The top of Tokyo Tower seems bent under the influence of earthquake-11 pm, Minato-ku, Tokyo . . . (March 11, 2011) [Jiji]posted by clorox at 1:23 AM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]
Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano says the nuclear power plant in Fukushima developed a mechanical failure in the system needed to cool the reactor after it was shut down in Friday's earthquake. He said the measure was a precaution and there was no radiation leak at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. He said the facility was not in immediate danger.Via the Guardian's live blog.
In response to the Earthquake on March 10, 2011 that struck Japan, The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) will be working with local communities to rebuild. UMCOR is now better able to help when earthquakes and tsunamis or other disasters hit the area. UMCOR works in shelter and infrastructure reconstruction, water and sanitation, income generation, health and nutrition, education and community development.100% of all contributions to this fund go directly to emergency relief and long-term recovery support. I'm sure there will be dozens of other orgs receiving for this as well... Please post whatever you can about them here so generous MeFites can see their options.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday morning that U.S. Air Force planes in Japan had delivered coolant to a nuclear power plant affected by the quake.Emergency Declared at Japanese Nuclear Plant
"They have very high engineering standards, but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," she said, "and so Air Force planes were able to deliver that." It was not immediately clear which plant received the coolant.
Heat from the nuclear fuel rods must be removed by water in a cooling system, but that requires power to run the pumps and to align the valves in the pipes. So the plant requires a continuous supply of electricity even after the reactor stops generating its own power.posted by filthy light thief at 10:39 AM on March 11, 2011
An analyst with the World Nuclear Association, a major international nuclear power group, told Reuters that he understood fresh cool water was now being pumped into the cooling system at Fukushima, reducing the threat of a meltdown.
“We understand this situation is under control,” the analyst said, adding that he understood that a back-up battery power system had been brought online after about an hour and began pumping water back into the cooling system, where the water level had been falling.
Charity scams have always been a favorite of fraudsters. After Hurricane Katrina, the FBI felt it necessary to issue a warning when over 4,500 web sites appeared, all attempting to collect donations to help hurricane victims.posted by filthy light thief at 10:59 AM on March 11, 2011
...
Scams are already spreading across Facebook, which started in a matter of minutes after the news broke of the earthquake in Japan.
Earthquakes usually come in clusters divided into foreshocks, mainshocks and aftershocks. If an aftershock is stronger than the mainshock, it becomes the mainshock and the mainshock becomes a foreshock. Make sense? Basically they're all earthquakes, but they're related.~Straight Dope
[16:53:24] <Benetablet> radiation level from the uav at the fukushima main entrance gate (outside the plant) 8 times normalI can't provide a source for this (overheard on IRC) but, jesus fucking christ...
[16:53:53] <Benetablet> radiation sensors on airborne uavs are overloaded, many have gone non responsive
[16:55:38] <Benetablet> pressure sensor on number 1 reactor containment vessel is now registering zero pressure, possible malfunction or breach of containment
[16:57:29] <Benetablet> fukushima has now overloaded the SPEEDI remote monitors
[17:04:14] <Benetablet> prime minister has announced 10km evac zone is now an emergency evacuation, citizens will be forcibly evacuatedi'm seriously feeling like throwing up here... anigbrowl: i sent you a mefimail
[17:05:48] <Benetablet> nhk announces secondary explosions at fukushima reactor building 1, appear to be pressure explosions
[17:06:29] <Benetablet> tepco confirms loss of containment of core 1
"These first-generation boiling water reactors have the least margin of safety of any reactor design," said Frank N. von Hippel, a Princeton University physicist and former White House advisor.Don't be getting freaked out by the "1000x" - that's compare to normal background radiation which is virtually nil. Most of the news reporting is technically uniformed and more than a little hysterical.
Without electrical power to circulate water inside the core, the cooling water would begin to boil off, he said. But operators still should be able to add new cooling water and keep the core fully immersed while it cools down.
"It doesn't sound like we are in meltdown mode," he said.
Oarfish omen spells earthquake disaster for JapanNote to self: when a "Messenger from the Sea God's Palace" shows up, listen to him.
Japan is bracing itself after dozens of rare giant oarfish - traditionally the harbinger of a powerful earthquake - have been washed ashore or caught in fishermen's nets...
Those concerns have been stoked by the unexplained appearance of a fish that is known traditionally as the Messenger from the Sea God's Palace...
In recent weeks, 10 specimens have been found either washed ashore or in fishing nets off Ishikawa Prefecture, half-a-dozen have been caught in nets off Toyama Prefecture and others have been reported in Kyoto, Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures, all on the northern coast.
