Haiti Struggles Two Years Following Devastating Quake

Haiti, which was one of the poorest and most incompetently governed countries in the world even before the devastating earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, continues to struggle to rebuild its capital two years after the quake struck.

While streets have been cleared of debris, damaged and destroyed buildings throughout Port au Prince remain omnipresent. The debris of the collapsed national government palace in the city remains untouched and is an indelible image of the ongoing problems facing the Haitian government. They've managed to rebuild the national airport terminal so that operations could resume, but much of the city's residents live in horrendous conditions that worsen each time it rains.

And about half of the $4.5 billion pledged in donations have been disbursed:

The statistics say only about half of the rubble has been removed. There was 10 million cubic meters of it, or by one estimate, 10 times the amount of debris left by the September 11th attacks.

The international community pledged more than $4.5 billion dollars to help Haiti's recovery, but so far, just over half, 52 percent, has been disbursed.

“You’re moving from emergency response to recovery and that has complexities. Things take time...More could be done, we can always do better. At the same time, people are trying hard,” said Jehane Sadky, officer in charge at the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti.

Sadky’s office is in charge of tracking where all the money has gone. She said that most of the money that has been disbursed has gone to NGOs or grants, not directly to the Haitian government.

“We want to emphasize that perhaps more money should go through Haitian institutions,” Sadky said. “Haiti deserves to get up on its feet alone and won’t be able to do that unless it has the money to do so.”

In part, donors have been reluctant to give the money they’ve committed directly to the Haitian government because of this year’s election. The painfully prolonged and disputed election finally produced a president and then five months later a prime minister and a government.

Once assembled, the newly elected government did not renew the mandate for the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, the group headed by former President Bill Clinton that was helping coordinate relief efforts.

On top of the political changes, there's been an ongoing cholera epidemic that killed about 7,000 people and sickened perhaps half a million Haitians in the wake of the earthquake.

Cholera is an omnipresent danger, and hundreds of thousands have been sickened since a deadly outbreak began in 2010 and more than 7,000 have died. One interesting development on that front is that Twitter may prove to help epidemiologists and health experts track outbreaks. The mention of "cholera" in postings rose and declined in relation to reporting about the disease, and that tracked the official data that would be released later. In other words, this is a way to get ahead of potential outbreaks and help improve public health.

The sociopolitical challenges remain difficult to overcome and the Haitian political institutions aren't getting the job done even where they have the opportunity to do so. For their part, the charitable groups are making the best of a bad situation, but millions of Haitians continue to struggle to deal with a shattered country that can't handle a disaster of this magnitude.

Israeli Humanitarian Aid Reaches Turkey; Turkish Government Unmoved

After the machinations of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ingratiate himself with the Islamists and set about pushing a confrontation with Israel over its blockade of Gaza that led to the Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey has continued on its demands for apologies and reparations for Israel's actions.

Israel refuses to give an apology over the incident, and under international law it has no reason to do so. It was justified to engage in the blockade to prevent the terror group Hamas from being resupplied by sea, and terrorists on board the Mavi Marmara assaulted the boarding Israeli forces who had to use deadly force in self-defense.

One would think then that Israel would then do nothing when a deadly earthquake struck Turkey, with a death toll that is now well over 500.

You would be wrong.

Israel has sent humanitarian aid and offered search and rescue services. This is what Israel does. Israel will send humanitarian aid all over the world, including to other Arab countries in times of need, and gets nothing but scorn and derision from those countries' regimes in return.

The Israeli plane brought seven prefabricated houses and other supplies, NTV television reported said. The plane was redirected to Ankara because the airport near Van, the hardest-hit area, was too small.

Eight other countries were expected to deliver mobile homes and blankets during the day, news reports said.

The Foreign Ministry emphasized Turkey’s appreciation for the Israeli assistance but reiterated that humanitarian gestures during a natural disaster would not affect strained relations.

Turkey is demanding an official Israeli apology and compensation for the relatives of eight Turks and an American citizen of Turkish descent who were killed when Israeli commandos intercepted a Turkish aid flotilla attempting to break the blockade of Gaza last year.

As desperation grew in the affected areas, TV news reports on Wednesday showed chaotic scenes of people grabbing supplies from relief trucks, and an official with the Turkish Red Crescent put the number of trucks that had been ransacked at 17, the Anatolian Agency reported.

More than 50 countries offered assistance almost immediately after the earthquake; the government initially declined the offers, saying it had sufficient resources. But as the needs for tents and other supplies have become more clear, the government has begun reaching out for foreign aid.

Turkey has accepted the humanitarian aid, which includes prefabricated buildings, which are critical since the affected region around Van has been hit with a snowstorm and cold weather. It's miserable conditions to say the least, and Israel's assistance will be greatly appreciated by those who get the aid.

