Merged 8.8 quake in Sendai, Japan

[CompusMentus]

I found a series of clips from the town's gala day in August last year. Decorated floats (just like Lanimer Day here), and everybody having a great time.

It really brings the tragedy home, to see carefree footage like that.

Rolfe.

Were the floats big carts pulled by the townspeople? If so, I saw that too and it was, as you say, poignant to watch.

Compus

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, that's right. Very very similar to the Lanimer floats, except they're pulled by tractors. I think they actually had mock battles between the floats, too.

Rolfe.

 

[William Parcher]

Maybe new tsunami video. This one appears different than the others. It looks like a harbor with seemingly calm water. There are no apparent waves at all, but the water steadily and quickly rises... a lot.

 

[Puppycow]

The NY Times has some good coverage. I recommend the following stories:

Desperate Plea From a Japanese City to the World Is Heard

At Age 84, a City’s Last Geisha Defies Time and a 4th Tsunami

Anything by Martin Fackler or Norimitsu Onishi is probably worth reading IMHO.

As far as the local English media goes, in addition to the Japan Times mentioned earlier, there are English editions of the Yomiuri, Mainichi, Asahi, and Nikkei newspapers.

 

[Puppycow]

Foreign visitors staying away in droves

That's not surprising, but it also includes Western Japan, which was hardly affected by the earthquake at all.

In Osaka, some 1,700 people on average arrived at Kansai International Airport daily from March 18 to 23, down more than 50 percent from the predisaster level, according to data by the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau.

Of course, that's only a week or two after the disaster, so maybe not cause for too much alarm yet.

 

[Puppycow]

We just had another earthquake. There's a tsunami warning.

 

[Puppycow]

It seems to be a fairly big one, but not as big as the big one on the March 11th.

The predicted tsunami is 1 meter high, but could be higher in places.

 

[Puppycow]

Magnitude 7.4

 

[AdMan]

Magnitude 7.4

That is pretty strong.

Any news yet on if there was any damage?

 

[DC]

Magnitude 7.4

again?.... damn hope your save.

 

[Puppycow]

The epicenter is near that of the big one.
Tepco says it didn't cause any new problems yet that they are aware of.
However there are power outages.

 

[DC]

The epicenter is near that of the big one.
Tepco says it didn't cause any new problems yet that they are aware of.
However there are power outages.

at the plant? are the backup systems installed again already?

 

[Puppycow]

That is pretty strong.

Any news yet on if there was any damage?

again?.... damn hope your save.

I'm at home in Yokohama. I'm OK.

There might have been some damage but no news of that yet.

There was strong shaking in the same areas as the disaster. 6+ on the Japanese shaking intensity scale. Anyone who moved back into a partially damaged house might be in trouble.

 

[Puppycow]

at the plant? are the backup systems installed again already?

No, not at the plant, I don't think. According to Tepco.

Live coverage here:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

 

[AdMan]

No, not at the plant, I don't think. According to Tepco.

Live coverage here:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

Thanks for the link. Glad to hear so far it appears there has been no further damage at the plant.

 

[volcano]

Latest update from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center:

ORIGIN TIME - 1432Z 07 APR 2011
COORDINATES - 38.2 NORTH 142.0 EAST
DEPTH - 40 KM
LOCATION - NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU JAPAN
MAGNITUDE - 7.4
EVALUATION
NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.
HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL
TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN
A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES
IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS
POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.

Full info here: http://ptwc.weather.gov/ptwc/?region=1&id=pacific.2011.04.07.143955

Hopefully the local effects will be minimal.

 

[Belz...]

Magnitude 7.4

 

[Puppycow]

The earthquake map:

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/20110407234633391-072332.html

 

[celestrin]

Maybe new tsunami video. This one appears different than the others. It looks like a harbor with seemingly calm water. There are no apparent waves at all, but the water steadily and quickly rises... a lot.

You've probably seen other videos from the same youtube user. There are at least 3 more, as he walks around the building he was filming from...

Here are some more from the same area, just down the dock.



Puppycow, hope you're safe down there from those mag 7 aftershocks. Would you happen to know if there's a list of number of casualties by town (or at least by prefecture) published somewhere? I've seen some videos of people in not very envious situations and I'm wondering whether they made it out alive.

Were there any tsunami victims in Chiba? There was this guy at the pier, running from the waves, just making it to this road leading uphill. But just as he gets there, he disappears behind the hill, out of view, and at the same time, the waves were also just upon him...

Hoping that Onahama (Iwaki, southern Fukushima prefecture) didn't have any fatalities, is just wishful thinking, right? I've seen those two truckers, climbing their truck to get away from the tsunami. As the camera cut away, it seemed that they'd be fine, water barely reaching the truck and the tsunami appeared to be waning. Yesterday, I've seen some other footage from the same port. It doesn't actually show the spot the truckers were at, but the rest doesn't look good...

Then there was a bunch of people trapped on the top floor of a two storey parking lot in Tagajo, Miyagi. The water didn't appear to be reaching them as the video ends. I was relieved when I found out on the satellite photos that the flimsy parking lot actually survived the tsunami. But then it slowly dawned on me that the alignment of cars on the photos doesn't match their last layout in the video, that there are half of them missing and the rest were scattered all around the place...

Okay, I'll stop now. Here's some better endings.

I like this one from Kitaibaraki. Harrowing, but the protagonists survive. And there's something quite cinematic at the end, as the camera turns around...

Oh, youtube just removed the other one I was thinking of. There was this woman from Kamaishi. Camera, filming from the top of the hill, shows her as she was just getting in a car, while the waves crashed over and through the tsunami walls. She was swept away in her car. Clearly another unfortunate fatality as the wave rages through town. Yet later, the same woman appears on the roof of an adjacent building!

The removed video was an interview with her. Although my Japanese is getting better by the minute, as I'm starting to recognize some kanji, I didn't understand it. But it appears that her car got pushed up against the building, was kept above water and she somehow managed to escape into it.

 

[Puppycow]

Puppycow, hope you're safe down there from those mag 7 aftershocks. Would you happen to know if there's a list of number of casualties by town (or at least by prefecture) published somewhere? I've seen some videos of people in not very envious situations and I'm wondering whether they made it out alive.

The Japanese National Police Agency publishes the statistics by prefecture here:
English version
Japanese version (if you want to learn the kanji for the prefectures)

It does does not include cause of death however. (The word "door" in the table actually is just the Japanese unit for counting buildings, like "head" is the English unit for counting cattle)