8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan!

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I read that there is one store open in one of the towns, cash only and a limit of 10 items per person, or something along those lines.
 
The relief efforts are being hampered by the scale of the problem. The logistics of first getting the food, then delivering it to those in need, it is just a huge logistics nightmare. Lots of folks continue to suffer miserably, particularly the elderly, to the point of dying in the shelters. So many are totally dependent on help that isn't there. It is going to be quite awhile before the better news becomes greater than the bad.
 
In those kind of situations, its usually the military that can provide the best help, as the command structure, discipline, and battlefield logistics experience enable them to mobilise and distribute aid quickly.
The western worlds military might would be far better utilised aiding Japan than bombing yet another desert country.
 
Yes, the first people to have even brought a glimmer that there could one day be a light at the end of the tunnel, were the military...laying down some bridges and moving some rubble. Defense force is a good name for a military.
 
Rather than cash, our church collected a huge box truck of non-perishables that's getting shipped over there. Valerie went with a friend who works at a local grocery store, and they used her friends employee discount to make our money buy even more of the goods needed.
 
I'm so glad that the Japanese don't have the same cultural connections to guns with the `hunker down with a ton of ammo in a disaster' philosophy that so many Americans do.
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Sitting here watching the tragedy unfold for over a week, I really wish I had the means to fly over and help somehow.
I wonder how many people from different countries are just getting on a plane to go help. I bet quite a few.
 
Dont think more mouths to feed will be of much help personally, there is plenty of people there already just counting the displaced folks. I would surmise that food and rebuilding shelter will be the item of the day for a long while over there, hopefully a lot of displaced folks can get construction tools and training, too many of their former jobs and businesses just simply wont exist.
 
http://www.priyo.com/international/2011/03/17/water-drops-nuclear-reactor-22032.html

Its about military helicopters using the same buckets used to control forest fires to cool the reactors. I watched a news report last night about it, and apparently they aren't getting the buckets low enough to be as efficient as possible. The manufacturer was talking about sending some longer lines over, and perhaps a pilot to help train the Japanese in order to get the most out of the technology.

I agree the military is usually the best equipped to help deal with natural disaster, and the logistics capabilities are unmatched in the civilian world.
 
We have been asked by the UN to send a rescue coordination team out there. We have a team that is used to eartquake scenarios. They've been to Turkey, Pakistan and Haiti lately.

They have some very well trained rescue dogs that specialize in finding survivers in rubble.
I remember that they were very succesful in the Earthquake in Turkey some years back.
 
If you need to lay A LOT of water down by air...

about 2 min in....

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MSN doesn't have a Japan headline anymore, just a hard to find link about 2 reactors out of 6 being cooled. They tell me the crisis is in Libya now.
 
Due to the weather developing in the region, the Twitter account of the Japanese Prime Minister's Office
published a series of tweets addressing the possibility of radioactive rain in the Tohoku and Kanto regions. :(
 
big way out
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One guy on that boat said, "Here we go"!

Pretty much the only foreign presence to help the quake victims is in the form of trained rescue teams, like the one Stig mentioned. They are still pulling a few folks out, emphasis on a few. Always want to think that someone can be found, but more thought to finding bodies than the living now. Using sticks to probe in the mud, something like at least 12000 still missing.

At this point it would still be difficult to get around for people who wanted to help, some folks are walking hours and hours to get to rescue centers to look for family members. No other transportation available into many of the locations. I believe the cell phone service is mainly down, trying to get to the places where people have congregated, seems to bring some hope when searching. Some touching reunions being shown, but mostly just further disappointment.
 
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