Yet, Turkey's government says that this does nothing to change its stance towards Israel.

Because that's what hypocritical governments and people do.

Roundup On Virginia's Earthquake and Damage Along East Coast

Phil Plait put together this video showing the propagation of the seismic waves from today's Virginia 5.9 earthquake as it raced across the US. The movement being detected is less than the width of a hair.

What you’re seeing here are vertical displacement measurements from an array of detectors that are part of the USArray/EarthScope facility (you can read more about the array and the animation on the IRIS website). These are very sensitive instruments; note the scale on the lower graph showing the motion is only about 40 microns top-to-bottom! That’s less than the thickness of a human hair.

Red dots represent upward motion, and blue downward. The intensity of the color represents the amplitude (height) of the wave. Animations like this make it very easy to see the waves moving across the country; the arc even gives you a rough idea of where the epicenter was.

While most of the national monuments remained intact after the quake, the Washington Monument apparently suffered some damage that was discovered during a secondary survey of the tallest structure in the District of Columbia.

The National Cathedral also suffered damage and will be closed until further notice.

A window blew out on the Pfizer headquarters in Manhattan, and a chimney partially collapsed on an apartment building in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Damage was also reported in Tysons Corner, Virginia, where there was a partial wall collapse, damaging a number of cars. Other videos are showing the contents of stores being thrown to the ground and the quake rumbled through.

Although this was a moderate quake, it has a significant reach due to the nature of the geology under the Eastern United States.

In the NYC metro area, some had flashbacks to the reactions of 9/11 - and the need to flee buildings when the rumbling began. But between those who felt the quake and fled, others needed to be told that a quake actually occurred because they didn't feel a thing. I fall in that latter category since I didn't feel it. It was only after others told me that they thought they felt a quake that I went online to the USGS site to learn that a quake occurred - down in Virginia.

Moderate 5.9 Earthquake Hits Virginia; Felt As Far As New York City

A magnitude 5.8 quake hit just outside Washington D.C., and was felt as far away as New York City:


View Larger Map

There are evacuations at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.

It's rather unusual to see earthquakes of this magnitude in Virginia, and the largest earthquake in the state's history was back on May 31, 1897, when a 5.9 hit. That quake seemed to be felt much more locally than today's quake, which was felt up here in the NYC metro area.

I can't say that I felt it personally, but Mrs. Lawhawk and others in her office felt it. Some local offices have been evacuated as a precaution.


UPDATE:
The USGS has apparently upgraded the quake to a magnitude 5.9 upon further review. The quake was felt as far away as parts of Canada.

1010wins is reporting that Newark Liberty airport has temporarily closed to check for runway damage.

All NJ TRANSIT rail, bus and light rail services are operating. Customers may experience some delays because of crowding conditions and speed restrictions due to this afternoon's earthquake. Systemwide cross-honoring is in effect. Check back for updates.

From local traffic reports:
NYC BULLETIN - 6-10 m delay - HUDSON RIVER CROSSINGS: INBOUND HOLLAND TUNNEL REOPENED // OUTBOUND REOPENED.
2:46 PM
NYC BULLETIN - 1-5 m delay - JOHN F KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT CLOSED ON ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES DUE TO EATHQUAKE.
2:46 PM
NYC BULLETIN - 1-5 m delay - NEWARK LIBERTY AIRPORT CLOSED ON ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES DUE TO EARTHQUAKE.

From FoxNews:

The National Park Service said that all National Mall monuments and memorials are closed and evacuated after the quake.

At Reagan National Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell during a few seconds of shaking. Authorities announced it was an earthquake and all flights were put on hold.

At the Pentagon in northern Virginia, a low rumbling built and built to the point that the building was shaking. People ran into the corridors of the government's biggest building and as the shaking continued there were shouts of "Evacuate! Evacuate!"

In New York, the 26-story federal courthouse in lower Manhattan began swaying and hundreds of people were seen leaving the building. Court officers weren't letting people back in.

UPDATE:
It's once again a good reminder for everyone to make sure that they have their disaster go-plans just in case a more serious tremblor hits.

And they have hit across the East Coast in the past. Many people don't realize that some of the strongest quakes to hit the United States have come not in California, but in New Madrid, MO, and in South Carolina. Other strong quakes have struck in Ontario Canada and across New York, but are often weaker than other quakes even though they are felt over a wider area.

UPDATE:
Looks like the National Cathedral in Washington was damaged by the quake. Its website says that it's closed for the afternoon to inspect for damage, but
Washington Post reports:

The tip of the National Cathedral in Washington spire crashed onto the steps on Pilgrim Road. Three of the four pinnacles of the central tower are down and there’s significant damage, said spokesman Richard Weinberg. No injuries were reported.