According to traditional Japanese lore, the fish rise to the surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending earthquake - and there are scientific theories that bottom-dwelling fish may very well be susceptible to movements in seismic fault lines and act in uncharacteristic ways in advance of an earthquake - but experts here are placing more faith in their constant high-tech monitoring of the tectonic plates beneath the surface.
"In ancient times Japanese people believed that fish warned of coming earthquakes, particularly catfish," Hiroshi Tajihi, deputy director of the Kobe Earthquake Centre, told the Daily Telegraph.
"But these are just old superstitions and there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake," he said.
Reactors at two Japanese power plants can no longer cool radioactive substances inside, a prominent electric company said Saturday, according to a news agency report that added that atomic material may have leaked out of one of the plants.posted by gerryblog at 6:00 PM on March 11, 2011
Citing the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japan's Kyodo News Agency said that radioactive substances may have seeped out of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of Tokyo.
...
Temperatures of that plant's coolant water was hotter than 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), the news agency said, an indication that the cooling system wasn't working.
For fuck's sake, they're currently venting radioactive steam to save money instead of quenching the core with neutron-absorbing coolant, which would be costly and time consuming to recover from.That is not the only reason to not just dump shit tons of coolant straight into the core. There is a limit to how quickly you can cool the core, if it cools too fast, it'll crack from thermal shock (imagine moving a glass bottle from the freezer into a boiling water bath), coupled with the fact that Fukushima I unit 1 is from 1971, extra care needs to be taken (info from @arclight).
（計測時間） （測定場所） （γ線） （中性子線） [ time ] [ location] [gamma] [neutron] 午後５時30分 体育館付近 ４９ nGy/h － 40分 Front Gate ５６ nGy/h － 50分 管理棟 ６４ nGy/h － 午後６時45分 ＭＰ－６ ５６ nGy/h － 午後７時00分 ＭＰ－７ ５７ nGy/h － ...12 Mar
（計測時間） （測定場所） （γ線） （中性子線）
[ time ] [ location] [gamma] [neutron]
午前０時00分 Front gate ６０ nGy/h 0.001μSv/h未満
10分 正門 [portal?] ６２ nGy/h 0.001μSv/h未満
...
50分 正門 ６４ nGy/h 0.001μSv/h未満
午前４時00分 正門 ６９ nGy/h 0.001μSv/h未満
40分 正門 ８６６ nGy/h －
50分 正門 １００２ nGy/h －
午前５時00分 正門 １３０７ nGy/h －
10分 正門 １５９０ nGy/h 0.001μSv/h未満
午前６時25分 MP-8付近 １．２１μSv/h －
30分 正門 ３．２９μSv/h 0.001μSv/h未満
MP-8付近 １．５３μSv/h －
40分 正門 ４．９２μSv/h 0.001μSv/h未満
午前７時35分 MP-8付近 ２．４７μSv/h －
40分 MP-8付近 ２．５６μSv/h －
45分 MP-8付近 ２．５３μSv/h －
50分 正門 ４．９７μSv/h 0.001μSv/h未満
MP-8付近 ２．５０μSv/h －
It would be terribly useful if there were a separate convention for tweets from witnesses to major events so their reports can be separated from the discussion that follows. How about !jpquake for witnesses vs. #jpquake for discussion?posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:32 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]
@Touruma: Fuel rod was exposed 90cm above the water inside the reactor core at 11:40AM. Now water for fire-fighting being injected. Fukushima No. 1 NPNot sure of the original source. If true that's very much unhappy.
I just don't understand what the article means by "coolant leaking from the containment vessel". Is the containment vessel the big concrete dome or box housing the reactors? If so, how would the coolant get out?Basics:
After more than twenty-four hours since we last heard from them, Sea Shepherd Director of Investigations Scott West was able to call his wife Suzanne to report that he and the entire Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian crew are alive and unharmed.
They had to abandon their two cars in the devastated port city of Otsuchi where they spent the night on a hill. The entire town around them was destroyed. They walked out over scattered debris, roads that were completely wiped out, and walked past numerous dead bodies amidst piles of rubble. At one point yesterday they saw and heard a woman in the water screaming for help, but she was washed out to sea before they could do anything to rescue her.
The Cove Guardians went to Otsuchi to document the slaughter of Dall’s Porpoise. Every year the fishermen slaughter over 20,000 of these gentle creatures. They had just filmed a fishing boat returning from a porpoise hunt when they saw the water in the harbor receding and they immediately headed for high ground. The time from the Earthquake to the Tsunami striking Otsuchi was about eight minutes.
