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

[nate1865]

 

[Lead Head]

Direct email from a resident of Japan

Posted below is an email from a relative living in the North of Japan. Personal names and addresses, etc. were removed but I basically copied and pasted right from the email. I know it's very long but thought some of you might want to read it.
_________________________________________________________________

Hey friends and family. Thought I should properly update you guys on the situation here.

First, thanks so much for your concern and asking how I am, I really appreciate it. I live in Nagasaki prefecture, which is way in the southwest end of Japan. We had tsunami advisories on Friday, but by the time the waters reached us, they were teeny tiny. To put it into perspective, the distance between me and the quake damage is the same as New York to Atlanta, GA. No worries.

However, I cannot say the same for the people who are living in the northeastern regions of Tohoku and Kanto, particularly in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures. The damage from the quake, tsunami and multiple aftershocks have caused a devastating toll that simply cannot be conveyed in images or numbers alone. More than 3,000 have been confirmed dead, and more than 3,700 are still missing. With temperatures dropping this week – below freezing up north – my heart hurts to think about how it will impact the thousands of people stranded at shelters and elsewhere. The BBC reports that nearly half a million people are still living in temporary shelters.

I have a friend in Sendai who I could not get in touch with a couple days ago. She was at a temporary shelter and is now on a flight to Hong Kong. I have a few friends in Fukushima, all of whom evacuated yesterday. However, they say some of their co-workers are stuck in towns: they went back to help other families, despite evacuation orders. Now they are waiting in their homes for further instruction – they can't leave because the radiation levels are too high, and they have no gas for their cars. Food and supplies are running low. Combine this with salvaging and rebuilding things from the tsunami wreckage... to say this is a nightmare of a situation for people up north doesn't quite cover it.

With the escalated tension over the entire situation with the nuclear power plants in Fukushima, the entire country is in an anxious state of mind, to say the least. For the most part, Tokyo and other major metropolitan areas seems to have been shaken up badly, but are relatively safe. Levels of radiation have been reported, but latest reports say the levels are not significant enough to be negligible.

What's critical right now is remedying the shortage of supplies up north. People in affected regions do not have enough food, blankets and emergency supplies to tide them over. People are having trouble getting gas. My friend in Chiba prefecture reported more than 30 people waiting for gas. My friend in Fukushima can only get about ¥2,000 (about $20 USD) worth of gas right now, and was only evacuated yesterday with a group.

Even so, as much as many of us want to send supplies, the logistics are very complicated. At this point so early in the recovery stage, sending physical objects would cause more of a hassle in terms of allocation. Especially if you are outside Japan, monetary donations will go much further and will help out more with relief efforts.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? Make sure you are giving to reputable, legitimate aid organization.

Japan Red Cross has been swamped and sometimes their website is down. However, all international Red Cross organizations have donations earmarked for Japan. Here is American Red Cross's Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami page: https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=0&5052.donation=form1&df_id=5052

You can also text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
For those in NY, the Japan Society of New York has set up a Japan Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund: Japan Society, New York - Earthquake
Amazon.com and Apple iTunes has also made easy ways to donate to the Red Cross.

Yahoo has set up a great list of organizations you can further donate to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110311/wl_yblog_newsroom/japan-earthquake-and-tsu nami-how-to-help

CONTACTING PEOPLE. Google has launched its Person Finder for those seeking information on those in affected regions. You can add information about someone or search for available info on someone. It's available in multiple languages:

Google Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake

BE INFORMED. There is a LOT of information going around right now. In particular, the "nuclear catastrophe" story is causing a lot of alarm, some of it unwarranted. Please do not feed into the media sensationalism of these stories. Always check for confirmed sources before panicking! Yes, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) and the vague statements from the Japanese government is making everyone frustrated right now. Yes, it IS an area of concern and everyone wants to know what is going on.

I want to say foreign media is really not helping in terms of spreading panic on this entire thing with radiation and blowing things out of proportion. Japanese media is not AS panicky. But at this point, I don't think we have any choice but to trust that the government is being 100% truthful with everything they say.

All 47 prefectures in Japan are monitoring radiation levels. The extremely high levels of radiation being reported are the ones measured RIGHT by the nuclear plants, so of course they would be high. Most people within a 20-30 km radius of the plant have been evacuated.

I'm sure I speak for many people here when I say we are all feeling very helpless and not knowing what to do to help. I consume the news all the time only because I can only understand about 60% of the news, and find myself listening with my electronic dictionary propped up. (On the upside, I guess I'm learning a lot of nuclear vocabulary? Ha.) I know I've been flooding your Facebook newsfeed and Twitter about this disaster, but spreading info that way seems to be one way I can at least help for those affected by the disaster. I will continue updating with pertinent information as I can, so please check my feed for updates.