UPDATE:
Updated the headline to reflect the USGS upgrade of the quake to a 5.9. Also, the Washington Post has a comprehensive roundup of quake news from DC.

Major 7.4 Aftershock Renews Concerns In Japan

A major 7.4 aftershock rocked Japan just minutes ago:

Japan was rattled by a strong aftershock and tsunami warning Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast.

The Japan meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to 6 feet (two meters). The warning was issued for a coastal area already torn apart by last month's tsunami, which is believed to have killed some 25,000 people and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant.

Officials say Thursday's aftershock was a 7.4-magnitude and hit 25 miles (40 kilometers) under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The quake that preceded last month's tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude.

Buildings as far away as Tokyo shook for about a minute.

The USGS is actually reporting this as two separate and distinct 7.4 aftershocks spaced about 2 minutes apart:
MAP     7.4      2011/04/07 14:32:42       38.253       141.640     25.6      NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP     7.4      2011/04/07 14:32:00       38.200       142.000     40.0      NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

The quakes occurred at slightly different depths and locations, and while each, by themselves, could have serious consequences, together they add to the woes facing the Japanese in their ongoing struggle to recover the remains of those killed in the tsunami and to regain control over the four damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Shake maps show moderate intensity for the region most heavily affected by the 9.1 monster quake.

By itself, a quake this size could cause tremendous damage in a country that doesn't have strict or adequate building codes. Thus far, the initial reports indicate that the quake didn't add to Japan's misery - though there are tsunami warnings and alerts. 

No such alert is issued for Hawaii, Alaska or the West Coast though.

Meanwhile, TEPCO has evacuated Fukushima in the wake of the latest quake and potential for tsunami.

Public broadcaster NHK reported a tsunami warning for Miyagi prefecture, saying people in that area should evacuate away from the shore to a safe place.

NHK also reported a tsunami advisory for Iwate prefecture, saying a tsunami is expected to arrive in coastal regions there as well.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said based on all available data, "a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected and there is not a tsunami threat to Hawaii."

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered 41 miles (66 kilomemeters) from Sendai -- one of the areas worst hit by last month's 9.0-magnitude quake -- and 73 miles (118 kilometers) from Fukushima, where a crisis has been under way at a nuclear plant since last month's tsunami.

Japanese Nuclear Emergency Will Take Months To Bring Under Control

Japan's nuclear emergency will take months to fully bring under control as efforts to keep the nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools cool have caused their own problems that are proving to be as problematic as the coolant problems were.



To keep the reactors and spent fuel pools cool, TEPCO and the Japanese government were pouring hundreds of tons of sea water, including boron infused water, and TEPCO now faces tons of radioactive water due to leaks in any number of places.

It is those leaks that are now dogging the efforts to contain the radioactivity because the water is disrupting efforts to contain the reactors.

The remains of two workers at Fukushima were discovered; they had been presumed missing since the tsunami hit. Their bodies will need to be decontaminated for radiation due to the ongoing exposures at the nuclear reactor.

Workers are trying to plug leaks and aren't having much success.

On Saturday, workers discovered an 8-inch-long crack in a maintenance pit at the Fukushima plant that they said was believed to have been caused by the earthquake. Water containing levels of radioactive iodine far above the legal limit spilled from it into the Pacific, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

A picture released by TEPCO shows water shooting some distance away from a wall and splashing into the sea, though the amount of water was not clear. The contaminated water was expected to quickly dissipate in the ocean but could pose a danger to workers at the plant.

Pooling water at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex — which is believed to come from the reactor cores — has repeatedly forced technicians to pull back and suspend their work.

Word of the leak came Saturday as Prime Minister Naoto Kan toured the town of Rikuzentakata, his first trip to survey damage in one of the dozens of villages, towns and cities slammed by the tsunami.

"The government has been too focused on the Fukushima power plant rather than the tsunami victims. Both deserve attention," said 35-year-old Megumi Shimanuki, who was visiting her family at a community center converted into a shelter in hard-hit Natori, about 100 miles from Rikuzentakata.

More than 165,000 are still living in shelters, and tens of thousands more still do not have electricity or running water.

Although the government had rushed to provide relief, its attention has been divided by the efforts at the Fuskushima plant.

The plant's reactors overheated to dangerous levels after electrical pumps — deprived of power — failed to circulate water to keep them cool. A series of almost daily problems have led to substantial amounts of radiation leaking into the atmosphere, ground and sea. Huge hydrogen explosions destroyed the buildings surrounding two of the reactors.

