporting is fine, let's just not debate past that.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:49 PM on March 13, 2011

Apple is making it easy to donate to the red cross through itunes.
posted by tomswift at 8:51 PM on March 13, 2011

I would sure appreciate any *news* about the plants posted here, agreeing with the idea of a separate thread for the opinion stuff.

I took a break & was reading for a while and the hubby came in with "there's been another explosion and there's a another tsunami on the way" .... you can guess where I came first to find out what was REALLY going on, and I wasn't disappointed. Thank you again.....
posted by cdalight at 8:52 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant Reactor 3 explosion @ March 14, 2011
posted by codacorolla at 8:55 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

D'oh, I just discovered the NHK feed on comcast has a secondary language track with an english translator.

Please explain. I would so like to know how to listen to the NHK feed in English.
posted by nickyskye at 8:56 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant Reactor 3 explosion @ March 14, 2011

Well that was about as menacing as one could expect, holy crap.
posted by cashman at 8:57 PM on March 13, 2011

I gather factual reporting is fine, lets not debate past that.
Factual reporting is fine, lets not axe-grind past that.
posted by islander at 9:01 PM on March 13, 2011

Side by side image of the explosions.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:04 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

How to enable English translation for Japanese NHK Channel on Comcast.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:05 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

15-20 micro Sv/hour at the plant
Correction: 20-50 micro Sv/hour.

NHK World: 70% chance of earthquake M7+ by Thursday.
posted by clorox at 9:06 PM on March 13, 2011

NHK World: 70% chance of earthquake M7+ by Thursday.

I'm guessing that is based on recent events and knowledge of the land, but I am so rooting for that 30%.
posted by cashman at 9:07 PM on March 13, 2011

NHK World: Wildfires in Kesennuma (Miyagi Prefecture); due to damage, fire brigades have only just been able to reach the area.
posted by clorox at 9:09 PM on March 13, 2011

Holy shins, maybe it was a better angle, but the explosion at #3 was hella scarier than #1's.

I've spent all my free time this weekend reading this thread. I just wanted to note that if we're taking a collection to send flashlights and donuts to Japan, I'd be happy to contribute to postage. Past time for bed now here on the East Coast - I hope I wake up to read very little news.
posted by maryr at 9:12 PM on March 13, 2011

Screenshot of #3 post-explosion here.
posted by dialetheia at 9:14 PM on March 13, 2011

TEPCO spokesman is announcing that there have been no needs for power outages in blocks 1, 2, or 3, due to people conserving power, and especially due to trains shutting down...except that the reason the trains shut down is because there were going to be power outages.

I used to call this "irony", but ever since that Alanis Morissete song came out and the internet taught me that there are no two people on the planet who agree on what "irony" means, and that therefore anyone who ever used the word was using it wrong, I just call it "weird circular paradoxical self-contradictional situationality". Which is a shame, because "irony" was so much shorter.
posted by Bugbread at 9:15 PM on March 13, 2011 [12 favorites]

NHK World: Extent of tsunami penetration greater than 5km inland.

Tokyo University, via NHK World: Last tsunami that penetrated this far was 1140 years ago, based on sand samples originating on the coast found inland.
posted by clorox at 9:26 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Please explain. I would so like to know how to listen to the NHK feed in English.

And alternate to furiousxgeorge's method, if you have a Tivo like I do, hit right on the directional pad to bring up the channel menu, move the cursor down to the dolby symbol, and hit select, you should be presented with two choices, the current Japanese, and a second audio channel marked Spanish, select that one and wait longer than you'd expect, and you will get what english there is. It's not 100% translated, there's only japanese spoken right now, for example.
posted by nomisxid at 9:27 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

NHK World: 11 people injured in reactor #3 explosion; all conscious at the moment.

NHK World is currently replaying the 30-minute newscast that just finished. If you want to catch up, I suggest you tune in now.
posted by clorox at 9:32 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Any word on Block 4 power?
posted by Bugbread at 9:37 PM on March 13, 2011

I wonder why so many were injured. Would they have needed to be near the reactor at this stage in order to manage it?
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 9:39 PM on March 13, 2011

Any word on Block 4 power?

Here's a screenshot from the NHK stream and comments. I think they're talking about the power outages, but I'm not sure.
posted by clorox at 9:54 PM on March 13, 2011

@Soupisgoodfood:

Industrial sites/power plants of this type/size always need workers on the ground.

Whether it's turning manual valves/switches or reading gauges to verify what the operators are seeing on their screens in the control room there are jobs that require them to be in/around the workings of the plant. And those are the normal operational reasons they'd need to be there. In the case of something actually breaking you'd need others to come in and fix what needed fixing. Add in the fact that few things in this whole situation are normal and you can see how people would be in the line of fire if things go boom.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:01 PM on March 13, 2011

^ Given the warnings of explosions, these guys are heroes.

.

As an aside, one of the things I find astounding about this decade is that through the net or even cable I can tune in to NHK for news on Japan or Al Jazeera for coverage of the Middle East. I think the American networks can, at times (really) do some pretty good international coverage but you can't quite match having a news source closer to the scene.

I find it hard to imagine what the Iraq war would have been like, for example, if I had been able to watch it on Al Jazeera English. The adversarial pose America took against Al Jazeera would have been far less credible.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:10 PM on March 13, 2011 [8 favorites]

I think there's probably a lot of heroes in Japan these days... and more to be seen in the coming days, not just in the affected parts of the country either.

I'm taking notes Japan, and so far you've show amazing resolve and strength. Kudos and good luck.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:20 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Codacorolla, thanks for that link to the clip of the explosion. I would have felt a lot less worried, though, had the announcer at the end done something, said something, anything other than looking down at her monitor without speaking.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:20 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

What I find interesting, it was mentioned a bit above (way above), is that I have only seen one injured person shown on TV, network/youtube shows nothing, yes, there was the ode to the cameraman filming the first tsunami, and yes, they show the body-bags, true, but…I do find it unusual (as a North American)…I don't mean to seem that that is what i want to see, however…it's just something I note as a difference between western/eastern media.
posted by atomicmedia at 10:24 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Block 4 power outage confirmed as cancelled.

"What I find interesting, it was mentioned a bit above (way above), is that I have only seen one injured person shown on TV"

I always felt that way, in reverse, with seeing Mexican media. Japan is on one end of the spectrum, America is in the middle, and Mexico is at the other.

I just keep wondering how you can have all this helicopter footage without inadvertently showing any corpses.
posted by Bugbread at 10:28 PM on March 13, 2011

@TimeOutTokyo on Twitter is citing reports that the Block 5 power outages will actually happen. They say "more on that soon."
posted by zachlipton at 10:31 PM on March 13, 2011

I think in US media coverage you do tend to see more injured people, but fewer body bags, if anything. We're all for visceral emotional tragedy, but nothing as permanent as death, please.
posted by maryr at 10:37 PM on March 13, 2011

Should have previewed. Bugbread - I presume that's why so many of the live tsunami shots were quickly clipped before the waves overwhelmed people in cars.
posted by maryr at 10:38 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

As a 'for instance'... just saw some new coverage... house goes by, a woman pops out, floating with the house, yet the camera does not move, house floats out of view.

Perhaps it was all too big or quick or mesmerizing….
posted by atomicmedia at 10:51 PM on March 13, 2011

You can compare the screenshot map of the tsunami's inland reach range that clorox posted to the same location on the sea level rise flood map.

The labeled points on the screenshot are Miyagino Ward at top, Wakabayashi Ward in middle (at 38°.244167 N, 140°.900833 E), and Natori and the airport at the bottom.
posted by hat at 10:51 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

American fleet rearrange position away from radiation detected 160km off Fukushima coast.
posted by nickyskye at 11:00 PM on March 13, 2011

CNN International says 350 aftershocks since the 9.0

They also compare the energy of the quake to 17,500 nuclear bombs

Can I strangle a network?
posted by atomicmedia at 11:00 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't know, maybe you could strangle a network if you had enough cable.
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:02 PM on March 13, 2011 [19 favorites]

Time Out Twitter: "Officials are repeating that there's a 70% chance of a repeat quake or aftershock of magnitude 7 between now and Thursday, in affected areas. People are warned to be wary of small quakes, too, as already damaged roads and weakened ground may become seriously dangerous."
posted by nickyskye at 11:03 PM on March 13, 2011

i think that was the quickest +5 fav i have ever seen! stopping noise.
posted by atomicmedia at 11:05 PM on March 13, 2011

Just now there was another aftershock, and I've immediately got my hands on the arms of the chair, ready to jump up, while my wife lifts her head from her nap. She looked at me, and smiled, without saying anything.* She was back asleep before the shaking stopped.

^{*If I could read minds, I'm sure I would have heard her thinking something along the lines of "Rookie..."}
posted by Ghidorah at 11:23 PM on March 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

I have the Firefox eQuake Alertinstalled that shakes the screen and gives a location at the bottom of the screen for each quake worldwide. It gives you an whole new insight into just how many aftershocks there have been watching the screen shake every little while. (and how common earthquakes are all the time)
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:26 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Clearly, if you give 'em enough cable, the network will strangle itself.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:35 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

"I have the Firefox eQuake Alertinstalled that shakes the screen"

It would be nice if they could tune the vibration with the vibration of the quakes themselves. That way, the next aftershock we get, everything would be shaking like crazy, but since the screen and I would be synched, the screen would look like it wasn't standing still.
posted by Bugbread at 11:36 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

a humble nudibranch, one of our security guys sends us automated quake alerts for anything over a 6 globally or a 3 for the Los Angeles region. He had to turn the global ones off this weekend.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:38 PM on March 13, 2011

nomisxid writes "It seemed like an unusually large number of homes manager to stay together, even when floating around, even after impacts, as compared to every video I've seen of a house in America getting pulled into a river, where it usually shreds apart 5 seconds into the water. I wonder if it's a sign of improved earthquake codes in construction over the years."

It could be that Japanese homes are better connected however the floating houses are getting knocked off their foundations as a unit and once floating the stresses are somewhat evenly distributed. The houses that get eaten by floods eating away at river banks are subjected to uneven stresses from their foundations being removed slowly from one end and/or the flood waters only hitting part of the structure. The unsupported overhang puts high concentrated stress on the structure at the balance point.
posted by Mitheral at 11:40 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ouch.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 11:44 PM on March 13, 2011

A bit of an update from the 'normal' part of the country (west side of Tokyo) ...

The rolling blackout scheduled for three hours at noon today didn't happen. News broadcasts explained (as Bugbread mentioned upthread) that because electricity usage was reduced from what was expected, it wasn't necessary. Trains cancelled, so people couldn't get to work, so factories closed, so usage was low. But that situation can't possibly continue. It seems the idea of shutting power down to areas in turn is manageable for residents, but it destroys any chance of train operations throughout the city. I'm not an electrical engineer, but it seems that if they can devise/patch some kind of system that allows trains to run during the blackouts (dedicated electrical substations?), then this might be doable, but if not, then I don't know how they have any chance of continuing this plan ...

There is a quite strange 'calm before the storm' kind of feeling in the air around town. Traffic is low, and people are walking around quietly. The lady at the noodle shop across the street is taking advantage of the lull in business to wash the covers of all her cushions (her customers sit at low tables to eat), and her balcony is festooned with the colourful squares.

The shops seem basically normal. I just got back from dropping some orders off at the post office, and stopped by a 7-11 on the way home to get my dinner. Shelves full, everything normal. One of the girls was telling a customer what it had been like during the quake ... stuff bouncing off the shelves, a few bottles breaking here and there. [Slight derail: for the benefit of US readers, getting dinner at the 7-11 doesn't mean that I'm eating junk food. I got a 16-ingredient salad, some fresh gyoza, and a cup of yogurt. The salad is marked with the time it was made (not the date, the time) and the company rule is that once it goes past four hours, it can't be sold. When the girl at the cash register hits it with the barcode, the system can understand whether or not it is too 'old' and won't allow the sale to be registered if so. This has happened to me before (rarely), and even though I tell her it's OK, or ask for a little discount or something, it's no go. She takes it away and puts it into the trash bag behind the counter.]

Something quite strange this afternoon is that kids are playing in the river and field behind my house! That really does deserve an exclamation mark. I've been in this building more than ten years, and I haven't seen kids playing out there more than a half-dozen times, I'm sure. I don't know if this is anything to do with the current public safety issues, but the kids have (apparently) been let out early for spring vacation. March is the end of the school year here, and in the first week of April, they will be starting a new term, and a new year. For ten days or so, they are pretty much free from studies, the way that I used to be for two months every summer!

And it's a beautiful sunny afternoon, the air is warm, and - for us here anyway - things are OK. I know that up north things are different - as I am reminded every couple of hours as the gentle aftershocks continue - and that over in the troubled power stations there are quite probably some very 'normal' people facing some very surreal situations, perhaps putting their health and lives on the line to try and protect the rest of us from danger, but we won't hear their stories until later ... At least I hope we'll get to hear them ...
posted by woodblock100 at 11:45 PM on March 13, 2011 [32 favorites]

I know that in 2007 they implemented the earthquake warning via cellphone in Japan, but is WeatherNews a part of that? The beginning of this video fascinates me. It may have been linked before.
posted by atomicmedia at 11:48 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks for keeping us updated, Ghidorah, woodblock100, everyone else. I hope you're holding up ok.
posted by Errant at 11:49 PM on March 13, 2011

"Millions of people spent a third night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the devastated northeastern coast; the containment building of a second nuclear reactor exploded because of hydrogen buildup while the stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda."

"He said local authorities were also running out of body bags and coffins.
'We have requested funeral homes across the nation to send us many body bags and coffins. But we simply don't have enough. We just did not expect such a thing to happen. It's just overwhelming.'"
posted by nickyskye at 11:54 PM on March 13, 2011

Thanks for that video Atomicmedia, every one I look at halfway through I say, "Holy shit, the quake is till going on..."
posted by furiousxgeorge at 11:56 PM on March 13, 2011

An aside: On Saturdays, my mom teaches an extracurricular science class for some smart middle-school cookies who hope to attend New York's magnet high schools. This past weekend, all the kids wanted to do was discuss the situation in Japan.

Before she launched into an explanation of plate tectonics, she asked the class what questions were on their mind. One kid asked, earnestly, if my mom thought the world was about to end.

Of course, she told him no, adding that these were understandable phenomena, and that while it's certainly okay to be concerned for the safety of people in northern Japan, the world was in no way about to blow apart.

That said, it breaks my heart a little that the kid felt the need to ask.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:58 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

That WeatherNews video is fascinating. If there was an earthquake in San Francisco, it would take about 10 seconds to hit where I am, so a warning system could give some people enough time to run away from a dangerous place. Maybe we don't get enough earthquakes often enough to implement a system like that here.
posted by eye of newt at 11:59 PM on March 13, 2011

I think we should…there's an app for that, right?
posted by atomicmedia at 12:02 AM on March 14, 2011

REUTERS/Kyodo aerial photo of a high school sports field has an SOS sign along with what appears to be several makeshift graves, Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture.

Inside Minamisanriku: 'Some Kind of Armageddon'
posted by plokent at 12:05 AM on March 14, 2011

I've just a had a look at some of the apps for the iPhone. Not very polished at the moment. Hopefully that will change. Should be an easy thing to achieve and would be great even if it only gave some people a couple of minuets warning.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 12:09 AM on March 14, 2011

Clearly, if you give 'em enough cable, the network will strangle itself.

Shame it's such a slow, lingering death.

The amount of fear-mongering, misinformation and pure ignorance coming out of the US via social media is, I'd like to say, unbelievable. Unfortunately it's all too believable. Sad as well.
posted by Duke999R at 12:10 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The pure ignorance is what i was concerned about.
posted by atomicmedia at 12:13 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Talking about comparing the energy released to the "number" of 17,5000 "atomic bombs" whatever that means...
posted by atomicmedia at 12:15 AM on March 14, 2011

We just got back from the grocery store (picture to come later). It was open and people were stocking up on staples. Bread was gone, but there was rice, and we got a 5kg bag. All the meat was gone, too, and I wonder if it was just because it had gone bad or if everyone had gotten there first. Plenty of eggs. We stocked up on some fruit and rice and what packaged meat we could find, and things like coffee and filters. Restaurants were open in different places in Morioka, and we stopped for some tempura and tonkatsudon. All in all, it looks like people are trying to get back to normal life here.
posted by gc at 12:18 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

I heard there was a huge explosion right over the center of America mid-day yesterday, irradiating the whole country, with the power of millions of atomic bombs.
posted by Bugbread at 12:20 AM on March 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

Earthquake Warning Systems, of which Japan's is the most advanced. They work because earthquake waves are a lot slower than the internet. If you are miles from the epicenter, you can get a warning before it gets to you.

Apparently California does have a system, but it appears geared just for a few select government agencies, hospitals, and schools. They definitely need an app so it can be more widely accessible. Enough people would buy the app so that they'd have money to be able to expand it.
posted by eye of newt at 12:21 AM on March 14, 2011

atomicmedia, I understand. That ignorance then flows out via twitter etc. It's probably why that kid thought it was the end of the world. Shameful behaviour.
posted by Duke999R at 12:23 AM on March 14, 2011

lol Bugbread, now you've done it ;)
posted by Duke999R at 12:24 AM on March 14, 2011

Woodblock, I'm still jealous that you live out in Ome. In Chiba, yeah, it is strangely quiet, though the monorail is running, which we thought was pretty strange (also, since it runs suspended from an overhead track, some 40 feet above the ground, a pretty lousy place to get stuck). We're in group one, and they're saying it's a low possibility that we'll lose power, but I guess we'll find out in about half an hour.

Store shelves are pretty bare. We tried at a large supermarket (where we could pick up some vittles) and a home center, but no gas cartridges for gas stoves or portable grills anywhere. Batteries were all gone, and there were long lines at every store. There's currently a run on toilet paper, and nearly every customer had a jumbo pack. The home center was more packed than I've ever seen it, with people buying all manner of things they think they might need.

My friend who's been staying over has started looking at tickets to get back home, though flight availability is only part of the issue. With no trains, getting to the airport gets more difficult. Earlier, I'd said I thought things (in Kanto) would be back to morning by Tuesday. Now, hearing that there might be rolling blackouts until April (!), I'm feeling quite foolish at my unwarranted optimism.

It feels weird, like we're all just waiting. There were lots of kids going into the karaoke place down the street, and people at restaurants. At the same time, lots of people buying much more than they'd normally get, people stopping at the bank to get money in case they can't later. It feels like a lull, and it makes me uncomfortably nervous. I'm really hoping for a good night of sleep tonight, because more than anything else, I'm just tired.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:25 AM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Earthquake Warning Systems, of which Japan's is the most advanced. They work because earthquake waves are a lot slower than the internet. If you are miles from the epicenter, you can get a warning before it gets to you.

You haven't used AT&T's mobile broadband network, huh?
posted by zachlipton at 12:25 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

It would be great if people could think about quake early warning distribution in terms of widely accessible infrastructure, not just smartphone apps and Twitter. A very, very large number of people in North America do not have smartphones and have never looked at a Twitter feed.
posted by hat at 12:28 AM on March 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

woodblock, the shelves of your local 7-11 was full? My mom, who lives in Chiba, called me this morning and told me that the stores in her area were basically stripped of products everywhere she went. I hadn't gone grocery shopping for a couple of days after the quake so I didn't know, so half out of curiosity and half out of necessity, I went to check out one of my local grocery stores. Turns out, they were closing from 14-19 o'clock due to the rolling blackout that might or might not happen. So I looked inside the drug store across the street and you would have thought a disaster had struck here. Long lines at the cashier of people hoarding toilet paper and bottled tea (because there was no water left) and cup ramen left and right, stretching out into the street. So I just went home; I can still work something out for my family for a few more days.

Truth be told, I'm really not sure how to react to all that's happened in the past few days. The survivors up north, they have nothing. Their homes are gone without a trace. Many people have lost loved ones, some right before their eyes. Cities have vanished. An entire region has been... wiped out. And if that weren't enough, they still have the nuclear plant to worry about.

But here in Tokyo? Tokyo is... inconvenienced, but not devastated. We still basically have electricity. We still have running water. My son went to school this morning, my husband took the Metro to work. Trains schedules are sporadic, but the main lines are still up.

But what I saw today at the stores was unnerving. People here are starting to panic, or at least trying to prepare? ...For what? What might happen? When? How much longer will this go on?

I think right now I'm most worried about the nuclear plants right now, not the aftershocks per se. But what if there was another serious quake on top of all this? Should I be hoarding cup ramen, too?

I'm worried. I feel... uneasy. The earth is still shaking, and the fact that it's going on for so long is really very unsettling. But I feel guilty for feeling the way I do, when my situation is nothing like what the people up north are facing. I still have a home. I still have my family. I still have work. It's hard to keep a sense of perspective in times like this.

You know, I never thought I'd think something like this, but I really want to see normal commercials on TV again, not just those annoying AC "let's be good citizens" commercials. I want to see silly "owarai" on TV again. ...No, what I really want is to be able to turn off my TV again, without feeling like I might miss something life-threatening on the news.

Aftershock again. Sigh.
posted by misozaki at 12:28 AM on March 14, 2011 [26 favorites]

Everyone in the office whose phone is on AU just got a simultaneous and INTENSELY FRIGHTENING "early earthquake warning" alert. Luckily it was hundreds of kilometers away, but it's still not something that you want to have showing up, especially not now, while we're all basically hoping as hard as we can for a really boring news day.
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:29 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

It would be great if people could think about quake early warning distribution in terms of widely accessible infrastructure, not just smartphone apps and Twitter. A very, very large number of people in North America do not have smartphones and have never looked at a Twitter feed.

We do have an emergency broadcast system for TV and Radio too. A lot of the US is in severe weather territory and this infrastructure is tested and maintained and used, I doubt it is as good at quickly getting an earthquake warning on the air though.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 12:32 AM on March 14, 2011

It would be great if people could think about quake early warning distribution in terms of widely accessible infrastructure, not just smartphone apps and Twitter. A very, very large number of people in North America do not have smartphones and have never looked at a Twitter feed.--hat

One of the big problems holding a system like this back appears to be funding since the web sites I scanned seem to talk about the state's budget problems. With people paying for an app, the state's budget problem becomes irrelevant. And would be fairly easy to expand a system from one that runs on an app to one that gives alerts and alarms at hospitals and schools, and automated radio announcements.

By keeping it as a government run system, it pretty much doesn't happen, for years.
posted by eye of newt at 12:35 AM on March 14, 2011

misozaki, that's it exactly. I was sort of shocked, this morning, to see those commercials, and I thought, just maybe, it was a sign of things getting better, but it's just the same ones again and again.

Honestly, if you can get some stuff stocked up, I'd do it. It's better to have it and not need it, I think. But yeah, it's scary, seeing everyone stocking up. It's like it's the herd impulse, and we're all picking up on the undercurrent of fear, and it's just bouncing around, getting a little more amplified. Still, people are being very polite, very patient.

Having Edano's press conference cut off by another earthquake alert (in Nagano, barely felt it, but still) isn't helping the confidence.

Having just looked back at what I wrote, I realize it sounds pretty bleak. I don't think it's that bad, and I'm fine, really I am. I'm just, well, feeling the stress. I'm glad my wife couldn't make it to work today, because she'd still be there, and they're announcing that tons of trains that are stopping for the night already.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:36 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

And to DoctorFedora, the earthquake warning could give you an approximate strength based on the reading at the sensor and your distance, as calculated from your phone's GPS. No need for false panic.
posted by eye of newt at 12:38 AM on March 14, 2011

But that wasn't on the air--- that was tell where your computer is, gives you the difference between the light waves and destructive waves, and lets you know how soon the stuff is coming down.

Not in California, but it just seems like a good thing, considering we have a lot of receivers.
posted by atomicmedia at 12:38 AM on March 14, 2011

My understanding is that Japan's early warning system runs on special radio networks to disseminate alerts rapidly. The latency on a smartphone app's notifications would probably be way too long to be useful--these systems aren't designed to push a critical message to millions of people within five seconds. Also, there would still be a great deal of government expense for the infrastructure behind the app, and one might question whether it is fair to charge special fees to smartphone users for access to a potentially lifesaving service that is provided with government resources.

It would be great to see this happen in California, but from a technical perspective, I think it really needs to be done right and with the cooperation of the government and mobile providers, not using the same mechanism that tells me I have a new friend request on Facebook.
posted by zachlipton at 12:41 AM on March 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

Ghidorah, I'm hoping your wife can avoid going in to work all week. Being close to my family through all this is spiritually reassuring and comforting, and the thought of being far away from them* in the event of something catastrophic (another big quake nearer or in Tokyo, for example) is almost unbearable.

*and when trains stop running, even not-that-far-away can be far away.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:43 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

It was done and done in 2007 in Japan across all networks, and still, don't know whether WeatherNews was really a part of that.
posted by atomicmedia at 12:45 AM on March 14, 2011

There's a precedent--there are maps in the SF Bay Area that show traffic speed along all the major highways. The sensors are all government installed and paid for, but the distribution of this information on the web was done by commercial companies in return for being able to run advertising. And there are apps. And it probably involves a heck of a lot more sensors than what are needed for earthquake detection.
posted by eye of newt at 12:45 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks, flapjax. I'm still hoping we'll be able to go to Chicago this Thursday. I'll feel a lot better once we're in the air.

As for the phone alerts, it's not the standard mail, though I'm not familiar with the terms you'd know. Standard mails on au frequently take strangely long times to deliver, sometimes coming in bunches hours after. The alerts come through on what they call c-mail, which is keyed to your cell phone's number, rather than an email address, and they come very, very quickly.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:47 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Zachlipton: I dunno if the Weathernews thing is government funded or not, but I can tell you that it requires an ongoing $3 (or so) monthly subscription.

Misozaki, as far as seeing ads, I forget which channel, but one of them was alternating the AC ads with Uniqlo ads.
posted by Bugbread at 12:52 AM on March 14, 2011

Ghidorah: The only times I've found AU mails taking a long time to arrive has been in the last two or three days. I have all work emails transferred to my cell phone (in case I happen to be away from the computer), so I see them arrive on my computer, and also hear them arrive on the phone. They generally arrive within 1 minute of each-other. Sometimes 2 minutes, but sometimes even before the computer gets them.

But, yeah, at even 1 or 2 minutes, that's not so useful for an earthquake alert. Better to use cmail or whatever other system they have.
posted by Bugbread at 12:56 AM on March 14, 2011

there would still be a great deal of government expense for the infrastructure behind the app

The USGS web sites talk about spending as much as $1 million toward an early-warning system in California. Even in today's economic environment, it would be hard to convince a venture capitalist to spend that little on any project. It would be considered too small for them.
posted by eye of newt at 12:57 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

It would be great if people could think about quake early warning distribution in terms of widely accessible infrastructure, not just smartphone apps and Twitter.

How about text messaging? A couple years ago, Columbia University began offering a text-message alert service for school emergencies and closures. Some municipalities, including the District of Columbia, have begun doing the same. Like most people, I'm next to a charged cell phone a heck of a lot more than I am a television or a radio (let alone a television or a radio that's on), making such alerts a valuable service.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 12:58 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Bugbread, I think part of it is I have a crappy older phone, but I've had issues with mails occasionally arriving hours after they were sent. I've asked them why, but they can't seem to figure it out, or fix it. That's one reason I'm seriously looking to switch back to Softbank.

It would seem that Group 1 won't be losing power just yet, which is kind of nice. They did say it's highly likely for group five to lose power for a couple hours. If you're in that group, take care, good luck.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:01 AM on March 14, 2011

Oh gosh, not to sound... I don't know, dismissive? But Ghidorah, if you make it to Chicago, you should consider just staying there! For months! For good! Good riddance to this goddamn quake country!

Bugbread, I'm not sure if Uniqlo ads will make me feel any better, but maybe I'll give them a shot. So... uh, thanks?（＾＿＾；）
posted by misozaki at 1:02 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I don't know the details of my University's EMS, but I know there is one for sending text alerts. I would think that the SMS could just be broadcast assuming phones listen to broadcasts. The phones are constantly listening to signals from the cell towers to be able to receive incoming calls...
posted by zengargoyle at 1:03 AM on March 14, 2011

misozaki, thanks, but for some strange reason, I like it here. Maybe not at the moment, but I've been here almost 11 years, and it feels more like home than anywhere else does right now. I haven't managed to win loto 6 or takarakuji yet, so Hawaii and Bali will have to wait. Plus, Tokyo meetups are too small as it is. We need all the members we can get!
posted by Ghidorah at 1:07 AM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Ghidorah,

Ah, I was thinking "receiving". I seldom send emails from my phone, and the ones I do, I don't know when they arrive. It may be that AU sends out slowly in batches, but receives quickly on an individual basis. Dunno.
posted by Bugbread at 1:07 AM on March 14, 2011

Text messaging isn't going to cut it, because with an earthquake alert, you're incredibly lucky if you have 30 seconds warning from the initial detection. In Northern California, we're pretty close to the faults, which means that for a warning to be useful, dissemination time has to be near zero, especially as some time is going to be eaten up by the initial measurement and processing of the data.

From the quick research I've just been doing, a lot of these warning systems apparently use GSM Cell Broadcast, which looks like a form of special one-to-many text messaging for precisely this application. You would still need a software layer on top of this to interpret warnings based on the phone's current location and to issue an appropriate level of alert, but that's certainly doable. I don't know whether there is any comparable system for CDMA, which is quite popular in the US. We have some iDEN networks too.

In other words, I don't see this working as a standalone app. It would really have to be something done with the full involvement of the cell phone companies. Given the way our mobile providers have dragged their feet over wireless E911, I can't see them jumping to help anytime soon.
posted by zachlipton at 1:14 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Bugbread,

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Sometimes I receive mails from my wife (who is on au) and friends (some of whom are, too) much later than they are sent. I can see the 'sent' time on the mail, and sometimes it's up to an hour, or more, before I received the mail. Anyway, it's not a big deal, just a once in awhile annoyance.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:17 AM on March 14, 2011

That said, it breaks my heart a little that the kid felt the need to ask.

Hell, my four year old kicked off a huge argument in her creche because she was the only one of twenty kids who thought the earth was round, not flat.
posted by rodgerd at 1:23 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Zachlipton: I don't know anything about GSM Cell Broadcast, and almost nothing about cell phones, but the Wikipedia page you linked mentions that it "is designed for simultaneous delivery of messages to multiple users in a specified area" and that it "is a one-to-many geographically focused messaging service." So I don't think you'd need to intercept warnings based on the phone's location: only the base stations in pertinent areas would send out messages in the first place. The base stations would require software (or perhaps further up the chain, determining what to send to each base station), but the phone itself wouldn't have to interpret the warning, just ring and display whatever content it received.
posted by Bugbread at 1:26 AM on March 14, 2011

Way behind the thread, which is moving too fast for me--but what a poignant statement from carter's link a couple hundred comments back:

"[Survivors] are doing what they can, pulling together and their pleasure in seeing outsiders here for the first time, genuinely touching. A woman emerges from the sports hall, where she and her family are living, looks at us in amazement:
'I am so happy you've come. Are people in England interested in this? I am astonished. I am so pleased. I cannot believe you have come all this way.'
And it's too much. She wells up. Voice choking, and hugs our translator. By now also in tears."

I don't know if this is another example of Japanese stoicism and/or whether the poor woman didn't yet know the scale of the disaster (likely, I suppose). Heartbreaking, either way, considering the whole world is watching Japan right now and wishing there were more we could do to help.
posted by torticat at 1:38 AM on March 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

misozaki and Ghidorah have just replayed a conversation had by me and relatives about living in quake country of California. Just had to smile at that - people stay because they fall in love with a place, happens everywhere. And meanwhile I'm learning from all of this - we're working on putting together an earthquake kit that CA has urged all residents to do, but somehow we've put it off even though we've lived here for years. Wish there were easy to find hard hats here, I think owning one would be a good idea.
posted by batgrlHG at 1:44 AM on March 14, 2011

Guys, I'm really stressed out, so let's do another Maru break.
posted by gc at 1:59 AM on March 14, 2011 [10 favorites]

I went to the International Friendship Center in Aiina today for lack of better things to do (and for not going insane). It sounds like the Consulate is sending a few people up to consult, and there's very small and let's say unconfirmed talk of a possible voluntary evacuation of US citizens. I'd like to stress that this is not confirmed at all. But there's that. And yes I'd totally be on that evacuation.

The number of people in Aiina was less than 100. Talk was many of those people were Shinkansen riders that were trapped in Morioka, and that some buses took them down to Tokyo. The expressways seem to be open to priority traffic, not everyday traffic.

Again, grain of salt and all.
posted by gc at 2:05 AM on March 14, 2011

gc, Timeout just posted that the Iwate Kokusai Center is up on twitter with multilingual updates, if it helps.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:10 AM on March 14, 2011

Ghidorah, that's totally where I was! Cool.

(follow)
posted by gc at 2:12 AM on March 14, 2011

Thanks, zachlipton, that covers the other big problem I was thinking about. Earthquake early warning (EEW) distribution has to be both widely accessible and low-latency.

There is actually an extant EAS/NWR-SAME code for "earthquake warning," similar to the NWR-SAME codes for "tornado warning," "tsunami warning," or "hurricane local statement" that are already used in NOAA Weather Radio / Weatheradio Canada hazard alerts.

In theory, if we had widespread EEW sensor networks throughout quake-prone areas of North America, the same weather radios and other devices that can already receive NWR-SAME code broadcasts could alert end users in specific regions to imminent quakes expected within a certain margin of time. Encoding a little extra information would allow those devices to quickly calculate and count down to a more specific arrival time, like we've seen clips of.

