Japan News (3/20)
Mar. 20th, 2011 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarker3/19
There's a video of a school yard in Iwate, one of the emergency centers in the middle of the quake/tsunami area. They're starting to put up casetsu jutaku (container living units).
Japan has used these in the Kansai earthquake and other times -- they are complete small apartments, bathroom, kitchen, sleeping/living area, all in a standardized container unit. Basically, set up a pad -- preferred concrete, but dirt will do -- set one in place, fasten up water, power, and sewer, and open the doors and move in. The problem they had with the Kansai earthquake was that people ended up liking living in these "emergency" housing units, and didn't want to move back out. But that's a problem for the future. Right now, they'll provide needed relief to the emergency shelters.
They've got a long jointed arm rig with a pipe that they want to start using to put water into the reactors. Apparently rig up a pumping station near the ocean, hose from there to the jointed arm, and pour the water on. I'm amused to note that the sign on the jointed arm says "Putzmeister" -- my German is rusty, but master putz sounds a bit suggestive.
Pro baseball has decided to go ahead and start the season. But no night games (to save power) and at least the first games are going to be charity games.
18:56 another quake -- 5+ in Iwate.
How weird. At 8 pm, flipping across the channels, there was nothing on about the quakes, tsunami, or nuclear. No news anywhere. I guess the media folks decided we needed a rest? Strangely unsettling.
Later, of course, the shows resumed.
Now that was amusing. One of the shows had dug up information about the ongoing testing of milk and spinach from areas around Fukushima, where the reactors are. Apparently milk -- fresh from the cows -- is showing something like 5 times normal levels of radioactivity, while spinach is running 3 to 7 times, and has some level of cesium. The expert explains that they monitor these all the time, and that cow milk is good because cows eat grass and stuff, and concentrate what they eat. Spinach is good to monitor because it's a big leafy vegetable that catches a lot of dust.
The host is obviously worried about this, and asked the expert what he would do if he bought some of that spinach. "What would you do if you had it?" The expert looks puzzled, then says, seriously, "I'd wash it." The host says, "What?" The expert nods, and says, "Wash it. The dust will wash off. Then I'd cook it and eat it. There's nothing wrong with that spinach."
The host asked the expert about the water spray on the reactors, and when it would cool off. The expert said, "Oh, it will be a year or two." The host said what, you mean the firemen and SDF are going to have to keep that up for two years? The expert said, no, no, we don't know how we're going to take care of it, and we can't keep the firemen and SDF doing it. But it will take at least two years to cool off the reactors.
There's a family, father, mother, young son and younger daughter, going through debris at a wall with some bushes. They find some pictures, and look at them. They are their pictures. The reporter asks if this is where their house was, and the guy laughs. He stands up and points to a nearby red gate -- the spirit gate that marks where someone had enlightenment, two uprights and a cross bar. He says "You see that? Our house was about 100 meters further that way. But I saw stuff had caught here."
A report that the diesel generator is up for #6! And that they have power for both it and #5 now. And temperatures are dropping.
There's a short video of a US Air Force big plane landing somewhere. They unload 4 tons of diabetic supplies? I guess insulin. Anyway, welcome supplies. There's been a running appeal for diabetics in the emergency areas to make sure that people know what they need, and the national diabetic organization has been calling for support.
A report from Chiba, near Tokyo. Shows roads folded, rippling like waves. There's a manhole and the supporting structure under it that has popped out of the road, standing four feet high in the middle of the ruined road. A bicycle nearby stands hub deep in mud. This is part of the area around the quake/tsunami area which has gotten little attention -- but they have to be struggling with transportation with roads damaged like that, too.
Miyako, middle of Iwate, center of the devastation. The annual student baseball league playoffs, held in Koshien in the Osaka/Kobe area, are coming up. There was talk about canceling them this year, but they've decided to go ahead. And in the middle of the quake/tsunami area, they are holding a send-off for their team. The sign is made out of brown cardboard, the parents, teachers, and so on have clearly been living in emergency shelters for a while, but... they're sending their team to play. With cheers! The young men nod, and walk away.
3/20 Sunday morning
At 8 am, most of the channels are showing their normal programming. I wonder if it's on automatic? There's a "one week in review" show that marches slowly through bits from the various days. Huh, one that I had missed. There's an onsen -- public hot bath -- somewhere in the devastation that opened to the crowds from the emergency shelters. They've got video of men and boys scrubbing with soap, then relaxing in the hot steamy bath. They talk with one young boy, who smiles into the camera and says that the first bath in 4 days really feels good.
The host says he knows it's early, but what have we learned from this? What should we learn? The panel thinks about it, and one says that the dynamic response, trying different things and responding quickly, is something to take away. Another says that it reminds us that Japan is earthquake country, and we should plan for earthquakes, expect them. We can't just say "It won't happen here" because it can. Reminds me of the old Boy Scout motto -- be prepared. It's still good advice.
