Japan: Holy crap
Here I thought it would be a good day, owing to my sleeping through the night (essentially) for the first time in three days. I did get up around 12:45 to use the bathroom--not unexpected, since I made sure to drink plenty before going to bed--but after that I slept for about six hours. I woke up before the TV turned on; wake-up was set for 7. I did manage to go back to sleep for close to another hour, and by then the news was on, talking to someone on the phone about who knows what. I was very confused, but after the phone call finished I found out what was up: Hello, 8.9 earthquake. Oh, my goodness. That got me up. The person doing the phone interview was a woman who worked for the Tribune who was vacationing in Hawaii; at that time, she was waiting for the tsunami to hit where she was. As of yet, it doesn't seem like it will be anything bad, but you'd rather be overly cautious than not cautious enough.
I don't doubt by now that you've seen or heard about it--the pictures are incredible, definitely a flashback to Banda Aceh, which was worse but in the relative scheme of things not by much. Both are devastating. It's incredible to watch fire floating on top of a wall of water, because you'd think, with all that water around, that a fire would be impossible. One image that kept replaying involved the water hitting a raised roadway and temporarily being held back; cars were driving on a nearby cross street completely unaware that the water could be coming very, very soon. That was something one of the news anchors kept saying--do they have any warning? It was clear that what we were watching was taking place in a rural area, so you have to wonder if anything was in place. Of course, if there was a loss of power, that could affect things.
I popped over to the USGS earthquake website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/) and headed over to the recent quakes area (note: if you're reading this in the future, it only shows quakes from the last week). I find it curious that in the last couple of days, that part of Japan has had many, many quakes. A number of them were significant, with one reaching 7.2. I realize they're in the so-called Ring of Fire, but I wonder if there's a way to go, wow, this one area is extraordinarily active; there's a chance there will be a massive quake there soon. Earthquakes are, what, the least predictable natural disaster, but with such seismic activity, you'd think there might be a way to do it.
I don't doubt by now that you've seen or heard about it--the pictures are incredible, definitely a flashback to Banda Aceh, which was worse but in the relative scheme of things not by much. Both are devastating. It's incredible to watch fire floating on top of a wall of water, because you'd think, with all that water around, that a fire would be impossible. One image that kept replaying involved the water hitting a raised roadway and temporarily being held back; cars were driving on a nearby cross street completely unaware that the water could be coming very, very soon. That was something one of the news anchors kept saying--do they have any warning? It was clear that what we were watching was taking place in a rural area, so you have to wonder if anything was in place. Of course, if there was a loss of power, that could affect things.
I popped over to the USGS earthquake website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/) and headed over to the recent quakes area (note: if you're reading this in the future, it only shows quakes from the last week). I find it curious that in the last couple of days, that part of Japan has had many, many quakes. A number of them were significant, with one reaching 7.2. I realize they're in the so-called Ring of Fire, but I wonder if there's a way to go, wow, this one area is extraordinarily active; there's a chance there will be a massive quake there soon. Earthquakes are, what, the least predictable natural disaster, but with such seismic activity, you'd think there might be a way to do it.