Boy, this 60-year old gentleman is a survivor. Rescued 2 days after the quake, 10 miles at sea, floating on what's left of his house's roof after the tsunami crashed into it and sucked it out to sea. Unfortunately, his wife was swept away.

Lucky, lucky, lucky. Goes to show though, i guess you can't give up on checking all that floating debris.

other Pete

I haven't heard a word about any looting.

Has anyone else?

That seems a departure from so many disasters elsewhere in the world.

The good news is that the earthquake, in and of itself, didn't do much harm to the nuke plants. It was the tsunami that took out the diesel backup generators and caused the big problems. It also has to be noted that the difference between a seven and an eight is a factor of ten. This quake was approximately one hundred times as powerful as the big one in Haiti.

The New York Times did an article last year on Cannon Beach, Oregon's looking into building a new City Hall that would double as a tsunami escape for 1000 people. I hadn't realized they'd been hit by the 1964 tsunami generated by the Alaska 9.2 Prince William Sound quake.

As Susan noted -- they may be looking at as little as 10 minutes between a quake and tsunami coming ashore.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/15tsunami.html

“In the best case, we’ll have a few hours’ warning from an earthquake that happened somewhere far away in the Pacific Basin,” said Mr. Rooper, who has worked in the fire department for 40 years. “In the worst case, we’ll have 10 to 20 minutes after the ground stops shaking here to try to get to high ground.”

There are so few roads connecting the coast to the rest of the state that getting help in could be extremely difficult. And a big subduction quake likely will have caused significant damage inland. Portland is about 70 miles away.


http://oregonstate.edu/terra/2010/07/uncharted-waters/

...there’s a 37 percent chance of a partial rupture of the zone within the next 50 years, an event that could be similar in magnitude to the earthquake just experienced in Chile.

“Perhaps more striking than the probability numbers is that we have already gone longer without an earthquake than 75 percent of the known times between earthquakes in the last 10,000 years,”

I agree. Large buildings/condos there and in the south pacific in general are build to withstand tremendous winds from typhoons. They are designed to sway quite a bit. From what I see from reports it was the tsunami that has really buggered things up.

Any info on inland damage in Japan from the quake ?

The pain, damage and anguish in Japan seems so immense, I'll avoid commenting on it, but a few brief observations might contribute here:

- my thoughts and prayers go out to the Japanese people. Watching the coverage I am convinced they are among the most resilient people on earth when it comes to preparing for and dealing with tragedies such as this one. They will recover. And it goes without saying, they will learn from it, and lead the worldwide community in preparing for the next devastating earthquake. I am amazed, and relieved to see all the evidence of successful preparation:

- the video of the tsunami are horrific, but those houses bobbing in the waves, being swept across the landscape - they are intact, not in pieces as they tend to be in flooding videos in the US. A number of multistory structures survived the EQ, and the sweep of the massive tsunami. The structures survived an 8.9, giving occupants a chance to get out and seek higher ground. It sounds strange, but as nightmarish as the tsunami was, I saw hope in some of those intact structures, people staying alive. How does the saying go, chance favors the lucky and the prepared? Luck gets progressively worse the stronger the EQ - only the prepared have a chance to survive. Japanese engineers, society and legal system that adopted progressive building codes made that happen. In the US, do we have the same fortitude to do that? Why not?

- In Tokyo they were very prepared. At the subsidiary of my US employer, they had disaster kits for visitors to take with them, and they were offered shelter if they didn't want to try to make it home. Disaster kits for building visitors - why didn't I think of that? That's on my to do list for the next disaster prep committee meeting.

- video of the Self-Defense force, already deployed, rendering assistance within hours of the EQ. Video ops can be staged, but here were units of Japanese forces already responding to the EQ so shortly after. Same with tg triage stations nearer the quake. That takes some organization. It's amazing to watch, and inspiring - we should help however we can, with labor, with money, with support or prayers. With preparations in our own communities, for some future someday.

This puts a human face on this disaster ...

http://l1.yimg.com/a/i/ww/news/2011/03/14/031411japan1.jpg

other Pete

In the same way I was heartbroken to hear those stories come out of Katrina about seniors or the sick who couldn't/weren't evacuated from hospitals and nursing homes and had to struggle to survive, here's a story about a local community hospital near Sendai and their efforts to cope with the aftermath.