Over the past 10 days, pools of contaminated water have been found throughout the plant and high levels of radioactivity have been measured in the ocean, but this marks the first time authorities said they had found a spot where the water was directly entering the sea.

Japan Preparing More Evacuations Around Fukushima As Relief Efforts Continue

A new aerial video survey was taken over the stricken Fukushima reactor complex, and you can see snow falling, but more ominously is the steam that continues belching from the damaged reactor buildings.



That compares with the video taken during the tsunami as it roared ashore:


The ongoing nuclear emergency is forcing the Japanese government to expand evacuations around the Fukushima reactor complex.

Japan's government Friday urged residents living within 18 miles of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to voluntarily leave their homes and suggested that officials could expand the mandatory evacuation zone.

People living within 12 miles of the plant have been evacuated, yet those living between 12 and 18 miles of the facility have been told it is safe to remain as long as they stay indoors. But two weeks after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the country and hobbled the plant, causing radiation to leak, the situation has yet to be resolved.

"It has become increasingly difficult for goods to arrive, and life has become harder," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a news conference. He called upon local governments in the zone near the plant to encourage people to leave. It was not immediately clear how many people remained within 18 miles of the plant.

It's feared that the radiation leaking from the reactor complex is much worse, particularly after several workers were injured by highly radioactive water.

The possible breach was suspected when two workers waded into water 10,000 times more radioactive than normal and suffered skin burns, according to the Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency.

"It is possible there may be damage somewhere in the reactor," spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said, adding that the cause of the burns still remains unclear.

Nishiyama said there is no data suggesting there were any cracks, and that a leak in the plumbing or the vents could be the cause.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Japan reached a milestone as NHK broadcasting reported the latest estimates of 10,175 people dead and more than 17,400 still missing since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami rattled the country March 11.

The U.S. military is now taking a direct role in attempts to cool reactors at the damaged nuclear plant, according to U.S. and Japanese officials.

As a first step, the U.S. military plans to ship 525,000 gallons of fresh water on two U.S. Navy barges from a U.S. base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Forces Japan.

The move to ship fresh water is critical to restarting the coolant systems because the sea water contains salt that can gum up critical components and would need to be flushed out before they can be safely restarted.

Japan Struggles To Deal With Nuclear Emergencies As Death Toll Climbs

The Japanese government continues to struggle to deal with the massive death and devastation following the 9.0 quake and tsunami swamped much of the northeastern portion of the country and disabled and badly damaged the nuclear reactors at Fukushima's nuclear power complex.

The death toll is now over 8,800 and expected to climb much higher in coming days. Hundreds of thousands are still homeless and many more have been evacuated from the exclusion zone around Fukushima because of the radiation hazard posed by the damaged reactors and storage pools.

A number of workers were forced to evacuate from reactor #3 because of smoke rising from the stricken reactor. Power crews from TEPCO have run new power lines to the four stricken reactors in the hopes of restoring coolant systems, but damage to some systems at one of the reactors has delayed efforts, and the smoke rising from #3 has led to still more delays. Delays were also likely because insufficient power is being delivered to the damaged reactors.



The US NRC has reported that they consider the situation at Fukushima to be stabilizing, which is a bit of good news in a sea of trouble.

Radiation containment domes at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear reactors are intact and the situation at the plant “is on the verge of stabilizing,” a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said.

“Containment at units 1, 2 and 3 appear to be functional,” Bill Borchardt, executive director for operations at the agency, said today during a meeting at the agency’s headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.

Spent-fuel pools used to keep fuel rods from overheating at units 3 and 4 are stabilizing. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said progress was being made in restoring power to reactors No. 1 and No. 2, while Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it had connected No. 3 and No 4.

“The fact that offsite power is close to being available for use at plant equipment is perhaps the first optimistic sign that things could be turning around,” Borchardt said.

The damage to the reactors and the spent fuel pools is going to cause a redesign and reassessment of how spent fuel is stored. The design of the TEPCO reactors and spent fuel pools is no longer used, and there were tradeoffs in where and how the spent fuel rods were stored. The massive quake and resulting tsunamis highlighted the tradeoffs and the vulnerability of the spent fuel pools, which will likely lead to work to bolster the containment at spent fuel pools around the world to prevent the kinds of problems seen at Fukushima to minimize the possibility that a radiation release could occur as a result of failures to the coolant systems and backup systems.

More than a week after the quake and tsunami, new footage of the tsunami crashing ashore is being posted online along with some startling tales of survival:





The second video shows the sea walls handling the surging ocean for the initial bursts, but at the 8:00 mark or so, the waves simply overtop the sea wall, and the water rushes in. Those sea walls gave a measure of protection and time for people to get away from the coast as the tsunami came ashore. Those precious minutes cannot be overlooking in how Japan prepared for the tsunami and earthquakes - the death toll would have been surely much higher had those sea walls not been in place and the water rushed inland with those first surges.