The Cove Guardians were right in the midst of the most devastating Tsunami to ever hit Japan, and we are thankful they have all survived and are well.
Scott West was only able to send out this quick message, as his mobile phone was fading:
We are all 6 safe and out of Otsuchi. Now in Tono at hotel with no power, Internet, water, or food. Have IPhone until battery dead. -- ScottŌtsuchi (大槌町, Ōtsuchi-chō?) is a town located in Kamihei District, Iwate, Japan.
As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 16,727I’m guessing the US Navy delivered a load of sodium polyborate from some nuclear aircraft carrier reactor supply room in the Pacific Fleet. Its use indicates that the nuclear threat is even worse than presently being portrayed in the news.and
An earthquake with such loss of life is bad enough, but Japan has also just lost 20 percent of its electric generating capacity. And I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that none of those 11 reactors will re-enter service again, they’ve been so compromised.Which is really not good news at all.
Deep breaths, everybody. Remember on 9/11, when the networks started reporting that over ten thousand people had been killed? Please, don't panic based on unattributed IRC comments.Not to sound alarmist but AIRBORNE CONTAMINANTS ARE POTENTIALLY SLOUCHING THEIR WAY TOWARD MY HEMISPHERE AND YOU'RE ALL ASKING ME TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH?!
posted by steambadger
everybody take a deep breath
posted by philip-random
So my suggestion is that people in the US take a deep breath.
posted by joost de vries
Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which opposes nuclear energy, told msnbc.com Friday that TEPCO was facing a potential catastrophe.posted by ericb at 7:00 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
"What's critical is, are they able to restore cooling and prevent fuel damage? If the fuel starts to get damaged, eventually it will melt through the reactor vessel and drop to the floor of the containment building," raising the odds that highly radioactive materials could be released into the environment, he said.
But Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the U.S.-based Nuclear Energy Institute, said that while the situation was serious, a meltdown remains unlikely and, even if it occurred would not necessarily pose a threat to public health and safety.
"Obviously that wouldn't be a good thing, but at Three Mile Island about half the core melted and, at the end of the day … there were no adverse impacts to the public," he said. *
Local disaster relief teams were standing by Friday to help with rescue operations following Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami, and political leaders pledged their support.posted by Celsius1414 at 8:15 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
A 70-person urban search and rescue team based in Riverside was ready to go with pre-loaded pallets of equipment, including saws, radios and food and water for members. It is the same group that dug through rubble looking for survivors after the World Trade Center attacks in New York, Hurricane Katrina and the 1994 Northridge quake.
American Red Cross, call 888-831-0031 or 800-RED-CROSS; online at www.redcross.org; or by mail to Inland Empire Chapter, 202 W. Rialto Ave., San Bernardino, Calif., 92408, with "Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami" in the memo field.posted by Celsius1414 at 8:18 AM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
Salvation Army: Text the words "Japan" or "quake" to 80888 to make a $10 donation; call 800-SAL-ARMY; online www.salvationarmy.usawest.org; or by mail, The Salvation Army World Service Office, International Relief Fund, P.O. Box 630728, Baltimore, Md., 21263-0728, with "Japan earthquake/tsunami" in the memo field of the check.
Riverside-based Fuel Relief Fund, which provides fuel for cars and generators: call 909-322-1481; online at www.fuelrelieffund.org.
Television cameras trained on the plant captured a dramatic explosion surrounding unit 1 at around 6pm. Amid a visible pressure release and a cloud of dust it was not possible to know the extent of the damage. The external building structure does not act as the containment, which is an airtight engineered boundary within. Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano appeared on television to clarify that the explosion had damaged the walls and roof of the reactor building but had not compromised the [primary] containment.
The injection of seawater into the building started at 8.20pm and this is planned to be followed by addition of boric acid, which is used to inhibit nuclear reactions. However, Tepco reported at 10.15pm that a new tsunami warning has caused this to be suspended temporarily.World Nuclear News via arclight.
False claims circulating by e-mail
In the wake of the devastating earthquake in northeastern Japan, chain e-mails and misinformation are circulating on the Internet.
E-mails warn that a massive fire at an oil refinery in Chiba triggered by the quake could contaminate rainfall with toxic substances. They advise people to use umbrellas and raincoats for protection.
The oil company that operates the refinery says that what the message suggests is not true. It notes that the liquefied petroleum gas from tanks which has burned off hardly affects the human body.