Disseminating the same information in North America via standard radio and TV broadcasts, GSM Cell Broadcast, or whatever else will require a lot more built-in automaticity than currently exists even in many cases with NWR-SAME/EAS activation for tornado warnings, where the margin of time for distribution is counted in minutes rather than seconds.

Additionally, most members of the public, who don't own weather alert radios (except for some businesses and institutions, hunters/boaters/hikers, etc., or people in tsunami- and tornado-prone areas), have to wait to hear about it until local broadcasters receive the alert and arrange to broadcast it.

Furthermore, in the case of non-weather alerts like earthquake warnings and child abduction emergencies (Amber Alerts) specifically, NWR alert broadcasts happen after the request of state and local authorities, though in some areas this process is automated or smoothed somewhat by local cooperation.

There's plenty of talk about potential systems, but I have no idea what kind of kick in the pants it would take to get public funding and private investment or at least cooperation for rapid broadcast via at least cell, radio, and TV.
posted by hat at 2:21 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

"there's very small and let's say unconfirmed talk of a possible voluntary evacuation of US citizens. I'd like to stress that this is not confirmed at all. But there's that. And yes I'd totally be on that evacuation."

Evacuation of where? (I mean, leave Morioka, or leave northern Honshu, or leave Japan?)
posted by Bugbread at 2:23 AM on March 14, 2011

Evacuation of where? (I mean, leave Morioka, or leave northern Honshu, or leave Japan?)
posted by Bugbread at 6:23 PM on March 14 [+] [!]

I would assume leaving Japan. Again, let's treat that as a rumor. I'm thinking about meeting with a consulate member if they do come up here, just to register that I'm here. So we'll see.
posted by gc at 2:29 AM on March 14, 2011

It wouldn't hurt to register. Let us know how it goes. And remember, if you do get put on an aircraft carrier, it's considered rude to keep asking what different buttons do.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:31 AM on March 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

It wouldn't hurt to register. Let us know how it goes. And remember, if you do get put on an aircraft carrier, it's considered rude to keep asking what different buttons do.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:31 PM on March 14 [+] [!]

"Can I launch the planes?"

"No."

"What about now?"

"No."

"Can I wave the glowy sticks around?"

"N-... We'll see."
posted by gc at 2:34 AM on March 14, 2011 [19 favorites]

Guys, I'm really stressed out, so let's do another Maru break.

I can relate to that cat. That's how I felt trying to get comfortable enough to sleep the other night at a booth at Gusto.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:40 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

thanks gc, that and Maru linkage were well timed.
posted by squasha at 2:41 AM on March 14, 2011

flapjax, I drove past our local Gusto today and totally thought of you.
posted by squasha at 2:42 AM on March 14, 2011

I've never been to the Gusto, but I've seen a few. How is it?
posted by gc at 2:43 AM on March 14, 2011

I've never been to the Gusto, but I've seen a few. How is it?

gc, upon arriving, I ordered a salad with bacon which was passably good but a little on the skimpy side, a plate of sausages that were, you know, OK. Kind of German-style, but they brought ketchup and mayo for them as condiments. Had to ask for mustard, whereupon the waiter seemed somewhat mystified, but dutifully brought me a coupla packets. And a nama biiru, which was slightly watery. Aside from that, they have an endless-refill drink bar (tea, watery juice, passable coffee, etc.) so for 200 yen or so you can drink to your heart's content. I had lots of hot chocolate.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:49 AM on March 14, 2011

@batgrlHG You can get a hard hat at any big box hardware store (Home Despot, etc.) and most smaller ones as well.
posted by calamari kid at 2:49 AM on March 14, 2011

On a scale of Japanese famiresu, I'd have to go Saizeriya (Doria, drink bar, foccacia for 600 yen) at the top, followed by Royal Host(interesting menu themes, always something worth checking out), and Coco's (attempted quesadillas, jambalaya) then Denny's (decent club sandwich), Gusto, and Jonathan's, with places like Bikuri Donkey taking up the absolute bottom.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:52 AM on March 14, 2011

flapjax, azuresunday informs me we have in fact been to Gusto in Morioka. I may have had a mediocre, somewhat odd club sandwich, if I remember right. We haven't been back since.
posted by gc at 2:52 AM on March 14, 2011

Coco's and Jonathan's I've been to. I was disappointed that Coco's wasn't a Coco's Curry House, but was decent. What sucked was the Big Boy's was a total tease. Big Boy's? That means hamburgers!

No, what it means is hamburg, WHICH IS NOT AS GOOD, JAPAN.
posted by gc at 2:56 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

can I just say I adore you guys for the conversation you are having, right now? signing off to make dinner...for some reason I have an urge to whip up some burgers.....
posted by squasha at 2:58 AM on March 14, 2011

I would like to know a great deal more about Japanese famiresu.
posted by hat at 3:00 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Huge disasters such as this have huge repercussions.
Robert Peston asks How will Japan finance its reconstruction?
and from Notayesmanseconomics's Blog What will the effect of the Earthquake and Tsunami be on the Japanese economy and the rest of the world?
posted by adamvasco at 3:13 AM on March 14, 2011

gc, you're dead on about Big Boy's. I saw it, and was excited to have a decentish burger, and instead, it was hamburg steak after hamburg steak. I can't, and likely will never, understand the Japanese obsession with taking perfectly good beef, adding bread crumbs and onions, and claiming that sauteed meat loaf is something to be oohed and ahd at on variety shows.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:15 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I find the burgers at Freshness Burger fall squarely into the decentish (my new favorite word) category.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:22 AM on March 14, 2011

Freshness Burger was decent, but on the expensive side. I think I put together a burger and fry combo, and two of us ate for around 2200 yen. Too much for what I had.
posted by gc at 3:37 AM on March 14, 2011

My first freshness burger came when I was here as a college student. It was in Sepember, 98, and I kept seeing burgers with eggs on them, and I thought, how odd, not knowing about the tsukimi burger craze. I got meandered (not lost, just walked too far) and passed a Freshness. I figured, why not, I'm hungry, I'll get me one of them egg burgers.

I ordered the egg and bacon burger, sat down, and took a bite, then burst out laughing. With everyone in the restaurant looking at me, I opened the 'burger' to find that it consisted of an egg, some bacon, lettuce, and a bun. No burger to be found. I've kept a wary distance since then.

Now, Ku'aina Burger, that's awesome, if steep.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:41 AM on March 14, 2011

yeah, well, Ku'aina Burger is in another league...

and I'd say you should give Freshness another chance!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:43 AM on March 14, 2011

Will do. My wife likes it, and maybe next time we'll give it another try.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:48 AM on March 14, 2011

Ku'aina Burger

That's that Ha-wah-yan burger joint, right? I hear they got some tasty burgers...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:49 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

As for the warning system, it would be nice if there were a radio station set up for the warnings that normally plays nothing--is silent. That way you can turn the radio on, turn up the volume, then go to sleep. If there's an alert, it'll wake you up.

I so wish that existed right now. Feeling very on edge about that impending M7 to hit Tokyo.
posted by zardoz at 3:57 AM on March 14, 2011

Feeling very on edge about that impending M7 to hit Tokyo.
posted by zardoz at 7:57 PM on March 14 [+] [!]

Up to M7. It may be huge, it may be tiny. It may be somewhere in between.

But yeah, I understand. Each little jolt we get here puts me on edge.
posted by gc at 4:01 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ghidorah, eggs are very popular on burgers here in Australia, as well as tomato and to a slightly lesser extent, pineapple and beetroot.
I'd love the chance to try an authentic tsukimi burger.
posted by Duke999R at 4:10 AM on March 14, 2011

Ghidorah, in Shenzhen, China, at one of the favorite laowai haunts, Red Roosters, they have a burger with an egg on it. As an Austrialian told me, and like Duke999R said, they were popular with Aussies. Never tried it, but they had an amazing bacon cheeseburger.
posted by gc at 4:14 AM on March 14, 2011

Hey, mariokart, any word from family? I've been thinking about them.

The guy at the visa office today said his family is from the Miyako area, and he hasn't heard from them yet. But holy crap if he wasn't genki as usual. I hope they're alright, too.
posted by gc at 4:17 AM on March 14, 2011

Those interested in quake alarm systems might be interested in the Quake Capture Network project. It aims to use the accelerometers built into laptops and smartphones as a distributed seismograph. This has three potential advantages over using normal conventional sensors - first the system is less liable to being disrupted by sensor damage in a large quakes, secondly the large, distributed array of sensors allows for a more detailed picture of what is happening to be drawn up - thirdly the application can also be used to rapidly sound alarms: especially to those who are seen to be geolocated in risk areas. An Economist article from 2008.
posted by rongorongo at 4:56 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Did we lose Tokyo?
posted by gc at 4:58 AM on March 14, 2011

^ I just got around to watching the high-def tsunami footage that BeerFilter linked, above, and it's some of the most harrowing stuff I've seen through this whole tragedy.

Agreed, shiu mai baby. (Also, I had the same reaction you did, KathrynT, about having a whole new picture now of what a tsunami looks like as it moves inland... wow.)

A couple of questions--how many km/mi at the most did the wave travel inland? What happens when a tsunami on this kind of terrain loses momentum: does it recede, and does it have enough power left at that point to suck debris with it back into the ocean? Does anyone have any idea how fast that water is moving across the fields in BeerFilter's link and how deep it is? (2-3ft?) Obviously this would be variable; I just mean roughly.

I'm wondering about all those drivers in the video. Is it unrealistic to think that a lot of those caught by the wave could have just waited it out inside their cars?

It's hard to get an idea of the speed and power of the water from the aerial videos.
posted by torticat at 5:03 AM on March 14, 2011

no, still here. Just trying to get through to the keisei bus website to see if my wife will be able to get to work tomorrow, since the blackouts are undecided, which means, more than likely, the trains won't run because of potential blackouts, which means the blackouts won't likely be needed, which means everything will be another clusterfuck.

Also trying to find a way to get to Narita on Thursday. The trains, such as they are, only went as far as Nishi-Funa today (for JR, which is closest to us). The Keisei Bus website is swamped, and this just sucks. We're thinking, if she has to go to work, maybe we could go to Narita and spend the night there, but then we realized, trying to go from Nihombashi to Narita might not be doable after five pm, which, five days ago, was unthinkable. Again, we've got it easy compared to up north, but I can't imagine what this is going to be like if the outages, or possibilities of outages, are actually going to continue for another month.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:04 AM on March 14, 2011

lose Tokyo?

Nope; just listening to the announcement of tomorrow's scheduled 6:30 blackout! No early morning MetaFilter check for me, it seems. No excuse for not getting to work early, it seems! (I can't help but smile at this; even when the power goes down, I have no excuse to goof off. Nothing about my work requires electricity!)
posted by woodblock100 at 5:06 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Good to hear. I was starting to get worried about you guys down there.

Right now we're figuring out alternate ways to get down south, but we have around two weeks for things to open up. One plan is to head west to Akita and take a flight from their functional airport to Haneda or Narita, or train it down.

Of course, step one is how to get to Akita.
posted by gc at 5:11 AM on March 14, 2011

Practice, practice, practice! Right? Oh, wait...
posted by Ghidorah at 5:20 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Not sure if this has been posted: rather close up video of the flooding of the port in Miyako. It's shocking, even after seeing other footage of cars and boats being swept away.
posted by torticat at 5:22 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

「大震災は天罰」「津波で我欲洗い落とせ」石原都知事

Our esteemed Governor Ishihara pronounces:
"This great disaster is divine retribution." / "The tsunami will wash away the selfishness of the Japanese people."

Glad to know our leaders are keepin' it real.
posted by jet_manifesto at 5:25 AM on March 14, 2011

Man, one reason I left the States was to get away from politicians like Ishihara. The man is a first rate pigfucker.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:29 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Man, one reason I left the States was to get away from politicians like Ishihara. The man is a first rate pigfucker.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:29 PM on March 14 [+] [!]

You should see the guys we have back home!
posted by gc at 5:31 AM on March 14, 2011

God I hope he's not reelected in the hubbub of this quake disaster. He makes me cringe every time he opens his mouth.
posted by misozaki at 5:31 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, he's truly awful. It was, what, a few years back when he pronounced that, should there be a massive quake in Tokyo, we can expect foreigners (means: Koreans) to riot.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:33 AM on March 14, 2011

Has he served multiple terms? And if so, how does he get reelected?
posted by gc at 5:35 AM on March 14, 2011

Man, one reason I left the States was to get away from politicians like Ishihara.

I had that same thought when I left the states for Vienna. Boy was that out of the frying pan and into the fire. Now I'm in Berlin, which has its share too. I'm starting to think there's no escape.
posted by tempythethird at 5:37 AM on March 14, 2011

Three terms, said he wasn't going to run for a fourth, but has evidently said he is reconsidering that decision, and might run again. Which is probably the reason for that quote.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:38 AM on March 14, 2011

I'm ashamed of my fellow Tokyoites for continually reelcting that bozo.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:39 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm ashamed of my fellow Tokyoites for continually reelcting that bozo.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:39 PM on March 14 [+] [!]

Maybe that choice quote will be the breaking point. Or are there too many people that actually agree with him?
posted by gc at 5:43 AM on March 14, 2011

Nothing of value to add, just wanted to say that I love hearing Japan based MeFites banter about restaurants, and Japanese politicians. The daily dose of normalcy is most welcome.
posted by peppermind at 5:48 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

My friend was just askng me why he could get away with the foreigners rioting bullshit, and I said, it's pretty simple. Foreigners don't vote. Young people, who are more apt to have positive, or at least indifferent, views of foreigners, don't vote. Who votes? Old people, right wingers, and people who, evidently, agree with Ishihara.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:49 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Radiation alert: U.S. ship contaminated 100 miles offshore -- U.S. shifts deployment due to alert; meantime, rods reportedly exposed at damaged reactor."
posted by ericb at 5:50 AM on March 14, 2011

foreigners don't vote ...

Should read: foreigners can't vote ...
posted by woodblock100 at 5:52 AM on March 14, 2011

ericb, if you duplicate comments in both threads you defeat the purpose of having separate threads.
posted by Catfry at 6:01 AM on March 14, 2011

Should read: foreigners can't vote ...

Yeah, my bad. Should've written that instead. I mean, after all, Kamei threatened to dissolve the coalition government last year over the idea of giving permanent residents the right to vote in local elections.

Still, even through all of that, we're still here because, aside from the politicians, this is a fantastic country full of amazing people.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:02 AM on March 14, 2011

Still, even through all of that, we're still here because, aside from the politicians, this is a fantastic country full of amazing people.

Oh, absolutely. Any and every country has their share of awful politicians.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:04 AM on March 14, 2011

Has anybody seen or read anything that would give an idea of how the Prime Minister is handling all this? Is he actually doing anything behind the scenes - leading meetings, making decisions, etc.? We're reading stuff like this about Edano-san, but the PM seems to have abdicated. Any news on this aspect of things?
posted by woodblock100 at 6:14 AM on March 14, 2011

New York Times is reporting the cooling system has failed at a third reactor at Fukushia Daiichi, exposing the fuel rods for "a while". Seawater is now being pumped into this reactor as well as the other two.
posted by dave99 at 6:16 AM on March 14, 2011

Tomorrow's blackout schedule from Chiba City's twitter account. It's based only in Chiba, but if you know your group, the times are listed.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:17 AM on March 14, 2011

The thing is, though, I never want to vote for any of the candidates who runs for governor here. I mean this time around I have a choice between an old racist bozo and an Ig Nobel Prize winner again, among other weak candidates. So that bozo will probably be reelected again by the bozos who vote for him. I just want to say bozos.

That bit about Edano-san is funny. I too wonder whether he gets any sleep at all.
posted by misozaki at 6:20 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

第3グループ　06:20～10:00のうち3時間程度
第4グループ　09:20～13:00のうち3時間程度
第5グループ　12:20～16:00のうち3時間程度
第1グループ　15:20～19:00のうち3時間程度
第2グループ　18:20～22:00のうち3時間程度

From the Chiba City page.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:20 AM on March 14, 2011

the times are listed.

And hopefully, they ain't a-changin'.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:20 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't know what to make of it, but I genuinely have the urge to move to Japan and open a donut shop or some equivalent.

It's not snark, and I think it springs from a comment upthread. I guess it's the equivalent of bringing food when something terrible happens.

Plus it seems that with that quantity of damage, they're going to need to bring in a lot of stuff to rebuild. Maybe they'll let people emigrate to help out.
posted by Lord_Pall at 6:39 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

This great disaster is divine retribution." / "The tsunami will wash away the selfishness of the Japanese people."

can someone translate his whole speech, and also give me some cultural background on what he's referring to?
posted by empath at 6:40 AM on March 14, 2011

Good infographic from the NYT: How a Reactor Shuts Down and What Happens in a Meltdown. (Via today's Guardian liveblog.)
posted by DarlingBri at 6:44 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think the cultural background is the guy's an enormous shithead.
posted by kmz at 6:49 AM on March 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

Empath, it wasn't a speech, but an answer to a reporter's request for his thoughts. I don't have the whole thing available (it probably isn't available anywhere in its entirety), but I do have some slightly longer passages from what he said (I don't know in what order these quotes were said, and they overlap, so I think the newspaper is reporting paraphrases as direct quotes. Sloppy newspaper.)

"Japan's identity is selfishness. We need to take advantage of this tsunami to wash away this selfishness. I think it's divine retribution."

"We're bound by selfishness and our politics are just populism. We need to wash away the grime that has accumulated over the years on the hearts of the Japanese (with this tsunami)"

"America's identity is freedom. France's identity is freedom, fraternity, and equality. Japan doesn't have anything like that. Just selfishness. Desire for possessions, desire for money."

"I feel terrible for those suffering as a result of this disaster."
posted by Bugbread at 6:54 AM on March 14, 2011

The "controversial statements" section of his wikipedia entry makes him sound like a buffoon who can't get his foot into his mouth fast enough.
posted by tempythethird at 7:02 AM on March 14, 2011

"France's identity is freedom, fraternity, and equality."

Oh good grief. Don't even get me started on how our own s***head president Sarkozy twisted that "identity" to his own xenophobia (Roms, "grey marriages" as a not-so-hidden attack on foreign women marrying French men, etc.).

In France, foreigners couldn't vote in local elections until a few years ago. Still can't vote in national elections, though, you have to get citizenship for that. And another of Sarkozy's identité nationale things was to add a ceremony for when you get citizenship; I'll be participating in one on April 1st, actually. Thought it was rather appropriate under Sarkozy's presidential reign that I sing his beloved Marseillaise on April Fool's Day.

Anyway. I too am enjoying y'all's Japan updates. Keep taking care. And just think: over here, you can't get donuts outside of Paris. (To be honest I'm not even sure you can get them in Paris, but I imagine if there's a place in France you could, it would be there.)
posted by fraula at 7:02 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

mmmm... French donuts....
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:04 AM on March 14, 2011

I believe you're talking about cruellers...

mmm.... cruellers...
posted by Ghidorah at 7:05 AM on March 14, 2011

I think my wife is burned out on disaster news: our TV is currently set to Kawasaki TV, which is showing a marathon of Daryl Hall & John Oates music videos.
posted by Bugbread at 7:07 AM on March 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

Speaking of donuts, my favorite bakery in all of Tokyo (in Iriya) makes a donut that has a perfect little heart shape instead of a round hole. This is a source of delight for my 10-year-old daughter.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:08 AM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

a marathon of Daryl Hall & John Oates music videos.

Another sort of disaster.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:09 AM on March 14, 2011 [9 favorites]

ha, I had to look up "cruller" in Wikipedia – getting a good laugh out of the article on "French donut" only being available in English and Japanese while the pastry originates from Germany and Scandinavia :) kind of like "French" fries.

croissants, meringues and pain au chocolat... yum. They sometimes make heart-shaped choux here.
posted by fraula at 7:11 AM on March 14, 2011

Another sort of disaster.

When I was a kid, I liked them. When I was a teen, I pretended not to like them. In my twenties, I liked them, and honestly believed that it was because I enjoyed their cheesiness. Now, in my thirties, I realize that I just like them. Them, and the Bee Gees, and lots of other bands which I pretended to like ironically.
posted by Bugbread at 7:12 AM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

I was already too old to ever like them. And I'm still too old.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:14 AM on March 14, 2011

That's just awful. Just a wasteland.
posted by cashman at 7:14 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

what? Crullers aren't French? Bugbread likes the Bee Gees? Is all I believed false? Is there nothing left that I can know to be true and just?!
posted by Ghidorah at 7:15 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

From hours ago comments... is "famiresu" a rough translation of "family restaurant" ? And, you guys have Denny's??

Autocorrect tried to change famiresu to famines - make of that what you will.
posted by booksherpa at 7:18 AM on March 14, 2011

Hey, don't diss Daryl Hall, flapjax.
posted by misozaki at 7:19 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

cashman, the NYT photo collection is, of course, breathtaking and heartbreaking. One photo that is as unbelievable as it is beautiful, however, is this one.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:20 AM on March 14, 2011

Famiresu is family restaurant. We have Denny's, and, personally, I think it's pretty good, but kinda expensive. I can't remember what Denny's in America tasted like -- I think I only ever went for the bottomless coffee.
posted by Bugbread at 7:21 AM on March 14, 2011

Yeah, booksherpa. Lots of newer Japanese words are borrowed from other languages, then twisted until unrecognizable. Then, when you pronounce them as you would in the original language, you get nothing but blank stares.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:21 AM on March 14, 2011

The scale of devastation makes me wonder if some of these areas will actually rebuild or if this disaster will merely speed the exodus from rural Japan into the big cities. When you are talking about whole towns and villages being gone it seems quite likely that many of the survivors simply won't choose to rebuild.
posted by vuron at 7:24 AM on March 14, 2011

cashman, the NYT photo collection is, of course, breathtaking and heartbreaking. One photo that is as unbelievable as it is beautiful, however, is this one.

Yes. It reminds me of the boxes of rectangular pieces of clay that I had as a kid, that I would use to build trees and benches and other things around my train set. As someone said previously, the force of this just makes real planes and boats look like toys. Like reality is tilt-shifted for a time and you wonder what the scale of things really is.
posted by cashman at 7:25 AM on March 14, 2011

vuron, I think short term, a lot of people will move away from some of those areas, but over time, people will begin to move back, maybe years from now. Some of those villages, though, likely won't come back.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:27 AM on March 14, 2011

The video torticat linked of the moment the tsunami hit the sea wall in Miyako is stunning.
posted by mediareport at 7:29 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

The nearest Denny's to me (in Doutonbori) closed a few years ago, and my friends and I have never really gotten over it.

Now if we want a famiresu we have to make do with RoyHo (Royal Host, for those in the thread who don't speak in Japanese nicknames for everything), the closest of which doesn't have a drink bar!! or Friendly's.

Speaking of Japanese nicknames for restaurants, I can't help but giggle anytime somebody talks about First Kitchen, aka Fakkin (sounds like "fucking").
posted by emmling at 7:29 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Lots of newer Japanese words are borrowed from other languages, then twisted until unrecognizable.

We should also note that this twisting is often not only achieved by fitting the foreign word into katakana pronunciation, but also (as in the case of famiresu) the subsequent abbreviation. Fami-ri (family) resu-to-ran (restaurant) becomes famiresu. There are tons of abbreviations like this in Japan.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:31 AM on March 14, 2011

Radiation alert: U.S. ship contaminated 100 miles offshore

ericb, that info had already been posted, with a less inflammatory headline, by nickyskye.
posted by mediareport at 7:33 AM on March 14, 2011

One disturbing thing about Saizeriya that has cut into my ability to enjoy it as much as I used to: they have no knives in their kitchens. None. They don't cut, chop, or mince. Every single serving of food comes prepackaged, and warmed using set methods. In essence, there are no cooks, as most of the tasks in the 'kitchen' can be performed by servers.

Still, that meat sauce doria is hella tasty. You just need to wait a couple minutes, or you'll lose all the skin on the roof of your mouth.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:34 AM on March 14, 2011

A pretty famous Fuji TV morning program host commented some time after the Christchurch quake (and before this one happened) about how a lot of the residents of Christchurch were already moving out of the city to rebuild their lives elsewhere whereas there was no great exodus of residents from Kobe and Niigata when earthquakes hit those areas. I have no idea what source he based his comments on or if he just pulled all this stuff out of nowhere. But he wasn't really taking sides about these people's choices, and I remember thinking it was an interesting contrast if it were actually true. But really, who knows what people will choose to do after this tsunami? The extent of the damage is unprecedented.
posted by misozaki at 7:38 AM on March 14, 2011

Well, sleep tight, folks. Be safe, and more than likely I'll see you here sometime tomorrow. Don't take any wooden five-yen coins.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:38 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

No one has mentioned Bamiyan yet, the Chinese famiresu. I ate there all of two times, once in Tokyo and once on the road with Watt and Kramer, but I don't remember which town. It was pretty lousy both times. Wouldn't recommend it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:39 AM on March 14, 2011

France... we're stuck with a bunch of narrow-minded oligarchs but it's no reason to bother us. Ne tirez pas sur l'ambulance.
Anyway, all this is nightmarish, I can't think of a way in which what France symbolizes could be relevant right now. Maybe more to the point : some rescuers who are on their way to Japan, and judging from the pictures, there can't be too many. Apparently, 70 countries are to send highly specialized rescue teams.
posted by nicolin at 7:46 AM on March 14, 2011

America's identity is freedom. France's identity is freedom, fraternity, and equality. Japan doesn't have anything like that. Just selfishness

Still better than "The Italians vote for pedophiles and clowns".
posted by francesca too at 7:48 AM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Other than following this thread, is there a good roundup somewhere of news sources on the earthquake, tsunami, and aftermath? I was away from the internet for most of the weekend, and my usual news sources seem inadequate.

Oddly enough, I happened to be at the wedding of a good friend this weekend, whose father, Dr. John Ebel, is a geophysicist and the director of the Weston Observatory. As such, I've gotten a thorough briefing on the geophysical nature of the event (which he explains here—he was doing interviews all weekend).
posted by ocherdraco at 7:58 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh come fucking on...the core is fully exposed on reactor 2 again??
posted by Bugbread at 8:05 AM on March 14, 2011

I was amazed when I first heard, a few years ago, that Lawson's was a major convenience store chain in Japan, because I'd only ever seen them in rust belt parts of Pennsylvania and western New York, and as far as I can tell they'd all withered away to dust by the early 90s.

It's weird how some American chains have flourished here and not overseas, and vice versa, and how they change between here and there. Denny's sounds like a totally different restaurant in Japan than in the US, where it's mostly considered the diner of choice for down-and-outers and the elderly.

This makes me wonder how newer American chains, like Red Robin, would have to change to be successful in Japan, since their selling point is, basically, massive amounts of fried food, and as much of it as you can handle.
posted by ardgedee at 8:13 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

They're reporting that the pressure release valve on reactor 2 has somehow become shut, causing pressure to rise in the reactor, which is preventing new water from being pumped in, resulting in the water present boiling off, exposing the fuel rods in their entirety.
posted by Bugbread at 8:18 AM on March 14, 2011

Where do we get information now? I hope Arclight forms another identity and keeps tweeting.
posted by bink at 8:23 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The descriptions of the grocery stores sound exactly like what happened here (in Texas about 3 hours from the coast) when Hurricane Rita was coming right after Katrina. Everyone was so terrified by what they had seen on TV in Katrina that you couldn't find water or any shelf-stable staples anywhere. I left work to go to the grocery store and managed to get a case of flavored sparkling water and some hot dogs because at the time I thought my family might be evacuating from Houston to come stay with me.

It's a natural response to fear, I guess. But the combination of seeing the tragedy that's happened to others combined with even the vaguest possibility of threat to one's area can lead to panic.

Hang in there, Japan-based Mefites. I feel you.
posted by threeturtles at 8:59 AM on March 14, 2011

TEPCO is reporting that they can't get the valve open, the fuel has been exposed for over two hours, and the water level is so low it cannot be measured. They cannot rule out a meltdown being currently in progress.
posted by Bugbread at 9:08 AM on March 14, 2011

3300 microsieverts.
posted by Bugbread at 9:13 AM on March 14, 2011

Map of the 443 earthquakes of 4.5 or greater that have hit Japan in the past week.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:19 AM on March 14, 2011

So strange...the nuke situation is worse than it has been through this whole ordeal, but there's less MeFi activity, the TV stations here are reporting less, regular TV commercials have resumed, one station has even resumed regular programming...
posted by Bugbread at 9:31 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Disaster fatigue, perhaps. My thoughts are with you, Japan.
posted by Scram at 9:36 AM on March 14, 2011

Whoa! Super sudden shaking!
posted by Bugbread at 9:37 AM on March 14, 2011

This is a pretty interesting view of what happened.
posted by theora55 at 9:37 AM on March 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

Another large aftershock on its way to Nagano Prefecture---hope everybody takes the right precautions.
posted by Gordion Knott at 9:37 AM on March 14, 2011

Ok, really short. Just a sudden "blam!"
posted by Bugbread at 9:38 AM on March 14, 2011

^ torticat, I don't know who can pop in and answer your specific questions about this tsunami, but I did find these general facts about how tsunamis work (and here), which I found to be helpful.
posted by jeanmari at 9:39 AM on March 14, 2011

On the nuke front, they're saying that the valve won't open, so they're going to use another venting approach, which releases a lot more radiation (apparently they normally vent through water, which absorbs some radiation, but this time there isn't enough water, so they're going to vent directly from the inner chamber to the outer chamber.)
posted by Bugbread at 9:40 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I kind of like the pauses, Bugbread. There's no need to fill the thread with stuff unless it's useful or interesting stuff. More filtering is good.

And for folks not clicking through that NYT link just above, "treated for contamination" means they disposed of their clothing and got a decontamination scrub that removed all the low-level radioactive particles they picked up on their flight.
posted by mediareport at 9:41 AM on March 14, 2011

Ok, really short. Just a sudden "blam!"

Could that have been the latest big aftershock being discussed?
posted by saulgoodman at 9:41 AM on March 14, 2011

I was off most of last week so didn't get the news today, but one of the fellows I work with, his grandfather died in Hawaii from a heart-attack when they where evacuating to higher ground during the tsunami warning.
posted by edgeways at 9:42 AM on March 14, 2011

So strange...the nuke situation is worse than it has been through this whole ordeal, but there's less MeFi activity, the TV stations here are reporting less, regular TV commercials have resumed, one station has even resumed regular programming...

One reason there's less MeFi activity is that many people who were free to be glued to the computer all weekend have gone back to work for the week.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:47 AM on March 14, 2011

Sharp and short that one was. It's being reported as an M2 quake. Felt alot stronger than that though...
posted by ultrabuff at 9:48 AM on March 14, 2011

Well, I know I have to get some amount of actual work done today, that and I don't have access to NHK like I did at home.
posted by nomisxid at 9:49 AM on March 14, 2011

Well, I need to get to bed. Sorry, I did want to give y'all updates, since the rest of the Japan hands seem to have gone to sleep, but tomorrow's another busy day...

G'night.
posted by Bugbread at 9:53 AM on March 14, 2011

g'nite Bugbread. good luck, Japan. my thoughts are with you!
posted by lapolla at 9:56 AM on March 14, 2011

good night.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:57 AM on March 14, 2011

Also, it's after midnight in Japan, so the Japanese mefites are sleeping or getting there.
posted by ardgedee at 10:00 AM on March 14, 2011

NHK is giving updates on the reactors.......
posted by Cheminatrix at 10:02 AM on March 14, 2011

Recap from my niece, who is flying back to Seattle today:

"Well I think it is safe to say that we have experienced the most horrific event of our lives, the Otsuchi and Kamaichi tsunami.  We were safe the entire time because we drove to the top of a hill overlooking the town, but we watched over the city of Otsuchi as it was completely destroyed. We had just finished filming some of the porpoise fishermen in the harbor when the earthquake hit. It was so strong we almost got knocked to the ground, the cars were shaking violently. Thanks to the quick thinking of Brian and Scott we drove to the top of this hill overlooking the town, and what seemed like minutes later the tsunami hit. A 50 foot surge of water reduced the city to ruins. Their tsunami wall was washed out to sea, everything was completely destroyed. The ocean receded and then rushed back in more then 10 times, the entire ocean floor was exposed. We saw houses floating in the water, cars floating, a ferry boat was washed on top of a house, and what didn't get destroyed by the wave quickly caught fire. We were stuck on this hill because the road at the bottom on either side was completely gone. The worst thing I experienced was this woman who was sitting on a roof of something getting washed out to see and we did everything we could to try and save her for hours, we even commandeered a fire truck that was left on the hill and had the one Japanese girl who was stuck with us radio for help and use the loudspeaker to make a call for help. We had nothing, no boat, and we listened for hours as she screamed for help. When a local fishing boat finally did hear our loudspeaker, he looked for her, but as far as we know he didn't find her, she stopped yelling. The hardest thing we had to do was stop looking for her and take shelter in our rental cars for the night. We spent the night in our rental cars, we had a local Japanese girl with us named Iuka and we gave her power bars, water and she slept in the warm cars with us, and in the morning we got up and started seeing the dead bodies, a woman hanging from a tree, the wave left her there, people in cars, total devastation. It took us an entire day to walk out of the town, rubble doesn't even describe it. The only way I can describe it, would be if a giant scraped up the entire city in his palms, crumpled it up and sprinkled it back down onto the ground. Hundreds of cars crumpled, folded in half, any wooden houses were either reduced to matchsticks, or they had floated whole into parking lots, on top of other buildings, some where upside down. There wasn't one thing left standing, it looked like a nuclear wasteland. Amidst all of this the locals helped us and gave us food, and we offered our extra water and blankets. There were small camps set up with survivors cooking rice, their dead loved ones lined up under blankets. Everywhere we looked there were people carrying bodies. We finally made it to safety after climbing over the ruins of houses and walking over burning rubble that was melting the bottom of our shoes, propane tanks were exploding around us. One thing that was creepy was the sea life everywhere, fish octopus, scallops, all washed onto the shore. Since the earthquake there have been constant aftershocks, literally every hour or so we get woken up by shaking, not nearly as big as the original, but this place is just rumbling. Thank you everyone so much for your support, the entire time we felt so helpless because we were totally fine but we couldn't let anyone know. "
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out at 10:16 AM on March 14, 2011 [107 favorites]

Wow, what an amazing account. I hadn't considered that the sea life would wash ashore. How unreal.
posted by Cheminatrix at 10:19 AM on March 14, 2011

swimming naked: Thank you for posting that. It's horrendous stuff.
posted by Jilder at 10:21 AM on March 14, 2011

Glad your niece is okay and on her way home.
posted by notmydesk at 10:24 AM on March 14, 2011

swimming naked,is your niece is with Sea Shepherd? I read a very similar account on their website.
posted by ocherdraco at 10:24 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thank you for that account. Horrifying...
posted by tempythethird at 10:32 AM on March 14, 2011

AT&T: Calls, Texts To Japan Free Through March.
posted by ericb at 10:36 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks to everyone in Japan (and outside) who has posted to this thread. I have used this as my main source of information (other than NPR.) (I watched a tiny bit of CNN at a store the other day and I am glad I refrained from watching the US media!)

