Japan's earthquake: Boots-on-the-ground observations, and lessons to be learned

[Bushido Devil Dog]

As is shown underneath my avatar, I currently live in Japan. I was at work when last Friday's massive earthquake hit. I would like to provide a first-hand report of what is happening here as it plays itself out, and add my observations/experiences that may help other INGOers to prepare for similar situations. However, from seeing the idiocy/childishness that was posted in the other thread, I must lay down the following ground rules:

WARNING!!! Read the following carefully:

This is NOT the "Japs" (sic) anything thread. This word is no more acceptable to use for Japanese people than "nigs" (sic) would be for black people. This is a matter of respect, not PC nonsense. (The moderator's moderation of this term has been merely moderate at best. Moderators, please moderate this...)
This is NOT the WWII debate thread.
This is NOT the "they deserved it"/"karma/payback is a b...." thread. The inability to have empathy for the suffering of others is the definition of sociopathy. Go be a sociopath elsewhere, not in my thread.
This is NOT the Rising Sun/"Dey took erh jobs...derk ah der!!" Japanese business debate thread.

The first poster that breaks any of the above rules will be the idiot the others can thank for ruining the thread. If I see any post that starts to go down the same path of petty childishness the other thread went, I will poor myself a big ol' cup of STFU, and I will clam up about what I am seeing and no INGOers will get to benefit from this possible learning opportunity. Please DO NOT be "that guy" that ruins it for everyone else because of your irrational hatred for people that have never personally harmed you. If you absolutely must spout off your hate for an entire group of people, I suggest taking it to a more appropriate venue and sharing such views with like-minded individuals:

...DO NOT bring that nonsense into this thread. This thread is about what I am seeing happen as a SHTF situation is going on around me, the location of which just happens to be Japan. If you insist on being stuck on Stupid, post elsewhere, not here...do I make myself clear??


More to follow tomorrow...

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

Looking forward to the report from the front line.

 

[Rayne]

I definately want to know first hand "boots on the ground" type of information. Looking forward to reading your posts.

 

[Icarry2]

I read the OP and skipped to this..



I will now go back to read the second and all posts about this thread. You have my attention..

 

[UncleMike]

Thanks for this thread!!
I have a Nephew living in Japan and am anxious to hear first hand how things are going there. He is on Okinawa right now.

 

[jedi]

Ok I won't be that guy.


Serious now, OP thank you for giving us the 4-1-1 on what you are seeing on the front line.

 

[buckstopshere]

Looking forward to the intel. Stay safe over there OP!

 

[chraland51]

Start posting. I have been reading as much as I can get about this horrific event and want to know more. We are now getting speculative reports that what is going on in Japan could impact us healthwise. We already know that the world economy is being impacted adversely. In many ways, we are all in this together.

 

[Clay]

Ive been hoping you would post up something.

thank you!

 

[mrjarrell]

From one former gaijin to another, I am certainly looking forward to hearing what's happening from your perspective!

 

[redneckmedic]

Can we at least hear what has happened thus far an not wait until the situation plays itself out?

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

Come on now RedneckMedic, BDD needs his beauty sleep - it's currently 5:42 am over there...

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

Looking forward to OP's input.

 

[hip shot]

 

[Expat]

Glad to see you weathered it okay (at least so far).

 

[printcraft]

TAG

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

Day 1: Exodus (part 1)

I was at work when The Big One hit. I was getting something I had just printed out when I felt the first tremor, which was fairly mild...at first. I work in an office building that is right between Tokyo station and the Emperor's palace. It is very modern building, with all the bells and whistles designed to keep it from collapsing in an Earthquake, one of which is a vey loose-goose structure. Just like a flick of the wrist can make the end of a whip move several feet, the design of the building caused the upper floors to move much more than what was happening at ground level. After the initial mild jolt, I walked back to my desk and sat down. The first thirty seconds were not that wild, but since the average tremor here lasts only for about 10-15 seconds, at around the 20 second mark me and my co-workers all started to comment about how long it was lasting. At around the 30 second mark is when it really kicked in to high gear and the building started rocking by several feet back and forth. Think Micheal J. Fox...on meth! I imagine if you could have measured the total ground I covered, I was probably covering a 4-5 foot long arc/path of back and forth movement. It got violent enough to where, even with the earthquake protection/resistance built into the building, I was beginning to wonder if we were going to exceed the building's design limits. I started to her fellow Hoosier John Mellencamp singing in my head:

"When the walls, come crumblin' down...
When the walls, come tumblin' tumblin'..."

At about 1 min 30 secs into it, nothing was falling from the ceiling and the building seemed to be holding up despite the thrashing we were taking, so while others were under their desks hiding, I got up from my chair, stood Marine tall and marched over to the windows. I just had to see what was going on outside/around us. A female co-worker tried to suggest it may not be such a good idea to get near the windows, but I wasn't paying her any attention. I wanted to see the show!
The older building next to us could be seen rocking violently; we all thought it was gonna collapse at any second, but it held together. As the actual quake settled down the building began to recenter itself, but it would be HOURS before the building stopped moving completely because the aftershocks kept the house rockin'!


We all *tried* to work, but weren't getting much done as more news came in, and as the building continued to rock with aftershocks. We got the word that the trains were all stopped, which is SOP until they can confirm that no tracks are damaged. Around 6PM, Some of my co-workers (the foreign ones, of course) made a much needed beer run to the 7-11 that is in our building. We decided no more work was gonna get done, so it was time for a POST-EARTHQUAKE OFFICE PARTY!! I had an Ebisu beer as I surfed the net for info about the quake. One of the best tasting, its-good-to-be-alive beers that I have ever had...

Around 7:30 PM came further word; leave soon or stay the night in the office, because they were going to lock the doors for the night. I used Google maps to recon the way, grabbed my stuff, told my co-workers that, "This is going to be an adventure!" and headed for the door to begin the trek home...on foot.

 

[yotewacker]

Thanks for the first hand account of what happened. I do have a couple of questions.

1. I had heard that the radio and TV gave a 2 minute warning for the quake. They said most people ran to the windows to see if it was going to happen. Is this true.
2. I think if the quake was that bad, they should have shut all the Nuclear plants down until a safety inspection was done. Or do they take many hours to shut down?

I'm asking these questions out of curiosity, I meant no harm or disrespect. I I live closer, I would try to go and help in this tragedy.

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

Yotewacker - I can't answer the early warning part, but I can answer the power plant/shutdown question. Nuke plants are like battleships and trains. They don't turn on a dime and it takes a darn long time to stop them. The units do "trip" in an earthquake which takes them offline and starts the shutdown process. That happened at Fukushima I and II (Daiichi and Diani) by all accounts. Fukushima I (Daiichi) is where most all of the problems are happening right now. There are six reactors in the Daiichi complex. It takes a LONG time to cool down the reactions and completely make things safe/cold. Problems in the shutdown process are what is causing things to get ugly.

 

[jedi]

2. I think if the quake was that bad, they should have shut all the Nuclear plants down until a safety inspection was done. Or do they take many hours to shut down?

Look at this website for a good step by step of how the **** down happens in a nuclear power plant and what went wrong.

How a Reactor Shuts Down and What Happens in a Meltdown - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

As AP stated it's not like turning off your car and taking out the key. It takes some time to due a full shutdown and even then if you don't keep the fuel rods cool (ie. keep them in the water) they are going to overheat again and cause more problems.