Japan will get through this, and the strength of the people here and the way the entire nation has banded together has been nothing short of remarkable and extremely moving. (Please read this great piece on the NYT about the resolve of the people here:

Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration - NYTimes.com)

Please continue to keep Japan and the people affected by this crisis in your thoughts and prayers. It's going to be a long haul in terms of rebuilding and recovery.

 

[Bull]

Thanks to all for the updates, I just wish I could do more.

 

[Yeah]

Here is a picture of me supporting the Japanese economy.

Do I need 4 jugs of the world's best vinegar? Maybe.

 

[Cpt Caveman]

Did you think it was beer?

 

[Arm America]

Great thread.

+1 for establishing ground rules on your thread up front.

Looking forward to updates and more pictures.

Thanks.

 

[03A3]

Bushido thanks for starting this, and Lead Head thanks for the good post.

Nearly all I hear about is the nuke aspect of this catastrope.
What is being done for these people?
They need housing with heat, food, clean water, sanitary facilities and many things, such as clothing.
People were injured as the result of this and more will be injured as the result of the aftermath. People get sick. Some of them have pre-existing medical issues.
Do they have doctors, clinics, hospitals and stocked pharmacies that are functional?
Have there been any airlifts from our Military or others to bring in these necessary services and supplies? The World is going to have to get on the ball or this will go downhill more and more as the minutes tick by.
What about heavy equipment to start getting this cleaned up? Do they have what they need or does it need to be brought in.
I don't know anything about Japan or what they have to work with.

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

Day 1: Exodus (part 2)

Working on it... I took some pics and video. Will try to get it uploaded soonish...

With the small pack on my back, a coat, gloves and and IU knit cap to keep me warm, I took the stairs from the 19th floor to exit the building because the elevators had shut down automatically when the quake hit. The scene that greeted me when I exited the building was controlled chaos. People were milling around looking lost, and to my amusement there were several people wearing the goofy looking plastic helmets that are part of the "evacuation kit" that many larger firms provide for each employee, my company included. By this time (8PM) the worst of the quake had been over for 5+ hours, and there was no evidence in the immediate area that anything had fallen from the surrounding buildings, so to me they looked damned silly walking around with those cheapo brain-buckets on their head. Not as sturdy as a U.S. regulation construction hard hat, these helmets would only serve to keep your brains confined to a smaller sized stain on the concrete if struck by anything serious; they aren't strudy enough to offer any real protection against anything capable of killing you....

Many of these helmet wearing sheeple were also carrying printed-out maps to guide the lost. I had looked at Google maps before I left, so I didn't need no stinkin' paper map to guide me. Ironically, the ones with the maps were the worst people to be behind! They never seemed to know where they were going even though they had the info right in front of them, so the would shuffle along at a snails pace, glancing every which way except straight ahead and would start/stop/suddenly change direction for no obvious reason! I avoided the map holders as much as possible...

The streets were a parking lot of cars going nowhere, and the sidewalks were jammed with people, many of whom were obviously unprepared to walk home from work, having become completely dependent on the excellent train system here. Examples: women wearing 3-inch+ heals for a walk of several kilometers, office workers with suits only, no outer coat to keep them warm, people with no water supply or food to snack on during the long walk home, etc.

Because of some forethought, I was sitting pretty. I had a warm coat, a backpack to keep my hands free for crowd navigation, water, an umbrella in case of rain, gloves, a knit hat, and good walking shoes for the hike, which took about two hours just from Tokyop station to Shibuya. In ideal conditions I think this would take me about 1:40~5 minutes, but with the crowds and stopping for pictures, it wasn't until around 10PM when I arrived at The Hobgoblin bar in Shibuya for the obligatory post-earthquake beer, pizza, and cigar celebration.

Lessons learned:

- Have the be prepared/survival mindset. Learn about taking care of yourself *now* while you have all these resources at your fingertips.
- Think of what could happen during your workday, and plan to be ready for it. Earthquakes are a given here, and yet so few people have and carry a mini-emergency kit to deal with it. I always keep water, some snack food, an umbrella, season appropriate wear, and various other bits and pieces (chapstick, pain relievers, nail clippers, other stuff...) in case the next massive (and long overdue) Tokyo earthquake hits.
- Have good walking shoes available, especially women. I imagine having to walk 5+ miles in high heels can't be fun...
- Know where you are at and how to get home (to your even better survival kit) from there.
- Do NOT rely on public transportation. It WILL fail/ be suspended the moment anything serious goes down.
- Do NOT rely on your cell phone to save you. At the first sign of trouble/an incident the cell system will be overloaded. Use e-mail instead of voice to save bandwidth, and help to get your message to your family ASAP.