UPDATE:
The NY Times has a good graphic showing the status of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, along with their storage pool situations. Meanwhile, TEPCO admits that it missed certain key inspections just weeks before the devastating quake and tsunami. A March 2 response from Japan's nuclear regulator says that it did not believe there was an immediate risk to safety as a result of the missed inspections. Those items that were not inspected included backup systems on one of the crippled reactors.

UPDATE:

Japan Raises Nuclear Emergency Severity Rating As Relief Efforts Continue

The death toll from the massive 9.0 quake and resulting tsunami has surpassed 6,500 and many thousands remain missing and presumed dead. Hundreds of thousands more are displaced, and evacuation efforts trying to get foreign citizens out of Japan are gaining speed.

The Japanese government has raised the severity of the ongoing nuclear emergency at Fukushima's nuclear power plants. Several of the reactors and at least one storage pool are in bad shape and releasing radiation due to failures in the coolant systems following the massive 9.0 earthquake.



Efforts to string up power lines to restore power to the backup systems are underway, as is efforts to manually pump water onto the stricken reactors to cool them down.

Japan on Friday increased the severity of the crisis at the Fukushima site from 4 to 5 on a 7-point international nuclear event scale.

Firefighters are dousing water on damaged reactor buildings with powerful hoses. But they have to limit their time inside the complex due to the high radiation levels.

Japanese engineers also are extending an emergency power cable to the nuclear reactor complex. A steady supply of power could enable workers at the Fukushima plant to get water pumps working again.

Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, says Japan is racing against time to cool the overheating reactors. Amano arrived in Japan Friday to meet with top Japanese officials and learn how the IAEA can help with the crisis.

The increase in the nuclear accident's severity rating comes shortly after the chief secretary of Japan's cabinet, Yukio Edano, tried to calm fears about the radiation. He said elevated radiation levels detected kilometers away from the plant were not a health risk.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that Japanese authorities have told them they have successfully laid a cable line to reactor number two at the nuclear plant. However, it is not clear how close workers are to actually restoring power.

One of the possible solutions to prevent a significant release of radiation being proffered is that the Japanese and Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) may erect a concrete and sand sarcophagus, similar to the containment structure erected by the Soviets following the Chernobyl disaster.

UPDATE:
The disaster is sure to spark a renewed look at Japan's nuclear industry and failures of oversight and recognition of risks based on site analysis. While the engineering of the containment facilities appears to have been vindicated as far as the reactor cores are concerned, risks from seismic events and tsunamis were underestimated and design decisions did not take the tsunami risk seriously enough:

Back-up diesel generators that might have averted the disaster were positioned in a basement, where they were overwhelmed by waves.

“This in the country that invented the word Tsunami,” said Brockman, who also worked at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Japan is going to have a look again at its regulatory process and whether it’s intrusive enough.”

The cascade of events at Fukushima had been foretold in a report published in the U.S. two decades ago. The 1990 report by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent agency responsible for safety at the country’s power plants, identified earthquake-induced diesel generator failure and power outage leading to failure of cooling systems as one of the “most likely causes” of nuclear accidents from an external event.

While the report was cited in a 2004 statement by Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, it seems adequate measures to address the risk were not taken by Tokyo Electric, said Jun Tateno, a former researcher at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and professor at Chuo University.
Accident Foretold

“It’s questionable whether Tokyo Electric really studied the risks,” Tateno said in an interview. “That they weren’t prepared for a once in a thousand year occurrence will not go over as an acceptable excuse.”

Hajime Motojuku, a utility spokesman, said he couldn’t immediately confirm whether the company was aware of the report.

UPDATE:
Among the latest measures the Japanese government has done in conjunction with raising the nuclear emergency alert level was purchase 150 tons of boron from South Korea and France to help tamp down the neutron reactions in the affected reactors. The boron would be mixed with the water being pumped on to the reactors to cool them down.

That raises questions as to the preparedness of Japan to deal with a nuclear emergency, why they didn't have sufficient stocks of boron on hand to deal with a potential disaster, and why they didn't move sooner to attempt to add boron to the water being poured on the reactors.

Also, the spent fuel pool at reactor 4 is among the priority concerns because there appears to be damage to the pool itself, allowing water to leak and affecting the ability to keep the fuel rods submerged and cool. It's a danger because the spent fuel pools aren't designed with containment to the same level as the reactor core is.

Crisis Continues In Japan As Relief Efforts and Nuclear Emergency Take Toll

How to help.

