Japan earthquake: worried about HonorH
The devastation in Japan is too awful for words :(
Many of my flist are also friends of honorh. She is apparently at present considered missing - there is a report online from someone who is obviously a family member seeking information about her. I'm not going to post the link as it reveals her real name and address details in Japan, but she is in one of the cities badly hit.
If her status changes on that missing persons site, I'll post again. In the meantime, I'm thinking of her, as I'm sure we all are, and hoping desperately that she's okay and just hasn't been able to contact her family.
ETA: Again, I won't post her specific location publicly, but the area where she was living is next to the harbour and satellite imagery shows it under water. :(
ETA again: No news of honorh (Katie), but the wonderful roxyk630, who is in an earthquake zone herself though not as badly affected, has made contact with Katie's family and has a local number in Japan that she can keep calling to try to get hold of Katie. Hoping so much that when phone-lines are a bit freer she will be able to get through! I have also heard from Katie's mother, who thanks us all for our concern and thoughts.
Final ETA of the night: Still no news. roxyk630 has registered Katie with the US Consulate as missing, which will help as she will now be on official lists. No response at all from Katie's cellphone or her company's phone number. Things are a mess in Iwate prefecture, so no doubt getting any kind of news out is a major challenge.
ETA Saturday am: Nothing new. roxyk630 has again been fantastic, reporting on whatever she can. Katie is now listed on the Red Cross missing persons site, as well as the US Consulate. In Katie's city, there has been news footage of lots of people evacuated and on higher ground/in shelters, and phone coverage is still very poor. Officially six deaths confirmed in her city.
ETA Saturday early afternoon EST: Still no developments. As anyone following the news in North America will know, it's very difficult to get specific information about any one area, other than the Fukushima reactor. The good news there is that Katie is quite a bit north of there, so unless the reactor does go into meltdown that shouldn't make things worse for her. roxyk630 reports that Japanese news is saying there are many people in her city cut off without resources and communication. From roxy630 's latest email to me, about four hours ago: "From north to south on Honshu (the biggest Japan Island along the coastline) Aomori, Miyagi Iwate, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Chiba. She was north enough of the major cities hit in Iwate, but her area was still hit. They're reporting that victims in those areas are trying to use landlines to contact loved ones as they are still working. But they know there are plenty of areas cut off. They're trying to get internet contact to each of the shelters so that people can communicate with an "I'm safe" if nothing else."
Oh, and one more item for now - LiveJournal has responded very quickly in introducing a V-gift in aid of the disaster in Japan. Thanks to yamx, who alerted me to this by sending me one! I'm sure there are many aid organisations accepting donations, and if anyone has a link to a 'one-stop shop' of these I'll be happy to link it here.
ETA Saturday 4:50 pm EST: Not an update this time, but passing on a great suggestion from lindenharp: let's decorate Katie's LJ with Save Japan v-gifts. It's not only a lovely way to show we're thinking of her, but also contributing to a great cause. The v-gifts are only US $2.99 each, but what if we could get a hundred of them? Or more? Please pass the word on.
And also under the heading of pass the word on: help_japan, a new auction community to raise money for the relief effort. I don't know whether I could reasonably offer anything this time, though I desperately want to. Maybe some drabbles or 1000-word fic, as they're usually manageable in a short period of time and require less plotting and planning. Please, if you can offer anything or are willing to bid on anything, do! The need is huge.
ETA Saturday 9:30 pm EST: Received another update from roxyk630, who is an amazing person and deserves so much appreciation for what she is doing. She is not just keeping us informed here; she's also providing a lot of comfort to Katie's family because she's able to give them more precise information about the extent of the damage and where precisely the worst is. To summarise: while the numbers of missing for Iwate prefecture are large, they're significantly smaller for Kamaishi. The most devastated cities are further south, closer to Sendai, which is closest to the epicentre.
roxyk630 says: "They've had helicopters flying in to save people from roofs and more and more schools that have SOS written outside. They're recieving more and more footage from survivors that filmed the tsunami on their phones or with cameras. Each bit that comes out, I see more and more survivors. I have more and more hope. Her city, in much of the footage actually has a siren/speaker saying "move to higher places. Move to higher ground!" and shows people running for higher levels. I have hope for her area."
roxyk630 continues to use her own contacts in the English-teacher-in-Japan world to put the word out that she is looking for Katie. So word is spreading among those networks as well as via the US consulate.) People are in shelters. Slowly, authorities are getting to them to try to account for them.) She is also calling Katie's mobile as much as she can - though of course it's entirely possible that Katie doesn't even have it with her. Or that it's run out of battery power.
So we keep hoping - and keep sending those v-gifts! If anyone wants to claim a drabble from me, I need to see proof of two Save Japan v-gifts, at least one of which must have been sent to Katie's LJ.
ETA Saturday 10:50 pm: New video, courtesy of jenrose1. I'm hopeful based on those warnings before the tsunami struck.
ETA Sunday: For anyone just checking this post: Katie is alive and well! Update here, and also see roxyk630's journal here!