I am sending my thoughts to our mefites in Japan.

There's a link to easily donate to the Japan Red Cross on the Google page for the Google Resource Page - 2011 Japan Quake/Tsunami (not sure if that was on there when the link was previously posted.)
posted by vespabelle at 10:37 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

What the Media Doesn't Get About Meltdowns.
posted by ericb at 10:42 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Whenever I watch new footage and see whole houses bobbing along, seemingly in one piece, I try to imagine that if there were people in there that they were unharmed and simply carried along like something out of the Wizard of Oz. That the waters receded and left their house a couple miles from where it used to be but that they were able to walk out and away.

Surely that happened, right? It had to have happened in some cases. The same with the ships you saw carried along inland. Surely some people were able to ride it out.
posted by Windigo at 10:45 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Verizon Wireless: "We're about to announce free calls to Japan from wireless and residential landline phones. Free messaging to Japan too."
posted by ericb at 10:47 AM on March 14, 2011

From Al Jazeera's Live Blog ... and the heartbreak only continues:

2:45am

As temperatures plummet, millions of people are spending a fourth night without foods, water or heating.

Overwhelmed shelters are housing 550,000 people along Japan's east coast after the earthquake and tsunami killed at least 10,000 people. Kyodo news agency reports that authorities have lost contact with a further 30,000 citizens.

In Ishinomaki, Patrick Fuller, of the International Federation of the Red Cross, says:

It is the elderly who have been hit the hardest.

The tsunami engulfed half the town and many lie shivering uncontrollably under blankets. They are suffering from hypothermia having been stranded in their homes without water or electricity.

Snow is expected within the next few days.
posted by cdalight at 11:07 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I want to thank everyone who has been posting here also, for making this thread so informative, funny, and moving.

In the 90s my sister lived for a year in Kumamoto and for another year in Yokohama. I was lucky enough to be able to visit her for about three weeks each time. Those six weeks were some of the most amazing travel of my life, and my sister and I often reminisce about everything we saw together.

The first time I went, she met me in Tokyo and we traveled south, to Kyoto, Hiroshima, and then on to Kumamoto. We also had a chance to visit Mt. Aso, where I learned, in a dire emergency fashion, that sulfur and asthmatics don't mix.

The second time I visited we travelled north from Yokohama, and it’s that trip and the memories that has caused me to stay glued to this topic all weekend. We stayed over-night in Sendai; I felt my first earthquake there as we sat on our futons getting ready for bed. We then continued north, went sightseeing in Matsushima, visited Zuigan-ji and the museum there, and finished up in Aomori for the Nebuta festival.

My heart is just breaking for the devastating losses incurred by all those kind people I met on that trip.
posted by Squeak Attack at 11:08 AM on March 14, 2011

A friend just posted this video on facebook, which I haven't seen in the thread yet. She (and I) wondered what is being said and where it was recorded. Would someone who speaks Japanese please give us a general sense of what the person who recorded it is saying?
posted by jocelmeow at 11:38 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks for the Red Cross link, vespabelle - that was easy! And thanks to everyone above for this great thread - stringbean, bugbread and so many more.
I know this isn't the nuclear power thread, but I just read this BoingBoing article and found it informative and somewhat reassuring.
posted by tizzie at 11:48 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

this may have already been posted - i've been lurking, glued to the thread, but it's hard to catch everything. that said, this looks like a pretty awesome aid option, and donations can be as little as $1!

https://philanthroper.com/deals/shelterbox-usa

which i am really grateful for, because i am going through my own little crisis; broke, likely to lose my home - but i want to help! and i can afford $1, for sure.

(not to make it all about me. seeing the devastation these people are suffering makes me realize my troubles are really NOTHING, in comparison.)
posted by lapolla at 12:04 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

A friend just posted this video on facebook

Wow. What makes that video really eerie is that the guy seems to be completely alone.

Talk about apocalyptic.
posted by torticat at 12:10 PM on March 14, 2011

...Just now there was another aftershock, and I've immediately got my hands on the arms of the chair, ready to jump up, while my wife lifts her head from her nap. She looked at me, and smiled, without saying anything.* She was back asleep before the shaking stopped.

...I think my wife is burned out on disaster news: our TV is currently set to Kawasaki TV, which is showing a marathon of Daryl Hall & John Oates music videos.

...a donut that has a perfect little heart shape instead of a round hole. This is a source of delight for my 10-year-old daughter.

All these personal domestic details from our mefi Japan contingent are heartwarming - as is the "g'night Johnboy" routine as Japanese night falls. It is very sweet and caring and just makes me worry about y'all even more.

Be well, you Japanese mefites ... I wish you nights of uninterrupted sleep and the serene, mundane joys of normalcy in your not-too-distant futures.
posted by madamjujujive at 12:14 PM on March 14, 2011 [14 favorites]

That video looks like what the designers of such games as Fallout 3 and/or Borderlands must have had in mind.... terrifying.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:15 PM on March 14, 2011

friend just posted this video on facebook, which I haven't seen in the thread yet. She (and I) wondered what is being said and where it was recorded. Would someone who speaks Japanese please give us a general sense of what the person who recorded it is saying?

He was walking around in the vicinity of Sendai Port where he took the video (when he pans right you can see smoke rising from the refinery fire in the northwest corner of the port). He's basically describing what he sees: "I'm actually walking on the main road. Cars everywhere. There's a house. There's been another tsunami warning. I need to hurry up, walk faster, and find safety." (Presumably the video was taken yesterday afternoon when there was a tsunami warning, and at about the same time as the second reactor explosion).

What's most surreal to me is the happy chirping of robins in the background, heralds of spring.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:23 PM on March 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

Thanks, KokuRyu.
posted by jocelmeow at 12:35 PM on March 14, 2011

Mod note: posting massive wall-of-text might-be-offensive jokes/stories at this point in a massive thread is not a great idea. Link to it if you need to.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:51 PM on March 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

Thanks for the post cdalight. It was Jimmy's twitter feed that actually was the first place I heard about the quake. I'd been out clubbing and sent a couple of tweets while I was there, first time I'd tweet'd from my phone, and wanted to make sure they'd gone through. As I login to twitter, I notice a tweet from him about "evacuating the island" and my first thought was, "a Survivor joke I don't get?", then started reading backwards till I realized he was quite serious.
posted by nomisxid at 12:53 PM on March 14, 2011

Shelterbox is awesome! It's one of my favorite nonprofits.

One of the coolest things about it is that even though it's only been around for six or seven years, it takes advantage of an international network that has existed for over a century: Rotary International. There are Rotary clubs all over the world; local Rotarians can help direct aid from Rotarians elsewhere in the world. Individual clubs can partner with one another (say, a wealthy club in one country can support a health or water project organized by a club in a developing country), or the entire organization can come together to work on a project (like the eradication of polio). Shelterbox takes advantage of that model: because Rotary clubs already exist wherever they're likely to want to send Shelterboxes (there are 150 clubs in Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi Prefectures, for example, and about 26,000 Rotarians in a total of 1,000 clubs across Japan), they can quickly set up a network of volunteers on the ground, even if they've never operated in that area before.

There's a common misconception (at least in the United States) that Rotary is fusty and full of fuddy-duddies, but it seems to me that people who think that must not see beyond the weekly meetings of businesspeople in a hotel banquet hall over chicken listening to a lecture by the local schools superintendent. They don't realize that the meetings aren't the point; the network is. Get enough people eating chicken and listening to the superintendent, and most of them will give money, some of them will give time, and a few of them, like Tom Henderson, the guy who founded Shelterbox, will do something that will immeasurably change lives for the better.

All of which is to say, thanks for reminding me of Shelterbox, lapolla, because I think I'm going to go make a donation now.
posted by ocherdraco at 12:53 PM on March 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

Jessamyn ... is there a way to remove (new here - can you tell?) Since I see you got 5 positives to your post, to my one - would be glad to do so if someone can enlighten me. Or if a moderator can do so - please go for it if deemed appropriate.
posted by cdalight at 1:07 PM on March 14, 2011

Just saw this boingboing story, and what really struck me about the video is the google streetview link that one of the first commenters posted. It somehow made the video stronger, to see the prosaic street scene after the images of destruction. These cities may never be rebuilt, and if they are, they will look nothing like what used to be there.

Google's streetview images are probably the most high-fidelity record we have of what was lost. I think we should encourage google to preserve and memorialize these images, instead of just replacing them in a year or two.
posted by tempythethird at 1:12 PM on March 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

Jesus christ, the pictures in this story ... that first one, for some reason, is really upsetting me. So profoundly sad.
posted by jbickers at 1:16 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hey cdalight, jessamyn removed your comment with the story. You can email her (and the rest of the mods) your questions about the site via the contact link at the bottom right hand corner of the page. Also be sure to look through the FAQ and the Wiki's Orientation page—they might answer many of your questions.
posted by ocherdraco at 1:20 PM on March 14, 2011

cdalight, I looked for link to send you that would explain what Favorites are, but I can't find one. I will add that information to the MetaFilter wiki and then MeMail you a link to that later today so as not to de-rail this thread. The little white envelope in the upper right corner will light up when you have mail.

The short version is: don't worry about it, and it will all become clear shortly :)
posted by DarlingBri at 1:23 PM on March 14, 2011

It appears the weather forecast for the hardest-hit areas is for freezing, or near-freezing temperatures over night. I hope the coming daylight brings warmer conditions.
posted by tommasz at 1:30 PM on March 14, 2011

Each story I read about someone getting rescued is coupled with the same person's loss. 60-yr-old man rescued at sea, but his wife was swept away. A mother clinging to the top of a tree with a story of her daughter, also lost. It's such a happy event to find a survivor, but it's tempered with the insurmountable loss that accompanies it.

In particular, this picture of a rescue from the In Focus URL above really made my allergies kick in. I sincerely hope she wasn't the only one to make it out of there.

It feels like it's not enough to donate $10 to the Red Cross, but it's all I can afford (for now). I guess I just have to content myself with the knowledge that every little bit helps, and hopefully the collective efforts of the world can assuage the hardships.
posted by CancerMan at 1:32 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The bent train rails in that series posted by CancerMan...just incredible.
posted by jocelmeow at 1:42 PM on March 14, 2011

Sucky url to have for a time like this, but these pictures have some I had not seen. The level of devastation is just horrific. As has been said, where do you even start? Truly nightmarish.
posted by cashman at 1:51 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm curious about the Japanese Self-Defense force, the folks who are shown in a lot of the search and rescue photos. Is that similar to the military reserves here in the -- i.e., people with day jobs who train for service, should it be needed? Or are they more like full-time military personnel? Are they local, or were they brought in from other parts of the country?

Just curious because I can't adequately express how much I admire them.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:52 PM on March 14, 2011

My small son will soon weary of the hugs I am compelled to give in lieu of being able to reach into each and every one of these pictures and do so for the people I see suffering with such dignity.
posted by OHenryPacey at 2:02 PM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

mudpuppie, the post-war constitution imposed by the US demilitarized Japan, and their military has been known as the Self-Defense Forces ever since. These are basically the same as regular army in other countries. There is also a military reserve, which I'm certain will be called into service for this event (may already have been).
posted by dhartung at 2:07 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Via Theora55's excellent link, from somebody who runs a small software business in Japan: "Japan’s economy just got a serious monkey wrench thrown into it... By the way, wondering what you can do for Japan? Take whatever you’re saying currently about “We’re all Japanese”, hold onto it for a few years, and copy it into a strongly worded letter to your local Congresscritter the next time nativism runs rampant."

Flapjaxx: Burgers and donuts whenever you reach Budapest. The GF's family is safe and well in Itabsahi.
posted by zaelic at 2:40 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

dhartung is right about the JSDF reserve. They're being called into service for the first time ever and 6400 members have apparently responded. Link in Japanese.
posted by misozaki at 2:43 PM on March 14, 2011

This is a self post from my tumblr, but I wanted to show it to you for obvious reasons. One thing I've noticed where ever I go is that kids are kids. They're resilient.
posted by gc at 2:57 PM on March 14, 2011 [9 favorites]

Also, it looks like my favorite Japanese TV show, 0655, won't be on for a while. But before I go to work, let me introduce you to "Ore Neko," and "Watashi Inu Inu."
posted by gc at 3:00 PM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

That picture is so nice, gc. Thank you for the smile.
posted by shiny blue object at 3:01 PM on March 14, 2011

Two survivors in Japan, reunited by a rescuer.
posted by kmz at 3:25 PM on March 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

gc: "This is a self post from my tumblr"

Where, I'd like to point out, the S is wearing a hat!
posted by Room 641-A at 3:29 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Be careful, gc, just had an alert for a quake in the sea of Japan, off Akita, alert for Iwate as well.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:30 PM on March 14, 2011

Two quakes woke me last night, one about 3:45 and another about an hour later. Looks like they were a 3 and a 4. They were pretty short. Any word on that M7? We gonna dodge that bullet?

My apartment landlord said our place is earthquake safe, but I'm really really questioning that now. It was built right at the time that the building codes went into practice--the early 80s--but this place ain't no spring chick. I'd take my family out, but as luck would have it it'll be rainy and cold for the next few days.
posted by zardoz at 3:35 PM on March 14, 2011

So was there just a large aftershock off Akita? NHK World gave an earthquake alert but has now gone back to information on people in shelters.
posted by zachlipton at 3:38 PM on March 14, 2011

Ok they are now saying it was more minimal than predicted. Still I hope everyone is ok!
posted by zachlipton at 3:42 PM on March 14, 2011

There was a quake, 4.4, no tsunami warning. It was off the opposite shore of Tohoku, off Akita Prefecture. They're just now saying it wasn't as strong as they'd thought it might be.

Zardoz, my friends apartment, the one with the cracks and chunks of plaster? He talked to the owner, and the owner said they thought the building was fine, and weren't planning on even having an inspection, even thought every apartment on the building had cracks in the walls. So, well, yeah. Maybe it's just built well? Still, my friend is looking to move, either that, or go home.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:42 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

How on earth will the get those large boats back to the water? Will they simply be cut up and scrapped?

My mind reels with the thought of the massive cleanup effort that it will take to get those areas back to normal.

I would think that a significant chunk of the worlds heavy equipment and operators will be heading to Japan just to move all of that debris out of the way.
posted by davey_darling at 3:47 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ghidorah, I'm no kind of expert but I'd think that what you'd want to happen is for the actual supporting infrastructure to bend and give, which is going to crack wallboard or plaster. It's not the wallboard/plaster that's holding the building up. Obviously, though, it would be a lot more comforting to have an inspector with an exploratory camera poke it in there and check the support boards/beams.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:58 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

"My mind reels with the thought of the massive cleanup effort that it will take to get those areas back to normal."

Same thoughts davey_darling.

It would be enough for me to throw up may hands and say "too difficult" even if it wasn't the site of half my community being unaccounted for.

The trauma residents of the areas affected who still aren't housed, fed or sufficiently informed must be experiencing is surely debilitating, isn't it? To look at the mess and start to rebuild?
posted by panaceanot at 4:00 PM on March 14, 2011

On the BBC Live feed:

2146: Katie Hinman of ABC News tweets: "Driving through the wreckage of Sendai, and saw the saddest sight: a bewildered horse standing alone among it all."

A few minutes later:

2253: The tweet by Katie Hinman of ABC News about the lonely horse in Sendai (See 2146) prompted Breda Gahan in Dublin to email in: "Can't believe I read this. Please return horse to Natsuko Komura." The BBC's Damian Grammaticas interviewed Ms Komura on Sunday as she searched for her trusty steed near Sendai's beach. She had been riding it when the tsunami approached on Friday, but had not seen it since. "Deepest sympathy to all the Japanese people affected by this terrible tragedy. I am speechless when I see the images," Ms Brehan adds.

posted by Celsius1414 at 4:03 PM on March 14, 2011 [29 favorites]

Link to BBC feed
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:05 PM on March 14, 2011

OK, I will never say another word against Twitter.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:08 PM on March 14, 2011 [11 favorites]

Those in the LA area, the Dodgers are hosting a tsunami relief event all day tomorrow:

DODGER STADIUM TO HOST TSUNAMI RELIEF EVENT TOMORROW

Donors will receive tickets to exhibition game at Dodger Stadium


WHAT: The Dodgers and NBC LA will hold a "drive-through" relief event at Dodger Stadium tomorrow to help raise money for the American Red Cross Japan earthquake and tsunami relief efforts.

WHO: Dodger alumni Bobby Castillo, Kenny Landreaux, Rudy Law, Al Ferrara, Jimmy Campanis and Derrel Thomas and NBC LA on-air personalities will be on hand to take donations.

Donors who give $20 or more will each receive two tickets to an upcoming Spring Training exhibition game at Dodger Stadium.

WHEN: TOMORROW, Tuesday, March 15 - 5:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Dodger Stadium Parking Lot 1

posted by Celsius1414 at 4:13 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

My mind reels with the thought of the massive cleanup effort that it will take to get those areas back to normal.

Based on communities I've seen/heard about after hurricanes, some of them just won't, ever. And the damage in the tsuami-hit areas is even worse than Katrina. Where you have to bring in pretty much all of your modern infrastructure (power, water/sewers, roads etc.) from scratch, sometimes the authorities just end up not rebuilding. The tsunami has been a huge tragedy in the short-term but it has some very sad long-term implications as well.
posted by immlass at 4:16 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

davey_darling writes "How on earth will the get those large boats back to the water? Will they simply be cut up and scrapped?"

Ones small enough to fit down streets and not actually damaged will probably be trucked back to water. The technology is well developed for moving large loads like that. On the Prairies of Canada we routinely move actual houses (not mobile homes) hundreds of kilometres.
posted by Mitheral at 4:18 PM on March 14, 2011

From NYT:

BREAKING NEWS 7:14 PM ET
Japanese Officials Say Another Explosion Was Heard at Nuclear Plant
posted by BungaDunga at 4:18 PM on March 14, 2011

After the explosion at Fukushima 1 Reactor 2, the pressure in the suppression pool dropped from its usual 3 atmospheres to 1 atmosphere, indicating a strong likelihood of leakage.
posted by Bugbread at 4:20 PM on March 14, 2011

From NYT:

BREAKING NEWS 7:14 PM ET
Japanese Officials Say Another Explosion Was Heard at Nuclear Plant

They are all over this on the other thread: A crash course in nuclear wessels

That's turned into an excellent resource for factual and current info on the nuclear related aspects of this tragedy.

Again ... at the risk of sounding like a broken record ~ this place is awesome
posted by cdalight at 4:21 PM on March 14, 2011

Yeah I heard there was another explosion at the reactor. Does anyone know what happened?
posted by delmoi at 4:21 PM on March 14, 2011

BBC News: 2320: A spokesperson from Tokyo Electric says said some staff have been evacuated from the site.

If this were a suspense movie, I would be watching through my fingers at this point.
posted by jocelmeow at 4:29 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nothing left of Minamisanriku

New footage shows tsunami swamp Kamaishi

Tsunami wave hits Japanese coastal town Noda

New before and after pics of places hist by the tsunami

Oh no about the new explosion! It's heartrending waiting for the news about the nuclear plant mess there. The devastation by the tsunami AND earthquake is already so overwhelming.
posted by nickyskye at 4:30 PM on March 14, 2011

Based on communities I've seen/heard about after hurricanes, some of them just won't [come back], ever.

Maybe not in their pre-decimation configuration. But this is Japan, which not only reclaimed Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also, in the long run, doesn't have the luxury of writing off a 400(?)-mile swath of habitable and economically necessary coastland. But my god, the horror and enormity of clearing the debris, let alone rebuilding, boggles the mind.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:32 PM on March 14, 2011

> As has been said, where do you even start? Truly nightmarish.

With bulldozers, I'm afraid.
posted by jfuller at 4:37 PM on March 14, 2011

Lyn Never, yeah, that's part of the point. The thing is, that building is over thirty years old, maybe more. I was there once, years ago, during an earthquake that measured about a 4 on the Japanese intensity scale. On only the third floor, the swaying was terrifying, and I totally understand my friend's reluctance to go back. You're right, though. The swaying is what keeps the buildings here from just falling over.

Evidently, near the same area, where a new 40 story condo building was completed last year, the sidewalk all around the new building was shredded. The ads for the new building were talking about the supports for the building, and how safe it was. It's still there, but I wonder if the swaying of the 40 story building caused the damage on the sidewalks and street around it.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:39 PM on March 14, 2011

The Guardian, right now:
A rupture may have occurred inside the containment vessel at Fukushima's number two reactor, Japan's NHK public broadcaster is reporting.
Although details are only slowly emerging about the explosion that was heard there a short time ago, technicians have been told to evacuate the area.
I am afraid that some of the free-style babble upthread is soon due for revision.
posted by Namlit at 4:40 PM on March 14, 2011

Well, unlike a Hurricane, which can come through every few years (and more frequently due to global warming) earthquakes like this are pretty rare. It's tied for 4th in terms of being the largest earthquakes in recorded history.
posted by delmoi at 4:42 PM on March 14, 2011

My (much) earlier question about where to start with the clean up refers to pre- and post- bulldozer. Some of the roads are completely buckled, with great gaps and twists. So how do even get the bulldozers to the broken toppled buildings? And how many bulldozers will Japan need? And then, once you get there (this is what I was thinking with Haiti - a much smaller square mileage) what do you do with all the rubble? My god, what a task.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:05 PM on March 14, 2011

Is there any word about today's power outages? I'm in the second block, which is scheduled to start any time now.
posted by Bugbread at 5:26 PM on March 14, 2011

For Older Japanese, Tsunami’s Carnage Evokes WWII Horrors
Oh, man.

“I lived through the Sendai air raids,” Mr. Wako, 75, said, referring to the Allied bombings of the northeast’s largest city. “But this is much worse.”

and

She could see her house from the window. When the wave hit, it smashed the sliding doors. Then, to her horror, she saw her father swept outside. The water was by now the height of a one-story building. She saw him grab the ironwork on her home’s second-story balcony and hold on.

“He was trying to pull himself up, but he has a bad leg,” she said.

As the water surged, her father was able to somehow hoist himself over the metal railing and onto the balcony. There he held onto for dear life.

“I didn’t know he had it in him,” she said. “He wanted so badly to live that he found that last burst of strength.”

posted by BungaDunga at 5:27 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

"It's tied for 4th in terms of being the largest earthquakes in recorded history."

No, those lists only count earthquakes since we began seismographically recording them - so only about 100 years or so, no all of recorded history. (Just a nitpick of mine, of some coverage of this. The difference matters because if we think events like this only happen once every 5000 years, there's no point planning for them. But if they happen in seismically active places once every 100 years or so, then it's more important to plan for them.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 5:39 PM on March 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

Watching the tsunami videos reminds me never to live near the sea.

Last year we were flooded during a massive heavy rainstorm; I recall trying to fight against the water and not doing very well. With tsunami there is not a thing you can do but get to high ground.

I feel so much pain for those poor souls who lost everything in mere seconds to that implacable wall of water and debris.
posted by bwg at 5:50 PM on March 14, 2011

Flapjax: Thanks, I'm not watching the other thread, and I was thinking how frustrating it was not having access to rad readings other than the numbers they're announcing for inside/around the reactors themselves.
posted by Bugbread at 6:13 PM on March 14, 2011

And, for those few who are looking at the Hino site who can't read any Japanese, the lower graph is a comparison of the same site readings from December, 2010. (flapjax, I thanked you over in the other thread as well, but that was before I google mapped where Hino is - it's right next door to where my wife and son are at the moment, so I am especially thankful).
posted by birdsquared at 6:13 PM on March 14, 2011

Hi, I'm new here. I've been addicted to MeFi since I started a sit-down, stare-at-a-computer-all-day job in 1998. This thread has been amazing, but I've gotten too emotionally involved. I've given money to Red Cross, I've watched videos of Maru -- but what else can I do to protect my own mental health? Or -- (be honest) -- should I just man the fuck up (well, woman) and leave the freaking out to those who really should be? I want to be helpful and not hindering.

During 9/11, I was a block from the White House at work, and it made me angry when other people tried to "appropriate" the tragedy as their own. I really really really don't want to be that person, but damn, I feel messed up.
posted by kinsey at 6:53 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Hi, I'm new here. I've been addicted to MeFi since I started a sit-down, stare-at-a-computer-all-day job in 1998.

Could you repeat that?

No, I know what you mean
posted by Catfry at 6:58 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

BTW, concerning my geiger-counter link just upthread, it was mentioned where i also posted it in the nuke thread, and I'd like to present it here as well: If you are outside Tokyo, it'll be much better that you don't click on those sites, or at least keep it to a bare minimum, and leave those sites as unburdened as possible for those of us in Tokyo who really need this. Thanks!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:05 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

what else can I do to protect my own mental health?

Take deep breaths, remember that even Chernobyl's plume didn't extend more than 900 miles.
posted by nomisxid at 7:07 PM on March 14, 2011

kinsey: Take breaks from the news and do something mindless, disconnect from the Internet if you have to.
posted by girlhacker at 7:10 PM on March 14, 2011

kinsey, I know what you mean. You aren't appropriating, though. This thread, to me, is not the best of the web. It is just community in the best sense. I don't really know flapjax, ghidorah or the others in Japan, but I care about them because of this little blue place. Here, we come together to share, learn, and to feel, together. I think that's okay.
posted by Shike at 7:12 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

I go to http://icanhascheezburger.com/ when I need a break from the grimness. Something mindless, with kitties.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:13 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Kinsey: I don't really know how to protect mental health, as each person is different (I've seen a lot of people in this thread who live far from Japan but are much more worked up than I am). What I would recommend, though, especially if you have any family or coworkers that you are in constant touch with, and who can provide you with critical updates if you need them, is: turn off the TV, and stop reading this (and similar) threads and websites. If you've donated, you've done all you can. Watching more will just stress you, and provide no benefit. If you have nobody around who would tell you "Holy hell, every nuclear plant in Japan just blew up simultaneously, and a hurricane is bringing the radiation directly to Washington DC!", well, then, I guess keep reading. Otherwise, just tune out. Staying abreast of the news is useful for people really nearby, but halfway around the world, it just provides stress with no benefits.
posted by Bugbread at 7:13 PM on March 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

... if you're wanting to stay calm, stay away from the other thread. Especially now... still not Chernobyl but the fun never stops.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:16 PM on March 14, 2011

Bugbread, thanks for the perspective. I'm trying to do just that; went to see Joshua Foer at 6th and I Synagogue tonight, but was still reading NYTimes updates on the nuclear plants in the cab on the way home.

Something something something, survivor's guilt, something something something.
posted by kinsey at 7:17 PM on March 14, 2011

Apologies, I referenced 1998 in my comment above; must have been 1999. I might have gotten early MeFi confused with memepool, which I've been a "groupie" of for many long years. Again, sorry, no more derails.
posted by kinsey at 7:28 PM on March 14, 2011

Ok, after reading the other thread a bit too much, I'm starting to get totally overwhelmed feeling myself. I'm off to watch some Maru. Care to join me?
posted by threeturtles at 7:31 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

kitties solve every problem.
posted by desjardins at 7:36 PM on March 14, 2011

Mine certainly think they do.
posted by threeturtles at 7:38 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

If anyone has any links to pass on about the person/people behind the twitter feed for Time Out Tokyo, I'd love to read more. It's amazing me that I've gotten so much local info (next to this thread) just from twitter. And I really admire the team that's posting it.

Randomly my cat loves Maru. Whenever I watch the videos on my computer he worms his way into my lap to stare at the screen.
posted by batgrlHG at 7:41 PM on March 14, 2011

In the days following 9/11/01, we mainlined things like CNN. But after about three days, we stopped switching from news station to news station when we stumbled on a Simpsons episode. Felt a little guilty at first for watching it, but oh, the blessed balm of cartoon humor!

Or kittens. Whichever. They're all good.
posted by rtha at 7:44 PM on March 14, 2011

Well, Mr. Calm Bugbread (myself) has apparently chosen 10 minutes ago as the time to officially panic. Fuck. And I was doing so well.
posted by Bugbread at 7:46 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bugbread, 10 minutes ago? No, no. NOW is the time to panic!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:49 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think this probably falls somewhere between mainlining CNN and kittens. Too bad, I always liked the guy. Asshat.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:49 PM on March 14, 2011

Well, Mr. Calm Bugbread (myself) has apparently chosen 10 minutes ago as the time to officially panic. Fuck. And I was doing so well.

It's OK to panic. Personally, I think I'm in need of a long kitty break myself.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:50 PM on March 14, 2011

Bugbread, I think you're fully entitled to a little panic. I know that if I were a parent within a thousand miles of this thing, I'd panic.
posted by anastasiav at 7:50 PM on March 14, 2011

Bugbread, I'm with you. My wife is at work, my friend just headed back home. I've got no one else to focus on keeping them calm. When I've got people to take care of, I'm perfectly able to suppress my negative/panicky side. Now that I'm sitting in front of the tv by myself, that outlet is gone, and yeah, not feeling all that calm.

I think it might be a good time to try to take a nap.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:51 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm finally getting English on the SAP for TV Japan (or whatever Comcast calls this NHK channel) and it sounds like the audio from a different news channel. ??
posted by girlhacker at 7:53 PM on March 14, 2011

Winds are blowing west...
posted by Bugbread at 7:53 PM on March 14, 2011

girlhacker, NHK usually has bilingual feeds for their 7 and 9 o'clock news shows. I think they might have called in their announcers to provide English translations. It just kicked in here a little while before the speech from Kan.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:55 PM on March 14, 2011

it sounds like the audio from a different news channel. ??

Yeah, for a short period, they were transmitting a translator, but now they seem to have switched to an English version of the channel that doesn't correspond to the video at all.
posted by nomisxid at 7:56 PM on March 14, 2011

I thought the video that jocelmeow posted above deserved a more complete translation. I found it to be both disturbing and gripping.



Look.

A road. Something terrible has happened.

As far as the eye can see. The other side of the road. The cars are all smashed up.

My feet are also a mess. Total destruction. The Sendai New Port area is utterly obliterated.

Residences have been swept down the road. Cars. Nothing is left.

Electric poles too.

I’m inside the no-go zone. Over there, a fire. The fires won’t go out.

I've got to get away from here as fast as I can.

Above me a helicopter. Another tsunami alert.

I’ve got to get out of here as fast as I can. 2011 March 11th…"Sendai New Port Destroyed by a Great Tsunami."

There’s a whole house here. It’s been like this for a hundreds of meters.

Residences, factories, warehouses, annihilated.

I’ve never seen anything like this.

In the river, cars are piled up. Unbelievable.

These wires look dangerous…

This was just a regular road…can you believe it…

I used to use this road all the time. It’s near my shop.

My feet are so heavy with mud it’s hard to walk.

posted by jet_manifesto at 8:03 PM on March 14, 2011 [22 favorites]

Can anyone tell me what is currently going on with the explosions at the Fukushima reactor, and whether it will have any affect on Tokyo?
Sorry my girlfriend is there, I am panicking, and I cannot find any concrete answers.
posted by Enigmark at 8:07 PM on March 14, 2011

The short answer is we don't know what the effect will be on Tokyo. This thread is where the technical discussion about the reactors is taking place, but remember that most of the people in there are just amateurs trying to figure things out, not experts, and even for experts the situation is unclear. Earlier, the experts weighed in to say that there was little chance of a significant problem for Tokyo, but I don't know if that assessment holds up given the situation now (and the situation now is still unclear on the basic facts of what's happening at the reactors).
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:10 PM on March 14, 2011

Thanks Lobstermitten, as you said it is hard to get an assessment of what is actually happening now, as well as trying to find out what will actually happen. I have heard wildly conflicting assessments since thursday and it is freaking me out.
posted by Enigmark at 8:12 PM on March 14, 2011

Can anyone tell me what is currently going on with the explosions at the Fukushima reactor, and whether it will have any affect on Tokyo?.

Of the four reactors, 1, 2 and 3 are being cooled by sea water. An explosion at 2 earlier is said to have breached the containment chamber. Number 4 (which had no fuel rods at the time of the earthquake and was shut down) was on fire, though that is now reportedly out.

There's a leak of radiation high enough to cause health damage -- it's past the level that can make you infertile. They're evacuating a 30km area around the site.

