Japanese Earthquake: First Hand Experience

It's 11:25AM, I'm at the office watching the Nikkei tumble and snapping away at my model while aftershocks continue. About half the people weren't able to make it to work because not all train lines are running. I don't know why most people, including myself are here- aftershocks the between the magnitudes of 2 and 3 have been happening all weekend, almost every 30 minutes, and there's currently a 70% possibility that a magnitude 7 earthquake will again hit the northeastern part of Japan within the next three days.

The government has divided all of Japan into 5 groups and are conducting "planned blackouts" for 3 hour block periods, so that the hard hit Fukushima, Miyagi, and Ibaraki prefectures can get electricity. The death toll/missing persons are currently as high as 2900, but everyone knows these are preliminary numbers and the real figures are going to be much more devastating.

The epicenter of the initial quake which took place on March 11 at 2:45PM local time, now upgraded to a magnitude 9.0, is near the city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture- some 200 miles north of Tokyo. Tokyo was hit with the peripheral effects of the quake, and received tremors the equivalent of magnitudes 5.8 to 6.5. The main effects on Tokyo because of the earthquakes were the failure of the public transportation systems (primarily trains but this resulted in traffic jams throughout every major street in Tokyo) and the failure of communications (cellphone infrastrucutre was hard hit, calls wouldn't go through properly until Saturday morning). Thousands of people, including myself, walked from the business centers of the city to their homes which took over 2 hours for some.

Restaurants and businesses were open all weekend but convenience stores and grocery stores were virtually empty because the supply trucks are having a hard time to get through. Beer and potato chips have been my staple over the past two and a half days (not bad given the circumstances).

The worst hit Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures are pretty much the same, if not worse, situation as New Orleans after Katrina. Every channel on TV has been showing non-stop coverage about the north, and that shit looks absolutely terrifying. Tsunamis have wiped out densely populated cities and only rubble and wreckage currently remains. People have sought shelters in public schools and performance theater halls. Most have no idea where there family and friends are; the lucky ones that do are still left with no electricity and minimal food and water. The government are trying to restrict travel to northern parts so that roads can be open for suppy trucks to go through.

The incident with the nuclear reactors located in Fukushima is not 100% transparent to people. According to reports and press releases, there was failure in some components of the plants but there is little to no radiation release. Don't know how this is possible exactly because there were two fucking explosions. The area within a 20mile radius of the plant has been evacuated.

For Tokyo the worst of it seems to be over (fingers crossed), but it will take a while for people to be fullly safe in thye northern areas. People back home in the states and around the world, kindly keep the survivors and ones that passed away in your prayers. Also there are many organizations out there accepting donations for the Japan earthquake/tsunami relief so please help in any way that you can- every penny counts.

Here are some links if anyone would like to help. Thanks WSO!

Red Cross: https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=…

Global Giving: http://www.globalgiving.org/