The chain e-mails apparently aim to gain attention by propagating sensationalist misinformation.
On Twitter, groundless warnings, including one reading that "another quake will hit western Japan", have been posted. In some malicious messages, people pretending to be quake victims called for help.
The government warns such misinformation could spread fast on the Internet, hampering rescue and evacuation efforts of those actually affected by the quake.
It advises people to reference any claims found in e-mails with information provided by local authorities and relevant companies.
Sunday, March 13, 2011 07:09 +0900 (JST)
Japan Earthquake Update (12 March 2011 2110 CET)from the IAEA Alert Log
Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the explosion at Unit 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred outside the primary containment vessel (PCV), not inside. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has confirmed that the integrity of the primary containment vessel remains intact.I'm not sure how this jibes with the NISA statement that the
As a countermeasure to limit damage to the reactor core, TEPCO proposed that sea water mixed with boron be injected into the primary containment vessel. This measure was approved by Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the injection procedure began at 20:20 local Japan time.
explosion could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor corefrom the Nikkei article referenced by stratfor.com.
said Saturday afternoon the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core.
core meltor
core damage.
People And Environmentcriteria, the
Radiological Barriers and Controlcriteria, or both. According to the World Nuclear News,
Monitoring of Fukushima Daiichi 1 had previously shown an increase in radiation levels detected near to the unit emerging via routes such as the exhaust stack and the discharge canal. These included caesium-137 and iodine-131, Nisa said, noting that levels began to decrease after some time.This would seem to indicate that no core melt has occurred, despite reports to the contrary by the NHK and the Nuclear Energy Institute.
Nevertheless the amount of radiation detected at the site boundary reached 500 microSieverts per hour - exceeding a regulatory limit and triggering another set of emergency precautions. It also meant the incident has been rated at Level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) - an 'accident with local consequences'.
In 1986 Harold Denton, former director of NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, again acknowledged this vulnerability while speaking to utilities executives at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Denton noted that, according to NRC studies the GE Mark I reactors had “something like a 90% probability of that containment failing."That last link will be, of course, red meat for some folks. Not meant that way; just pointing to MoJo as a good place to keep up from a relatively nuke-skeptical perspective.
* We started injection of sea water into the reactor core of Unit 1 at 8:20PM, Mar 12 and then boric acid subsequently.
Tepco's last safety test of nuclear power plant Number 1--one that is currently in danger of meltdown--was done at a seismic magnitude the company considered the highest possible, but in fact turned out to be lower than Friday's quake. The information comes from the company's "Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 Updated Safety Measures" documents written in Japanese in 2010 and 2009. The documents were reviewed by Dow Jones. The company said in the documents that 7.9 was the highest magnitude for which they tested the safety for their No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima.Of course, Fukushima was not near the epicenter of the 8.9 (or is it 8.8 or 9.0?) quake. Still, that is the highest magnitude Diablo is tested for and the potential largest quake from the nearest fault was recently upgraded from mid 6s to mid 7s.
Minor release of radioactive materialis sufficient to be a Level 4 event. One example of a Level 4 event they give in the factsheet is
Fleurus, Belgium, 2006 — Severe health effects for a worker at a commercial irradiation facility as a result of high doses of radiation.
The freakout about nuclear energy is disproportionate to its true risks. Is nuclear energy risky and dangerous? Yes, but on the whole, so long as your reactors aren't run by incompetent bureaucrats and actually have a redundant containment system in place, your risk is low.And what, precisely, would be the risks to the public and the environment if these were solar, or wind, or tidal power plants rather than nuclear? The risk inherent in nuclear power is so great because it relies, at its core, on deriving power from the most toxic substances imaginable. Any amount of chauvinistic Engineering Man willy-waving can't obscure this fact. Sorry.
6.30am: The cooling system pump has stopped at the Tokai No.2 nuclear power plant in Japan's Ibaraki prefecture, Kyodo news has reported.posted by Soupisgoodfood at 11:00 AM on March 13, 2011
The plant, located about 120km north of Tokyo, had suffered a nuclear accident in 1999.
6.16am: A state of emergency has been declared at Onagawa nuclear power plant.
Authorities say a partial meltdown could be in progress in two reactors, but they can't confirm this.