Currently everyone is stressing that other areas can go about life as usual, including Tokyo.
posted by bonaldi at 8:13 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Why I am not worried about Japan's nuclear reactors is an explanation from an engineer at MIT (not a specialist in nuclear reactors) which was one of the early reassuring descriptions (basically, explaining why it would not be the kind of doomsday scenario one might envision). It gives a sense of what's the difference between the hydrogen explosions we saw earlier and the containment breach, what do these terms mean.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:23 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hey Tokyo MeFites: How's the food situation today? The way the US media is reporting it, there's no food to be had in town.
posted by dw at 8:27 PM on March 14, 2011

This is a total sidetrack, and far after the OP, but does anyone else find the phrasing of these guys in their last paragraph disgusting and narrow-minded in their placing of concern for some captive dolphins on the same page as that of the countless people involved? Seriously, am I off base here? If I'm walking the derail line too closely here, memail me.

I'm pretty far across the line into 'tree-hugger' territory myself but this just made my opinion of this group drop quite a bit. In normal conditions I'd be the first to sign a petition saying free tormented dolphins and condemn their captors but man, if the apocalypse is bearing down I don't think I'd have time or mental fortitude to worry about Flipper.
posted by RolandOfEld at 8:37 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's been said before, and more eloquently than I can, but for all of you in Japan, hang in there. You guys have been through so much already and the stress just isn't letting up. It means little, but we are all there with you in spirit.

If you're an American when you go in to the bathroom, and you're an American when you come out, what are you when you are in the bathroom?

You're a peein!

European? Sorry. A little levity.

Carry on.
posted by karst at 8:38 PM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

If you're an American when you go in to the bathroom, and you're an American when you come out, what are you when you are in the bathroom?

russian - we don't have time to do ANYTHING these days
posted by pyramid termite at 8:41 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

... if the apocalypse is bearing down I don't think I'd have time or mental fortitude to worry about Flipper.

When push comes to shove, I think a lot of us are capable of far more extreme behavior than we'd like to admit. There were a lot of people who had to make a lot of hard choices that day.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:41 PM on March 14, 2011

This footage is unreal.
posted by Skygazer at 8:41 PM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Calendar of blackout schedule.
posted by nickyskye at 8:42 PM on March 14, 2011

This is a total sidetrack, and far after the OP, but does anyone else find the phrasing of these guys in their last paragraph disgusting and narrow-minded in their placing of concern for some captive dolphins on the same page as that of the countless people involved?

I'm with you, RolandOfEld, and I say that as a animal person to the core. My reaction comes from having worked for a similarly strident nonprofit in my 20s (different cause, equally worthy, but similar PR approach). I know from experience that some groups -- I won't accuse Sea Shepherd, but some groups -- are always willing to put the message before the people who they pay to transmit it, or the people who happen to be standing nearby. And that, in the end, SUCKS. I don't think it's inappropriate to point that out right now.
posted by mudpuppie at 8:43 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

9700 of one of the 10,000-person missing person groups has been found.
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:44 PM on March 14, 2011 [17 favorites]

Food situation was a little better this morning, but the store was packed. They had milk, eggs, bread, and meat/fish, but a lot of non-perishables were already gone by 9:30 when I was there. No flour, very little soy sauce. Not much juice. No bottled water, but lots of tea and other drinks. I imagine, though, given the lines (I talked to family back home for about twenty minutes while waiting in line) that there won't be much later on in the day.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:46 PM on March 14, 2011

What, were they hiding in the attic? Link??
posted by mudpuppie at 8:46 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nikkei
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:48 PM on March 14, 2011

Posted in the other thread, but for Japanese Mefites who live elsewhere in Japan:

Digging around a little, I found this site for the readings at Onagawa, and this for readings near Niigata. Niigata updates every 10 minutes, but Onagawa looks to update every 6 hours.

Both found at this site, which also links to Kanagawa and Hokkaido.
posted by birdsquared at 8:51 PM on March 14, 2011

My wife got turned away from the supermarket yesterday. They said they weren't letting in any more shoppers. The day before yesterday, when I went, certain products were gone, but overall everything was still very much in stock. It wasn't like videos you see of stores around Katrina time, where EVERYTHING is gone. I understand, of course, that lots more is gone at this point.
posted by Bugbread at 8:52 PM on March 14, 2011

Google translation of your link, jet_manifesto:

According to Miyagi Prefecture, it was confirmed that 9700 people were evacuated before 15 am in the southern area had been Sanriku to be out of touch with about 10,000 and 17,000 inhabitants. The bodies have been found in the same town of 1,000 people so far.

Please tell me something is lost in translation?
posted by mudpuppie at 8:52 PM on March 14, 2011

The radiation level graph from Hino City that Flapjax linked earlier, seems to have peaked around noon, and now seems to be falling.
posted by woodblock100 at 8:53 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I'm a big whale lover and support Sea Shepard, but I have to admit, I thought after such a horrifying loss of human life, it seems a bit beside the point to think of the dolphins. This is a tragedy for many forms of life, but most particularly humans. And there's a tone of "Oh, look, the whole Japanese race might not be evil," that is off-putting.
posted by threeturtles at 8:55 PM on March 14, 2011

mudpuppie, to summarize: the town had 17,000 total inhabitants. 10,000 of those were missing, 1000 dead. Of the 10,000 missing, 9700 have been found. So, out of the 17,000 population, 1000 are confirmed deceased with another 300 still missing.
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:58 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I hate to ask this here, but I'm not sure where else to look, maybe somebody here in this thread might know. The tickets to Chicago my wife and I have are for Thursday, leaving around 11 am. We've been trying to find a way to get to the airport from Inage in Chiba to Narita airport, but Keisei's bus site was down, and another company that does door-to-airport service said they're not doing any pickups because of gas shortage. They've just said TEPCO will be doing blackouts at least until Friday. If the trains are affected, we're not really sure how to get to the airport. Any ideas?
posted by Ghidorah at 8:58 PM on March 14, 2011

Thanks a bunch for the clarification, jet_manifesto. I'm glad that's the case. Such good news about those who have been found.
posted by mudpuppie at 8:59 PM on March 14, 2011

Ghidorah, I heard that trains will not be effected by the blackouts. can't say for sure, though.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:00 PM on March 14, 2011

Food situation as of this morning in northeast Tokyo: Bad. Nothing except condiments left in supermarkets. Well, actually, fresh produce isn't lacking so much as prepackaged stuff. Like I wrote yesterday, people are stocking up from panic/precaution, and because of various factors like gasoline shortage, rolling blackouts, and factories shut down, the stores aren't being restocked. Now that the Fukushima Daiichi situation has gotten worse, it's hard to say when things will be back to normal.

Got a call from my son's juku just now, and they've officially decided to close classes until the end of this semester (March). They said they're hoping to resume classes in April. I feel so sorry for the kids who had to take entrance exams this year, and the graduating classes. I really really hope kids everywhere can start studying in peace again come April.
posted by misozaki at 9:00 PM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

woodblock100, thanks for updating the radiation graph - I won't load it since I'm not in Japan, but if people in Japan who are loading it periodically can update us, that's much appreciated.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:05 PM on March 14, 2011

Thanks, flapjax. I guess we'll find out today when the blackouts come if the trains are still running.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:05 PM on March 14, 2011

I can't get the radiation graph to load anymore, which was contributing to my panic. If anyone manages to refresh it successfully, could you post it on some image site and link it?
posted by Bugbread at 9:08 PM on March 14, 2011

Opportunity to help: volunteers fluent in both English and Japanese are needed at Babelverse.com.
posted by Asparagirl at 9:09 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

LobsterMitten, I'm not in Japan but my wife and two month old are about 10 kilometers from the Hino geiger counter site, so I AM refreshing it every so often. I must say I was getting very near to panic mode when it started going up, but it looks to be just above baseline as of 1 PM (i.e 10 minutes ago), so I'm a bit relieved, and hopefully, you will be too Bugbread.
posted by birdsquared at 9:09 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Never mind, I got through: http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o173/bugbread/20110315radiation.jpg
posted by Bugbread at 9:12 PM on March 14, 2011

Bugbread: Last time I saw the radiation graph (I've only loaded it a couple of times to try keep it available for those in Japan), the levels had fallen back down pretty close to background levels. I'd say somewhere in the 30s. At its peak, the level was still far lower than you'd see from a commercial flight. Oddly, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is saying their monitoring post in central Tokyo hasn't detected any increased radiation levels.

Winds are also blowing westward again according to NHK World, which I hope gives a bit of peace of mind. Hang in there!
posted by zachlipton at 9:12 PM on March 14, 2011

Oh, look, the bozo apologized for a change.
posted by misozaki at 9:15 PM on March 14, 2011

Oddly, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is saying their monitoring post in central Tokyo hasn't detected any increased radiation levels.

Respectfully, I'd say that's only odd if you expect the government to be entirely truthful and forthcoming.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:16 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm happy he said it, and disappointed he apologized: if he maintained a hard-line "Japan is being punished for its greed!" stance, in the face of complaints, it would ensure that he wouldn't be re-elected.
posted by Bugbread at 9:18 PM on March 14, 2011

Someone needs to point their ustream account (free) at the geiger counter.

Hm, I can do that. Gimme a minute.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:22 PM on March 14, 2011

I hate to keep asking this, but is anyone able to translate the bozo's apology without much hassle? It was really nice earlier today to be mad at a politician however many thousands of miles away. I've stopped listening to the radio/other news because of the stupidity of the ones here.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:24 PM on March 14, 2011

A fair point flapjax. I don't know Japanese politics that well, but today's press conferences have been absolutely disastrous in my opinion. The PM's statement was simultaneously completely unorganized, unreassuring, and uninformative. And Tepco's "we sincerely apologize" press conference was even worse. I'm curious how it played in Japanese (I was watching NHK's translation). Any more confident or logical?
posted by zachlipton at 9:25 PM on March 14, 2011

ustream has never worked for me. I am using a mac. Any ideas?
posted by futz at 9:28 PM on March 14, 2011

futz, you could try the following: http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv43296023
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:29 PM on March 14, 2011

mudpuppie, that article just says that Ishihara said he "lacked words" and that he "retracts" what he said and apologizes. Which is just a cookie cutter way of saying "whoops my bad" in politi-speak here, but Ishihara rarely even does that, so...
posted by misozaki at 9:30 PM on March 14, 2011

Also, there's the main NHK World page at http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:31 PM on March 14, 2011

Someone needs to point their ustream account (free) at the geiger counter.

like this? Thats in Tokyo, though.
posted by delmoi at 9:34 PM on March 14, 2011

Thanks people! I can get the NHK vids but no ustream vids of any sort. Carry on...it is a small thing for me to fret about anyway.
posted by futz at 9:34 PM on March 14, 2011

Oh that was in the nuke thread
posted by delmoi at 9:35 PM on March 14, 2011

I'm happy he said it, and disappointed he apologized: if he maintained a hard-line "Japan is being punished for its greed!" stance, in the face of complaints, it would ensure that he wouldn't be re-elected.

I think the dual (triple?) disasters have the potential to change Japanese politics.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:36 PM on March 14, 2011

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hino-tokyo-geiger-counter-feed

Here we go. It only refreshes by me refreshing manually, though. Working on that.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:36 PM on March 14, 2011

Roundup of current tokyo train info from Time Out Tokyo, via @TimeOutTokyo
posted by moonmilk at 9:36 PM on March 14, 2011

Thanks, misozaki. Here's some Maru.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:39 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Here's a neat account of how Apple has been doing what they can to help.

7 hours and 118 aftershocks later, the store was still open. Why? Because with the phone and train lines down, taxis stopped, and millions of people stuck in the Tokyo shopping district scared, with no access to television, hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email. The young did it on their mobile devices, while the old clustered around the macs.... Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones....

Apple told all of their staff - Retail AND Corporate - that they could go sleep at the Apple stores.... Once staff let their families know that they were not only safe but how comfortable we were...family members began asking if they could stay at the Apple stores as well. Of course Apple said yes. One business team member's stranded mother walked 3.5 hours to be with her daughter at the store. When she arrived, the Apple store staff gave her a standing ovation ("Warm Welcome") like they do for customers during a new launch.

The head of Apple International HR and of Japan Retail happened to be in Japan that week. Both came and spent the night with us in the stores and told everyone that if anyone wanted to try their luck getting home on their own, Apple would pay for any food, drink, or transportation fees that that person incurred on the way. "Your safety is most important."

If, on their way home the staff member realized they couldn't make it, but they found an open hotel, Apple would pay for it.... Executives from Cupertino and London Facetimed with us, letting us know not to worry, they supported us, and that they would write off on it all.

posted by djwudi at 9:41 PM on March 14, 2011 [20 favorites]

I'll scoop the radiation graphs now and then, and put copies here. I'll label them with date-time.

But I'm scheduled for a blackout later, so won't be able to scoop then ...
posted by woodblock100 at 9:42 PM on March 14, 2011

Bugbread, would it help if someone could be arranged to drive you and yours to the airport for your flight to Chicago? Not a bus service, but just a person with a vehicle? Because I'm sure that the collective effort of MetaFilter could make that happen, even if it's a long drive, so long as roads are open. (Pardon my ignorance of the situation vis a vis roads in Japan.)
posted by ocherdraco at 9:43 PM on March 14, 2011

It should be possible to mirror it automatically. I don't have a really solid server, or immediate python-fu to get it going, but I'll see if I can do that tomorrow. Hopefully the ustream thing will work for now. It now should refresh automatically.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:47 PM on March 14, 2011

djwudi (or anyone): Any comment as to how much Apple's behavior in this case meets the behavior of other Japanese businesses of similar status?

I know Apple markets itself as an extraordinarily people oriented company but if that's what all corporate entities are doing, but with less PR, then it doesn't stand for much beyond Average Action & Great PR. Make sense? I'm not speculating, just asking.

Full Disclosure: I'm not an Apple fanboy and have some hidden angst against them, but I try to keep an open mind and things like that make them damn likable. I just want to know if it's deserved or not.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:49 PM on March 14, 2011

All right, it's refreshing every five minutes. My laptop will be on all night CST. Tomorrow I can write a 5-line python script to push images to an ftp server. Anyone have a nice beefy one? I could use my webserver but it's a somewhat dinky dreamhost personal site.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:54 PM on March 14, 2011

Yeah, it doesn't seem like Apple is doing anything that any other company wouldn't do.
posted by delmoi at 9:58 PM on March 14, 2011

Thanks, BungaDunga!
posted by dialetheia at 9:59 PM on March 14, 2011

Thanks BungaDunga - I feel much better anxiously watching your feed rather than deciding whether it's been enough time to justify loading the jpg again...
posted by birdsquared at 9:59 PM on March 14, 2011

One other pull quote from djwudi's post (thanks!)

I've been calling my girlfriend at work, asking her to come home, but because the Tokyo government hasn't said anything, her company won't let her leave. On the other hand, my manager at Apple called me to let me know that Apple will support any decision I make regarding leaving the country or the area, and that a job will still be waiting for me if I decide to come back.

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:17 PM on March 14, 2011

> Any comment as to how much Apple's behavior in this case meets the behavior of other Japanese businesses of similar status?

I have no idea. I'm just another random person sitting in Seattle living vicariously through MetaFilter (and, as many other people have already expressed, being really impressed with this thread for a multitude of reasons). I just stumbled across that link, and thought it was good and possibly worth sharing.

(Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm an Apple fanboy. However, I'd like to think that the same story would have impressed me as much with another company's name attached to it. Perhaps I'm wrong and my fanboyism got the better of me, but that's what I'd like to think.)

> Yeah, it doesn't seem like Apple is doing anything that any other company wouldn't do.

Quite possibly, and I'd certainly hope so. Maybe it's just that this is the first story I'd heard along these particular lines, maybe my admitted already-existing appreciation of this particular company got the better of me. It's still nice to hear stories about people (and corporations) being nice to each other in times of need. Seems to happen all too rarely.
posted by djwudi at 10:17 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Be careful, gc, just had an alert for a quake in the sea of Japan, off Akita, alert for Iwate as well.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:30 AM on March 15 [+] [!]

I got that warning right as I was getting in to my car to go to my last day of school. I just kind of sat and waited for a moment, but got nothing. So that was nice.

Turns out going to work was a good idea, better than staying at home.

A bunch of the other ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers), JETs and foreigners are going stir-crazy up here because school is over for the year and we have nothing to do. I hear the Japanese Red Cross is in town, so I know I'll see a bunch of them donating blood. I may go try myself. But we're aching to do anything to help and there seems to be nothing we can do.

I talked to my contact in the Takizawa Board of Education, and they said that Takizawa will be receiving about 100 refugees from Yamada Town in eastern Iwate.
posted by gc at 10:21 PM on March 14, 2011

Just curious, but are we anywhere near becoming the longest-ever MetaFilter thread? Or did we crash through that level long ago ... (And wow, am I ever glad for the new inline update function!)
posted by woodblock100 at 10:22 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

We still have another two thousand to go before we top the Palin thread, I think.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:25 PM on March 14, 2011

Nah, Mrs. Palin still has an edge on this thread by a few miles yet.
posted by gc at 10:26 PM on March 14, 2011

It's still nice to hear stories about people (and corporations) being nice to each other in times of need. Seems to happen all too rarely.

I concur, and I'm Apple-ambivalent. It's nice to hear about people helping other people, even if it's a corporation doing the helping.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:28 PM on March 14, 2011

Hey Tokyo MeFites: How's the food situation today? The way the US media is reporting it, there's no food to be had in town.

Still some empty shelves, but my wife went to the local supermarket and got eggs and other things. Milk still gone, as is bread. I went to a convenience store and they had some sandwiches and chips. Alcohol is still plentiful!

As for the winds, I just saw that the wind in Fukushima is basically blowing west and northwest, but by tomorrow morning will blow east all over Japan. Who knows how much radiation will be put in the air in the next 12 hours though.
posted by zardoz at 10:30 PM on March 14, 2011

Sorry, there seems to be some confusion (here and in MeMail): I'm not going to the airport or otherwise leaving the country. Y'all are probably thinking of Ghidorah.
posted by Bugbread at 10:30 PM on March 14, 2011

Yep, wasn't trying to down the apple story, just wanting some context. Thanks.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:32 PM on March 14, 2011

Oh, I just saw that. Yeah, my wife and I bought tickets months ago, and are trying to figure out how to get to Narita on Thursday. We're not sure right now what will happen with the flight, but last time we checked, it was still scheduled.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:33 PM on March 14, 2011

BungaDunga, I may not get this 'upstream' thing. Is it just a weirdly embedded into a flash video with ads mirror of the radiation JPG? I also have a maybe not so podunk dreamhost space and/or an AWS small instance if the goal is just to upload or mirror an image.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:48 PM on March 14, 2011

zengargoyle: ustream is a site for showing streaming video in realtime, from a webcam. I just tied it into a desktop-as-webcam app to do a quick and dirty mirror for the Geiger counter site. Yeah, the idea is just to mirror the image. This was the quickest way I could think of to do it, though it's not very elegant.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:57 PM on March 14, 2011

Smile! Creators react to Japan disaster with optimism
posted by Artw at 10:59 PM on March 14, 2011

artw, your link that starts off with Smile! leads to, ahem, page not found. Not that I believe in omens, but, uh...
posted by Ghidorah at 11:00 PM on March 14, 2011

The url is correct; something's fubar at the site, apparently. You can find the post easily with the "earthquake" tag, though.
posted by taz at 11:10 PM on March 14, 2011

The good news is that Japan and disaster are separate words. Put a hyphen between them in the url and it works!
posted by Balonious Assault at 11:11 PM on March 14, 2011

Here comes the economic hit; the Nikkei 225 Index is down over 1,000 points already.
posted by ceribus peribus at 11:11 PM on March 14, 2011

For what it's worth, I was really impressed reading the Apple story and I'm pretty anti-Apple. I would love to know that this is a standard corporate reaction in Japan, but I'm a little skeptical of that, based on my US experiences.

My brother lost his job for not showing up to work the day Hurricane Rita hit. During a mandatory evacuation.
posted by threeturtles at 11:12 PM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm a little surprised they haven't suspended trading on the Nikkei, at least for a day or two...
posted by birdsquared at 11:13 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

threeturtles, as an example, my wife's department store had the employees stay overnight on Friday. Some customers couldn't make it home either, and they were allowed to stay in the store, too. Most other department stores made their stranded customers leave the store, then locked up for the night.

Now, on the other hand, my wife's store is one of the only department stores actually open for business in Tokyo, which kind of balances out the story. Most stores, it seems, are closed, but hers, for whatever reason, is not.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:16 PM on March 14, 2011

birdsquared, as Ghidorah told us, Work never stops.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:21 PM on March 14, 2011

http://mu.jklmnop.net/japan has a mirror of the radiation graph updated every 10 minutes. That seems to be the update time of the original link. Hosted on the Amazon Web Services instance that holds the never used not-metachat XMPP server.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:38 PM on March 14, 2011

Hooray. I'll send the link out to the stream's audience.
posted by BungaDunga at 11:41 PM on March 14, 2011

If it croaks for some reason (probably shouldn't for just an image...) I can probably get away with moving it to my .edu work account. Added a link to the original with a note and some details of the measurement.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:51 PM on March 14, 2011

Alcohol is still plentiful!

Ah, the little mercies.
posted by Jilder at 2:33 AM on March 15, 2011

Ah, the little mercies.

Problem is, of course, you can't get drunk cause being drunk in an earthquake or nuclear disaster scenario, you know, don't work.

i hate that
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:36 AM on March 15, 2011 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I think along the same lines, flapjax. I've got a fridge full of beer calling to me, but I don't want to be drunk (blissfully, blissfully drunk) in the middle of the next earthquake.

^{if everything works out with my flight, I'll be landing in Chicago on St. Patrick's Day, and trust me, at least a couple of my beers will be drunk in your honor.}
posted by Ghidorah at 2:40 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'll be landing in Chicago, on St. Patrick's Day
I'll be drinking every beer that happens to come my way,
And even though the next day there'll be hell to pay,
I'll be drinking in Chicago, on ol' St. Paddy's Day
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:16 AM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

flapjax at midnite: "Problem is, of course, you can't get drunk cause being drunk in an earthquake or nuclear disaster scenario, you know, don't work.

I don't drink to get drunk (hate the feeling), but if I had to endure all those aftershocks I'd probably be working my way through a bottle of something strong.
posted by bwg at 3:54 AM on March 15, 2011

It's intensely relieving to see that the TV networks have switched back to substance-free fluff instead of 24-hour news coverage. It means that there's stopped being anything interesting happening, which goes a huge way toward calming things down on an emotional level out here in 60Hz Japan. Our collective hearts go out to 50Hz Japan, though.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:08 AM on March 15, 2011

flapjax, we gave Freshness Burger a second chance tonight. They had me at the incredibly melty cheddar on the cheeseburger. They were out of fries, but the onion rings were delicious.

The funny thing is, we went out for McDonald's and found none. The one at the train station was closed, and the one on the main shopping drag in Morioka had gone out of business sometime in the last few months. Which is a good thing.

Freshness Burger.
posted by gc at 4:15 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

On a more serious update, JR East is running trains on the Tazawako Line again, but not too far out (still within Iwate prefecture. Nothing going west into Akita Prefecture). And on the Tohoku Main Line trains are running down to Hanamaki, where at least one flight is heading out to Haneda. IGR is still trying to decide what they are going to do with trains running north. So things are getting better.
posted by gc at 4:18 AM on March 15, 2011

I am so waiting for TV to get back to normal. I'm watching the 'Japanese' channel of Los Angeles and I miss my re-runs of Ultraman-Dyna and どっちの料理.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:24 AM on March 15, 2011

From the posting-this-to-stay-positive department: The meteorological agency has downgraded the possibility of an M7-or-greater aftershock from 70% to 40% by the 18th, and 20% for the successive three days thereafter. Break out the fist pumps.
posted by Gordion Knott at 4:35 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's intensely relieving to see that the TV networks have switched back to substance-free fluff instead of 24-hour news coverage. It means that there's stopped being anything interesting happening, which goes a huge way toward calming things down on an emotional level out here in 60Hz Japan.

Amen to this. Usually I switch off the TV with a snarl when the vapidity of the tarento reaches a fever pitch--usually about half an hour. But I'm just loving watching this show about these rich people and their Ferrarris or some other show about weirdest restaurants around Japan. Ah, banality, how you soothe this soul.

It's hard to watch the news, it's all bad news. I think it's genuinely giving me an ulcer. The lack of food has gone hand in hand with my decreasing appetite, so it's a match.
posted by zardoz at 4:44 AM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

From the posting-this-to-stay-positive department: The meteorological agency has downgraded the possibility of an M7-or-greater aftershock from 70% to 40% by the 18th, and 20% for the successive three days thereafter. Break out the fist pumps.

OH FUCK YEAH!!!!
posted by zardoz at 4:45 AM on March 15, 2011

From the posting-this-to-stay-positive department: The meteorological agency has downgraded the possibility of an M7-or-greater aftershock from 70% to 40% by the 18th, and 20% for the successive three days thereafter. Break out the fist pumps.
posted by Gordion Knott at 8:35 PM on March 15 [+] [!]

*holding my breath*
posted by gc at 4:50 AM on March 15, 2011

Sorry, there seems to be some confusion (here and in MeMail): I'm not going to the airport or otherwise leaving the country. Y'all are probably thinking of Ghidorah.

That's what I get for commenting in the middle of the night my time! Sorry about that—I really do know who each of you are, and just futzed it. Okay, so, rephrase:

Ghidorah, would it be helpful to have mefites take care of pre-arranging travel by car for your flight to Chicago?

Bugbread, who is not going anywhere right now, least of all Chicago, would you like bagels and/or internet hugs? (I would say donuts, but I'm in New York, and besides, bagels travel better anyway.)

(I really wanted to take away from the confusion, not add to it, promise.)
posted by ocherdraco at 4:56 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I know what you mean, zardoz. I want to applaud NTV for deciding to go through with it, because I'm sure some viewers will find it insensitive and complain. I usually never watch that program, but it's so good to see Yoshimoto comedians again after what it feels like weeks.
posted by misozaki at 4:57 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ocherdraco: The offer is appreciated, but for some reason we have a chocolate bagel in the fridge right now, which I'm going to count as both a bagel and a donut, so I'm good.
posted by Bugbread at 5:00 AM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

o_O

A chocolate bagel? My mind is blown.

I'm still sending internet hugs to you and everyone in Japan.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:08 AM on March 15, 2011

Asparagirl, others: I've signed up for Babelverse and I've gotten a couple requests for interpretation, but when I click the "answer" button it doesn't seem to connect. AFAICT I have my microphone and speakers set up correctly, turned on, and unmuted. I'm using the latest version of Firefox on Mac OS 10.5.8, any advice? I already sent an e-mail to the site, but thought I'd ask here, too.
posted by azuresunday at 5:33 AM on March 15, 2011

Ocherdraco, I think we're pretty much going to be okay taking the train, as long as (deep breath, cross fingers) the geniuses who claim there will be blackouts, but who have yet to actually define, clearly, which group most of Chiba is in (seriously, the whole prefecture seems to be in 1, 2, and 3), then say, hours after the blackout is supposed to start, "oh, no, we won't need to do it afterall", we'll be fine as long as they don't decide to spring a surprise blackout on the train lines to the airport. Bear in mind, the people unable to figure out how to actually let people know what zone they're in are actually the folks we're relying on to prevent the catastrophe up north from getting worse. I'm not remotely confident.

On lighter, happier notes, we have just had burgers, too. Home-cured and smoked bacon, sauted onions, toasted buns, the works. Having a well stocked freezer finally paid off, and my comfort food gene is kicking in on overtime at the moment.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:35 AM on March 15, 2011

A chocolate bagel? My mind is blown.

Ocherdraco, come to Tokyo*, your mind will be blown daily.

*though now might not be the best time...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:43 AM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

"Asparagirl, others: I've signed up for Babelverse and I've gotten a couple requests for interpretation, but when I click the "answer" button it doesn't seem to connect."

Sorry, I don't know what's up with that. Hopefully the site owner will reply to you soon. Thank you for volunteering!
posted by Asparagirl at 6:25 AM on March 15, 2011

Ugh, we just had light but sustained tremors up here. I'd say they lasted about 30 seconds, maybe less. Just enough to make the lights sway ever so slightly, but still, a little more than we've been getting the last few days.
posted by gc at 6:31 AM on March 15, 2011

Woop! Here we go ... our turn!
posted by woodblock100 at 6:33 AM on March 15, 2011

Just felt an earthquake here in Osaka.
posted by emmling at 6:35 AM on March 15, 2011

Strong, woodblock?
posted by gc at 6:36 AM on March 15, 2011

That didn't take long ... They're reporting it was a 6.2, centered in Shizuoka somewhere - the other side of Tokyo. We're surrounded ...
posted by woodblock100 at 6:36 AM on March 15, 2011

Shizuoka just got a Mag. 6 big aftershock that rocked Tokyo significantly as well.
posted by gen at 6:37 AM on March 15, 2011

Yikes. I hope that was the one they were talking about, and we can be done with the big aftershock.

Please?
posted by gc at 6:38 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I drank too much coffee and got too little sleep so today I've felt like everything's been shaking pretty much constantly. It's like I've just stepped off a boat onto dry land, but the feeling just won't go away. Every so often I see the lights sway and it's like, "Oh, I'm not just imagining it this time." *sigh*
posted by azuresunday at 6:38 AM on March 15, 2011

I'm in Kobe (temporarily, visiting relatives) and we felt it. Mag. 2 in Kobe.
posted by gen at 6:39 AM on March 15, 2011

Shizuoka has the Hamaoka Reactor, right by the seaside.
posted by gen at 6:42 AM on March 15, 2011

gen, there's no getting away! But be safe!

Just when we pumped fists thinking that it would all be over soon. Sigh.
posted by misozaki at 6:42 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hamaoka nuclear power plant (run by Chubu Denryoku) is apparently reporting 'All OK here' (so far).
posted by woodblock100 at 6:42 AM on March 15, 2011

My house in Shiga was shaking pretty good from this last one. First one I've felt since the big one. I can't imagine you guys out east who are dealing with tons of these every day.
posted by p3t3 at 6:43 AM on March 15, 2011

My house in Shiga was shaking pretty good from this last one. First one I've felt since the big one. I can't imagine you guys out east who are dealing with tons of these every day.
posted by p3t3 at 10:43 PM on March 15 [+] [!]

It's been quiet mostly the last day or so. We've just been waiting for bigger aftershocks.
posted by gc at 6:46 AM on March 15, 2011

Fuck. I'm in Itabashi and that shook pretty goddamn hard. Can't believe it was just a 3, but I guess that's like a magnitude 6?

gc, I'm with you, I hope that was the last gasp, rather than a precursor. Seriously considering leaving Tokyo now for a few days.
posted by zardoz at 6:48 AM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Three right in a row, the 6, then a 4, then a 3 in Yamanashi. This is getting... absurd? Terrifying? Stupefying?
posted by Ghidorah at 6:51 AM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

I just posted this on the other nuclear thread - but realized it was more than appropriate for here too ~ mostly for what I wrote at the end, after just reading about the additional shaking you just experienced :-(

Good morning and yet again ~ thank you sooo much all for being here to wake up to. Beyond comforting not having to rely on the media these past few days to know what's truly going on.

A point so well and rightly made by merely clicking on the link ericb just posted ..... ARGH! Exactly the kind of fear-mongering baloney (tempering my adjectives deliberately :) that runs rampant over here and has everybody running for iodine tablets and radioactivity survival kits. I didn't even watch the video - just the headline nauseated me. Enough media people - the reality and the obvious is horrible enough as it is in Japan. You do not need to hype it for the sake of your bottomlines and viewer numbers. All mefites in Japan that I'm learning to know and love thanks to this thread ~ you have my sincerest apologies for our media stupidity and insensitivity.

Wish I could care-package the entire country a box full of peace, serenity and calm.
posted by cdalight at 7:01 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seriously considering leaving Tokyo now for a few days.

But... one was Tohoku, and the last one was off the Tokai region...

nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:13 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just when I thought we'd get through today without another strong one...

Luckily, I was standing on Kichijoji station platform in complete violation of flapjax's don't get drunk during earthquakes rule.

Roll with the punches.
posted by jet_manifesto at 7:18 AM on March 15, 2011 [6 favorites]

Can we make a list of Flapjax's rules? I have a feeling they'd be great help in all of life's situations.

^{we could incorporate the rules of hallucinogens; 1. fire is bad 2. headlights are not your friends, they don't want to play, and 3) no, you really can't fly}
posted by Ghidorah at 7:21 AM on March 15, 2011 [8 favorites]

The Hino City background radiation meter that we have been watching all day (mirror link), and which has been very stable since the sharp peak this morning, is beginning to climb again - although very slowly.
posted by woodblock100 at 7:23 AM on March 15, 2011

Can I just pay some respect here to the stoicism and community-mindedness of the people of Japan?