There's an evening picture of a city area, with lights on over there... and dark here, where the power is off.
At 9 am, I flip across the channels. Looks like 3 quake/nuclear, one pianist, one anme, one kids show (in the main set of channels) -- 6 channels, right? Yeah.
There's another fellow fretting about those milk and spinach measurements. This morning's expert holds up a chart showing exposure levels for things like X-rays, CT scan, etc. Then he just says, "Look, yes, it's 5 times, or 7 times the normal levels. But it's still negligible. Even at 10 times the normal levels, it's not dangerous."
This host holds up a film badge, and asks why the firemen and SDF aren't wearing them? Shouldn't they be wearing them? The expert says no, they are just running in, setting things up, and running back out. They really don't need them for such brief times.
There's speculation that the quakes around Tokyo and the Sendai quakes aren't related. I.e., one expert thinks we may have had two large quakes, one in the ocean that we all know about, and a second set further south. He's explaining that the mechanism that caused them is different. I suspect it's important -- heck, I know it's important not to mingle different problems just because they happen to be in the same area or time, but the effects aren't going to change.
They're putting little videos of various people in between the ads. For example, there's a little guy with two missing teeth, sitting in an emergency shelter, cheerfully smiling into the camera. He says his name, and where he is, then pipes up "Grandma, grandpa, are you okay?"
There's some video of people who are using their cars/vans as shelters. One family says there isn't any gas, but with blankets and everyone together, it stays pretty warm.
A video of a military water delivery. Two relatively small tanks. And guys in military garb, helmets, guns, etc. carefully filling water bottles for the admittedly bedraggled folks who stream out of the shelter.
The dead/missing is back at 19,000.
10:05 Another quake. 30 Kilometers out, 4.4 magnitude. Iwate magnitude 3.
Here's another host saying that he knows it's early to think about it, but... what do you think the effect will be on the Japanese spirit? We've had one week of trouble, what should we expect next week? The panel thinks about it, and then one of them says people are going to try to go back to normal, but it isn't going to go away. We need to think about the long rebuilding.
Emergency response, rebuilding, and plan/practice for the next one... lots of work ahead. I do think the one fellow advising us to be prepared was right. Don't just take care of it and then try to forget -- remember and plan ahead.
There's a video of a school yard in Iwate, one of the emergency centers in the middle of the quake/tsunami area. They're starting to put up casetsu jutaku (container living units).
Japan has used these in the Kansai earthquake and other times -- they are complete small apartments, bathroom, kitchen, sleeping/living area, all in a standardized container unit. Basically, set up a pad -- preferred concrete, but dirt will do -- set one in place, fasten up water, power, and sewer, and open the doors and move in. The problem they had with the Kansai earthquake was that people ended up liking living in these "emergency" housing units, and didn't want to move back out. But that's a problem for the future. Right now, they'll provide needed relief to the emergency shelters.
They've got a long jointed arm rig with a pipe that they want to start using to put water into the reactors. Apparently rig up a pumping station near the ocean, hose from there to the jointed arm, and pour the water on. I'm amused to note that the sign on the jointed arm says "Putzmeister" -- my German is rusty, but master putz sounds a bit suggestive.
Pro baseball has decided to go ahead and start the season. But no night games (to save power) and at least the first games are going to be charity games.
18:56 another quake -- 5+ in Iwate.
How weird. At 8 pm, flipping across the channels, there was nothing on about the quakes, tsunami, or nuclear. No news anywhere. I guess the media folks decided we needed a rest? Strangely unsettling.
Later, of course, the shows resumed.
Now that was amusing. One of the shows had dug up information about the ongoing testing of milk and spinach from areas around Fukushima, where the reactors are. Apparently milk -- fresh from the cows -- is showing something like 5 times normal levels of radioactivity, while spinach is running 3 to 7 times, and has some level of cesium. The expert explains that they monitor these all the time, and that cow milk is good because cows eat grass and stuff, and concentrate what they eat. Spinach is good to monitor because it's a big leafy vegetable that catches a lot of dust.
The host is obviously worried about this, and asked the expert what he would do if he bought some of that spinach. "What would you do if you had it?" The expert looks puzzled, then says, seriously, "I'd wash it." The host says, "What?" The expert nods, and says, "Wash it. The dust will wash off. Then I'd cook it and eat it. There's nothing wrong with that spinach."
The host asked the expert about the water spray on the reactors, and when it would cool off. The expert said, "Oh, it will be a year or two." The host said what, you mean the firemen and SDF are going to have to keep that up for two years? The expert said, no, no, we don't know how we're going to take care of it, and we can't keep the firemen and SDF doing it. But it will take at least two years to cool off the reactors.