"In these tough economic times, isn’t it nice to know that calamitous natural disasters needn't have an adverse affect on your investment portfolio? After the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan failed to induce a market nosedive, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow expressed his relief in terms that seemed to appall even his fellow cheerleaders for capitalism: 'The human toll here,' he declared, 'looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.'" [video]posted by ericb at 12:04 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]
'The human toll here,' he declared, 'looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.'Arguably, he meant that "Well, thank goodness the economic impact isn't as severe as the human one." Probably the worst possible way to phrase it, though.
10:20pmAwww.
The US relief effort in Japan has been named Operation: Tomodachi - or "friendship".
10:20pmAwww"
The US relief effort in Japan has been named Operation: Tomodachi - or "friendship".
Unit 3 What I went out smoke!Here are some screenshots from NHK showing live feeds of the coast: 1, 2, 3
Iwate Miyagi Hukushima! Hill people to the coast!
I'm having a panic from a light Ntsutere
Do the same situation as the No. 1, I think it is all right Tetsu?
Hey, mushroom cloud! !
Hey, mushroom cloud! !
I'm less white smoke
If the huge smoke worse than No.1
How aftershock their safety! !
Iyo tsunami ass. . . Get the hell rescue party.
ーーーー to run away
Height of about 100m smoke
2146: Katie Hinman of ABC News tweets: "Driving through the wreckage of Sendai, and saw the saddest sight: a bewildered horse standing alone among it all."A few minutes later:
2253: The tweet by Katie Hinman of ABC News about the lonely horse in Sendai (See 2146) prompted Breda Gahan in Dublin to email in: "Can't believe I read this. Please return horse to Natsuko Komura." The BBC's Damian Grammaticas interviewed Ms Komura on Sunday as she searched for her trusty steed near Sendai's beach. She had been riding it when the tsunami approached on Friday, but had not seen it since. "Deepest sympathy to all the Japanese people affected by this terrible tragedy. I am speechless when I see the images," Ms Brehan adds.posted by Celsius1414 at 4:03 PM on March 14, 2011 [31 favorites]
DODGER STADIUM TO HOST TSUNAMI RELIEF EVENT TOMORROWposted by Celsius1414 at 4:13 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
Donors will receive tickets to exhibition game at Dodger Stadium
WHAT: The Dodgers and NBC LA will hold a "drive-through" relief event at Dodger Stadium tomorrow to help raise money for the American Red Cross Japan earthquake and tsunami relief efforts.
WHO: Dodger alumni Bobby Castillo, Kenny Landreaux, Rudy Law, Al Ferrara, Jimmy Campanis and Derrel Thomas and NBC LA on-air personalities will be on hand to take donations.
Donors who give $20 or more will each receive two tickets to an upcoming Spring Training exhibition game at Dodger Stadium.
WHEN: TOMORROW, Tuesday, March 15 - 5:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Dodger Stadium Parking Lot 1
“I lived through the Sendai air raids,” Mr. Wako, 75, said, referring to the Allied bombings of the northeast’s largest city. “But this is much worse.”and
She could see her house from the window. When the wave hit, it smashed the sliding doors. Then, to her horror, she saw her father swept outside. The water was by now the height of a one-story building. She saw him grab the ironwork on her home’s second-story balcony and hold on.posted by BungaDunga at 5:27 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]
“He was trying to pull himself up, but he has a bad leg,” she said.
As the water surged, her father was able to somehow hoist himself over the metal railing and onto the balcony. There he held onto for dear life.
“I didn’t know he had it in him,” she said. “He wanted so badly to live that he found that last burst of strength.”
Someone needs to point their ustream account (free) at the geiger counter.like this? Thats in Tokyo, though.
7 hours and 118 aftershocks later, the store was still open. Why? Because with the phone and train lines down, taxis stopped, and millions of people stuck in the Tokyo shopping district scared, with no access to television, hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email. The young did it on their mobile devices, while the old clustered around the macs.... Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones....posted by djwudi at 9:41 PM on March 14, 2011 [21 favorites]
Apple told all of their staff - Retail AND Corporate - that they could go sleep at the Apple stores.... Once staff let their families know that they were not only safe but how comfortable we were...family members began asking if they could stay at the Apple stores as well. Of course Apple said yes. One business team member's stranded mother walked 3.5 hours to be with her daughter at the store. When she arrived, the Apple store staff gave her a standing ovation ("Warm Welcome") like they do for customers during a new launch.
The head of Apple International HR and of Japan Retail happened to be in Japan that week. Both came and spent the night with us in the stores and told everyone that if anyone wanted to try their luck getting home on their own, Apple would pay for any food, drink, or transportation fees that that person incurred on the way. "Your safety is most important."