Echoing that respect. There's an article from the Washington Times that covers the absence of reports on widespread looting, and overall chaotic behavior. For me, the Japanese have a level of stoicism I truly admire, and hope that my own country could someday emulate (although due to the structure of things, that'd likely be a long road outside my lifetime).
posted by samsara at 7:24 AM on March 15, 2011

rules of hallucinogens

if you are a cat and decide that cats don't wear clothes, so you get naked, don't get hungry and go to 7-11 until you are human again, you won't have pockets for the money, and people will look at you funny.
posted by nomisxid at 7:24 AM on March 15, 2011 [6 favorites]

argh, if you THINK you are a cat
posted by nomisxid at 7:25 AM on March 15, 2011

1. fire is bad 2. headlights are not your friends, they don't want to play, and 3) no, you really can't fly

4. All cars are real 5. The Spicer P is just an idea, nothing to worry about
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 7:25 AM on March 15, 2011

The level of preparedness and stoicism shown by the Japanese people in the face of this adversity is really telling. I can't even imagine how the US would handle a natural disaster of this scope, which is moderately concerning considering the areas of the US that are geologically active and vulnerable to earthquakes.
posted by vuron at 7:29 AM on March 15, 2011

Al Jazeera:

11:22pm

The ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant has been upgraded to a level 6 on the International Nuclear Events Scale. To put this into perspective, the Chernobyl diaster was a level 7, and the Three mile Island accident was a level 5.
posted by futz at 7:33 AM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

1. fire is bad 2. headlights are not your friends, they don't want to play, and 3) no, you really can't fly

4. All cars are real 5. The Spicer P is just an idea, nothing to worry about

6. There is a song for everything
posted by francesca too at 7:37 AM on March 15, 2011

At this point I'm beginning to think that gomichild was indeed a psychic, considering the sheer brilliance of her timing to leave.
posted by misozaki at 7:40 AM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

But... one was Tohoku, and the last one was off the Tokai region...

Kyushu, baby. Kagoshima. No, scratch that, anyplace away from water.
posted by zardoz at 7:40 AM on March 15, 2011

Kyushu, baby. Kagoshima.

What, the land of volcanoes? Newly imported redback spiders? The pure evil that is the Softbank Hawks?
posted by Ghidorah at 7:43 AM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

A no-fly zone is established for a 30-km radius around the plant, Jiji news agency says, quoting the transport ministry.
posted by ericb at 8:02 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

The daughter of someone at work is in Shizuoka. She doesn't speak Japanese and doesn't know where to turn for information. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
posted by asianvikinggirl at 8:13 AM on March 15, 2011

Japan crisis worse than Three Mile Island, experts say.
posted by ericb at 8:14 AM on March 15, 2011

Any suggestions would be appreciated

She can start right here.
posted by woodblock100 at 8:17 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

U.S. citizens in need of emergency consular assistance should send an e-mail to [e-mail] with detailed information about their location and contact information. We also recommend U.S. citizens in Japan make contact with loved ones in the United States.

Earthquake Information for Americans in Japan - March 15 at 4:30 p.m. from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:19 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was scrolling looking for this. Sorry if it has been addressed, but there is a note of a 6.1 earthquake in the past hour and a half on the island of Honshu, only 1 km deep. It seems to be at the coordinates of Mt. Fuji and 22 miles NW of Numazu.
Is this particularly bad? It seems more in line with the Christchurch quake, shallow in depth and directly beside some medium sized cities. Virtually all of the other quakes/aftershocks have centered over the ocean.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:19 AM on March 15, 2011

asianvikinggirl: er, right here? i'm serious, this thread and the nuke one both have up to date info. also there's links above to the english language NHK feed streaming. this is all assuming she has power and internet.
posted by Mach5 at 8:19 AM on March 15, 2011

asianvikinggirl, the daughter doesn't speak Japanese, or the parent? Either way, Time Out Tokyo and their twitter feed have been remarkably useful, with the twitter feed especially, giving live updates of NHK news, translated into English.

Other than that, these threads are full of information, and worth checking out, though they are long.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:20 AM on March 15, 2011

Hmm... I assumed you meant the daughter and that she is a U.S. Citizen. I know other embassies have similar help lines going right now. Do I need to keep scrounging?
posted by ob1quixote at 8:21 AM on March 15, 2011

Here's a link to the English language NHK video streaming.
posted by ericb at 8:33 AM on March 15, 2011

Okay, this answers my question. It seems the earthquake was very dangerous (6 out of 7 on the Japanese scale) but it is too early to tell what damage was done.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:43 AM on March 15, 2011

Here's a link to the English language NHK video streaming.

Thank you ericb!
posted by nickyskye at 8:50 AM on March 15, 2011

Thanks. I think the information provided thus far will be helpful. She is a South African citizen, but speaks English. Hopefully, electricity and internet access aren't an issue.
posted by asianvikinggirl at 8:55 AM on March 15, 2011

Most recent earthquake, Shizuoka quake @10:31 PM, 14 km deep, not 1 km as dances_on thought it might be above [NHK].
posted by maryr at 9:00 AM on March 15, 2011

From the South African Embassy, Japan home page:

3.
For general information on the situation, (excluding information about flights and bookings), South African citizens are welcome to contact the Embassy in Japan at telephone: [phone]. The time in Japan is +7 hours from SA time.

4.
Travellers are urged to register their travel on the Department’s voluntary Registration of South Africans Abroad (ROSA) software athttp://www.dirco.gov.za/consular/index.html and click on the button to access the web form.

5.
The e-mail address of the Consular Section of the South African Embassy in Japan is [e-mail]

6.
Travellers may also contact the Department’s Consular Section at 012 351 1000, alternatively e-mail [e-mail]

posted by ob1quixote at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2011

The English NHK stream said it was a 6.4, 14km deep, not 1km. Unless it's a different one. Sounds like some minor damage and a few injuries at the moment.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2011

Alice Springs is about as far away from water as you can get and not be in space, it's geologically stable, no volcanoes and as best I can tell they generate their power by getting smashed on cheap beer and then racing camels.

Not to mention the night life.

Just giving you options.
posted by Jilder at 9:13 AM on March 15, 2011

It did say 1 km at the usgs site but now has changed (to 10 km - for now) and magnitude 6.2.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:15 AM on March 15, 2011

Dumb question warning! NHK World hasn't had any updates for hours (4 hours). Why not? Am I missing something? /end dumb question warning.
posted by futz at 10:35 AM on March 15, 2011

My guess is that it's the middle of the night in Japan and nothing much is happening now.
posted by Vibrissa at 10:40 AM on March 15, 2011

FYI, Google has a cool feature where you can search for "time [city/country]" and the first result will be the current time. Time in Tokyo.
posted by desjardins at 10:43 AM on March 15, 2011

That doesn't make sense to me. This is an ongoing crisis of epic proportions. The crisis doesn't stop happening just because it is night time. These days the news is on a 24/7 cycle. Strange.
posted by futz at 10:44 AM on March 15, 2011

I'm fairly happy that our mefis in Japan are finally getting some sleep.
posted by Jilder at 10:45 AM on March 15, 2011

I hope they are sleeping well too! I was asking about the lack of any news updates on NHK and other Japanese media.
posted by futz at 10:48 AM on March 15, 2011

News doesn't seem to be as high-money a business in Japan as it does in America. Where CNN would have holograms and CGI fly-away diagrams, they have paperboard and a pencil for a pointer. Of course I can only see NHK, so maybe they are just the CBS of Japan.
posted by nomisxid at 10:50 AM on March 15, 2011

NHK is Japan's national broadcasting service, funded by license fees paid by television owners. They're more like the BBC of Japan.
posted by ardgedee at 10:58 AM on March 15, 2011

In addition to the gallery that was posted earlier, Big Picture now has two others:

Earthquake Aftermath and Vast Devastation

Some of the images in the Aftermath gallery were posted earlier in this thread, and I believe some were also included in the Atlantic gallery posted earlier.
posted by zarq at 11:00 AM on March 15, 2011

I hope they are sleeping well too! I was asking about the lack of any news updates on NHK and other Japanese media.

I've noticed that meaningful news updates generally stop between 12am and 6am (Japan time). For example, the reactor fire story/burst containment vessel story really started up just after 6am local time yesterday, and it has been the same sort of thing for the past few days. So who knows what the next news cycle will bring.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:04 AM on March 15, 2011

KokuRyu, I have noticed it for days too. I'm just surprised that in this day and age that we live in that any news would be "scheduled".
posted by futz at 11:08 AM on March 15, 2011

The mainland US covers four time zones; it's six if you include Alaska and Hawaii. Japan is a single time zone. This may affect the duration of the news cycle.
posted by dhartung at 11:26 AM on March 15, 2011

We have this thread to talk about the nuclear reactor as well.
posted by delmoi at 11:28 AM on March 15, 2011

Futz - the news isn't scheduled, but if there are no new reports on the reactor (because the status hasn't changed) and no new major earthquakes, then there's nothing new to report on either. Since it's the middle of the night, there probably aren't any news rescue efforts to report on either.
posted by maryr at 11:30 AM on March 15, 2011

Lots of updates on NHK World right now.
posted by futz at 11:30 AM on March 15, 2011

While the nuclear accidents are obsiouly taking a lot of attention (and for very good reasons), I wonder what has happened to the roughly 120-150,000 inhabitants of Ishinomaki and what about the 260 cluster isles of Matsushima.
posted by elpapacito at 11:30 AM on March 15, 2011

1740 GMT: Europe's energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger dubs Japan's nuclear disaster an "apocalypse," telling the European Parliament that Tokyo had almost lost control of events at the stricken Fukushima power plant.
posted by elpapacito at 11:36 AM on March 15, 2011

Helpful, Commissioner Oettinger, thanks for that.
posted by maryr at 11:40 AM on March 15, 2011 [7 favorites]

As I understand it, NHK World is even more shoestring than the standard NHK broadcast as its a foreign language public broadcaster for international dissemination. It's really more like BBC World of Japan than the BBC of Japan, though they simulcast some of the domestic newscasts in translation. I don't know whether the domestic NHK is still doing live news.
posted by zachlipton at 11:43 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ugh. From the Santa Rosa (CA) Press-Democrat, "Suppliers see big demand in U.S. for anti-radiation pills."
posted by mudpuppie at 11:48 AM on March 15, 2011

Sorry, to belabor this, but I am interested. With an earthquake that is 6.2 just 10 km below Mt. Fuji, what is the likelihood that this is a sign the volcano is becoming active? Do volcanoes typically have significant earthquakes without becoming active?

According to Google Maps, Mt. Fuji is at

Longitude: 138° 43' 55" Latitude: 35° 21' 40"

According to USGS, the recent quake.

Richter Date/time Long. Lat. depth location
6.2 2011/03/15 13:31:47 35.300 138.700 10.0 EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:49 AM on March 15, 2011

dances_with_sneetches: maybe this wikipedia prediction of volcanic activity will do?
posted by elpapacito at 11:55 AM on March 15, 2011

A concise overview of the situation to-date (as of a couple of hours ago) from The Economist
posted by islander at 12:16 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Heartwarming story from Reddit. "Operation Re-Stock Granny".
posted by futz at 12:30 PM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

Ahoy the non-nuclear thread! Permission to come aboard?

1. Is there consensus on a charitable donation target, and is there a Team MetaFilter donation mechanism?

2. Is there an identified mechanism for sending donuts to Japanese Mefites, or has that plan been waylaid by the, uh, you-know-what?

Thanks for any pointers!
posted by mwhybark at 12:34 PM on March 15, 2011

^ Google translation of your link, jet_manifesto:

According to Miyagi Prefecture, it was confirmed that 9700 people were evacuated before 15 am in the southern area had been Sanriku to be out of touch with about 10,000 and 17,000 inhabitants. The bodies have been found in the same town of 1,000 people so far.

Is there more information available about this story? Where were the 9700 people found? Does the rough translation above mean that half the town had been evacuated outside of the knowledge of the other half, and subsequently out of touch with them?

This seems like some of the best news of the last few days, yet I can't find a fuller story.

(Am I correct in assuming the town in question here is Minamisanriku?)
posted by torticat at 12:35 PM on March 15, 2011

From The Economist linked by islander upthread:

At Fukushima Dai-ichi, meanwhile, the generators and the power system they drove did not survive the tsunami, which hit about an hour after the earthquake and was much larger than the designers had been told to prepare for. Among the problems was the fact that crucial electrical switching equipment was in a basement, and therefore got flooded.

Not planning for "the event we have no record of" is normal, and sometime catastrophic (see price of houses assumed to be rising forever, almost dogmatic assumption)

It is too early to say how Fukushima fared with the calamity, all things considered. Much of the damage seems to have been caused by the tsunami wrecking the diesel generators—a single failure that resulted in a series of others, and was, in turn, compounded by them.

Weakest link of the chain. Isn't it curious, tought, that everything apparently depended on one set of floodable generators?
posted by elpapacito at 12:36 PM on March 15, 2011

Al Jazeera has an interactive map.

"We've got a new map online, which you can interact with by clicking here. It gives you geo-tagged tweets, YouTube videos, Ushahidi reports - and earthquake sites, news reports, seismic data... and photos. Check it out."
posted by futz at 12:53 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some significant number of clams now dispatched to the Red Cross via this page.

Now, about those donuts...
posted by mwhybark at 12:55 PM on March 15, 2011

2. Is there an identified mechanism for sending donuts to Japanese Mefites, or has that plan been waylaid by the, uh, you-know-what?

I was trying to set something up, but while there was interest on the donation side, there wasn't any on the receiving side, or rather the person interested says they won't be in the country to receive them.

I have asked everyone who expressed interest in donating donuts to instead donate to the red cross and/or bring donuts to your local first responders in a sort of "goodwill anywhere in the world is an improvement" kind of attitude
posted by nomisxid at 12:56 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

My Japanese is too rusty to translate much of this clip, but it seems to be some kitty-related good news, which I know MetaFilter likes.
posted by whitneyarner at 1:04 PM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Just got a note from the Seattle FD concerning donations,

"Unsolicited items valued at twenty-five dollars or less that are placed in a common area where they are shared with coworkers. The aggregate value of such unsolicited items must not exceed fifty dollars from a single source in a calendar year."

It's not clear if I can give each station house $50 in donuts, or just the whole FD system. They do have a page for cash donations as well that they can allocate more widely than just snacks and in higher dollar amounts.
posted by nomisxid at 1:07 PM on March 15, 2011

Obviously I missed something - Why does the Seattle FD need donuts and what does this have to do with Japan?
posted by desjardins at 1:12 PM on March 15, 2011

Aw. 2 dogs somehow survive tsunami. "I bet they pooped a lot," shouted Mr. Kikuchi to her daughter who quietly cleaned up after the dogs.
posted by futz at 1:14 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

People wanted to send donuts, but it's looking to be not practical. If one feels one Must send donuts to someone, I figured local first responders would be an ideal candidate, obviously if you aren't in Seattle you'd send them to your own fire department/whomever, but again it looks like they'd prefer the more practical cash than the tasty donuts.
posted by nomisxid at 1:15 PM on March 15, 2011

I've been in touch with the director of Second Harvest Japan - they are making truck runs from their warehouse in Tokyo to deliver goods directly to Sendai and working with local food groups.

This temp site also has information on how international people can help.
posted by gomichild at 1:36 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

dances_with_sneetches: "Sorry, to belabor this, but I am interested. With an earthquake that is 6.2 just 10 km below Mt. Fuji, what is the likelihood that this is a sign the volcano is becoming active? Do volcanoes typically have significant earthquakes without becoming active?

According to Google Maps, Mt. Fuji is at

Longitude: 138° 43' 55" Latitude: 35° 21' 40"

According to USGS, the recent quake.

Richter Date/time Long. Lat. depth location
6.2 2011/03/15 13:31:47 35.300 138.700 10.0 EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN"

It seems that it would need to be a quake the size of the one in Sendai to affect Mt Fuji - see info on the Hoei quake in 1707.

Shizuoka has been rumbling for months anyway with a series of quakes. I'm not surprised it has had a Shindo 6 - before I left it had a couple of Shindo 5 quakes. It's very unlikely that Mt Fuji will become active without a quake of considerably more force.
posted by gomichild at 1:44 PM on March 15, 2011

I went to the ATM today, and found that it was set up to let me make a donation to the Red Cross right out of my bank account. I've never seen this before- not during any other crisis. I guess it's a new system? Anyway, very very cool that you can do that- I made a small donation on the spot that I might not have done, or at least not as soon. Probably the only overtly friendly thing I've seen a bank do recently.
posted by BungaDunga at 1:45 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've been in touch with the director of Second Harvest Japan

The word I've been hearing at SXSW is that groups like Second Harvest are offering the aid that is needed most in Japan at the moment [this is just among people who can be queried about this here in Austin]. Doctors Without Borders is happy to take donations, but they're at the point where they're telling people "this money may not go directly towards the situation in Japan" since they have many other countries they are involved in, many of which have much worse infrastructure and medical care than Japan and require their direct assistance more urgently. This may, of course, change but it's what I've been hearing this morning.
posted by jessamyn at 1:55 PM on March 15, 2011

I agree the placement of emergency generation low at a sea level power plant is a serious design flaw. It's not as if tsunamis are not very well documented in Japanese history (this ugly site says 65 tsunamis struck Japan between AD 684 and 1960)

(Hindsight is 20:20 and all but the combination of a large earthquake and tsunami combination (the one-two punch is, of course, to be expected expected) "drowning" a powerplant at sea level while breaking supportive and emergency infrastructure in the surrounding area seems sadly predictable).

I guess my point is, the design and location of the Japanese nuclear facilities really drives home the value of paying attention to the long term records of ecological events that occur at low periodicity but with major consequences. Similar events are known from coastal Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, both through geological studies and through aboriginal oral histories (self link). Similarly, tsunamis caused by landslides can be devastating (self link 1, 2)
posted by Rumple at 1:56 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

I feel somewhat better now. I wondered about how much time the people in the coastal cities had to evacuate before the flood. A link posted in the past hour states approx. 40 mins. I am hopeful that this will help keep the death toll down.
posted by Jumpin Jack Flash at 1:56 PM on March 15, 2011

dances_with_sneetches, for starters, volcanoes by their nature are almost always seismically active; it's how they were created. So the fact of an earthquake by itself is not something that necessarily predicts an eruption (and indeed they have occurred from time to time). I would also say that the relationship between eruptions and earthquakes is more complex than simply causative. An earthquake occuring of a size or distance relating to a certain volcano might cause some concern, but we don't really yet understand the processes well enough to say much for certain. Eruption is probably far more dependent on pressure buildup within the volcanic structure than simply being jostled around. At best, we're at the stage where a volcano monitoring station with sensors on mountain X can say that increased activity Y over a period of Z indicates an increased risk of eruption.

Fuji having last erupted during historical (human records) times means that it's essentially active on the scale that volcanoes live and it may well be overdue for an eruption (the 20th century was the first since the middle ages in which it did not erupt at all), or it may well have another extended period of dormancy as between the 12th and 14th centuries.

Hindsight is 20:20 and all but the combination of a large earthquake and tsunami combination (the one-two punch is, of course, to be expected expected) "drowning" a powerplant at sea level while breaking supportive and emergency infrastructure in the surrounding area seems sadly predictable.

I will say that it's my belief that tsunami science has advanced by leaps and bounds during my lifetime, even before the 2004 tsunami, and it's quite possible that even ca. 1970 the overall risk was not as well understood as it is today -- although Japan is one of the places I would have expected more preparation for such a risk, not just because of the experience with tsunamis but a general risk-averse culture and a particular experience with nuclear devastation.

Anyway, engineering is a learning science, and some events -- especially in confluence -- are simply too rare to effectively and affordably anticipate. I have no doubt this will be an extraordinary learning experience for the industry. It may not recover from it, however, politically.
posted by dhartung at 2:05 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seconding gomi and jessamyn - a donation to the Second Harvest seems like a very efficient way for international people to help. They already have food source and distribution networks set up and being locally based will know their way around.
posted by islander at 2:09 PM on March 15, 2011

Thanks for the answers. The Hoei quake seems to have been out at sea, approximately 200 miles from Mt. Fuji - although the Hoei quake was 8.6 according to the Wikipedia article. From the other links seismic/volcanic activity overlap. I guess the take home point is that there are fifty very real problems on the plate and this is only a possible association.
Even without volcanic alarmism, this quake is significant in its own right. Of the several hundred aftershocks / other Japanese quakes of the past week of 5.0 and more only two are described as being centered on land. And this one is in a fairly populated area and fairly shallow.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:15 PM on March 15, 2011

Donated to Second Harvest, thank you for the pointers.
posted by Errant at 2:20 PM on March 15, 2011

Oh whitneyarner! That cat's meow! I know the meaning of that kind of meow so well. Poor frightened puss.
posted by jocelmeow at 2:58 PM on March 15, 2011

Two phrases offer some insight into the Japanese psyche. One is "shikata ga nai," which roughly translates as "it can't be helped," and is a common reaction to situations beyond one's control. The other is "gaman," considered a virtue. It means to be patient and persevere in the face of suffering.

Elderly women and man found alive more than 90 hours after Japan's biggest earthquake and tsunami

Displaced reality: a wakeup call to why we're here, Staff Sgt Morse
posted by plokent at 3:02 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've had a couple of requests by people wanting to send care packages. Most importantly, we don't know if intercity mail is working, much less international mail, so care packages are out. And, frankly, other people need things more, even if they are sweet, delicious donuts. Second Harvest sounds like a good place, and of course the Japanese Red Cross. So please donate to them. We'll be fine.
posted by gc at 3:13 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, looking at the map, the Shinkansen passes right through the middle of Fukushima. It's not up and running yet, but that might be a hinderance getting from Morioka to Tokyo.
posted by gc at 3:15 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

NHK World saying possibly new fire at Fukukawa Daiichi #4 (?) and possibly drop in water level in #5, one of the reactors that was already offline before the earthquake. (Reactors 5 and 6 apart from 1-4, nearest to 1.) Residents still within 30km of plant asked to stay inside. They're interviewing the mayor of Minamisoma who says there is difficulty getting relief to residents near the plant due to travel restrictions near the facility. He'd also like help securing shelters for evacuees.

Yes, I know this is nuclear, but it's also news, not 'what ifs' and debate - we don't have to ignore the nuclear situation here.
posted by maryr at 3:23 PM on March 15, 2011

Aw. 2 dogs somehow survive tsunami. "I bet they pooped a lot," shouted Mr. Kikuchi to her daughter who quietly cleaned up after the dogs.
posted by futz at 5:14 AM on March 16 [1 favorite +] [!]

The picture of the golden in the article is so great. I hope those doggies are okay.
posted by gc at 3:24 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

By the way, my post about the dogs was not intended in any way to diminish the amount of human suffering currently happening in Japan. Sometimes it is the little things that give us hope...
posted by futz at 3:37 PM on March 15, 2011

By the way, my post about the dogs was not intended in any way to diminish the amount of human suffering currently happening in Japan. Sometimes it is the little things that give us hope...
posted by futz at 7:37 AM on March 16 [+] [!]

Not at all. I figured it was in the same vein as all those Maru posts we made.

Speaking of...
posted by gc at 3:44 PM on March 15, 2011 [5 favorites]

Seesh. NHK World is doing a story on a hospital that got caught in the rolling backouts. A nurse was filling water bottles with pebbles so patients could shake them as a noisemaker since the call buttons wouldn't work. Now that's darn clever, but absolute insanity.
posted by zachlipton at 3:46 PM on March 15, 2011

Ha gc! I love that damn cat. Instant smiles.
posted by futz at 3:50 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Dang. I totally ruined cute smile time here :(
posted by zachlipton at 3:52 PM on March 15, 2011

Jesus, I was just in Shizuoka November 30. Maybe they were smart to dismantle the Mecha Gundam in January...

I've donated to various charities, and am continuing to worry/provide English links and data to my friends there that only have iPhone access.

Ghidorah, Flapjax, etc., if I ever make it there again, it's MosBurger (or Mister Donut, or Denny's - even the Happy Christmas Menu) on me!!!

I keep praying there'll be a next time. Please let everything be okay. My husband said "you never step in the same river twice" (Heraclitus) and he's right... but I desperately want to believe we'll be back again.

Should I tell my friend that he needs iodine tablets? I don't want to contribute to fear-mongering. He's posting more videos of empty food shelves in Nakano-Ku (Tokyo)...
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:53 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Noooooo zachlipton! Real news is welcome and needed.
posted by futz at 3:54 PM on March 15, 2011

Unicorn on the cob, Ctrl+f in the other thread. If I read correctly, and your friend is in Tokyo, no need to take iodine yet...but I am no expert. Lots of good info in the sister thread.
posted by futz at 4:03 PM on March 15, 2011

Unicorn on the cob: I've seen reports that the Japanese government has essentially all the iodine tablets and is distributing them as they see fit, so I'm not sure that recommending them would do anything besides make your friend upset that he can't get them. I don't know where your friend is and certainly can't assess whether he should be taking them.
posted by zachlipton at 4:05 PM on March 15, 2011

Since people are recommending charities that are already on the ground, I'd like to reiterate that Shelterbox is an excellent option alongside the Red Cross and Second Harvest. With so many displaced (the NYT says at least 400,000), it seems to me that medium-term durable shelter should be a top priority. Second Harvest can distribute food, the Red Cross can distribute blankets and arrange medical care. What Shelterbox can do is give people warm, dry and private homes, and tools to rebuild their lives while they're waiting to rebuild their towns.

Shelterbox is distributing boxes in the disaster zone now. The boxes usually contain a 10-person tent designed to withstand extreme temperatures, high winds and heavy rainfall and with internal privacy dividers; a children’s pack containing drawing books, crayons and pens; thermal blankets and insulated ground sheets; water purification equipment; a tool kit containing a hammer, axe, saw, trenching shovel, hoe head, pliers and wire cutters; a wood burning or multi-fuel stove; and pans, utensils, bowls, mugs and water storage containers. The box itself can be used for a variety of purposes. It can be used for storage, as a seat or table, or even as a bed for an infant. If some resources are available locally or can be salvaged from buildings, and the overwhelming need is for shelter, they'll just send tents, two to a box.

Each box costs $1,000 to assemble, ship, and distribute. Small donations (as little as a dollar) can be made here, and donations larger than $25 can be made here.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:12 PM on March 15, 2011 [18 favorites]

Thanks, all - texting him now. I swear I can't work and keep these updates straight, many thanks to all who can!!!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 4:18 PM on March 15, 2011

Shelterbox was on NPR this afternoon. I hope it helps spread the word.
posted by schnee at 4:23 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Unicorn on the cob, I'll take you up on that MosBurger invitation! get yourself back over here once all the dust settles!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:36 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you're not following her already, survivingnjapan seems to be tweeting a lot of good information for foreigners currently in Japan (especially Tokyo), including translated train information. She's taking many questions too if there's something you're trying to figure out that MeFi can't help with.
posted by zachlipton at 4:46 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

once all the dust settles ...

Hey, watch all that loose talk about dust settling! Blowing it out to sea is what we want!
posted by woodblock100 at 4:49 PM on March 15, 2011 [7 favorites]

This'll get your allergies acting up: A dog stands by his injured friend.

I found this on BuzzFeed, where there was this comment appended: These dogs have been rescued! A man named Kenn Sakurai posted this video on his facebook page and added “We have already got these dog. But it took two hours to take them to the closest shelter. The guys who had done that had the bigger plastic cage on the back of the bike. Having such weight on the back is risky for going the way with no road.” also, “Both dogs brought to Mito, Ibaraki. One is staying at the vet clinic and the brown and white one is at the shelter.”
posted by jocelmeow at 4:50 PM on March 15, 2011 [6 favorites]

Ok. I'm now sitting here in the US listening to NHK World on my laptop which is doing a story on world coverage of the nuclear incident wherein Dianne Sawyer's coverage from last night's evening news are being translated from English to Japanese and then back to English. It's like playing with Google Translate, except its on TV!
posted by zachlipton at 4:50 PM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

A man in Chiba City captures ground literally opening under his feet. Unnerving to say the least, the crack opens and closes as the ground is still moving.
posted by elpapacito at 5:25 PM on March 15, 2011

My cousin saw the same video, and freaked out, because he realized that park is across from the hotel where my wife and I were married. I mentioned up above (some thousands of comments ago) that most of what touches the north end of Tokyo Bay is reclaimed land, from Disneyland down towards where the oil refinery fires were. Still, the damage was relatively minor as far as I've seen. Sidewalks were mangled, and there were places where the mud from the liquifaction flowed over the sidewalks and parking lots. The roads seemed to be fine, though.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:43 PM on March 15, 2011

Our guest, who lives in Iwaizumi, up in the mountains, just got a call from her mother in Utah, who is freaking out about evacuation rumors. I can't find anything right now about it. Anyone seeing anything like that for Iwate?

I'm not freaking out, I'm just trying to confirm or deny.
posted by gc at 6:16 PM on March 15, 2011

Ah, the doggies and the kitties in the videos! My allergies are acting up for sure. I have been fretting about the fate of the pets since Friday - both for the sake of the animals themselves, and for the people who had to leave them behind, and then lost everything. I remembered too, from Katrina, that often there was no place for pets in the shelters for the displaced.

I found these two articles about rescue efforts for helping animals in Japan - can't vouch for any of the international or Japanese organizations described - maybe someone else here has more insight into which organizations are most effective.
posted by Squeak Attack at 6:17 PM on March 15, 2011

Just found this travel warning for Miyagi, Ibaraki, and Iwate prefectures. Apparently I shouldn't travel to here.
posted by gc at 6:19 PM on March 15, 2011

Oh, God: Tsunami preparation leads citizens into low-lying death traps.

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, JAPAN - When the tsunami warning buzzer rang out over this sleepy port on Japan’s northeast coast, people knew what to do because they’d practised for the moment all their lives. They calmly left their homes and made their way to the gathering places designated by the municipal government: City Hall; a community centre; the local gymnasium.

For hundreds of people, if not more, the shelters they were ordered into proved to be deathtraps. Rikuzen-Takata’s disaster plan had been designed to deal with the three- and four-metre waves the city had seen in 1960 after an earthquake in faraway Chile. No one had anticipated the 15-metre tsunami that crashed through the city on Friday following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake just offshore, one that flung boats, shipping cranes and people inland, drowning those who had done as they were told and gathered in the low-lying shelters.

Of the estimated 1,000 people huddling in the three buildings, the only survivors were 100 people who made their way to the top floor of City Hall. The rest were swept away by a tide so high and fierce that it blew out the walls and windows on all three floors of the neighbouring shopping centre.

“People just relied on the bureaucracy. They became too obedient,” said Tsuyoshi Kinno, head of the neighbourhood committee in one of the districts of Rikuzen-Takata closest to the Pacific coast. “The administration made a mistake.”

posted by maudlin at 6:38 PM on March 15, 2011 [6 favorites]

BungaDunga writes "[ATM] was set up to let me make a donation to the Red Cross right out of my bank account. I've never seen this before- not during any other crisis. I guess it's a new system? Anyway, very very cool that you can do that- I made a small donation on the spot that I might not have done, or at least not as soon. Probably the only overtly friendly thing I've seen a bank do recently."

Did the ATM indicate what percentage the bank would be taking as processing fees?
posted by Mitheral at 6:41 PM on March 15, 2011

Okay, the caller in question head "china", "evacuation", "north," and assumed China was evacuating its citizens in the north (of China) due to radiation. Some quick questions found that China was evacuating its citizens from Japan's north. So we're okay still.
posted by gc at 6:42 PM on March 15, 2011

Did the ATM indicate what percentage the bank would be taking as processing fees?

Mithereal, not sure which bank BungaDunga uses, but Wells Fargo ATMs introduced that service today with no fee.
posted by bwanabetty at 6:49 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

The Japan Meteorlogical Agency put out this report saying the chances of an M7 to hit Tokyo had been downgraded--from 70% until the 15th to a 40% chance until the 18th. This, though, was before last nights Shizuoka quake.

Does anyone have the scoop on the earthquake situation for Tokyo? Of course, no one really knows, but The Japan Meteorlogical Agency would know best, but they haven't updated yet. I just wonder about that 40% chance prediction, and what the recent quakes do to that equation...
posted by zardoz at 6:58 PM on March 15, 2011

Oops, that report is here.
posted by zardoz at 7:00 PM on March 15, 2011

Not to suggest I care more about architectural tragedies than human ones, but has anyone heard/seen any evidence of the state of Toyo Ito's Sendai Mediatheque? I ask only because it's the one building in Sendai I have a clear memory of from my brief visit, so it would give some appreciated context.
posted by brightghost at 7:07 PM on March 15, 2011

has anyone heard/seen any evidence of the state of Toyo Ito's Sendai Mediatheque?

"One day it will be like an architect's heaven" -Yoko Ono
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:15 PM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Apologies for this repeat. I'm hoping maybe some of our Mefites in Japan have heard more about this (and assuming they were probably asleep when I posted the question the first time):

^ Google translation of your link, jet_manifesto:

According to Miyagi Prefecture, it was confirmed that 9700 people were evacuated before 15 am in the southern area had been Sanriku to be out of touch with about 10,000 and 17,000 inhabitants. The bodies have been found in the same town of 1,000 people so far.

Is there more information available about this story? Where were the 9700 people found? Does the rough translation above mean that half the town had been evacuated outside of the knowledge of the other half, and subsequently out of touch with them?

This seems like some of the best news of the last few days, yet I can't find a fuller story.

(Am I correct in assuming the town in question here is Minamisanriku?)
posted by torticat at 7:37 PM on March 15, 2011

has anyone heard/seen any evidence of the state of Toyo Ito's Sendai Mediatheque?

Seems to have come through relatively unscathed
posted by islander at 7:41 PM on March 15, 2011

Mithereal, not sure which bank BungaDunga uses, but Wells Fargo ATMs introduced that service today with no fee.

Yes, that's the one. And it specified that 100% of any donation would go to charity. I was pleasantly surprised that they were doing something just in order to look a little better, rather than the usual reason, money-grubbing.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:47 PM on March 15, 2011

Torticat: There's not much more info that I can find, except one report that says, basically, that 2000 people were found in 43 evacuation shelters, bringing the total of confirmed folks up to 9,700. It doesn't mention the other 7,700, but I would have to imagine it would be the same situation.