Many of my flist are also friends of honorh. She is apparently at present considered missing - there is a report online from someone who is obviously a family member seeking information about her. I'm not going to post the link as it reveals her real name and address details in Japan, but she is in one of the cities badly hit.
If her status changes on that missing persons site, I'll post again. In the meantime, I'm thinking of her, as I'm sure we all are, and hoping desperately that she's okay and just hasn't been able to contact her family.
ETA: Again, I won't post her specific location publicly, but the area where she was living is next to the harbour and satellite imagery shows it under water. :(
ETA again: No news of honorh (Katie), but the wonderful roxyk630, who is in an earthquake zone herself though not as badly affected, has made contact with Katie's family and has a local number in Japan that she can keep calling to try to get hold of Katie. Hoping so much that when phone-lines are a bit freer she will be able to get through! I have also heard from Katie's mother, who thanks us all for our concern and thoughts.
Final ETA of the night: Still no news. roxyk630 has registered Katie with the US Consulate as missing, which will help as she will now be on official lists. No response at all from Katie's cellphone or her company's phone number. Things are a mess in Iwate prefecture, so no doubt getting any kind of news out is a major challenge.
ETA Saturday am: Nothing new. roxyk630 has again been fantastic, reporting on whatever she can. Katie is now listed on the Red Cross missing persons site, as well as the US Consulate. In Katie's city, there has been news footage of lots of people evacuated and on higher ground/in shelters, and phone coverage is still very poor. Officially six deaths confirmed in her city.
ETA Saturday early afternoon EST: Still no developments. As anyone following the news in North America will know, it's very difficult to get specific information about any one area, other than the Fukushima reactor. The good news there is that Katie is quite a bit north of there, so unless the reactor does go into meltdown that shouldn't make things worse for her. roxyk630 reports that Japanese news is saying there are many people in her city cut off without resources and communication. From roxy630 's latest email to me, about four hours ago: "From north to south on Honshu (the biggest Japan Island along the coastline) Aomori, Miyagi Iwate, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Chiba. She was north enough of the major cities hit in Iwate, but her area was still hit. They're reporting that victims in those areas are trying to use landlines to contact loved ones as they are still working. But they know there are plenty of areas cut off. They're trying to get internet contact to each of the shelters so that people can communicate with an "I'm safe" if nothing else."
Oh, and one more item for now - LiveJournal has responded very quickly in introducing a V-gift in aid of the disaster in Japan. Thanks to yamx, who alerted me to this by sending me one! I'm sure there are many aid organisations accepting donations, and if anyone has a link to a 'one-stop shop' of these I'll be happy to link it here.
ETA Saturday 4:50 pm EST: Not an update this time, but passing on a great suggestion from lindenharp: let's decorate Katie's LJ with Save Japan v-gifts. It's not only a lovely way to show we're thinking of her, but also contributing to a great cause. The v-gifts are only US $2.99 each, but what if we could get a hundred of them? Or more? Please pass the word on.
And also under the heading of pass the word on: help_japan, a new auction community to raise money for the relief effort. I don't know whether I could reasonably offer anything this time, though I desperately want to. Maybe some drabbles or 1000-word fic, as they're usually manageable in a short period of time and require less plotting and planning. Please, if you can offer anything or are willing to bid on anything, do! The need is huge.
ETA Saturday 9:30 pm EST: Received another update from roxyk630, who is an amazing person and deserves so much appreciation for what she is doing. She is not just keeping us informed here; she's also providing a lot of comfort to Katie's family because she's able to give them more precise information about the extent of the damage and where precisely the worst is. To summarise: while the numbers of missing for Iwate prefecture are large, they're significantly smaller for Kamaishi. The most devastated cities are further south, closer to Sendai, which is closest to the epicentre.
roxyk630 says: "They've had helicopters flying in to save people from roofs and more and more schools that have SOS written outside. They're recieving more and more footage from survivors that filmed the tsunami on their phones or with cameras. Each bit that comes out, I see more and more survivors. I have more and more hope. Her city, in much of the footage actually has a siren/speaker saying "move to higher places. Move to higher ground!" and shows people running for higher levels. I have hope for her area."
roxyk630 continues to use her own contacts in the English-teacher-in-Japan world to put the word out that she is looking for Katie. So word is spreading among those networks as well as via the US consulate.) People are in shelters. Slowly, authorities are getting to them to try to account for them.) She is also calling Katie's mobile as much as she can - though of course it's entirely possible that Katie doesn't even have it with her. Or that it's run out of battery power.
So we keep hoping - and keep sending those v-gifts! If anyone wants to claim a drabble from me, I need to see proof of two Save Japan v-gifts, at least one of which must have been sent to Katie's LJ.
ETA Saturday 10:50 pm: New video, courtesy of jenrose1. I'm hopeful based on those warnings before the tsunami struck.
ETA Sunday: For anyone just checking this post: Katie is alive and well! Update here, and also see roxyk630's journal here!