I have 2 friends that now live in California, and my roommate is on spring break there visiting a girl. All 3 have said it's basically business as usual, nothing serious happened. I told one of my friends about the coast guard that got swept out into the sea trying to take pictures, and he said that happens a lot, it's usually tourists though. I believe they (Japan) had either 10-15 minutes warning after the quake about the tsunami. Past natural diasters have shaped how prepared they are in situations like this, as evidence by the extremely low death toll. 1,000 is a thousand too many, don't get me wrong, but compared to other events like this in the past, it's INCREDIBLE. Everyone on this planet could gain a lot of insight by looking at how they prepare for shit like this. Oh, and that nuclear power plant? Yeah, it's about to have a meltdown. Area around the place is 20 times more radioactive than normal, and they keep expanding the evacuation area. It's only a matter of time, and if that happens, a lot of people will feel the effects of that. Even those of us in the United States. I think that's the worst situation out of all of this, really. It's causing quite the uproar in the US, apparently, about not building any more nuclear plants, and I guess Obama just came out today and said we need new energy resources to replace gasoline, and his answer is nuclear energy or something. What strange times we live in. I think they're calling this the 5th biggest quake since 1900? And obviously one of the biggest for Japan, period. No matter how advanced the technology, it really comes down to the kindness in the hearts of the Japanese, and they have that in spades from everything I've heard, and not just from this tragedy. I wish Americans were more like the Japanese. My heart aches for those affected by this. Maybe it's because I really have a soft spot for Japan, or maybe it's because I was really young, but 9/11 didn't even impact me this way. It's heart breaking and I can't quite explain why. This couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people. My dad is especially tore up about this, himself having visited Japan multiple times due to being a high ranking employee at the Nissan plant in Dechard, TN and having many, many friends that live there and are good friends of the family, some of which my parents haven't heard from yet. I feel like crying.
My thoughts and prayers goes out to those in Japan. I'm almost certain my city is due for one. The scary part is that Vancouver is not prepared for an earthquake of any magnitude as far as I know. If I don't reply back after it hits in the near future - it was great meeting you all.
Thanks for the detailed response. I was reading up on the nuclear plant, and I thought it said that it was a newer model that really doesn't have significant fallout if it melts down. I later saw some videos that said that was not the case. That it could be many times worse than Chernobyl, which is depressing to say the least. It seems like nuclear power is the way of the future, so I hope this doesn't drag down its development, but it sucks when disasters happen like this. Hopefully they find a way to contain everything before it melts down. It'd be nice if disasters like this would just take out the scum of the Earth instead of ruining lives of those undeserving of the suffering, but unfortunately reality is just random shit happening to random people.
As I said before. My deepest thoughts and prayers for the people in Japan. The whole thing is just so horrible I can't even put into words the feelings I have when I see it all unfold in front of me on the TV. Its really bad... I hope the people of the Japan will pull together and pull out of this and come back stronger.
Man I wish people would realise that nuclear accidents are one in a million if the plants aren't being ran by idiots.
Yes, I know what you mean. But just to be cynical for the sake of being cynical you have to realize more than 1 in a million people ARE idiots, and if that is the case, you more than likely have a lot of idiots working at places they have no business.
Disaster happens in Japan, Obama gets help there within a day. Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans, Bush doesn't get help there until three or so days after. I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin.
But within a million people you probably have enough who are actually qualified as well, or at least aren't total idiots. Apparently nuclear power also kills less people than the production of other power sources out there anyway. So there's that too. Most of the time it seems like the two main arguments against it are people being hung up over Chernobyl happening again, even though that was supposed to have been because of a clusterfuck of mistakes as much as anything, or because the first word of the phrase "nuclear power" is the same as the first word of "nuclear weapons".
Yeah.. Sadly where I live the argument would be... "I heard Obama has sent help to the people of Japan. Isn't that great?". "I still can't Believe a black man is president!". And yes... This happened.
Um. Anyway? Japan just upgraded the quake to a 9.1 The current total of nuclear reactors about to enter meltdown, near there, or very likely is at 6 now, with one already having a leak. If this was to be fixed right now suddenly, it would still be one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Sadly, I don't think this is going to magically fix itself. I think Japan will remember the month of March for years to come. More specifically, thirty years. Caesium has a half-life of 30 years, emits gamma rays, and is one of the most reactive elements and is highly explosive when it comes in contact with water.
None of them have experienced a meltdown yet, but it's DANGEROUSLY close. I expect it to happen sometime next week, if not tomorrow/Monday US time.
OMG! What's next? Godzilla going to take a walk in the park? The Japaneese are having having one hell of a time!
Don't wanna turn this into a conspiracy debate, but this is pretty damn interesting [video=youtube;95zMdTvoqcQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95zMdTvoqcQ&feature=player_embedded[/video]