And, yes, the town is Minamisanrikucho.
posted by Bugbread at 7:54 PM on March 15, 2011

torticat, I don't have time to translate this link, but your interpretation is basically correct, except for the numbers. It's Miniamisanriku, the residents of the city were evacuated to different areas, and those areas were cut off from each other both in terms of communication and physically as in severed roads and debris. So they couldn't get in touch with each other until yesterday or thereabouts. According to that link, of the 18,000 residents, 10,000 had been missing, but 1,000 people were found alive in one area and 2,000 more of those missing were found in another. So a total of 3,000 people out of those who were missing have survived, but the rest are still missing, as far as I can tell from that article. The article doesn't mention the remaining 8,000 people, either, so I'm not sure if they're all right.

It's unreal how these numbers are being thrown around like this.
posted by misozaki at 8:00 PM on March 15, 2011

maudlin  Oh, God: Tsunami preparation leads citizens into low-lying death traps.

This was painful to read.
posted by hat at 8:02 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

For those not wanting to read - the gist of the "death traps" thing is that people went to shelter in places that would have been safe had the tsunami not been so incredibly large. Deeply sad thing to read.
posted by batgrlHG at 8:05 PM on March 15, 2011

I'm watching MSNBC talk about the radiation levels in Tokyo. They keep showing footage of people wearing the white masks, as if that had something to do with the radiation and not with the cold and flu season. I am not fooled, MSNBC!
posted by zerbinetta at 8:05 PM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

So a total of 3,000 people out of those who were missing have survived

Oh.

Well, good news, but not nearly as good as was suggested earlier. :(

Thanks, Bugbread and mizozaki.
posted by torticat at 8:06 PM on March 15, 2011

NHK is showing interviews with folks in the affected areas. Some evacuation centers are running out of food, water and other supplies, while other evacuation centers turning people away.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:44 PM on March 15, 2011

I'm curious if there are a lot of tsunami false-alarms in Japan. Have the sirens gone off and evacuation taken place very often in response to earthquakes with no tsunami? I'm interested not so much in whether people were trained how and where to respond but if there were a lot of false alarms which might have taken the edge of the urgency.
posted by Rumple at 8:46 PM on March 15, 2011

Just had a 6.0 off of the tip of Chiba (near Choshi). NHK said 10km deep. The frightening ringtone they use for earthquake alerts to mobile phones is bad enough, but when shit is already shaking and the alert comes in, it's downright unnerving.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:58 PM on March 15, 2011

Just had a 6.0 off of the tip of Chiba (near Choshi). NHK said 10km deep. The frightening ringtone they use for earthquake alerts to mobile phones is bad enough, but when shit is already shaking and the alert comes in, it's downright unnerving.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:58 PM on March 16 [+] [!]

That earthquake alert is going to be the sound of my nightmares.
posted by gc at 9:01 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Hino City background radiation meter has now returned to 'background' levels; I haven't calculated exactly, but its rise and fall over the past couple of days sort of seems to be 'tracking' the main explosions from the plant.

Watching some of the overseas news programs is really surreal; you would think that the end of the world is at hand. My kids (they live in Canada) are bugging me to get on a plane and 'come home', but they are about twenty years too late to use that expression!

And sorry to be 'boring' about this, but here in Ome (west side of Tokyo) things are completely peaceful; shops are open as usual, with all kinds of foodstuffs on sale, little kids are coming home from school (all in their white masks, but that's par for the course anyway in March - pollen season), and it's just ... normal.

We're scheduled for a rolling blackout at around 6:20 this evening, but what will actually happen is anybody's guess. Neither of the blackouts on the previous two days actually happened for us - the time came and went with no outage. My girlfriend and I (she lives two towns down - in the same blackout zone) have a theory that it's because the huge Yokota US air base is in our zone. We can easily imagine the Base Commander on the phone to Tepco: "You guys shut us down, and we'll send a jet over your headquarters with a little 'package' for you faster than you can blink!" [Please understand that this is pure speculation ... mixed with wishful thinking!]
posted by woodblock100 at 9:02 PM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ghidorah, I can't even imagine. What do you do when that happens? Are you resigned to it? Run outside? Or just say to yourself..."___________________"?
posted by futz at 9:02 PM on March 15, 2011

Uh, well, this time, I hopped under the table. It was nowhere near as bad as what we felt Friday, but it was registered at a 4 on the Japanese scale here.

Then again, when we got an alert last night (for a quake that was far away, and turned out to be nothing near us) and I tried to get my wife to go downstairs to the table, she said, in Japanese, I'm sleepy, leave me alone, then went back to sleep. Here panic meter seems to be made of different stuff than mine.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:06 PM on March 15, 2011

woodblock100, I am glad that you and yours are doing well!
posted by futz at 9:08 PM on March 15, 2011

woodblock, believe me, there's nothing I want more than boredom right now.

I'm wondering if it's as windy everywhere around the Tokyo area as it is here. The gust is shaking our house and making it creak to the point where it's hard to tell if I'm swaying because of the wind or if its because of an aftershock. And either way, our poor dog is freaking out. He freaks out every time we feel an aftershock and it was funny at first but now I sort of feel the same way. We comfort each other.
posted by misozaki at 9:08 PM on March 15, 2011 [8 favorites]

It's stupidly windy here, strong enough to make our house shake and render my homemade earthquake detectors (half full PET bottles of water) useless.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:10 PM on March 15, 2011

it's hard to tell if I'm swaying because of the wind or if its because of an aftershock

That's exactly what's happening with me right now too; constant creaking, and light swaying. Very fierce winds today, completely typical for March. Each time the house starts moving it's a 'huh?' moment, and then a moment later I can tell the difference - this was wind, or that was the earth.
posted by woodblock100 at 9:11 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I know it seems silly and I don't know any of you peeps...but you have a huge internet hug comin' at ya from Indiana USA.
posted by futz at 9:12 PM on March 15, 2011

Re the talk about the pets, Best Friends has a link to a few places that are taking donations to shelter animals, and WorldVets has also sent in a team. I've sent some money their way along with my Red Cross donation. I know if I were a victim of such a disaster I would be desperately worried about my animals as well as my friends and family.

And thanks for the info about Shelterbox... I'm going to donate there as well, and will tell others about it.
posted by OolooKitty at 9:15 PM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah, windy in Itabashi as well. That last one was pretty strong, but if I followed the most recent geologist on TV just now, he said that the quakes are following the expected pattern, in a counterclockwise swing around Honshu. The fact that Chiba was the most recent one is maybekindasorta good news? In that the North American Plate (where basically all this is coming from) is settling in its new position and the quakes should (oh please oh please) stop soon.

He reiterated the 40% prediction of a M7 before the 18th, and 20% for every three days after.
posted by zardoz at 9:15 PM on March 15, 2011

Aaaaaand, I never talk like that in real life...
posted by futz at 9:15 PM on March 15, 2011

Aaaaaand, I never talk like that in real life...
posted by futz at 1:15 PM on March 16 [+] [!]

Shhh! It's okay. This is a safe place...
posted by gc at 9:17 PM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah, right, futz, I won't believe you until you come to one of our meetups. The huge crazy "uchiage" party we're going to have after all this is OVER.
posted by misozaki at 9:20 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

smooches for all! Sign me up.
posted by futz at 9:23 PM on March 15, 2011

misozaki, will Maru be there? joking.......
posted by futz at 9:27 PM on March 15, 2011

The Hindo City background radiation US mirror has an archive started if you wan't to try and track peaks with explosions. I haven't gotten around to editing the presentation yet, just got the idea to save archive images before going to bed this morning.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:36 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does anyone what the Japanese amateur radio service is doing to assist? Are they helping to coordinate anything at this point?
posted by curious nu at 9:56 PM on March 15, 2011

I've finally been able to concentrate well enough to get some work done (and I have a 3:30 deadline on my current rush translation job), but I just popped in to vent for a second. It's been said above, but I'll add to the choir:

You know what I don't fucking need right now? I DON'T FUCKING NEED heavy winds that make my house shake JUST LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE!!
posted by Bugbread at 9:57 PM on March 15, 2011 [10 favorites]

Oh, and woodblock: with the exception of stores having big lines, and everyone being sold out of almost everything, the atmosphere here in Kawasaki, just a stone's throw from Tokyo, is also normal. Stores are open, kids are coming home from school, etc. Just imagine Ome with less stuff on shelves and more people standing outside stores.
posted by Bugbread at 9:59 PM on March 15, 2011

who has seen the wind?
neither you nor I
but when the house SHAKES LIKE A QUAKE
the wind is going by...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:05 PM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

egads, this has gone on so long that the diagrams on NHK are now sophisticated and 3-D!
posted by girlhacker at 10:13 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

egads, this has gone on so long that the diagrams on NHK are now sophisticated and 3-D!

I was impressed yesterday or the day before when the New York Times website had a 3D animated graphic, both of the reactor(s) itself and the plant.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:33 PM on March 15, 2011

I made an animated gif from the ShakeMaps on the USGS website.

Does anyone know how I can make the gif return to the grey background map in between new images, instead of being added on top of the old image?
posted by angrybeaver at 10:40 PM on March 15, 2011

angrybeaver: Easiest way would be to put a frame in between with the grey version, I think. It will cover everything else up, and the next shakemap will be on top of that. The visual result might not be what you want- it'd obviously go grey inbetween each new image.

There's a GIF mode where it replaces everything frame-to-frame (instead of layering), too. If you generate full frames of each map with the grey background then you'll have exactly what you want.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:58 PM on March 15, 2011

Thanks, BungaDunga. Adding the grey frame in between each image makes the file size quite a bit larger. I'm using GIMP and it doesn't seem be able to be able to replace the frame. I'm playing around with Imagemagick too but not finding anything that works.
posted by angrybeaver at 11:20 PM on March 15, 2011

*doesn't seem to be able to replace*
posted by angrybeaver at 11:22 PM on March 15, 2011

angrybeaver, like this? Not sure of your original parameters... I use ImageMagick and exploded the GIF, interleaved the first image, and put it back together.

convert OJ1jr.gif foo%02d  # gives foo00 - foo83 frames
# copy first frame to sort between foo00 foo01 foo01.a foo02 foo02.a ...
for i in `seq 1 82`;do F=$(printf "%02d" $i);cp foo00 foo$F.a; done
convert -delay 20 foo* test.gif # put them back together, no clue of right delay.

It's about 5x larger than original, original frame changes are small transparent GIFs with an offset and not full sized images. Not sure if there's an optimization that could be done.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:24 PM on March 15, 2011

Exactly like that. Thank you for the code snippet, I will play around with it.
posted by angrybeaver at 11:37 PM on March 15, 2011

the answer, my friend
posted by philip-random at 11:46 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Most of northern Japan will be freezing cold tonight. Fuel shortages leaving many without any heating. :-( Via Mefi ooga_booga. Weather in Sendai.
posted by nickyskye at 11:58 PM on March 15, 2011

the answer, my friend

Thanks, philip-random, I didn't know (or perhaps had forgotten) that Sam Cooke covered that. What a superb voice that man had, damn! The whole thing is somewhat marred by the clumsy audience clapping on the 1 and the 3 (note how Cooke's backup singers are clapping on the 2 and 4) But this link to the same performance is much better in sync.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:01 AM on March 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

0638 – Workers trying to control problems at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors were evacuated for 50 minutes on Wednesday morning after radiation levels spiked. They returned to the plant at 1130am Tokyo time, according to NHK. Japan live blog – day six
posted by nickyskye at 12:05 AM on March 16, 2011

nickyskye: we have another thread just on the reactor.
posted by delmoi at 12:19 AM on March 16, 2011

Blowin' in the wind? A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945: Isao Hashimoto
posted by Mister Bijou at 12:31 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Alex Hofford's photographs of Japan post tsunami.

Video of the tsunami hitting Sendai airport.
posted by nickyskye at 12:53 AM on March 16, 2011

Japan disaster in figures.
posted by nickyskye at 1:06 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some good news--I hope. From the Japan Meteorlogical Agency, a new report put out today on the aftershock situation:

Estimating from the occurrence of aftershocks so far, the possibility of aftershocks with maximum JMA Seismic Intensity of 5+ or higher is 40% for the 3-day period from 12:00 JST, 16 March, followed by 20% for the 3-day period from 12:00 JST, 19 March to 12:00 JST, 22 March.

So the M7 that's been hovering over Tokyoites' heads is now being downplayed to a M5. So a 40% chance of one (or more?) from now until Saturday, from which point it drops to 20%.

Small aftershocks will continue for some time, up to a month, they said be aware the aftershocks could be pretty large, even in few weeks. But it looks like we're over the hump and can breathe a bit easier. Now if they can just get those damn reactors stablized, I might actually get a full night's rest.
posted by zardoz at 1:22 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's great news, zardoz. Thanks.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:26 AM on March 16, 2011

Regarding the pet question, because I too have worried about them and their poor owners. Of course you'd prioritize your family's safety... I adore cats, but a frightened cat is not easy or quick to rescue in a short time frame :( plus I imagine many people didn't conceive of how bad the tsunami would be (who did, after all), and left their dogs behind, figuring they'd be able to fend for themselves until they could get back home.

So, in addition to donations I've already made to Doctors Without Borders and Second Harvest (which does have an option for pet food, btw), I too looked into pet rescue possibilities. It does seem time-sensitive; there were two dogs in a video linked earlier (the brown and white splotched one who cared for the sick cream one). In that video, they mention that with no fresh water to drink, the lost animals are turning to sea water, which is slowly killing them.

I found this coalition of rescue orgs yesterday: Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support. The donations go to a Canadian woman who runs HEART Tokushima, a no-kill shelter whose credentials seem pretty strong, and she also keeps up the coalition's Facebook page. Everything I've found surrounding it seems to check out; it would indeed be great if any MeFites in Japan who know more could confirm? She's mentioned Nippon SPCA's rescue fund too. The coalition's FB page has been good about focusing on animal rescue; there's a note up for lost animal locations.

Again, of course human needs take precedence. It's just that as an animal lover, I certainly know that my pet's well-being would be an immense boost to my own in such a desolate situation.
posted by fraula at 1:28 AM on March 16, 2011 [9 favorites]

NHK Adds Video in English (from the Wall Street Journal's 'Japan Real Time' blog)
posted by woodblock100 at 1:42 AM on March 16, 2011

I sincerely hope that this earthquake preparedness and emergency manual translated into 24 languages from a Japanese original will not need to be used by anyone reading this.
posted by ob1quixote at 2:16 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

oLive is a wiki that provides survival information, design, food, ideas for people in the earthquake stricken areas. Quite cool and interesting.
posted by nickyskye at 3:48 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, man, that Sam Cooke cover is fantastic.

What do you do when that happens? Are you resigned to it? Run outside? Or just say to yourself..."___________________"?—futz

For the sake of earthquake education: in grade school in Alabama,* I was taught that in an earthquake, unless you think your building is in danger of imminent collapse, the best thing to do is not to head outside, especially if you live in a very developed area, because most buildings will be shedding bits of their facades which might hurt you as they fall. The safest place to be is in a building, under a sturdy table or in a bathtub and away from things that might fall off walls.

Is that still what's taught in schools?

*Now, you might ask why we had earthquake drills in Alabama, where quakes are so rare. It's actually very smart, if you ask me: the school recognized that its students were likely to find themselves far from Alabama when they grew up (just like flapjax!), and that they needed to know how to handle themselves in a wide range of situations, not just the ones we might expect there. So, while tornado drills and fire drills were much more regular and prominent, we also had a few earthquake drills, hurricane drills and flood drills. (I grew up in far northern Alabama, not on the coast, so hurricanes were just thunderstorms by the time they reached us.) We were also near the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, and had some drills to prepare for a possible disaster there as well.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:30 AM on March 16, 2011

ocherdraco, if memory serves me right, when I was in junior high in Mississippi about 30 years ago, we had nuclear disaster drills along with other drills, too! But the reason was, I think, because we were close to the Keesler AFB, and the Cold War was in full swing. Ah, the '80s...
posted by misozaki at 4:53 AM on March 16, 2011

And did y'all know that misozaki made a pact with the devil, at the crossroads, down there in Mississippi? Well, she did. You oughtta hear her sing the blues!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:03 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

And regarding earthquake drills in Alabama, yes, at my school we were all issued standard electric hand drills, and were told to drill directly in to the earth, in the event of a quake, to release pressure. This was instituted under the direction of one of Alabama's most highly respected seismologists, who also happened to be the coach of the high school football team, and the owner of Bill's Stop'n'Drill, Alabama's # 1 electric drill supplier, with 5 locations in jefferson and Shelby Counties. "When you gotta drill, hey man, see Bill!"
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:11 AM on March 16, 2011 [10 favorites]

flapjax, I sure could use one of them drills right about now.
posted by misozaki at 5:40 AM on March 16, 2011

misozaki: any updates on moving West?
posted by gen at 5:45 AM on March 16, 2011

flapjax, I sure could use one of them drills right about now.

Well, misozaki, I'd love to help you, but ol' Bill's doing time at the state pen in St. Clair County, and I traded my old high school drill years ago for a bottle of Boone's Farm and a copy of "They Only Come Out At Night" by Edgar Winter.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:54 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I guess I'll just ask here: gen, what do you mean? If you're asking if I'm planning on moving out West with my family, I'm afraid that's not going to happen, even if it's just for the time being.

I actually just had this conversation with my husband. When I think about the worst-case scenario and the physical effect it might have on our son, I'd love to grab him and hop on the next Shinkansen and head on down, or straight out of the country, but... It's just not realistic. My parents live here. They've made it pretty clear that they aren't going anywhere. My husband's job is here. My in-laws live in Kanagawa. My brother lives in Tokyo, too, though fortunately he's overseas on business now. Our house is here. We have a barky dog who adores us that we love to bits, but he hates almost every other human on earth. We couldn't take him with us, but we couldn't just leave him behind, either.

And I'm not sure if my panicking and running away screaming (which I feel like doing sometimes), when there are so many other people who are going through an ordeal that I can't even wrap my mind around, is exactly beneficial for my son's emotional development in the long run, either. My husband says that we're staying. We're going to try to maintain a semblance of "normalcy" around our son the best we can under the circumstances. We're going to discuss with him what we could do to help the people up north closer to the disaster, and we're going to do it together.

I'm really not trying to be stoic. We just don't have much of a choice. I'm also not criticizing anyone who chooses to leave. Frankly, I do sort of envy the people who have the option to get out, whether it be out of the region, or out of the country. But right now, I'm just hoping for the best. What else could we all do?
posted by misozaki at 6:49 AM on March 16, 2011 [12 favorites]

You guys are getting a lot of shaking down south, I see. Everything okay?
posted by gc at 6:57 AM on March 16, 2011

What else could we all do?

Not much, I agree. We have to let the professionals do the work they were trained to do.
posted by gen at 6:59 AM on March 16, 2011

misozaki, we're set to leave tomorrow, and I can't begin to tell you how guilty I feel about it. I feel like I need to mention that we bought our tickets in January, and that we're not running away, but, well, in a way, we are. I took my cat (who sounds a lot like your dog) to the boarding clinic today, and I felt like I was betraying her. I feel like absolute shit for leaving friends and family and mefites behind. I can only hope that everyone is going to be fine, and when I get back, we'll all get together and share our stories and actually be able to relax. I just saw some friends for a couple beers, and my message to all of you here is the same as it was to them, stay safe, be careful, and don't take any unneccesary risks, please.

I can't wait until the meetup where we watch your awful made for SMAP movie and throw popcorn at the screen.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:01 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ghidorah, we've been looking at our options for leaving. I don't blame you. I don't think anyone does.
posted by gc at 7:05 AM on March 16, 2011

> flapjax, I sure could use one of them drills right about now.

I wouldn't trust him. He's an ill willed Bill's Drills shill.
posted by ardgedee at 7:11 AM on March 16, 2011 [11 favorites]

Oh, come on, Ghidorah, like I said, feeling guilty about leaving is just absurd. Go home! Have beers! Have lots of beers! And my movie isn't made for SMAP, I hate SMAP, it's for Kenichi Matsuyama! And Arashi!
posted by misozaki at 7:13 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

This entry in the NYT debate series really bowled me over. I somehow overlooked that the response to this will have to be a very long game. First the clean-up, then the rebuilding, and then the rehabilitation and reintegration of all those physically and psychologically injured. And the manpower and money and innovation necessary to sustain this all...

It made me think that I'll hold off on charity for a few weeks. And I've been meaning to visit Japan for years now, maybe 6 months from now they'll have figured out how to integrate a wave of volunteers and then I could make my introduction to Japan a "help rebuild" visit.
posted by tempythethird at 7:14 AM on March 16, 2011 [6 favorites]

But KimuTaku! And I really believe that it would give Shingo a chance to really shine. I mean, obviously, he wouldn't be the lead, but maybe the funny comic relief guy who ends up saving everyone in the end, so that they can go on to finally shut down the reactor

^{being a Japanese TV movie, I imagine shutting down the reactor will involve lots of grimacing, the young starlet crying, lots of extreme closeups, and someone pushing a button}
posted by Ghidorah at 7:18 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

As far as leaving/staying Tokyo, everyone's got to look at their overall situation and decide what's best for them, and then do that, and no one should feel guilty about it. That's what I think.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:18 AM on March 16, 2011

Photos from today (Wednesday). Seeing the snow in Miyagi prefecture is heartbreaking. Come on, Earth, they've reeeeeaaally had enough...

There are uplifting photos too, thank goodness. The smiling girl (white jacket) is great.
posted by fraula at 7:23 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the psychological cost to the Japanese people of all ages is going to be immense. Rebuilding is going to be as much about repairing the damage to the psyche as well as the physical. Hopefully people realize this and seek out help and assistance as needed because even if you weren't directly impacted in the disaster you are bound to experience increased stress and anxiety.
posted by vuron at 7:24 AM on March 16, 2011

Reporter's notebook: After disasters comes the exodus from Tokyo
posted by gen at 7:26 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think Japan (and foreigners) can do better than hoping that the afflicted seek out help. This is a situation for aggressive outreach, especially in the case of afflicted children. I imagine huge Boys And Girls Club-style mentoring programs, the opening of homes and campuses by Western volunteers and educational institutions, and so on.
posted by tempythethird at 7:33 AM on March 16, 2011

tempythethird, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans frontières) provides psychological support, and over the long term; it's a big reason I donate to them regularly. They've done, and continue doing such support in Haiti, African countries, and elsewhere (those are the ones off the top of my head). I did a quick search on their English-language site and found this on the Sichuan earthquake, pertinent quote:

Psychological Care

After the earthquake, people lost family members, saw others hurt or killed, witnessed massive destruction, and had to flee their homes. Many people were grieving the loss of loved ones and were clearly in need of psychological care to regain a sense of balance in their lives. MSF psychologists provided psychological counseling to victims of the quake in hospitals in Chengdu and Guanghan. During the emergency period, MSF psychologists offered “psychological first aid”, which includes active listening, conveying compassion, encouraging social support, and screening for more severe psychological problems.

For those of you who understand French, they have a section dedicated to soins psychiques (psychological and psychiatrical care) on their French-language site.
posted by fraula at 7:39 AM on March 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

tempthethird, unfortunately, mental healthcare is not Japan's strongsuit. Seeking mental help in Japan is still seen as a sign of weakness. I imagine most of the focus will be on physical (buildings, cities, and bodies) reconstruction and repair, rather than on emotional and mental healing.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:42 AM on March 16, 2011

Fraula, thanks for the tip, I'll definitely add them to my list and try to figure out if they plan to extend these psychological services to Japan specifically.

Ghidorah, hopefully this disaster will prompt some changes of attitude. From what I read, accepting foreign aid was also seen as a sign of national weakness, but that perception seems to have changed with this disaster.
posted by tempythethird at 7:48 AM on March 16, 2011

unfortunately, mental healthcare is not Japan's strongsuit. Seeking mental help in Japan is still seen as a sign of weakness.

As evidenced by the relatively high amount of suicide, sadly.
posted by gen at 7:49 AM on March 16, 2011

as much about repairing the damage to the psyche as well as the physical. Hopefully people realize this and seek out help...

I think Japan (and foreigners) can do better than hoping that the afflicted seek out help.

This is way too big a topic for me to discuss as fully as I'd like (it's bedtime for me, for one thing) but in a nutshell I'd just say that the whole apparatus of counseling and psychology vis-a-vis public health that has become an integral part of American society and practice are essentially non-existent in Japan. The much-vaunted stoicism we've seen remarked upon so often is also wrapped up with a kind of go-it-alone mentality that is the opposite of the "let's talk about it" culture everyone takes for granted in the US.

Again, this analysis is by no means complete, nor nearly as eloquently expressed as I'd like (like I said, it's bedtime), but it's something to consider for those not so familiar with Japanese culture.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:49 AM on March 16, 2011 [5 favorites]

I don't know so much about the acceptance of foreign aid being seen that way. In a way, having one of the first groups to arrive being from New Zealand might have helped that. A Japanese search and rescue team had traveled to Christchurch. Having a Kiwi team come seemed, well, the right and neighborly thing to do. Given that Japan is so quick to lend assistance in this sort of disaster, accepting it doesn't seem like it should be a difficult thing.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:51 AM on March 16, 2011

Ghidorah: "unfortunately, mental healthcare is not Japan's strongsuit. Seeking mental help in Japan is still seen as a sign of weakness."

Maybe someone will step up like Ron Artest (of the L.A. Lakers) has done to help lift the stigma a little.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:54 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Flapjax, do you think its naive to hope that this event could start to change that culture? If a group like Doctors Without Borders were to offer counseling and outreach, would they be turned away?
posted by tempythethird at 7:56 AM on March 16, 2011

As Flapjax mentioned, not complaining, not buckling down and ignoring one's own issues for the greater good is seen as a sign of weakness here. Wanting to talk about an issue, or complaining about a problem, rather than just learning to deal with it is a very foreign concept (one that has caused me difficulties in a couple jobs, to be honest).

The gaman concept, here, is a lot like learning to suck it up, to deal, and for a lot of people, that's just what they do.

On preview, sadly, no one here knows who Ron Artest is, and there are very few figures like him. What he's done is fantastic, but a Japanese player, doing the same thing, would very likely find himself without a team to play for.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:57 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

I should have used the phrase "step forward."
posted by Room 641-A at 7:58 AM on March 16, 2011

On the subject of foreign aid, NPR did a story about aid from China and the reactions of Chinese citizens to Japan's earthquake.
posted by Vibrissa at 8:00 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just an FYI. Search-and-rescue mutual international assistance has become normalized and formalized through INSARAG, a minor arm of the UN. Participating countries -- around 80, most of them earthquake-prone -- generally have "go teams" that are prepared to assemble immediately when a natural disaster happens anywhere. For the US, the primary international responders are Virginia Task Force 1 (based in Fairfax) and California Task Force 2 (based in LA County). Except in the case, perhaps, of an isolated nation like North Korea, I'm not certain there's any question of their welcome or even any great significance to any assistance request.
posted by dhartung at 8:01 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ghidorah, that makes me very sad. I hope people will find some way to deal with the emotional toll.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:07 AM on March 16, 2011

I should add that this is largely because SAR is of primary importance during the first hours and days after a quake or other disaster, and waiting for a complicated diplomatic back-and-forth would cost lives.

(And Vibrissa did in fact provide an illustrative exception.)

Illustrative of the issues that Japan has with mental health is the case of Crown Princess Masako, who by outside accounts appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown some years ago -- reportedly connected with the responsibility of producing a male heir -- and has not recovered. Her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito, was pressured by constant media attention and speculation to ask people to back off. Unlike previous princesses, Masako is highly educated and was preparing for a career in diplomacy, effectively impossible in the Japanese royal household.
posted by dhartung at 8:14 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ghidorah, do you feel like the reluctance to seek out mental health is universal or mainly limited to the older generations? I think the WWII generation will definitely go with stoicism and probably the generation after them but I thought younger generations were beginning to deviate away from the societal norms of their parents and grandparents and maybe adopt more "western" mindsets.

Furthermore is the reluctance to seek out mental health and counseling extend to grief counseling for children. It seems one of the key groups targeted after disasters are young children who often lack the emotional armor of their elders and process the emotions: grief, anxiety, anger in a more raw and uncontrolled manner.

I know that when I was young I internalized a lot of the Chernobyl crisis and I was separated from the events by thousands of miles and much less information overload. I can't even imagine the emotional turmoil the youth of Japan are feeling.
posted by vuron at 8:19 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

vuron, I'd like to think that. Generations change, and most certainly, for good or bad, this generation seems quite different. The problem is, young, open, vulnerable people tend to grow up and become the hardened, unwilling to open up old people. I'd like to think it will change, but it's another part of my many faceted theory that, comparatively, Japan is more like America in the 50s and early 60s, and is maybe still awaiting its hippie/culture touchstone moment. Mental health is taboo, the pill is for bad people, women should quit their jobs when they get pregnant, and on, and on.

Sorry, gotta get to bed, otherwise I'd love to keep talking all night.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:29 AM on March 16, 2011

For those who haven't seen it, the Japan Quake Map, an animation by the developer of the Christchurch Quake Map. Sobering stuff.
posted by Sonny Jim at 8:35 AM on March 16, 2011 [14 favorites]

Following up on CancerMan's post...

It looks like this is the same baby, reportedly reunited with her father.

(I know this is a couple days old, but it's heartwarming.)

(Also, that link probably won't last. Stupid WaPo interface. Scroll to the right if a different photo comes up.)
posted by torticat at 8:35 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

do you feel like the reluctance to seek out mental health is universal

You didn't ask me but I'll answer: there is no significant culture of mental health in Japan. There are some mental health professionals a tiny fraction of what the US has.

I personally don't think that Japan needs to copy/emulate the US wrt mental health per se.
posted by gen at 8:38 AM on March 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

FYI, all, my friend and his lady fled Tokyo at the last minute yesterday for Kyoto thanks to all the updates. They are safe, happy, and eating and much food as they can.

That video from Chiba is chilling; Tokyo Bay is where I stayed for my honeymoon recently. I can't help but wonder if the giant Ferris wheel in Odaiba is still there? Odaiba's man-made, yes? Sad to think all that might be damaged irrevocably.

My only understanding of the Japanese attitude towards mental health came from the documentary, Does Your Soul Have a Cold? and the marketing campaigns associated with introducing antidepressants to Japan.

I doubt therapy's big there, but maybe that'll change now.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:25 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Crossposting via saulgoodman and zachlipton in the other [nuclear] thread:

5.36pm[GMT]: Reuters reports that the US government is now advising its citizens who live within 80km of the Fukushima nuclear plant evacuate or take shelter indoors. The Japanese government has not altered its 20km exclusion zone.
posted by Spinneret at 10:52 AM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

More nations advising citizens to leave Japan (especially the Tokyo area). Presumably to prevent them from getting in the way of relief efforts or taking up resources, plus people are afraid of radiation. I also read a bunch of embassies had either closed or moved to other parts of the country.
posted by delmoi at 10:57 AM on March 16, 2011

Re: swimming naked when the tide goes out's niece and her travelling party.

CNN posted today a video taken by one of the activists during the tsunami. He had just gotten into LA.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:33 AM on March 16, 2011

here's a permalink to the photo of the baby.

Yeah, but it's the other one--the one with her father--that is shifting around. I don't see a way to permalink from WaPo's slide show. It even gives you the option to "share this"--and then the url changes as they add new photos. Right now it's here.
posted by torticat at 11:45 AM on March 16, 2011

I wanted to stop in from the other thread and say that, as lay people, we've looked at some papers that model what could happen at Fukushima with the spent fuel rods, and we're no longer able to rule out a large radioactive plume that may travel a significant distance in the worst case.

That is not to say this will happen outside of theoretical models (which is what the papers we've looked at are). However, I think it is prudent to heed the US's exclusion zone advice of 80km and, if you cannot, make arrangements for shelter in a concrete building if at some point the radiation levels and fires at Fukushima get significantly worse.
posted by zippy at 11:56 AM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh, here we go (permalink to second photo). And a slightly longer story of the baby's rescue.
posted by torticat at 12:01 PM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Man, Torticat, that story is totally heartwarming and excellent (and thank you for linking it; I missed it when it was mentioned earlier), but the "See the top 10 deadliest earthquakes" link at the bottom of the Time article is pretty nauseating.
posted by Vibrissa at 12:11 PM on March 16, 2011

egads, this has gone on so long that the diagrams on NHK are now sophisticated and 3-D!

Another day, more improvement at NHK. Now they've got a frickin' diorama showing reactors 1-4, complete with ruined buildings. Now that's high tech!
posted by zachlipton at 1:21 PM on March 16, 2011

That diorama was awesome.
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:41 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

If only we had news like that. I'd love it if CNN featured Anderson Cooper sitting at desk with a glue gun, patiently assembling a diorama to depict the news of the day.
posted by zachlipton at 1:51 PM on March 16, 2011 [11 favorites]

Regarding counseling, my impression is that Japanese see seeking counseling when other people are managing without it as being weak. So in this case, the people who are massively affected (house gone and family dead) will be far more likely to seek counseling, and I don't think anyone will think anything bad about them. People, however, who are stressed and scared but less affected (house damaged, but not destroyed, and no immediate family dead) will probably avoid counseling, because they'll feel that it makes no sense for them to seek counseling when there are other people so much worse off.

It's kinda like a big MetaTalk, where when someone complains about something, someone else pipes in to talk about how they have no right to complain when people are starving / being massacred / being launched into the sun somewhere else. But even in MetaTalk, nobody would chide a person for complaining that he himself was being launched into the sun.

As far as how I hope it changes: Well, yeah, I hope seeking help and counsel becomes more common here, but I hope it doesn't reach US levels, either. Japanese need to open up more. Americans need to man the fuck up more.
posted by Bugbread at 1:58 PM on March 16, 2011 [7 favorites]

Sorry, could someone link to the NHK diorama?
posted by maudlin at 1:58 PM on March 16, 2011

I am totally, totally digging the peaceful calming music on NHK World right now too.