There's a family, father, mother, young son and younger daughter, going through debris at a wall with some bushes. They find some pictures, and look at them. They are their pictures. The reporter asks if this is where their house was, and the guy laughs. He stands up and points to a nearby red gate -- the spirit gate that marks where someone had enlightenment, two uprights and a cross bar. He says "You see that? Our house was about 100 meters further that way. But I saw stuff had caught here."
A report that the diesel generator is up for #6! And that they have power for both it and #5 now. And temperatures are dropping.
There's a short video of a US Air Force big plane landing somewhere. They unload 4 tons of diabetic supplies? I guess insulin. Anyway, welcome supplies. There's been a running appeal for diabetics in the emergency areas to make sure that people know what they need, and the national diabetic organization has been calling for support.
A report from Chiba, near Tokyo. Shows roads folded, rippling like waves. There's a manhole and the supporting structure under it that has popped out of the road, standing four feet high in the middle of the ruined road. A bicycle nearby stands hub deep in mud. This is part of the area around the quake/tsunami area which has gotten little attention -- but they have to be struggling with transportation with roads damaged like that, too.
Miyako, middle of Iwate, center of the devastation. The annual student baseball league playoffs, held in Koshien in the Osaka/Kobe area, are coming up. There was talk about canceling them this year, but they've decided to go ahead. And in the middle of the quake/tsunami area, they are holding a send-off for their team. The sign is made out of brown cardboard, the parents, teachers, and so on have clearly been living in emergency shelters for a while, but... they're sending their team to play. With cheers! The young men nod, and walk away.
3/20 Sunday morning
At 8 am, most of the channels are showing their normal programming. I wonder if it's on automatic? There's a "one week in review" show that marches slowly through bits from the various days. Huh, one that I had missed. There's an onsen -- public hot bath -- somewhere in the devastation that opened to the crowds from the emergency shelters. They've got video of men and boys scrubbing with soap, then relaxing in the hot steamy bath. They talk with one young boy, who smiles into the camera and says that the first bath in 4 days really feels good.
The host says he knows it's early, but what have we learned from this? What should we learn? The panel thinks about it, and one says that the dynamic response, trying different things and responding quickly, is something to take away. Another says that it reminds us that Japan is earthquake country, and we should plan for earthquakes, expect them. We can't just say "It won't happen here" because it can. Reminds me of the old Boy Scout motto -- be prepared. It's still good advice.
There's an evening picture of a city area, with lights on over there... and dark here, where the power is off.
At 9 am, I flip across the channels. Looks like 3 quake/nuclear, one pianist, one anme, one kids show (in the main set of channels) -- 6 channels, right? Yeah.
There's another fellow fretting about those milk and spinach measurements. This morning's expert holds up a chart showing exposure levels for things like X-rays, CT scan, etc. Then he just says, "Look, yes, it's 5 times, or 7 times the normal levels. But it's still negligible. Even at 10 times the normal levels, it's not dangerous."
This host holds up a film badge, and asks why the firemen and SDF aren't wearing them? Shouldn't they be wearing them? The expert says no, they are just running in, setting things up, and running back out. They really don't need them for such brief times.
There's speculation that the quakes around Tokyo and the Sendai quakes aren't related. I.e., one expert thinks we may have had two large quakes, one in the ocean that we all know about, and a second set further south. He's explaining that the mechanism that caused them is different. I suspect it's important -- heck, I know it's important not to mingle different problems just because they happen to be in the same area or time, but the effects aren't going to change.
They're putting little videos of various people in between the ads. For example, there's a little guy with two missing teeth, sitting in an emergency shelter, cheerfully smiling into the camera. He says his name, and where he is, then pipes up "Grandma, grandpa, are you okay?"
There's some video of people who are using their cars/vans as shelters. One family says there isn't any gas, but with blankets and everyone together, it stays pretty warm.
A video of a military water delivery. Two relatively small tanks. And guys in military garb, helmets, guns, etc. carefully filling water bottles for the admittedly bedraggled folks who stream out of the shelter.
The dead/missing is back at 19,000.
10:05 Another quake. 30 Kilometers out, 4.4 magnitude. Iwate magnitude 3.
Here's another host saying that he knows it's early to think about it, but... what do you think the effect will be on the Japanese spirit? We've had one week of trouble, what should we expect next week? The panel thinks about it, and then one of them says people are going to try to go back to normal, but it isn't going to go away. We need to think about the long rebuilding.
Emergency response, rebuilding, and plan/practice for the next one... lots of work ahead. I do think the one fellow advising us to be prepared was right. Don't just take care of it and then try to forget -- remember and plan ahead.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 04:36 am (UTC)I saw a video of a debris field and in the middle of it a spirit gate, standing up untouched in midst of destruction. Enough to make you wonder about all that enlightenment stuff.
What happens to the orphans? There must be hundreds.