If, on their way home the staff member realized they couldn't make it, but they found an open hotel, Apple would pay for it.... Executives from Cupertino and London Facetimed with us, letting us know not to worry, they supported us, and that they would write off on it all.
I've been calling my girlfriend at work, asking her to come home, but because the Tokyo government hasn't said anything, her company won't let her leave. On the other hand, my manager at Apple called me to let me know that Apple will support any decision I make regarding leaving the country or the area, and that a job will still be waiting for me if I decide to come back.posted by ZeusHumms at 10:17 PM on March 14, 2011
Work never stops.
U.S. citizens in need of emergency consular assistance should send an e-mail to JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov with detailed information about their location and contact information. We also recommend U.S. citizens in Japan make contact with loved ones in the United States.
3.posted by ob1quixote at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2011
For general information on the situation, (excluding information about flights and bookings), South African citizens are welcome to contact the Embassy in Japan at telephone: +00 81 3 3265 3366/9. The time in Japan is +7 hours from SA time.
4.
Travellers are urged to register their travel on the Department’s voluntary Registration of South Africans Abroad (ROSA) software athttp://www.dirco.gov.za/consular/index.html and click on the button to access the web form.
5.
The e-mail address of the Consular Section of the South African Embassy in Japan is visa@dirco.gov.za
6.
Travellers may also contact the Department’s Consular Section at 012 351 1000, alternatively e-mail consular@dirco.gov.za
At Fukushima Dai-ichi, meanwhile, the generators and the power system they drove did not survive the tsunami, which hit about an hour after the earthquake and was much larger than the designers had been told to prepare for. Among the problems was the fact that crucial electrical switching equipment was in a basement, and therefore got flooded.Not planning for "the event we have no record of" is normal, and sometime catastrophic (see price of houses assumed to be rising forever, almost dogmatic assumption)
It is too early to say how Fukushima fared with the calamity, all things considered. Much of the damage seems to have been caused by the tsunami wrecking the diesel generators—a single failure that resulted in a series of others, and was, in turn, compounded by them.Weakest link of the chain. Isn't it curious, tought, that everything apparently depended on one set of floodable generators?
RIKUZEN-TAKATA, JAPAN - When the tsunami warning buzzer rang out over this sleepy port on Japan’s northeast coast, people knew what to do because they’d practised for the moment all their lives. They calmly left their homes and made their way to the gathering places designated by the municipal government: City Hall; a community centre; the local gymnasium.posted by maudlin at 6:38 PM on March 15, 2011 [6 favorites]
For hundreds of people, if not more, the shelters they were ordered into proved to be deathtraps. Rikuzen-Takata’s disaster plan had been designed to deal with the three- and four-metre waves the city had seen in 1960 after an earthquake in faraway Chile. No one had anticipated the 15-metre tsunami that crashed through the city on Friday following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake just offshore, one that flung boats, shipping cranes and people inland, drowning those who had done as they were told and gathered in the low-lying shelters.
Of the estimated 1,000 people huddling in the three buildings, the only survivors were 100 people who made their way to the top floor of City Hall. The rest were swept away by a tide so high and fierce that it blew out the walls and windows on all three floors of the neighbouring shopping centre.
“People just relied on the bureaucracy. They became too obedient,” said Tsuyoshi Kinno, head of the neighbourhood committee in one of the districts of Rikuzen-Takata closest to the Pacific coast. “The administration made a mistake.”
convert OJ1jr.gif foo%02d # gives foo00 - foo83 frames # copy first frame to sort between foo00 foo01 foo01.a foo02 foo02.a ... for i in `seq 1 82`;do F=$(printf "%02d" $i);cp foo00 foo$F.a; done convert -delay 20 foo* test.gif # put them back together, no clue of right delay.It's about 5x larger than original, original frame changes are small transparent GIFs with an offset and not full sized images. Not sure if there's an optimization that could be done.
Psychological CareFor those of you who understand French, they have a section dedicated to soins psychiques (psychological and psychiatrical care) on their French-language site.
After the earthquake, people lost family members, saw others hurt or killed, witnessed massive destruction, and had to flee their homes. Many people were grieving the loss of loved ones and were clearly in need of psychological care to regain a sense of balance in their lives. MSF psychologists provided psychological counseling to victims of the quake in hospitals in Chengdu and Guanghan. During the emergency period, MSF psychologists offered “psychological first aid”, which includes active listening, conveying compassion, encouraging social support, and screening for more severe psychological problems.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:20 PM on March 10, 2011 [11 favorites]