Sorry, could someone link to the NHK diorama?
It was on the NHK live stream. I'll see if anyone saved a screencap or I'll take one if we see it again.
posted by zachlipton at 2:02 PM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't know, it made it seem more approachable than the run of the mill 3D version with flying cameras and automatic lighting flares would have been on US news.

Of course, if it would have been a *hologram* diorama sitting on the desk, more the better. ;)
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:06 PM on March 16, 2011

Dear MeFites in northern and central Japan, can I be that panicky Chicken Little person on the Internet who says that maybe you should consider gassing up your cars, getting together supplies for a roadtrip (pre-made food, water, blankets, warm clothes) and loading them in your trunks...just in case? I'm NOT saying "oh noes, run for the hills!", I'm just saying make sure your car is okay just in case you want to leave. Even if the wind continues to be favorable and keeps blowing out to sea, there are 35 million people in the Tokyo metro area, and if the trickle of exiting people turns into a stampede, the traffic going south could be horrendous.

I'm worried about you guys. :-(

</overprotective Jewish mother>
posted by Asparagirl at 2:24 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have my emergency bag in my car right now, Asparagirl. But I'm also 160 miles and upwind from the power plant. We're also watching the situation, though. So far we've gotten the "Stay Calm and Carry On" from the company, so yeah. That's what we're trying to do.

But we're ready.
posted by gc at 2:27 PM on March 16, 2011

While the French evacuate from Japan, Col Rothstein, 35 FW commander, thanks the Misawa Air Base community for their outreach to the local community via Operation Tomodachi food and clothing donation drives and encourages volunteers to go outside the base gates and help in the local clean up effort. The 35 MDG maternity ward (on diesel generator power) has delivered 6 babies since the earthquake/tsunami. The 35 FSS has provided shelter for 300 displaced persons at the base community fitness center. Similar food and clothing donation drives are being organized throughout the other US bases in Japan.
posted by plokent at 2:29 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

i have been away form the thread and news since late last night, catching up. got NHK on UStream and saw the diorama and was just thinking , wow! those little models of the plants are keen - in a terrifying way. i imagine an artist throwing all their focus into it as a way to do SOMETHING, no matter how small. no pun intended.
posted by lapolla at 2:32 PM on March 16, 2011

That's good to hear, gc. What city are you in again, if you don't my asking?

Also, you need maps in the car, the kind on paper. In an evacuation, I would assume the local cellular and WiFi systems would be overloaded and relying on an app on your iPhone probably wouldn't work. And who knows about GPS devices. I wouldn't trust anything electronic in that situation.
posted by Asparagirl at 2:32 PM on March 16, 2011

Your diorama sir:

NHK diorama 1
NHK diorama 2
posted by zachlipton at 2:34 PM on March 16, 2011 [9 favorites]

To be the voice of contradiction:

Please don't gas up your car in preparation to flee. They're having problems getting emergency supplies to people in the earthquake area because of gasoline shortages, caused by people gassing up their cars "just in case".
posted by Bugbread at 2:36 PM on March 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

Whooops, just checked your user page, gc -- Morioka, well north of Fukushima. So actually, you'd presumably want to drive north, not south! And hop a ferry to Hokkaido?
posted by Asparagirl at 2:37 PM on March 16, 2011

Asparagirl, we're in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture.
posted by gc at 2:38 PM on March 16, 2011

Not a sir, but appreciative -- thanks! That diorama is absurdly endearing. (Those trying out the first link, then planning to click the Next button on that page to see more -- umm, Tinypic doesn't work that way. Use both links here.)
posted by maudlin at 2:40 PM on March 16, 2011

Wow, that diorama is really impressive.

Also, yeah, worse comes to worse we drive north.
posted by gc at 2:41 PM on March 16, 2011

> While the French evacuate from Japan,

The dig on the French is entirely unneccessary in this context. A civilian group suggesting that they relocate is different than the operations of trained military personel, who have supplies and training to deal with this.
posted by mrzarquon at 2:42 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wow, that diorama is really impressive.

My brother used to have a business where he built stuff like that for a living. That shit is incredibly time-consuming. I'm impressed!
posted by mudpuppie at 3:28 PM on March 16, 2011

Quick FYI for anyone who does leave. We are at the airport now, and it's incredibly packed. We got here at about 6:45am and there were already roughly 1000 people in line. If you do leave, make sure to do a web check-in and print out an e-ticket. We were able to bypass the huge line and checkin almost immediately. The airport is full of people who have stayed here over night. I've heard from various people that flights are sold out for the next several days, but just now my cousin told me that BA and Lufthansa have upped their number of flights to meet demand.

Seriously, guys, be safe. I'll see you shortly after I get back on the 28th because everything is going to be okay.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:51 PM on March 16, 2011 [22 favorites]

Itterasshai!
posted by misozaki at 3:55 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Here is the official message from the US Embassy–Tokyo with the 80km evacuation recommendation.

Have a safe flight Ghidorah!
posted by zachlipton at 3:56 PM on March 16, 2011

Au revoir, Gidorah!
posted by ardgedee at 4:01 PM on March 16, 2011

Have fun, Ghidorah! Punch a leprechaun for me or something.
posted by gc at 4:19 PM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bon Voyage Ghidorah! I'm Irish by heritage but I don't drink, so have a green beer for me! (And one for all the MeFites back in Japan!)
posted by TooFewShoes at 4:24 PM on March 16, 2011

Forget the beer, you're going to be in Chicago. Which means Chicago style pizza.

God, I'm salivating already.
posted by gc at 4:29 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Am I mistaken in thinking that nothing goes better with green beer than Chicago style pizza? I've never had either but it sounds like a good pairing.
posted by TooFewShoes at 4:34 PM on March 16, 2011

Chicago style pizza goes good with many things, no matter their color.
posted by gc at 4:49 PM on March 16, 2011

The real question is whether anybody's determined whether green beer goes with anything.
posted by ardgedee at 4:53 PM on March 16, 2011

Chicago style pizza requires red wine, preferably Masi Campofiorin 2006
posted by francesca too at 5:01 PM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

yeah, i think the green beer would go better with a chicago style hotdog.
posted by lapolla at 5:09 PM on March 16, 2011

I just heard the story of Izumi Suzuki on the radio. (Maru link for those who'd rather not hear more possibly bad news.) I hope they find her.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:29 PM on March 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

BBC Live Blog:

#
0143: The Daily Yomiuri tweets: "According to govt estimates, of 1.76 million meals shipped to disaster-hit areas, 1.29 million had NOT reached shelters as of yesterday."

Sigh.....not good what this indicates.
posted by cdalight at 6:48 PM on March 16, 2011

The real question is whether anybody's determined whether green beer goes with anything.
posted by ardgedee at 4:53 PM on March 16 Other [10/10]: «≡·

Dark brown pants and shiny black Doc Martens. Easier to clean off.
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:53 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

0143: The Daily Yomiuri tweets: "According to govt estimates, of 1.76 million meals shipped to disaster-hit areas, 1.29 million had NOT reached shelters as of yesterday."

Clearly not good, but I am quite surprised that it has been acknowledged to begin with! Imho such transparency is appreciable in itself. I guess NHK is also doing a good job at reporting the ongoing difficulties, as opposed to reporting distracting "look, a nice kitty" news, even if possibily we're seeing only a fraction of the issues the japaneses are trying to address.
posted by elpapacito at 8:37 PM on March 16, 2011

I am quite surprised that it has been acknowledged to begin with

Both NHK and TBS are reporting on the dire humanitarian situation in northeast Japan, to say nothing of online and print Japanese-language sources.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:46 PM on March 16, 2011

Did the oil refinery fires and that forest fire get put out or otherwise gotten under control? I haven't seen anything on the news about them since the first few days.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:14 PM on March 16, 2011

We just got a good-sized Level 3 quake up here.

Ugh. Eight more days.
posted by gc at 9:17 PM on March 16, 2011

Scratch that. There was a level 4 right after. They probably bled into each other.
posted by gc at 9:20 PM on March 16, 2011

Just as a word of warning. If anyone is planning to possibly leave Tokyo, I would get on the road. Having seen a city of 4 million (Houston) all try to leave at once, with fatal consequences for many stuck in gridlock, you DO NOT want to be caught in that. Waiting to see what happens will pretty much mean staying where you are. And that's probably fine. But....seriously, traffic on that scale can be deadly.

Those of you in Tokyo seem to be very reasonable, intelligent folks, but I just needed to say that.
posted by threeturtles at 9:38 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

On a related note, Reuters is reporting that the US State Department is arranging charter flights from Tokyo for Americans who wish to leave. If you're a US citizen interested in being on such a flight, contacting the embassy to get on their list would probably be a good first step. They've been telling people to email [e-mail]. Not sure if there is any other contact method for this particular purpose at this time.
posted by zachlipton at 9:48 PM on March 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

The US Embassy in Tokyo has issued a travel warning for travel within Japan.
posted by gc at 10:22 PM on March 16, 2011

You all are getting me into panic mode again. I'm scheduled to fly out on Wednesday next week--a previously planned trip, not from this crisis--and now I wonder if I should try to go sooner. Though now Narita is so packed, I probably couldn't get seats if I tried. But if things don't go haywire until Wed, I guess I'm okay.

The reactors have GOT to be put out. Not so much because of radiation; I've read enough to believe that won't ever hit dangerous levels in Tokyo. It's the panic setting in, and bus and train drivers calling in for work, and me with no way to get to the airport in time...that's what's gnawing at me now.

Hopefully by next Wed. things will be stabilized and traffic will be running more smoothly. Hopefully I can look back at this post and laugh. Damn, and I was feeling so peaceful this morning after a nights sleep with no aftershocks.
posted by zardoz at 11:10 PM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, sorry. Been feeling the same way. I'm out of Morioka next Friday, and out of Japan the 30th. But who knows anymore if it'll be sooner. Azuresunday and I are trying to figure it out. Any chance of flying out of Osaka/Kansai?
posted by gc at 11:21 PM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

gc, I feel for you. I'm in Tokyo and I'm a bit worried. We have plenty of food for another week, too much in fact. I just have to get from Itabashi to Narita, normally a two hour trip, tops. But that alone is giving me pause.

But hearing from you and a lot of others who aren't as lucky, I need to keep some perspective, is all.
posted by zardoz at 11:40 PM on March 16, 2011

gc, can't you get north to Hokkaido and fly out of Chitose/Sapporo airport? It's much closer to you and I bet it would be far less busy, since everyone else is packing into Narita/Tokyo and points south. They have flights to South Korea, mainland China, and Taiwan, and from there you can get connecting flights to just about anywhere.
posted by Asparagirl at 11:40 PM on March 16, 2011

Oh, and Guam, too.
posted by Asparagirl at 11:41 PM on March 16, 2011

Asparagirl, it's been a consideration, New Chitose. We're still playing the wait and see game for hte moment.
posted by gc at 11:46 PM on March 16, 2011

If I were looking for an American ex-pat known to be teaching kindergarten in Japan but at an unknown location—i.e. he could be on Kyushu for all I know—does anyone have any ideas about where to start?

My business partner's ex-brother-in-law is over there and she asked me to find out what I could, but couldn't tell me much more than his name. I don't even know the name of the school or what prefecture he teaches in. There's nothing on Google's Person Finder, and I wouldn't feel right about creating a record for him without at least suspecting he was in the effected area. Suggestions?
posted by ob1quixote at 1:21 AM on March 17, 2011

ob1quixote, have you tried their company? That'd be the first place I'd try.
posted by gc at 1:37 AM on March 17, 2011

ob1quixote, twitter? Amb. Roos has been twitting that the US Embassy is helping track US Nationals in Japan. That said, you should probably make some significant effort to make sure this person is not in the affected area before contacting the Embassy, which I am sure is overloaded with emergency work.
posted by gen at 3:52 AM on March 17, 2011

Meanwhile the speculators are at work again
posted by adamvasco at 5:10 AM on March 17, 2011

That's what I was thinking, gen. People with real concerns need those resources and I wouldn't want to take up someone's time unless I had a reasonable suspicion he was in NE Japan at the time of the quake. I guess I don't have a good handle on how many American ex-pat schoolteachers there are in Japan, and I thought somebody would pipe up with, "Oh, yeah, they all drink at this one bar I go to," or something to that effect. I hate to say it, but I suspect knowing one way or the other isn't time-critical at this point. :/

Which, since I'm tired and punchy and just finished watching the NHK evening news, I'd like to extend my sincere and heartfelt sympathies to our MeFites, and indeed all people in Japan, who have been affected by this tragedy. My heart was utterly broken by the stories on the news this morning. Donating money just doesn't seem like doing enough.
posted by ob1quixote at 5:42 AM on March 17, 2011

Mefite comings and goings: Ghidorah & family were flying to the U.S. yesterday, and ctmf was headed for Japan.

Anyone know if they all got to their destinations okay?
posted by torticat at 5:49 AM on March 17, 2011

Via Beerfilter's comment in the other thread, ctmf is in Atsugi.
posted by Vibrissa at 6:49 AM on March 17, 2011

Cross posted from the other thread: ctmf is in Atsugi. (via BeerFilter)
posted by nangar at 6:50 AM on March 17, 2011

Anyone know if they all got to their destinations okay?

flapjax checking in here. I've put quite a bit of distance between myself and Fukushima. My family and I just arrived a few hours ago at a tiny village on Awaji island (find Awajishima on Google maps!) near Kobe, in Kansai. Staying with wonderful people at a former elementary school nestled into a wooded hillside, transformed into artist's living and working space. There's a drum kit here, a balafon, other percusssion, a bass and a guitar, a small PA... amazing! Room for the kids to run around (there are some other families here from Tokyo, all come to bring their young children out of potential harm's way), fresh air, good food. I may never go back!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:55 AM on March 17, 2011 [23 favorites]

Flapjax! That sounds like the place that hosts the Nagasawa Art Park every couple of years! (A gathering of woodblock printmakers ...) What a hoot that you would end up in the same place!
posted by woodblock100 at 6:58 AM on March 17, 2011 [3 favorites]

flapjax, that sounds amazing. Have a good time! I'm awaiting your epic about all of this. You know, in song form.
posted by gc at 6:58 AM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

At least one Mefite here is sticking it out in the big smoke.

St. Patrick's in Tokyo and the city is glowing green!

Seriously, Guiness is the 百薬の長, as they say in Japanese, "The king of a hundred medicines."

@flapjax...that place in Awaji sounds fantastic...Enjoy!
posted by jet_manifesto at 6:58 AM on March 17, 2011 [5 favorites]

flapjax: glad to hear you're visiting Kansai. We're right over the bridge in Kobe atm.
posted by gen at 6:59 AM on March 17, 2011

If flapjax and gen are both in Kansai.... meetup?
posted by emmling at 7:00 AM on March 17, 2011

There's a drum kit here, a balafon, other percusssion, a bass and a guitar, a small PA...

Gosh, flapjax, how did you manage to find a place so wrong for you, what with your deep hatred of all things musical? :-)

Glad you're safe. Pix if there's a meetup!
posted by rtha at 7:03 AM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

They celebrate St. Patrick's in Japan? For real? *mind blown*
posted by desjardins at 7:15 AM on March 17, 2011

They celebrate St. Patrick's in Japan?

"They" would be a small fraction of people in Japan, but yes, they do :)
posted by gen at 7:25 AM on March 17, 2011

That sounds like the place that hosts the Nagasawa Art Park every couple of years.

Actually, woodblock100, it's different folks, no connection.

I'm awaiting your epic about all of this. You know, in song form.

gc, I'll do my best.

At least one Mefite here is sticking it out in the big smoke.

jet_manifesto, where you been hiding, man? You're in Tokyo? This might be the first time I've heard your username! Anyway, we'll hopefully meet sometime!

Pix if there's a meetup!

Gonna take lotsa pix, for sure.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:32 AM on March 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

It was freaky watching a 4 hit near Chiba while watching NHK-G this morning right after I got up. Automatic warning overlays on top of the current program, the translator interrupts herself, they switch to a live camera, it shakes around a little, the lights stay on, cars driving on the streets keep doing their thing, a few minutes later they give an all clear of possible tsunami, and life keeps going on.

keep safe over there
posted by nomisxid at 7:34 AM on March 17, 2011

oh, and emmling suggested a mini-meetup in Kobe! Ha! Maybe we can hook up there on our way outta here, gen. If we ever leave!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:35 AM on March 17, 2011

I had to come here for sanity because there seems to be some tension between my Facebook friends in Tokyo: those who are staying vs. those who are going. And it seems like everyone who leaves feels the need to explain in great detail why they are leaving because the ones who are staying are calling them cowards and "fair-weather friends." It's just insanity. It's more foreigners vs. foreigners. I have yet too see any resentment directed at Japanese people who decide to leave Tokyo, but my exposure is limited.

For those Tokyo Mefites who have left, have you found this to be the case among your friends?
posted by zerbinetta at 7:44 AM on March 17, 2011

Looks pretty nice. I'd go there.

(Oh and happy St. Patrick's day, Flapjax.)
posted by Skygazer at 7:45 AM on March 17, 2011

nomisxid - i saw that, too. but after so many days seeing alerts like that on repeat, i wasn't sure if it was live or not. i actually checked this thread to see if the was any info! but i think most folk were asleep, so i was unsure. now that i see your comment, i get goosebumps in retrospect. my thoughts are with you, mefites of Japan - and all of Japan!
posted by lapolla at 7:46 AM on March 17, 2011

resentment directed at ... people who decide to leave Tokyo

The equation is different from person to person. Biggest single difference is obviously having kids or not. If my two 'little girls' were still here with me, of course it would make a difference in my calculations. So resentment would be foolish.

Another factor is liability. If I were an employer of foreigners here, I would get them out now. Can you imagine what would happen if Tokyo were to receive even the slightest 'dusting' from the reactor area? Any of those employees who ever happened to develop cancer sometime over the next 50 years would be right back at your doorstep, a clutch of lawyers in tow. I would imagine that for many companies, the decision to move their employees out is being made by their insurance company.
posted by woodblock100 at 8:17 AM on March 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Woodblock, believe me, I know there could be any number or reasons a person could leave Tokyo. Hell, if I were still there and my office shut down for a few days, I'd certainly use it as an excuse to visit friends in Kansai. I was just wondering if the resentment itself was a thing you were observing in your own circles.
posted by zerbinetta at 8:31 AM on March 17, 2011

Flapjax checking in here. I've put quite a bit of distance between myself and Fukushima. My family and I just arrived a few hours ago at a tiny village on Awaji island.

Sounds good ! Take care.
posted by nicolin at 8:31 AM on March 17, 2011

From Reuters: "Mizuho Bank said on Thursday that all of its automatic teller machines (ATM) throughout Japan have stopped working. The bank did not immediately give a reason for the outage."
posted by Asparagirl at 8:36 AM on March 17, 2011

Boingboing linked to an interesting video someone put together of all 6 Japan TV networks as the quake warning comes in and then hits. The time differences between NHK's response and the rest of the channels seems staggering.
posted by nomisxid at 9:05 AM on March 17, 2011 [6 favorites]

Just got in to my cousin's house north of Chicago. The flight was long, but it worked, and here we are. The airport was pretty crowded, but we actually got there before the ticket and check-in counters opened, so the freakish long line we saw was not all that bad. By roughly half past seven, the entire line had been absorbed into the smaller queues for individual airlines. There were lots of people still sleeping on the floor when we got it, so obviously some people are camping out for standby.

As mentioned up above, yeah, I do feel guilty for leaving, and I have (without being teased about it) told people that we bought these tickets in January, it wasn't a sudden decision, and so on. I don't know that anyone has said anything about it on facebook (I checked here first, both for news and to see how everyone is), but I can see some of that happening. As I told my friends, I'm going to be pissed if everyone develops super powers while I'm gone, and then when I come back, I'll be stuck as the sidekick.

Flapjax, Gen, I'm glad to hear you've been able to get out of town. I wish everyone could, but 30 million people would have a hard time finding a place to stay.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:12 AM on March 17, 2011 [9 favorites]

I'm feeling the guilt, too. The mister and I arrived in New Orleans last night and the sighs of relief from friends and family who were waiting to hear we'd arrived are all over facebook...which simply made me feel compulsed to write an update reiterating the fact that attending this TESOL conference was on our calendar for months and we would never have left Gifu City, otherwise.

I'm sure I came across as an ingrate for stating that fact.

Suppose I just wanted all my friends back home (because that, after 17 years, is precisely what Japan is to us) that we were not on the run and if it weren't for this conference we'd still be there, taking in whomever needed sanctuary from the *actually* affected areas. We left refugees from Tsukuba house-sitting until they can get flights out....
posted by squasha at 9:33 AM on March 17, 2011 [3 favorites]

A cute/crazy video "Nuclear Boy" explains the Fukushima situation to kids. It made me feel a little better. (It has english subtitles.) via brownpau's twitter.
posted by sarahnade at 10:18 AM on March 17, 2011 [19 favorites]

A cute/crazy video "Nuclear Boy" explains the Fukushima situation to kids.

Oh man, that's... the best hilarious explanation of an awful situation I have ever seen. Brilliant and terrible at the same time.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:24 AM on March 17, 2011

A cute/crazy video "Nuclear Boy" explains the Fukushima situation to kids.

Oh man, I actually just burst into tears when they got to the doctors stepping up to the plate and working round the clock for the people of Fukushima prefecture. Must be time for a break. Thanks for this.
posted by dialetheia at 10:36 AM on March 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

now I'm worried poor Nuclear Boy is going to get himself sued by Tofu Man....
posted by squasha at 10:40 AM on March 17, 2011

A cute/crazy video "Nuclear Boy" explains the Fukushima situation to kids.

Never underestimate the ability of Japan to bring the WTF in any situation.
posted by empath at 10:44 AM on March 17, 2011

There are few six year old who can't relate to having an inappropriate accident in public/school/elsewhere. It makes the video a little cringeworthy but it also frames the problem in the context of a child's world, in much more relevant terms than using puppets wanting cookies, or animals in a forest feeling sad.

I'd call it brilliant.
posted by ardgedee at 10:55 AM on March 17, 2011

I'd call it brilliant.

Me too. And, right at the end, it made my allergies flare up.
posted by anastasiav at 11:01 AM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

squasha, that's almost exactly how I feel. I've only been there roughly 11 years, but this week made me realize how much I consider Japan to be my home. It's hard to leave now, even knowing that my return date is set, I still feel like I'm running out on my friends and loved ones there.

On the other hand, you're in New Orleans. None of the conferences I ever went to were in fun places like that. Enjoy the conference, and the city, too.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:05 AM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

That Atomic Boy (Genpakukun) video was wonderful. Thanks for sharing it.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:13 AM on March 17, 2011

I sure am glad I'm not having to toilet train a child in Japan right now. Something tells me anal retentiveness among children there is going to be an even bigger problem now....
posted by mudpuppie at 11:15 AM on March 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Places to celebrate St. Patrick's in Tokyo. Might offer some stress relief.
posted by nickyskye at 11:59 AM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

We have a close friend here in Canada from Sendai (her mother lived near Sendai airport and just escaped the tsunami). Our friend's brother reports the American military is working to clear Sendai airport, to allow for round-the-clock resupply, including fuel.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:41 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

"If everyone's got nothing, everyone's got the same," Isao Nagai, 62, said, standing in a cold junior high school gym in Ofunato (Iwate prefecture). About 150 survivors huddled under blankets. Some dozed, others talked or read the newspaper. "There's a comfort we get from each other. It's simple. We've all got nothing. Not half or some. Nothing."

The first aircraft to land at Sendai Airport also carried the 353rd SOG commander. The colonel noted the condition of the area as well as the hard work still being put in by the combat controllers and JSDF personnel.

"Despite the total devastation, the resiliency and strength of the Japanese people was clearly evident," said Col. Robert Toth, the 353rd SOG commander. "They have been working around the clock since the tsunami to remove debris and because of their hard work, we were able to land here today, open the airfield, and provide assistance."

Currently, the combat controllers and Japanese officials are manning the airfields to support fixed and rotary wing aircraft assisting relief operations.

Hachinohe Fishing Industry official Kazumasa Takeno said he was surprised when the first group of 17 Americans showed up ready to work Wednesday morning. But he was really floored when 60 more volunteers arrived a few hours later.

“It’s incredible,” he said, adding that their work will help his organization get back to work quicker.

US Navy 7th Fleet Update from Japan

Americans near Sendai frustrated by evacuation delays
posted by plokent at 1:39 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Flapjax- Awaji Island! Speaking of earthquakes.

(Maybe stay away from the Nojima Fault Preservation Museum. You've learned enough about earthquakes this past week ask is.)
posted by evidenceofabsence at 2:22 PM on March 17, 2011

From one of Plokent's links: “It is such a great help from Americans who are very big and powerful,” he said.

*Trying to imagine my friends and family as "big and powerful." Also trying not to laugh. Hee.*
posted by evidenceofabsence at 2:29 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ghidorah, did you set of the radiation scanners at the airport?
posted by gc at 3:03 PM on March 17, 2011

No radiation scanners. No nothing. I'd thought there'd at least be people to greet us refugees coming off the plane with blankets and iodine tablets, and breathless reporters from American media outlets trying to find out how badly we've been traumatised by roving gangs of irradiated yakuza. Just your standard grumpy TSA folk. Kind of a let down.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:08 PM on March 17, 2011 [10 favorites]

Kanto train status.

Driving into the tsunami. omg. Via.
posted by nickyskye at 3:27 PM on March 17, 2011

woodblock100: I would imagine that for many companies, the decision to move their employees out is being made by their insurance company.

My sister has been studying in Tokyo and was asked to evacuate on advice of her (American, pre-exchange) school's insurance provider. Haven't seen her yet, but she should be laying over in Chicago now before heading back to Minneapolis. I see now that her school in Tokyo, Temple University, has made the decision to evacuate all of their U.S. students.

I found the advice of the British embassy and others yesterday concerning the risk in Tokyo to be very comforting, but can't deny I am very relieved she is back here now. I prayed sincerely for the first time in my life last night — my heart goes out to all the people of Japan.
posted by brightghost at 3:32 PM on March 17, 2011

Livingsocial.com will match your $5 donation to the Red Cross, donate link here.
posted by sarahnade at 3:35 PM on March 17, 2011

Zoomable before and after pics.
posted by nickyskye at 3:48 PM on March 17, 2011

Flapjax: I'm actually going to be driving through Awaji island this afternoon to visit a friend in Naruto, Tokushima! WHAT ARE THE ODDS
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:55 PM on March 17, 2011

Driving into the tsunami

Ugh. Can anyone tell from the commentary whether the driver survived?
posted by mudpuppie at 4:13 PM on March 17, 2011

Can anyone tell from the commentary whether the driver survived?

The driver did survive. He said that he waited in the car until the initial wave subsided, got out and got to higher ground.
posted by gen at 4:37 PM on March 17, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'm still in Tokyo -- since the situation with the Fukushima Daiichi plant has stabilized to a degree, I feel better for having stayed. Except for a few moments, I don't believe that Tokyo was in real danger -- but that said, I understand if people wanted to take their families out of Tokyo for a few days, if only to have a break from the stress. My office has been announcing closings on a day-to-day basis, plus I have meetings today, so it wasn't practical to just leave. I was told by my boss that if I wanted to work from home (i.e. leave Tokyo) he would understand.

Tokyo's my home, though, and unless the situation worsens I'm going to stay. If I do go anywhere though, it will be with a return ticket in hand.
posted by armage at 4:43 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is it just me or did the first part of that video seem....enhanced?
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:43 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure I'd say enhanced, more like video-game-ish. But, yeah, the first few seconds didn't quite look like live action video.
posted by marsha56 at 5:07 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

That genpatsu-kun video is hilarious. Thanks for sharing it, I'm linking to it in my mixi account to show my Japanese friends with little kids.

Ghidorah, flapjax, and everyone else who's been checking in with their current status: good to hear you're all OK.
posted by misozaki at 5:07 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks, misozaki, and you do you your best to keep you and yours as safe as possible, y'hear? I know you will.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:19 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just back online after today's three-hour blackout. Not as bad as yesterday's evening one, because this time it came at noon. But sheesh, it gets cold fast in a Japanese house without any power! That's not a personal complaint as much as a reflection on just how bad it must be right now for the people in the evacuation centres, some of them without power/fuel for nearly a week now, and a whole lot farther north. I sure hope it won't be long until we see those rows of little tiny temporary houses springing up on the schoolgrounds and parks!
posted by woodblock100 at 12:13 AM on March 18, 2011

Has this, designed by Shinji Higuchi, been linked anywhere on MetaFilter yet? It actually makes me want to be included in the rolling blackouts!
posted by misozaki at 12:24 AM on March 18, 2011

Misozaki-san, there is one in there for you too - didn't you notice? Zero Group!
posted by woodblock100 at 12:43 AM on March 18, 2011

it gets cold fast in a Japanese house without any power!

Why do you think that is? My aunt has always talked about freezing when she visits Tokyo in the winter, even though the weather is considerably warmer than where she lives in the States.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 1:04 AM on March 18, 2011

Well, as much as I hate to admit that there are things that Japan does badly :-) this is one such thing. Residential construction here has traditionally been simply crappy. We are told that this stems from way back, when fires and earthquakes so frequently trashed the towns, that it just didn't make sense to built with any sense of permanence.

I'm not quite sure if that analysis holds water, but when compared to most modern societies, residences here are indeed pretty shoddy. Mine was built about 17 years ago, and has nothing but patches of insulation here and there in the walls, none of it more than 5cm thick, and even missing in many places.

More modern (and more expensive) construction is better, but nowhere near on a par with the kind of stuff we see in (say) Canada or Sweden - supremely energy efficient, tightly insulated, and properly ventilated.
posted by woodblock100 at 1:26 AM on March 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

A couple of things to report:

We met a teacher that had worked out in Ofunato, and had been "missing" (ie, not heard from by the office here in Morioka) for several days. He said that everything was gone, and that he had spent the better part of last week in the shelter. He was incredibly positive, though, and very concerned about his role as a teacher, and also as a distraction, a connection to the outside world. It was inspiring.

Second, I just heard a freight train go past on the Tohoku Main Line, which is great. Goods are moving again, which means we can be resupplied. I didn't see if it was gas or other freight, though.

Third, a friend up here camped out in his car for 10 hours while he waited for the gas station to open, and then 37 minutes more in line. But he has gas now.

Finally, we're hoping to get out of here in a few days, rather than on the 25th.
posted by gc at 1:34 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Woodblock- Are buildings in the north liable to be built to retain heat better?

It's one thing if people don't have heat, but are in thick-walled buildings. It's another thing if they have no heat, and it's cold and windy, and the walls are poorly insulated. Ack.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 1:48 AM on March 18, 2011

Factoid 1) When I began the insulation/renovation of my workroom some years back, I went to a building supply company to order the insulation I wanted a 15cm thick, high-density type. They told me (paraphrasing), "You'll have to wait a while for that one; we'll have to truck it in from our distribution center up in Hokkaido."

Factoid 2) We had relatives living up in Sapporo some years ago (they have since relocated to Okinawa !), and when we visited them (for the snow festival one year), found their home to be cosy and warm. Definitely tighter construction that here on the Kanto. My understanding is that the 'dividing line' is the Tsugaru Strait. (But perhaps Tohoku people here can chime in ... good insulation, or no?)

Factoid 3) My girlfriend living in a town nearby here (Fussa City) recently renovated an attached garage in her (concrete) home, closing off the front and turning it into a room. The local carpenters only put insulation in because she insisted (they had no plans to do so otherwise). They used 5cm fiberglass (basically pointless), and we were very lucky that I happened to visit on the day that they were to do the panelling, because it turned out that they had installed the insulation the wrong way around, with the vapor barrier side against the raw concrete. They weren't happy when we made them rip it out and do it again. "It doesn't matter ..." was the gist of their comments.

I would bet that you could watch all that footage of destroyed homes over and over again, but you would almost never see exposed walls with insulation visible.
posted by woodblock100 at 1:59 AM on March 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

Just a heads up.
Worldwide reports of iodine overdoses: WHO
posted by Duke999R at 2:00 AM on March 18, 2011

Woodblock- Hah! That would drive me nuts. When I lived in Northern California, I found it hard to get warm indoors (winter nights could get down into the 30s F/low single-digits C) because my apartments were never insulated. The thinking seemed to be, "California is warm and sunshiny! Why would we need insulation?!"

I hope you manage to stay toasty, despite the blackouts! And that the Red Cross has managed to ship a bunch of soft, thick blankets up north.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 3:12 AM on March 18, 2011

Woodblock is right about houses in and around Tokyo. Our house, which is only two years old, is freezing in winter. There is no insulation at all on the second floor, and very little, if any, on the first floor. Many people still use kerosene heaters indoors (the modern ones are very safe, but they still terrify me), and central heating is non-existant in homes and most apartments.

I've tried to tell my wife, as we're sitting under the kotatsu, wearing our winter hats inside, shivering from cold, that if we lived in Hokkaido, we'd be warmer than living in Chiba, but she hates winter, snow, and everything that goes with it.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:34 AM on March 18, 2011

Ghidorah, and now you're in Chicago...
posted by gc at 4:39 AM on March 18, 2011

yeah, she wasn't thrilled about coming here in March, gc. It took a lot of convincing, and pointing out I hadn't seen my family in a year and a half. On the positive side, it was downright pleasant yesterday. Sunny and warm enough to walk around in just a long sleeve t-shirt. Color me surprised (and pleasantly warm).