(forgive any typpos , too tired to correct them now, may do some clean-up later. Standby for more to follow...

 

[jblomenberg16]

Thanks for the update.
Glad to hear you are ok...and I'm tuning in for updates as they come up.

I've been to Tokyo twice, and each time felt completely helpless trying to navigate. I've just trusted the subway to take me to the right place.


BTW, Both of my stays in Tokyo have been at the New Otani, which I think isn't too far from teh Akasaka station on the Ginza line. Looks like from the subway map I have from my last trip, Shibuya is a bit farther west of there.

 

[snapping turtle]

I just added two water bottles to my "Get out of town/get home bag, 48 oz of weight but since water is so available I never really thought of it as something to stock/ carry. I have the extra clothes, head lamp, good boots, hat, fire starter, cell phone, defensive equipment, and a few meds. Buying water has never been something I do as I have a RO filter and just pour it in a bottle. Aquafina just got a little of my more. What a weird name for water.

 

[Panama]

Thanks for the first person updates, be safe.

Have you given any thought to a trip back home for a vacation/visit?
Might be a real good time to at least give it some thought.

Let me know if you get back to Indiana, I'll buy you a beer and a burger.

"Japan Nuclear Crisis Remains ‘Very Grave’ as Winds Shift"

Japan Nuclear Crisis Remains ?Very Grave? as Winds Shift - Bloomberg

 

[yepthatsme]

Thanks for starting this thread and keeping us up to date. Have you been affected or have had to take any precautions for any radioactivity? I have heard that we have detected increased levels on our West coast.

 

[hip shot]

 

[hip shot]

It seems profound to me that we have not heard any stories of looting. Have you seen any? What aspect of Japanese coulture does this represent?

Very impressive it seeems to me. Compare to Kitrina. Even more so when you think these people are unarmed.

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

Day 1: Exodus (part 3)

It seems profound to me that we have not heard any stories of looting. Have you seen any? What aspect of Japanese culture does this represent?

Very impressive it seeems to me. Compared to Katrina.

That gif is AWESOME!! LOL...

No looting going on whatsoever, even in the areas that were wiped out by the tsunami. This represents Japan's totally bizarre "If it's not yours, don't mess with it/think of others, not just yourself/obey the law" culture. Back when I was living in Gunma-ken (about 2 hours away from Tokyo by train) I lost my bank card in Tokyo on a Sunday. Had I lost it in the States, no doubt they would have hacked my PIN, drained my account, forwarded the account number to their Nigerian friend to overdraw my account by -$100,000, and quite possibly sexually assaulted the ATM that I think I dropped my card near. Instead, by Wednesday my *original card* was back in my hands, and no one tried take advantage of the situation to drain my account.

The closest I saw to looting was the empty shelves at the 7-11 I stopped at halfway to Shibuya. I really didn't *need* to get anything, I was just curious to see if they had anything left. As suspected the shelves were mostly cleared out, but not from looting or theft, merely from panic buying . As I walked to Shibuya, the crowds were orderly, even at choke points along the way, but there *were* a couple times where I intentionally slammed shoulders with a couple of J-dudes along the way because I saw that they were rudely plowing their way through the crowd. I did this as a 'friendly' reminder to them to slow the hell down and quite slamming into other people. Even if they had legitimate emergencies at home, running over other people was not going to get them home any faster, the roads and sidewalks were just too crowded.

After re-fuelling at the Hobgoblin Bar in Shibuya and seeing the first images of the destruction that the quake and tsunami had caused , I got back on the road around 11PM. I walked for about 20-30 minutes until I happened to walk past the entrance/exit of the next train station. Some people were coming out, so I asked them if the trains were running again. They said they were delayed, but yes they were running, so I went inside and caught the next train. At the pace I was going (my normal walking pace is fairly quick), it would have taken me at least another 3 hours to get home, so the train spared me from a serious hike. I was prepared to hoof it all the way, but I wanted to get home ASAP and make sure no major damage was done to my stuff. To my surprise, the buses were still running, even though normally the last bus is at 12:15. I got to my station aroind 12:20 and there was a MASSIVE line for the buses. But, the bus company had their stuff together, so there were extra buses running, and they waived the "late night fee" that normally gets charged after 11PM. I got back to my place around 12:45, and found only a few things had fallen down, and nothing broken.