The death toll continues rising, and is over 3,600, and the number of missing is still over 8,000 as hope fades for finding more survivors. Half a million people are without homes and getting aid to the stricken areas is complicated not only by damaged roads, washed out bridges, and debris fields that stretch on as far as the eye can see, but snow, rain, and the radiation danger from the damaged Fukushima reactors is omnipresent on the minds of Japanese and the rescue crews sent in to the area to look for victims and assisting survivors. It's a herculean effort to get supplies into the damaged areas even without worrying about a nuclear crisis.

The damage from the quake, tsunami, and nuclear emergency is likely to cost upwards of $200 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in history, and it puts tremendous pressure on the Japanese government.

The stricken reactors continue to vex operators trying to get the pressure and temperatures under control. After considering using helicopters to dump water on the damaged reactors, operators have turned to using water cannons as used in riot control to spray water on the reactors because of the radiation danger posed to helicopter crews.

There are further reports that a second reactor at the stricken nuclear power complex was damaged and may be leaking radiation. Reactor 2 has been the focus of scrutiny since an explosion rocked that reactor facility and appears to have damaged the suppression chamber that holds the water and steam necessary to cool the reactor core. While experts believe that the containment structures at reactors 1 and 3 are intact, they aren't sure about the damaged reactor 2.

As a result of the explosions, radioactivity levels rose sharply around the Fukushima Daiichi plant on Tuesday. The Nuclear Energy Institute reported that a dose rate of 1.19 rems per hour was observed at the site boundary and dose of 40 rems per hour was seen close to the plant (a rem is a measure of biological damage to tissue). The 1.19 rem reading dropped to about 0.06 rems per hour later in the day, however.

The readings are considered high, engineers said. On average, individuals are subjected to about 0.6 rems per year. Nuclear power plant workers are typically limited to about 5 rems per year. According the 1982 book, Nuclear Power: Both Sides by Michio Kaku, 1,000 rems would kill a person a few days after exposure, 500 rems would kill half of the exposed population within a few weeks, 200-400 rems would cause radiation sickness and hemorrhaging, and 50 rems would cause no immediate visible effects, but could induce long-term damage.

As if all that wasn't enough, a fire was detected at a fourth reactor at Fukushima, which lasted for about 30 minutes before it was put out.



TEPCO reports that they're continuing to inject sea water into Unit 1, along with boric acid to soak up the neutron emissions that release the heat that is causing the pressure to rise - and raising the risk of further explosions and breach of containment. As for the other reactors:

*Unit 2
At 1:25 pm, March 14th, since the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System has failed, it was determined that a specific incident stipulated in article 15, clause 1 occurred (failure of reactor cooling function). At 5:17 pm, while the water level in the reactor reached the top of the fuel rod, we have restarted the water injection with the valve operation. At approximately 6:14 am, March 15th, the extraordinary sound was confirmed near the suppression chamber and the pressure inside the chamber decreased afterwards. It was determined that there is a possibility that something extraordinary happened in the suppression chamber. While sea water injection to the reactor continued, TEPCO employees and workers from other companies not in charge of injection work started tentative evacuation to a safe location. Sea water injection to the reactor is still under operation.

*Unit 3
At 6:50 am, March 14th, while water injection to the reactor was under operation, the pressure in the reactor containment vessel increased to 530 kPa. As a result, at 7:44 am, it was determined that a specific incident stipulated in article 15, clause 1 occurred (abnormal increase of the pressure of reactor containment vessel). Afterwards, the pressure has gradually decreased (as of 9:05 am, 450 kPa).

At approximately 11:01 am, March 14th, an explosion followed by white smoke occurred near Unit 3. 4 TEPCO employees and 3 workers from other companies (all of them are conscious) have sustained injuries and they were already dispatched to the hospital by ambulances.

*Unit 4
At approximately 6:00 am, March 15th, an explosive sound occurred and the damage in the 5th floor roof of Unit 4 reactor building was confirmed. At 9:38 am, the fire near the north-west part of 4th floor of Unit 4 reactor building was confirmed. At approximately 11:00 am, TEPCO employee confirmed that the fire was off.

Due to the ongoing concerns about the radiation risks and ongoing seismic hazards, the US is warning against travel to Japan. Other countries, including Canada, are issuing similar warnings.

Meanwhile, damage estimates are being tallied for Hawaii and parts of California and Oregon where the tsunami came ashore. In Hawaii alone, damage is estimated at $300 million.

UPDATE:
The latest death toll is now 4,255 with more than 9,000 still missing.

UPDATE:
The relief efforts are still hampered by bad weather, the ongoing nuclear emergency, and that access to the hardest hit areas is still limited. The task is painstaking and heartbreaking all at once.