A green beer was had, but it was a little lackluster (they just added green food coloring on the top, and it took a while to mix). My wife was a little grossed out by it.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:45 AM on March 18, 2011

Ghidorah, yeah, there are certain consumables that shouldn't be green.

What does your wife think of Chicago? You hitting up any of the sights while you're there?
posted by gc at 4:52 AM on March 18, 2011

This is her third trip, so she's actually seen a good bit. It's not really her idea of a vacation city, and she would rather be in Hawaii (uh, for the record, kinda me too). Her sister is coming in next weekend though (she"s an elementary school teacher, and her vacation between school years is so short she's actually only coming in for one weekend) and we're going to take her to the Science and Industry museum. With any luck, we'll be able to get to the aquarium, too.

Even better (or worse from my wife's perspective, we're heading to my hometown, Kalamazoo, for the weekend so my wife can meet some of my extended family and I can show her where I grew up.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:13 AM on March 18, 2011

Duke999R: "Just a heads up.
Worldwide reports of iodine overdoses: WHO"

The overreaction is ridiculous.

Here in Hong Kong a rumour that table salt (and the iodine within) would protect against radiation (which has almost no chance of reaching us) set off a wave of panic buying of salt (and soy sauce when that ran out). Rice has also been slammed.

As I mentioned on my web site as I wrote of it, were Hong Kong to experience any serious natural disaster you can be sure there would be riots and looting.

It's embarrassing behaviour.
posted by bwg at 5:47 AM on March 18, 2011

apologies if it's been posted earlier (i did run a search and didn't see this mentioned) - for anyone interested in the NHK diorama, boing boing likes it, too.
posted by lapolla at 6:32 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

as we're sitting under the kotatsu, wearing our winter hats inside

One of the suggestions given this past winter to the people who lost power was to put mattresses on the floor, pitch a tent on top of them and pack as many people as possible inside to maintain the heat. (I'm talking about Oklahoma City, where ONG does not allow the poor to be late with their gas bill.)
posted by francesca too at 7:02 AM on March 18, 2011

For the first time since the quake, the top news on Google news homepage here isn't about the disaster or about the reactor. Weird how it's actually somewhat of a relief to see Gaddafi making the headlines.
posted by misozaki at 7:30 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Planes arriving at O'Hare from Tokyo with high levels of radiation.

I've been wondering about an aspect of this. Although there's been extensive coverage of the path the radiation plume will take across the Pacific to the West Coast, there's been nothing I've seen yet regarding the possible effects on international flights that will go through the path of the radiation. As it rises up and disperses into the jetstream, won't passengers be exposed to high levels?
posted by Skygazer at 10:04 AM on March 18, 2011

there's been nothing I've seen yet regarding the possible effects on international flights that will go through the path of the radiation. As it rises up and disperses into the jetstream, won't passengers be exposed to high levels?

I know that we've been monitoring this using survey aircraft designed to measure radiation (usually used to detect and gather information about nuclear tests). If needed, planes could be rerouted away from any problematic areas. It's a big sky.
posted by zachlipton at 10:20 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

This was posted by longdaysjourney on the other thread about the nuclear crisis -

Not nuclear at all (but still earthquake-related/interesting): sound of the earthquake and some aftershocks under water.

posted by tomcosgrave at 10:30 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ichiro has donated 100 million yen to the Japanese Red Cross, roughly $1.25M. That's over 7% of his annual salary from the Mariners.

The Mariners are going to match $100K of fan donations given during the opening series.
posted by dw at 11:39 AM on March 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

Canada's favourite Newfie curmudgeon, Rex Murphy, with an eloquent homage to Japan's dignity and determination.
posted by islander at 11:42 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ichiro has donated 100 million yen to the Japanese Red Cross, roughly $1.25M. That's over 7% of his annual salary from the Mariners.

I can see MLB stepping up in a fairly big way on this. Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima are working with the Red Sox Foundation to raise money - although not anywhere near the amount that Ichiro has donated. What has been especially striking about this is that these players pretty much never do public appearances, for any reason.
posted by anastasiav at 12:32 PM on March 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

I was waiting for Ichiro to step up. Given his hero status here, I could see him doing no less.
posted by gc at 4:03 PM on March 18, 2011

Not a sports guy, but went to a few games over the past couple years for a variety of reasons. I will be there during the M's charity drive this spring, and I appreciate this gesture by Ichiro very much.
posted by mwhybark at 5:36 PM on March 18, 2011

This where we link the farting pig song, right? Because that never stops being funny.
posted by cmyk at 6:09 PM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

oh lord, way too many tabs open at once. Flagged.
posted by cmyk at 6:09 PM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

LOL cmyk
posted by mwhybark at 6:39 PM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sweet, man rescued after being buried 8 days.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:03 PM on March 18, 2011

Sorry, zengargoyle, not really.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:28 PM on March 18, 2011

doh!
posted by zengargoyle at 8:40 PM on March 18, 2011

Well, when I clicked the "not really" link I was expecting to read that he was dead, so finding out that he was just never really buried in the first place was really the best possible news. Deputy Cabinet Secretary @norishikata tweeted about this story a little while ago. I tweeted him the retraction, but I'm not holding my breath for a correction from him.
posted by zachlipton at 8:46 PM on March 18, 2011

Austin American-Statesman: Earthquake displaced water in Edwards Aquifer

The water level of Texas' Edwards Aquifer was displaced about a foot Friday after energy released from a massive earthquake near Japan put the squeeze on the underground rock formation that supplies drinking water for much of Central Texas.

The 9.0-magnitude quake caused its walls to contract and expand, officials with the Edwards Aquifer Authority said Wednesday. A monitor in a Bexar County well that continuously records the aquifer's water level noted the oscillations, which lasted about two hours from late Thursday to early Friday morning, said Geary Schindel , the authority's chief technical officer. The force from the quake took about 15 minutes to reach the aquifer, he said.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:12 PM on March 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

We were out and about again today. Bakeries are suddenly active again, and people were carrying bread and Mister Donut bags wherever we looked. And it looks like some of the convenience stores were somewhat restocked. All of that probably had to do with the shipment from Hokkaido yesterday.

Azuresunday and I are escaping, albeit slowly. Tonight we head to Akita. Tomorrow we fly down to Tokyo, and fly out Monday. We would have preferred to travel only on Monday, but this is the best we could do.
posted by gc at 11:28 PM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Anne Thomas, an English teacher residing in Sendai, blogs for Ode Magazine:

I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.

In evacuation centers there are puppet shows for children. “It’s to ease their minds,” my friend explained to me. “That is very important.” And for the Japanese one’s state of mind often carries more weight than facts. That is because we have some semblance of control over our mind, no matter what the outer circumstances may be.

In another shelter junior high school students got paper and paints and made a large bright, energetic sign that said, “To have life is profound joy.” It was hung high overhead so everyone could see it and be encouraged by the words.

People in the shelters are supporting one another. They massage each others’ legs and shoulders, sit in close circles for human contact, read stories to kids, or simply hold hands. They are grateful for whatever goodness comes their way. “I feel so fortunate. We are able to eat at least once a day,” one woman said.
posted by plokent at 12:09 AM on March 19, 2011 [16 favorites]

Earthquake displaced water in Edwards Aquifer

Japan: fucking up Texas since 2011.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:20 AM on March 19, 2011 [5 favorites]

interactive guide to the humanitarian disaster as of Thursday night GMT.
posted by adamvasco at 1:13 AM on March 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Printed on the capital newspaper, no less.
posted by francesca too at 5:29 AM on March 19, 2011

Loyal Japanese dog leads rescuers to mate

Surprisingly SFW.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:31 AM on March 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

British Teacher Saved 42 Teens From Tsunami.

I actually met this guy. We work for the same company, the same guy from this post. Super nice guy. He stayed in the shelter there for almost a week, even though the road to Morioka was open. He spoke of his obligations as a teacher, both to our contract, and then to our students, which are very different.

The Boards of Education here are very keen on keeping us. We're both a distraction to the students and a link to the outside world.

And as the article says, Bobby has no plans of leaving. Japan is his home.
posted by gc at 5:44 AM on March 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

These amazing aerial photos from ABC News Australia, allow you to move your mouse to the left and right over them, to display the before and after of the Tsunami.

Even from way up in the sky, the destruction is difficult to comprehend and awe inducing.

With apologies if this has already been linked.
posted by Skygazer at 6:56 AM on March 19, 2011

As is tradition in Japan, loudspeakers sound at 5pm every day to tell children it is home time. In Ofunato, their song, laced in tragic irony: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it seems as though they're here to stay".
posted by plokent at 10:42 AM on March 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Riverside buildings will be lighted for Sendai

Starting [last night], parts of downtown Riverside [California] will be aglow with blue lights to reflect solidarity with Sendai, Japan.

Riverside's longtime sister city, Sendai is still recovering from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Riverside City Hall and the Mission Inn will be lighted nightly from dusk until late evening, and the inn's bells will sound daily at 2:46 p.m., the time in Japan when the quake struck, and again 15 minutes later, about when the tsunami hit.

The Mission Inn has been strung with lights that are blue and white - Sendai's official colors - and "Sendai sister city" will be spelled out in white lights on a blue background. City Hall's Grier Pavilion will be lighted in blue.

posted by Celsius1414 at 11:23 AM on March 19, 2011

After the Ichiro announcement I started chasing some baseball links for a break from the reactor news.

The Rakuten Eagles, based in Sendai, played (and lost) an exhibition game in Nagoya yesterday and are set for another today.

The Eagles' official merch store is closed for now.

I contacted a couple of (US or English-language) online merchants about caps, but everyone I corresponded with is out of stock and their restocking mechanism is the official store.
posted by mwhybark at 2:26 PM on March 19, 2011

oops, the dateline and all those zeroes got me. That game was yesterday (Saturday) and the one prior to it was on Friday.
posted by mwhybark at 2:31 PM on March 19, 2011

BAMF filter: this guy!
I'm hoping to read more stories like this one in the coming days
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:37 PM on March 19, 2011 [4 favorites]

...now it looks as though they're here to stay

/stickler-for-lyric-accuracy-filter
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:52 PM on March 19, 2011

It's interesting seeing all of the Japanese celebrities donating money after Ichiro got the ball rolling. He's such a huge figure in Japan, I imagine a lot of the donations coming in from people like Darvish and Hamasaki might not have happened if Ichiro hadn't led the way. Supposedly even AKB48 has collectively donated roughly $5 million. Even more, I would bet that fans of these celebrities will follow their lead and donate too. It's nice to be pleasantly surprised by humanity once in a while.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:07 PM on March 19, 2011

Actually, not to nitpick or anything, but I'm pretty sure Darvish and Hamasaki and AKB 48 all announced their donations before Ichiro did. So yeah, it was awesome of Ichiro to have donated a huge amount of money, but the other celebrities aren't exactly following in his suit here. I can't believe I just sort of defended Ayu. Ack.
posted by misozaki at 7:06 PM on March 19, 2011

Ghidorah - you've kind of answered a question I was wondering about. Usually after some big disaster in the States, there's a big demonstration of charity by various celebrities (as well as a few who wade in, Rambo-style, to be on the scene and helping). Hadn't heard about anything like that happening after this quake, but American media tends not to pay much attention to Japanese celebrities to begin with, so I wasn't certain whether this was slipping under the radar here or not.
posted by ardgedee at 7:08 PM on March 19, 2011

a few who wade in, Rambo-style, to be on the scene and helping

Not exactly Rambo-style, but Mitsuo Ogasawara, a former all-Japan midfielder, drove up to visit one of the shelters in Rikuzentakada in Iwate on his own. Link in Japanese. He was interviewed by the NHK camera that happened to be there, so it wasn't as if he took along a hoard of publicity people with him. Ogasawara is a famous athlete in Japan, perhaps not on par with Ichiro, but for kids who play soccer, he's a huge star. It was good to see the boys' faces literally light up when they realized who had come.

Kashima Antlers, the J-League soccer team that he plays for now, is based in Ibaraki and the stadium and clubhouse has been severely damaged by the quake. They haven't been able to practice at all.

And yes, various donations are being made by many celebrities. Talent agencies have stepped up as well, like Johnny's, which has lent its concert trucks equipped with electricity generators to the shelters up north, loaded with relief goods.
posted by misozaki at 7:32 PM on March 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Azuresunday and I are hiding out in Ueno at the moment. Anyone know if there's blackout tonight?
posted by gc at 1:04 AM on March 20, 2011

Ueno shouldn't be blacked out at all - the central districts have all been spared (for now). Taito-ku (the ward for Ueno) has an information page here (looks like machine translation).
posted by woodblock100 at 2:32 AM on March 20, 2011

BBC: Japan warns on quake deaths rise.
Police say 15,000 people may have been killed in a single prefecture, Miyagi.
posted by adamvasco at 3:23 AM on March 20, 2011

Misozaki, I wish I'd known that. Here in the states, Ichiro got all the publicity (of course). Still, it's fantastic what they are doing, and I'll stand by my idea that this will inspire fans who would otherwise be copying their idols fashion to start, instead, copying their idols compassion and philanthropy. Like with the tigermask phenomenon a couple months ago, with any luck this could be a sort of positive change in Japanese society. One can hope at least.

^{Of course, we all know that you're really a huge Ayu/AKB fan, Misozaki. Got all their albums and everything...}
posted by Ghidorah at 4:05 AM on March 20, 2011

I'll bite. "Tigermask phenomenon?"
posted by mwhybark at 11:29 AM on March 20, 2011

Pretty sure he's referring to this.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 1:01 PM on March 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

thanks. Neat story.
posted by mwhybark at 2:05 PM on March 20, 2011

NYT: Baseball-Loving Japan Delays Its First Pitch, but Not Without Debate

If you guys don't want me tailing baseball stuff in here, just lemme know. It's kinda odd to find myself being aware of it.
posted by mwhybark at 6:25 PM on March 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

For one, I'd be kind of happy for baseball stuff, mwhybark. The rest of the news isn't doing my mental health any good and baseball is a wonderful thing. Plus, it's related.

I've kept largely out of these threads because I'm thousands of miles away and, frankly, speechless. I have a friend in Ishinomaki, so far missing or unable to be contacted, and a lot of the news stories being linked mention that city. Reports of aid, baseball stuff, hell yes, just now.
posted by neewom at 11:09 PM on March 20, 2011

Spike Japan has just published an interesting (and well researched) piece analyzing the likely consequences of the loss of so many power generating plants (nuclear, thermal, and hydro - the latter because of the very low rainfall over this past winter).
posted by woodblock100 at 8:51 AM on March 21, 2011

Oh, christ, I just noticed I linked to an On the Media piece instead of the NYT piece yesterday. Getting punchy, I guess. Did the same thing in another thread with a different link.

Alright, as I come across 'em, I'll sling 'em.

Here's an older piece in which Eagles player Randy Ruiz is interviewed and gives info about the disposition of the Eagles.

The Rakuten Eagles are the newest expansion team (and the first since the 1950s) in the Pacific League.

They are owned by the Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten which also recently purchased Buy.com.

Rakuten appears to be a kind of online mall, in which the retail goods are offered by a wide range of competing merchants across discrete storefronts (as opposed to the ebay or Amazon model in which the listings of competing merchants for similar products are displayed together).

Rakuten has an international and English-language site (linked above) which excludes many, many Japan-only merchants but which is viewable via Google translate. There are prominent notices on both the Japanese and international sites advising of likely shipping delays.

I have previously been able to get cached versions of the Rakuten-hosted Eagles shop to load in Google translate, but the caches appear to be crumbling.

The Eagles stadium in Sendai appears to be in an area unaffected by tsunami but which was affected by the earthquake.
posted by mwhybark at 10:08 AM on March 21, 2011

Godddammit, got distracted and hit post too early.

The Eagles stadium in Sendai appears to be in an area unaffected by tsunami but which was affected by the earthquake.

The Eagles stadium in Sendai appears to have been affected both by the earthquake and the tsunami, according to Wikipedia. It is not the stadium pictured in the aerial shot in the NYT article.

Here's a brief Baseball Prospectus article on the Eagles and a couple of other Japanese ballplayers originally posted March 11 and since updated.
posted by mwhybark at 10:20 AM on March 21, 2011

Azuresunday and I are now (hopefully) safe and sound in Seattle, awaiting the inevitable quakes here.

A few things:

Narita was crazy, as Ghidorah said a few days ago. Took us about an hour and a half to get through bag check and customs.

The Keisei Skyliner was up and running. The N'Ex was not.

I know it's probably frustrating, but I was really enjoying the lack of cars (or at least less cars) both in Morioka and Tokyo. So, so nice.

And let's do one more Maru video.
posted by gc at 1:08 PM on March 21, 2011 [5 favorites]

Welcome back!
posted by mwhybark at 3:09 PM on March 21, 2011

Welcome back and glad you two are safe. Let me know when you desire public libations, you've probably earned them.
posted by Errant at 4:24 PM on March 21, 2011

The earthquake, by the numbers. From The Atlantic. via
posted by theora55 at 5:10 PM on March 21, 2011

Fun one just now ... I was on the way home from the 7-11, and when I got onto my street, saw in the distance a guy crouched down beside a parked car. Getting closer, I saw that he was siphoning gas out of it into a small tank he was carrying.

I was just starting to think to myself, "Whoa, here we go ..." but it turned out to be my neighbour. The family has two cars, and as his (work) vehicle is low on gas, he was 'borrowing' some from his wife's car. We stood there chatting while he pumped (using the tool that people fill their room-heater kerosene stoves with) and all the neighbours who came by gave him a good razz. "Hey Abe-san, you practicing, or what? Going to make the rounds tonight? Do we need to hide our cars?"
posted by woodblock100 at 10:20 PM on March 21, 2011 [6 favorites]

smh.com.au: Let's play ball? Ravaged Japan at odds about delay of first pitch.

"Adam Bright is the top Australian playing major league baseball in Japan. But like most foreigners who are signed with teams in either the Central or Pacific leagues, he is nervous. Not about the upcoming season - which in the case of his Yomiuri Giants starts next Tuesday, four days late, in the Central League - but about whether it is safe to play sport in Japan at the moment.

In the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis, debate is raging in Japan over whether the country's biggest sport should start its season, as scheduled, on Friday. The Japanese are contemplating whether baseball can play a role in comforting a reeling nation, as it did in the US in the days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, or whether it is too soon to return to what are, after all, trivial pursuits."
posted by mwhybark at 10:28 PM on March 21, 2011

Yakyu Baka Rakuten Eagles tag news display.

nb: "filed by Gen"

"It's official, the Rakuten Eagles will be playing their opening series against the Orix Buffaloes at Koshien Stadium.

There's also an update on Kleenex Stadium: it appears owner Toru Shimada is hoping re-open the stadium on 4/29.

Said Shimada, "It doesn't matter what the [stadium] looks like. As long as we can guarantee fan safety. We want to life spirits by playing baseball in the best possible situation."

On Monday, the Eagles borrowed the Koshien indoor practice facilities for practices."

nb: original copy excerpted above chockfulla links. Go look at the site.
posted by mwhybark at 10:35 PM on March 21, 2011

After looking through the Yakyu Baka site, I would say that it appears to be the best single source for English-language news and links on Japanese baseball that I have found.

Here's an update on the stadium:

According to a number of reporters (like Sanspo and Daily Sports) surveyors found damage in 47 different parts of the stadium (40 cracks in 38 different support posts, a destroyed water tank, and buckles in 6 light towers). And while current estimates suggest the stadium could be fixed in about 5 weeks, that could change depending on whether or not workers find more damage in the coming weeks.
posted by mwhybark at 10:08 AM on March 22, 2011

With locating that site, I'll cool it on the baseball updates in here I think, unless something specific comes up regarding the Eagles that is not predictable from the resumption schedule they seem to be proposing.

An aspect of the story that is interesting which I have not yet highlighted is the back-and-forth between the Pacific League and the Central League concerning the appropriateness of holding night games in consideration of the electricity shortages nationwide.
posted by mwhybark at 10:12 AM on March 22, 2011

I saw today in the Journal of Commerce that the first oil tanker since the earthquake arrived at the Port of Sendai on Monday, and it was the Tsuruhiro Maru. "Yay, Maru!" I thought. Then I checked out the port to see if I could see it, but nope, it's gone. But I noticed a couple of tug boats on the map that also had Maru in their name. How strange, I thought, but after a little research I learned that it's not that strange at all.

But yay for Maru anyway!
posted by Balonious Assault at 10:38 AM on March 22, 2011

Apparently lots of ships have Meru in their names for reasons we don't seem to be entirely certain of. Yay Maru!
posted by zachlipton at 10:42 AM on March 22, 2011

and that would be Maru of course, not Meru
posted by zachlipton at 10:43 AM on March 22, 2011

Huh, I thought the owner of Maru the cat was a Star Trek fan.
posted by desjardins at 12:07 PM on March 22, 2011

Actually, according to wikipedia, "Maru" is a really common name for pets in Japan; they suggest it's a word that means something like "spirit", and I get the sense they mean it kind of like "nymphs" or "pixies" are "wood-spirits". So "Maru" would kind of be like naming your dog "Pixie" or "Gnome" or something.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:18 PM on March 22, 2011

Reuters: Quake with preliminary magnitude of 6.0 jolts northern Japan according to TV reports.

Good morning Japan. Everyone ok?
posted by zachlipton at 3:22 PM on March 22, 2011

Good morning Japan. Everyone ok?

I'm OK. But my nerves are a wee bit frayed, and I want to go back to Awaji island. Got too many work commitments in Tokyo though. But man, these aftershocks are starting to wear on my nerves for sure, and news of irradiated spinach and milk, and just now hearing that Tokyo tap water is unsafe for children... fuck. I'm bumming, tell you the truth.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 AM on March 23, 2011

So "Maru" would kind of be like naming your dog "Pixie" or "Gnome" or something.

Gnome sayin'?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:17 AM on March 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Makes sense, after all, who can forget Badtz-Maru? Honestly, all this Maru talk had me wondering what it meant - now I know!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:12 AM on March 23, 2011

Flapjax, yesterday on NPR they were discussing the impact on tourism in Japan - do you think Sakura (Cherry Blossom) viewing/celebrations will be dampened or abandoned altogether this year? I can't help but wonder if Japan can't recoup some financial losses by ramping up efforts to promote tourism once things have settled a bit, though obviously not now, which is unfortunate - this it typically the most profitable season, I'd think, for attracting foreign visitors.

That said, stay safe. If you can get a break from all your work commitments, I'm sure any MeFites would be happy to host you wherever you land. And now I'm kicking myself for not trying to arrange a meetup during our visit, but it didn't seem appropriate at the time... I guess taking the future for granted is something everyone does, though.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:24 AM on March 23, 2011

A tiny update from Second Harvest Japan, which I received via email:

Right now, Second Harvest Japan [is] sending food and supplies from Tokyo to Sendai and Minami Souma, which are places severely damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. We cooperate with the national food bank network, local agencies, and local governments to collect the right information about what exactly needed and distribute the resources we brought from Tokyo. So far, we have sent 13 trucks up to the North. We are planning to support the affected areas in the North on a long-term basis.

Go, trucks, go!
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:59 AM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Lloyd's Register on maru as a ship name [via waybackmachine]. The ship naming convention seems to have followed, perhaps by centuries, the application of the name to pets -- or as a suffix of endearment to human names.
posted by dhartung at 5:14 PM on March 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

Flapjax, yesterday on NPR they were discussing the impact on tourism in Japan - do you think Sakura (Cherry Blossom) viewing/celebrations will be dampened or abandoned altogether this year?

Probably depends a lot on what part of the country we're talking about. Western Japan, as far as I can tell, seems to be pretty much business as usual. Obviously, in the quake/tsunami devastated areas, it won't be. Around Tokyo, I suppose a lot of that will have to do with how things play out at the Fukushima plant. No one knows. Things could go south, as they say. Very south.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:23 PM on March 23, 2011

Here's a little more information (& speculation) on the Maru naming convention.
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:08 PM on March 23, 2011

Mobtown Shank: The Super Gaijin Effect And Japan Today

"So, I interviewed with a couple of teacher-dispatch companies to continue teaching in elementary and junior high schools and had job offers coming in. I did my visa paperwork, got my working visa in the beginning of March and found a very inexpensive flight into Tokyo before I was set to start working.

Then the earthquake hit."
posted by mwhybark at 8:51 AM on March 24, 2011

Operation Tomodachi helicopter flies past a message reading “Thank You USA” while delivering humanitarian aid supplies to a makeshift landing zone and shelter.
posted by plokent at 9:07 AM on March 24, 2011

Thanks for the link above, mwhybark. regarding this, from the article...

"Always in search of reliable advice, I turned to reading some of the messageboards for foreigners in Japan. The overwhelming trend I noticed was one of branding those who left the country as pussies."

There's a term that's been coined and it's caught on really quickly here, among the foreigner community: "flyjin" (a play on "gaijin"). Interesting thing is, for some of the more strident and prideful types, it's being used disparagingly not just toward folks who left the country, but sometimes even for foreigners who left Tokyo for even just a few days, due to fears about Fukushima reactor and radiation. With a 10 year old daughter to think about, me and my wife (along with our daughter, of course) were refugees from Tokyo for a few days. In fact, they're still in Kansai, which is exactly how I want it. I'm back in Tokyo due to work commitments, but the situation at Fukushima is definitely not under control, so I'm really glad they can stay out of town for awhile. Anyway, this "flyjin" business has been floating around quite a bit, you know, on Facebook and such. A friend who writes for Tokyo Time Out, then, interviewed me (and others) for an article he wrote on the phenomenon. Here's the article.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:12 AM on March 24, 2011

Here is the best super gaijin I know (aka read his blog). He's stayed put.
posted by anthill at 9:20 AM on March 24, 2011

He's stayed put.

Just curious, anthill, do you know that because he's a friend of yours? Cause I notice that between March 12 (day after the quake) and March 20 there are no entries on his blog... perhaps he was out of Tokyo and/or Japan...

Looks like a fun and interesting blog, anyway. Thanks for linking to it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:35 AM on March 24, 2011

Work began on March 17 and SIX days later the cratered section of the Great Kanto Highway in Naka was as good as new! It was ready to re-open to traffic last night.
posted by plokent at 10:11 AM on March 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

That is some awesome stuff! A bit of Swedish highway went down in a mudslide at Småröd in 2006. Although the place was a building site in any case, and the issue was treated as high priority, it took them two months to repair...
posted by Namlit at 11:39 AM on March 24, 2011

What is it about that Thank You USA picture that made me start crying? Possibly the comment below it sincerely thanking "The dear United States." I don't even know, but it moved me.
posted by threeturtles at 2:52 PM on March 24, 2011

The Atlantic posts a photographic collection, Two Weeks Later.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 4:29 PM on March 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh! This photo makes me indescribably happy. There was a photo right after the tsunami which showed a family portrait, basically untouched, sitting atop the rubble, and at the time I thought, "I know it's not top priority, but someone should really be saving things like this," and I was very sad because it seemed so unlikely to me that anyone would think to do so in the face of what was going on, and with snow already falling in many places.

So to have seen a photo today of salvaged albums, photos, and other commemorative items carefully rescued and organized just gave a lovely swell to my heart.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:51 AM on March 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

I haven't reacted to any photos ever in such a way as these...I'm at a total loss for words and ways to express the sentiment. My God, the scale of it all is so twisted in all dimensions...the psychological effect it has on me, just one small human very far away...I can't even comprehend being just a bit closer, but the need to connect in some small way with so many people in need...I can't not want to step forward, to at least peer in kindly and voice something akin to a sloppy but heartfelt message of love to you all.
posted by iamkimiam at 5:15 AM on March 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

The picture with the car resting on the roof of a three-story building is particularly saddening. I suspect any reasonable person would have expected that going to the roof of a solidly built building like that would have been safe, and it's easy to imagine people racing to take refuge in such places and then watching as the water kept coming and coming until it reached them.
posted by tavella at 11:42 PM on March 27, 2011

Hey! Gaijin, go help bashos_frog, if you can.

That initial response seems notably awful, I'd just ignore it.
posted by mwhybark at 6:48 AM on April 1, 2011

For twenty days, he has been making hourly trips to the mainland. For the first two weeks at least he provided almost the only connection with it. Without Sugawara and the Sunflower, the island would have been completely cut off.
posted by kagredon at 4:23 PM on April 3, 2011 [6 favorites]

Thanks so much for sharing that, kagredon.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:36 PM on April 3, 2011

That Atlantic gallery is unbelievable. I can't even begin to imagine.

Does anyone know if Haruki Murakami has made a statement about the quake? I really like his writing and I'd like to hear his take on the situation. Google results are fairly skewed by the fact that he's written a book called "After the Quake" from the '95 disaster, so I was wondering if anyone knew about anything off hand.
posted by codacorolla at 4:40 PM on April 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Un-narrated, uncaptioned Russia Today YT vid: "Japan 'tsunami dog' Ban reunited with owner after surviving at sea."

I would love more context for this, but uh. I, uh, I have something in my eye. Posted in the current nuke thread too.
posted by mwhybark at 5:30 PM on April 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

For twenty days, he has been making hourly trips to the mainland. For the first two weeks at least he provided almost the only connection with it. Without Sugawara and the Sunflower, the island would have been completely cut off.

Yet more proof of the fact that Japanese senior citizens are BAMFs.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:47 PM on April 4, 2011 [5 favorites]

codacorolla, the New Yorker ran a reprinting of UFO Over Kushiro(?), which Murakami wrote after the Kobe quake, but I haven't seen anything else, at least not in English.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:04 PM on April 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

A bit more about Ban, the tsunami dog.
posted by merelyglib at 2:22 PM on April 5, 2011

codacorolla, the New Yorker ran a reprinting of UFO Over Kushiro(?), which Murakami wrote after the Kobe quake, but I haven't seen anything else, at least not in English.

Thanks Ghidorah. I'll keep my eyes peeled, I suppose, and maybe read his initial quake book after classes end this semester.
posted by codacorolla at 2:29 PM on April 5, 2011

Though written several years ago rather than addressing this specific incident, my favorite Murakami story is Super Frog Saves Tokyo.
posted by anigbrowl at 2:41 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

HuffPo says Ban was found floating on a roof a mile away from shore.

Here's a bit about the actual rescue.

His owner recognized him when she saw him on TV.
posted by merelyglib at 3:14 PM on April 5, 2011

Now this is weird and close to home. I haven't been in Japan since 1985 but I have taken an overnight ride on the Sunflower.
posted by infini at 2:20 AM on April 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Tsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from ancestors (AP)

' "MIYAKO, Japan — Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan's destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.

"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point." '

Includes this otherwise-not-linkable awesome photo, uncaptioned, but captioned here as reading the same as the slab in the lede above.
posted by mwhybark at 5:32 PM on April 6, 2011 [11 favorites]

mwhybark: Very, very poignant article. Thanks so much for the link. Just reposted on FB.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:57 PM on April 6, 2011

Unpleasant, big quake just now off of Sendai. Upper six on the shindo scale, at a solid four here in Chiba. Easily the longest quake since the 11th. We'd just gone to bed when our phones started buzzing with alerts. I saw it was all the way in Sendai, and figured we wouldn't feel much. Thirty seconds later we were downstairs and still waiting for things to stop shaking. It went on long enough that my wife feels nautious and I couldn't tell when the shaking had actually stopped. It would be nice to believe the quakes would finally let up, but they are probably just waiting until we get a little bit comfortable before jumping up to scare the shit out of us again.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:05 AM on April 7, 2011

Power's out in Iwate, according to azuresunday. He managed to get a call in before the phone network went down. He's okay, but not happy about it.

According to this tweet, it looks like it was a 7.3. There's been about half a dozen more magnitude 4 or 5 quakes in the last 45 minutes all in that area.
posted by gc at 8:14 AM on April 7, 2011

Also: EY SHE!
posted by gc at 8:32 AM on April 7, 2011

Unpleasant, big quake just now off of Sendai.

Yeah, Ghidorah, that one was big enough to have me and the family up and out of bed, in our hardhats and jackets, very near the front door, ready to exit. And then this insane wind all night long, rattling the windows, which of course sounds like an earthquake... yeesh. I am seriously sleep deprived. Got a gig tnight, too. Sigh... life goes on.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:27 PM on April 7, 2011

oh, you guys. Woke up to coverage here, heard the various alerts were cancelled, put it out of my mind. At the end of my day I see your updates and oh, man. After this month in here (and there, and there) with you, please, accept my expression of sympathy.
posted by mwhybark at 4:54 PM on April 7, 2011

...which reminds me: this thread closes in three days, give or take (the dateline may confuse things a bit: from where I sit the creation stamp reads "March 10, 2011 10:12 PM"). A year or two ago there was a thread which uncovered a bug in the way thread closing was handled. I can't recall the details, except that it was amusing and harmless. Maybe mostly harmless.
posted by mwhybark at 5:00 PM on April 7, 2011

mwhybark, thanks for the update. It'd be nice if the whole situation could be closed for new disasters, too, but somehow I don't think it'll work like that. Still, this thread made MeFi a much larger, much more important part of my life, and connected me to dozens of people that I hadn't really ever interacted with before.

And flapjax, rock on, and have a good gig. I'm kind of jealous. Our neighborhood group gave out hardhats, but only one to a family, and it's too small for my giant-even-among-gaijin noggin, so the wife gets the hat if it's needed. Starting with this earthquake, I've finally started to take this stuff more seriously. We've redone our earthquake kit, decided to junk the box we had things in for a couple larger size backpacks because they'll be much easier to carry than a big plastic storage bin. Flashlights, batteries, water, food that'll keep, change of clothes, toothbrushes, soap, matches, candles, hell, we could go camping with these and not miss a beat. Which, I guess, is kind of the point.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:17 AM on April 8, 2011 [1 favorite]