Observations/Lessons:

- By 8:30PM most of the stores, restaurants, and cafe's were shut down. This even included places that are normally open 24/7 or very late such as McDonald's, Starbucks, etc. This is why you should have some food/energy bars/water with you/available at all times. I have a stash at work and a couple in my EDC backpack.
- Be willing to gut it out as need be. I saw a lot of people that were looking lost/helpless, or were standing around waiting for things to return to normal instead of acting decisively to either get themsleves home by walking, or find a decent place to stay overnight. I saw at least a hundred people along the way that were trying sleep out in the cold with minimal or no cold weather gear. The homeless around Shibuya were better prepared than these people were.

Even more so when you think these people are unarmed.

Correct. The law on knives is this: any blade over 2.5cm in length is basically against the law to carry out in public "without a good reason". Self-defense is NOT a "good reason".
However, I have a Leatherman that I bought in the States, and "I am on my way to give it as a surprise gift to my friend at (wherever I am going)." . Hell, I can even carry my real-deal traditional Katana with me as long as I have it encased and have the registration card with it, but I would prefer the law to be like it was back in the days of the Samurai

so I could carry it tucked in my obi/hakama like it should be worn..!

 

[superdad]

thanks for the updates..its been real informitve getting a 1st hand account from someone whos not working for the networks

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

Days 2, 3 and the 1st week after

Having made it home, and seeing the convenience stores already cleaned out, I stayed home and inside the next two days, repacked my bug-out ALICE pack and kept on rockin' in the aftershocks that continued the whole weekend (and into the following week as well). Looking back, I should have done like the rest of sheeple and made a store run early Saturday morning to get milk, bread, and toilet paper (and other stuff)...not to horde, but because I was legitimately running low. This morning (3/29) I was able to buy milk (but at an inflated price ) for the first time since the quake hit.

So lesson learned from that was:

- Get while the gettin's good,...or even not so good.



Monday morning at the train station was madness...

...OK...it was both! The trains were running at 50% of their normal schedule, many weren't running at all, and after surviving the sardine can crush* I arrived at work (late...along with everybody else) on Monday to a half empty office. The next few days were (and still are) a bit surreal. Stores bare, streets much quieter than normal, and since the Fukushima plant blew, darkened buildings and streets as people and businesses are greatly reducing their use of electricity to prevent blackouts caused by overloading the now-reduced capabilities of the TEPCO power grid.

Around the 16th I saw a line of cars about 20+ deep waiting to get gas. On the 17th I went to the store and just for grins I brought my kerosene can for my heaters (Most Japanese apartments and houses do not have central heat, the idea being it is more efficient to heat the only the room being used than to waste energy on heating the whole place). The 24-hour gas station was closed. No gas. The store was cleaned out of milk, eggs, instant ramen (and other instant foods that are easy to fix but can be kept for a long time) and was low on bread and other perishables. I keep emergency food in stock for this exact reason, but it was still a bit stressing to think I may actually have to tap into my emergency SHTF stash if the food situation got worse.

Things have been calm, i.e. no rioting/looting etc., but on the 18th I saw what could have been a sign of stress getting the better of people...or it just could have been just a plain ol'...

completely un-related to the stress of the earthquake!

As soon as I got out the gate, I saw two middle-aged guys yelling at each other. They weren't in typical 'salaryman' clothing. One was somewhat shabbily dressed, and there are a few homeless guys that sell stuff around the station. The taller of the two closed the distance and got right in the other guys face...two seconds of more yelling and BAM!!, he throws a right cross to the jaw of the slightly shorter guy! It's not the first time I've seen J-guys scrap, and I have been in a couple scraps here myself, but this was around 7PM, at a train station instead of a bar district where this sort of thing is more likely to occur, and was about 50 meters from a police box, so it was definitely a WTF moment.

Long story short, after the first punch, it became a sloppy wrestling match, and I think there was some hair pulling involved. Unlike during The Big One, I whipped out my phone and took some video fer s and grins . I made a half-hearted attempt to tell em' to knock it off, but they weren't listening to anyone, so I faded back and enjoyed the show until the cops came. I didn't stick around to hear what all the butthurt was about and headed home.

 

[Bushido Devil Dog]

Working on it... I took some pics and video. Will try to get it uploaded soonish...

...and by "soonish" I apparently meant 5 years later...


But hopefully the wait was worth it because instead of just pics...I made a video that includes the footage and still pics I too that evening. Better late than never, eh?

[video=youtube;JZVS4C9zAGM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZVS4C9zAGM[/video]