Disaster in Japan

Things seem to be getting worse and worse over there. I so hope that the emissions of radioactive material will be as small as possible. And I hope that the the radioactivity will hit us as little as possible. Luckily nobody of us is living close to Japan but you never know how far this stuff might spread...

To me it would be interesting how the people in your area feel/react about these happenings.

Here everybody is talking about this. You can feel that people are frightened (a bit? ) - might be because the Tschernobyl disaster, that hit some parts of Austria seriously, is still in the peoples´ memory. Many people have bought contamination meters (Geiger counter) - I was told that they are already out of stock - and potassium iodide.
And interestingly many people don´t believe in what is said in the media (usually they do). They think that things are worse - I think so from the very beginning.

Another thing I noticed is that people seem to be very busy. In some other forums there are hardly any posts. I don´t get emails that I am waiting for - not even from public departments...

Hi Ricky! I'm not sure that you know, but my (half) younger brother is half japonese.
His grandparents live in Japan, happily in the South, not far from Tokyo so they had no problems.
It's true that they are used to earthquakes and to rebuild everything very quicky.
My brother made a visit to Japan in January (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Z0r2vkpNA&feature=player_embedded) and it's astonishing the recovery in Kobe after the big earthwake from 1995 when everything was destroyed.
It seems that they all (at least most of them) always think they can do it.
The news papers and TV are not so serious most of the time or at least very alarming. At 8 in the morning in Portugal, just a few hours after the disaster I talked to my brothers' mother and she said that she had already talked with some friends of her and everything was OK with her parents. At noon she had already talked to them (by theirs cell phone) but at 1 pm the tv news were saying that there were no communications!!
The big problem is the menace of radioactivity: they don't know (normal people) very well what to do with it. But they don't want to leave their homes: my brothers' grandparents refuse to come to Portugal at least for some time. Let's see what will happen next and if everything is controlled.
About news in Portugal: there are a lot as Portugal has many business with Japan. And there are allready solidarity campaigns and so on. One thing that it is said a lot in the news is that Lisbon would be totaly destroyed if there was an earthquake like that + tsunami and that if the earthquake was in Europe it would be a world desaster because of lot nuclear power station that are obsolete in Europe...

in our media they said that please not fly to japan in this moment
and the other news was that our contry send money for japan,too, because estonia knew tschernobyl disaster well..our men sent to rescue job there...most of them lost their health there
we have big discussion...built or not atom electric station and now 68%not want that station.
but people not think so many for atomic cloud or something,because its seems to be so far.
but as i read,that there may be one big earquake more,what then will happend???

Most people I met since the disaster in Japan act just like this bird...

They won't talk about Japan, switch the theme to their daily doings..
go shopping, cooking, cleaning the house etc.etc...
A kind of far-from-my-bed-show!
Some say the journals and media are going too far,
others say they don't want to hear about it because: you cannot believe the media!
So I don't start to talk with someone about it.

But in my opinion it is very serious and dangerous what happens in Japan. And the distance is not soo far ...wind, rain and so on can bring so much danger to us too!
Remind: the not toxic smoke clouds from Russia, the Sahara-sand clouds,
in the Nederlands the toxic smoke in the neighbourhood from Rotterdam after
uncontrolled fires..First there should be no danger..than they had to admit it
was dangerous.

Not only that: how will it go on with nuclear power stations...now we
learn what can happen..not only an earthquake can be dangerous..
technical failures also can, or sabotage, even a simple blocked valve in the cooling system can etc.etc...
And about these possibilities we will never know the absolute truth!

But as long as possible we will enjoy nature, animals and the webcams from
LK and especially all the posts and pictures in LLL.

So far Finnish people are quite calm but in some towns older people have bought potassium iodide tablets
Politicians are now taking advantage of it. We have a parliament election next month and you can guess what the big issue now is.
And building stocks sky rocketed.... I call that "dancing on graves". But it seems that money comes first, every time.

I have seen these two pics of how the cloud could spread, this first one is really scary - Deb is in Oregon and Serina is in California.





The Tschernobyl disaster hit northern Finland quite bad - for many years people were adviced not to eat berries and mushrooms and reindeer meat was tested over and over again.

And I don't know if this had anything to do it but at the time of that disaster we had a pregnant corgi - some of her puppies had serious defects when they were born. And we have never had that happen before or since....

Still it seems that real accurate info about the power plants in Fukushima is hard to get. Even the Japanese president has not been update with the situation. Again I think that money is ruling....

At least yesterday Finnair did fly.... but the had radiation meters with them ... (what would that help??)

Sigh

now i read that lufthansa not fly to tokyo , only osaka and nagoya ,because in tokyo radiation level is 10x higher than normal.......this is horrible

@ all: Interesting posts!

garina do mar wrote:Hi Ricky! I'm not sure that you know, but my (half) younger brother is half japonese.
His grandparents live in Japan, happily in the South, not far from Tokyo so they had no problems.

I didn´t know that. I wish that nothing will happen to his family!!

garina do mar wrote:My brother made a visit to Japan in January (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Z0r2vkpNA&feature=player_embedded) and it's astonishing the recovery in Kobe after the big earthwake from 1995 when everything was destroyed.

Nice video!

caysa wrote:And building stocks sky rocketed.... I call that "dancing on graves". But it seems that money comes first, every time.

See it in a positive way: Each $ or € invested in building stocks helps the building companys to rebuild the destroyed areas...

caysa wrote:I have seen these two pics of how the cloud could spread, this first one is really scary - Deb is in Oregon and Serina is in California.

But compared to the Japan itself the situation would be much better (but still not good of course) in America.
If things would happen as they are shown in the first pic - imagine what would happen if there were humans living in the red area This way a great part of the radioactivity would be thinned out in the ocean (maybe the "best" solution under these circumstances??? )...

I agree that the wind direction is probably the best possible.

Japan is situated so problematically - are there any areas that could be concidered "safe" from earthquakes and zunamis?
What is it that makes people gather in these spots?
Like LA and Frisco too. Huge cities right where it is going to be a big earthquake sooner or later...
I would not want to live there....

caysa wrote:What is it that makes people gather in these spots?

As earthquakes usually take place on the edge of tectonic plates they
are often in costal areas. And big towns tend to be be in coastel areas
because of easier commerce...

a map showing the earthquake areas:

Greenland and Siberia.... or Africa.... Well there would be lots of places with coasts. But I guess the thought of leaving the dangerous cities and areas would be too much. Home is home wherever it is.