“In an earthquake, if it’s within 72 hours and we reach them, they’re likely to be found alive; and in an earthquake, you find them in place and evacuate them,” said Kazutaka Hiramatsu, 48, a Tokyo firefighters’ school official who was helping direct the Shishiori search.

“But because the tsunami carries everything so far away, it’s very difficult to find people. And because it’s a tsunami, when we find them, they are usually already dead.”

Because most victims are neither in their homes nor able to call for help, the search-and-rescue teams that attend most natural disasters are less useful. In this case, the first victims are found and zipped into body bags by the workers sent in to clear paths through the debris fields that the tsunami has left behind.

“The problem,” Mr. Sato said, “is that there’s a lot of water, and a lot of the debris is just too big to move. So our search has become search-and-removal — we have to do it all together.”

Sometimes other homeowners, coming back to pick through the rubble of their belongings, discover the dead. In Kesen-cho, a village in another tsunami-flattened coastal area eight miles northeast of Kesennuma, journalists on Tuesday encountered two victims by a plowed roadside, laid on planks and carefully covered with a beige duvet and a Mickey Mouse bedspread. Bodies also have been recovered at sea by the Japan’s Coast Guard and the United States Navy, which have mounted helicopter searches from ships offshore.

That leaves the most difficult and painstaking work to the squads of searchers from Japan’s military, the Self-Defense Force, and emergency bodies like the Tokyo Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Here in Kesennuma, about 800 searchers are deployed in all, outfitted in mud boots and slickers and carrying the tools of their trade. “We use bars, axes, and breaking tools that look like spurs to lift and turn over debris,” said Keiichiro Horiguchi, one of the Tokyo agency’s searchers. “We break walls and windows, and use metal cutting tools to turn over the tiles that cover the roofs to see if there is anybody beneath.”

UPDATE:
The US Navy is continuing to provide search, rescue, and relief assistance. Ships, including the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Essex are involved in the efforts. Via Twitter, the Essex ARG w/ @31stMEU are in the Sea of Japan and are positioning themselves off Sakata to conduct disaster relief operations.

Perhaps, more importantly, the USNS Safeguard has offloaded high-pressure water pumps in Yokosuka for transfer to the Japanese government to be used in getting the situation at Fukushima under control.

Those high pressure water pumps are going to be critical to getting water on the damaged reactors to keep an already dangerous situation from getting even worse.

UPDATE:
US officials are extremely concerned and alarmed at the way Japanese officials are handling the crisis at Fukushima - and believe that the spent fuel pool at reactor 4 may be dry - exposing the cores to air - and releasing tremendous amounts of radiation to the point that it can be impossible to approach without being a suicide mission.

"We are all-out urging the Japanese to get more people back in there to do emergency operation there, that the next 24 to 48 hours are critical," the official said. "Urgent efforts are needed on the part of the Japanese to restore emergency operations to cool" down the reactors' rods before they trigger a meltdown.

"They need to stop pulling out people—and step up with getting them back in the reactor to cool it. There is a recognition this is a suicide mission," the official said.

The official said the United States is in very deep consultations with Japanese about the way forward and that the only thing that has been favorable is the wind pattern that is blowing the contaminated material out to sea instead south towards Tokyo and other populated areas, but that can't be counted upon.

The U.S. official says experts believe there is a rupture in two, maybe three of the six reactors at the Fukushima power plant, but as worrisome is the fact that spent fuel rods are now exposed to the air, which means that substances like cesium, which have a long half-life, could become airborne.

"That could be deadly for decades," the official said.

There is a growing concern around the world that a nuclear catastrophic disaster is in the works.

"There is talk of an apocalypse and I think the word is particularly well chosen," European Union's energy commissioner Günther Oettinger said today, according to various reports. "Practically everything is out of control. I cannot exclude the worst in the hours and days to come."

Yet, the IAEA director says that things aren't yet out of control.

I'm thinking that no one really knows the true extent of the damage and everyone's resorting to suppositions based on what information they do know (and however outdated that information may be - a pronouncement based on outdated information may lead to a vastly different conclusion than more current information).

Meanwhile, the US is deploying additional radiation sensors in Hawaii to detect potential radiation downwind of the stricken reactors.

How to Help: Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Efforts Gaining Steam

As with many other natural disasters, the US Navy is leading the way - sending a carrier task force to assist with the logistical and relief efforts. But they are hardly alone.

Japan has received offers of assistance from 14 international organizations and 102 countries (including a number of unexpected aid donors such as embattled Afghanistan and poverty-stricken Cambodia), according to the latest report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Hollywood is by and large stepping up. Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 have gone and found ways to donate to relief efforts. They're auctioning off a bunch of Blink 182 items, and one of them is now fetching over $20,000. His other listings are here.

Simon Cowell and Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and others are planning a relief single. Lady Gaga has been selling a Japan prayer bracelet with all proceeds going to earthquake relief efforts.

Many charitable and disaster relief organizations now take donations via text messages:

The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross are among the groups accepting $10 donations via text message.

To donate to the Salvation Army, which has had a presence in Japan since 1895, text "Japan" or "Quake" to 80888.

Text "RedCross" to 90999 to donate to its fund set up in response to the disaster. The American Red Cross is coordinating with its Japanese counterpart, which is leading the organization's efforts in the disaster area.

Still a relatively new way to accept donations, texting took off last year after the earthquake in Haiti. The Red Cross said more than 3 million contributors used text messages to donate $32 million to relief efforts following the Port-Au-Prince quake.

For those who want to offer donations directly to charitable organizations directly, here are a few notable links (and far from inclusive - if you have others, leave them in the comments). Note too that some charities have not set up a separate donation path for the Japanese disaster:

• Google Crisis Response (2011 Japanese Earthquake).
• Salvation Army is accepting donations via SMS or online, by phone, calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY.
• Save the Children is taking online donations and credit and debit card donations over the phone.
• Christian Aid and Oxfam have not set up separate appeals for Japan, but you can donate to their general emergency funds.
• InterAction, an alliance of US-based international NGOs, has published a list of its members that are collecting money for the relief efforts. You can pledge money directly to the 22 organisations mentioned, which include Relief International, World Vision and Habitat for Humanity.
  
• Online coupon site Groupon has set up a page to allow visitors to donate $5, $10 or $25 to support efforts of the International Medical Corps in Japan. According to the site, the coupon for donations won't expire until 16 June. 
• PayPal has set up an online store to take donations for Save the Children, GlobalGiving, HandsOn Network and the American Red Cross. It will pay all contributing costs. 
• Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA): ADRA Aids Japan Earthquake Victims
• All Hands Volunteers: Japan Earthquake & Tsunami
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee: Japan/Pacific Emergency Relief Fund
• AmeriCares: Rescue searchers in Japan
• Aanda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT): Asia donations
•  International Medical Corps relief efforts, text MED to 80888.

I've donated to the American Red Cross in the past, but have donated to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiers) in response to recent overseas natural disasters because the group has low overhead and directs 85% of the donations to actual services - but MSF has not set up a separate donation path for the tsunami relief as yet.

Also, if you are working for a company that does a charitable donation match, be sure to take advantage of those opportunities to maximize your charitable giving. Keep your receipts as well since not only can you bring some relief to those in need, but you might be able to take advantage of your donations during the 2011 tax year filing (returns due April 2012).

The Death Toll Sharply Rises As Rescue Efforts Keep Eyes on Sea and Nuclear Reactors

How to help.

Japan continues to be rocked by aftershocks and scientists are warning of the potential for an aftershock above magnitude 7 within the next week. Several hundred aftershocks have been recorded, and more than two dozen have been above magnitude 6.

With each strong aftershock, the potential for another tsunami exists, and rescue and relief efforts are trying to reach the hardest hit areas.

Yet, the most dangerous situation right now appears to be the ongoing problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, where two reactors suffered damage from hydrogen gas explosions, and a third reactor has lost coolant and the plant operators warn that the fuel rods may have been fully exposed - raising the specter of radiation leaks significantly.



Already, crews aboard the USS Ronald Reagan have been hit by radiation spewing from the damaged reactors.

The nuclear powered aircraft carrier and her task force is providing relief efforts along the stricken coast, but the ships are moving away from the projected path of radiation emanating from the damaged nuclear plants. That is going to further slow relief efforts as the ships are providing critical logistical support with their contingent of helicopters.

Entire towns were swept away, and the death toll is expected to rise sharply as estimates suggest the toll may exceed 10,000. Currently the official toll is 2,800 and bodies are being cremated where possible, but local officials are overwhelmed by the numbers.

The scenes of devastation harken back to the massive tsunami in South Asia in 2004, and that's despite Japan being among the most advanced technologically to deal with natural disasters. Even though towns had several minutes warning, the advancing wall of water was simply incredible and overwhelming.



Sea walls were clearly overtopped by the tsunami, but it does appear that they provided at least a momentary reprieve from the wall of water - giving precious minutes of time for people to attempt to flee.





With much of Japan reliant on nuclear power and the ongoing nuclear emergencies, Japanese authorities are implementing rolling blackouts to prevent a total collapse of the power grid until things stabilize. That means that manufacturers are going to take it on the chin - companies like Honda, Toyota and Nissan had affected plants, damaged vehicles and infrastructure, and aren't going to be able to export vehicles for some time - not only affecting their bottom line, but reducing available funds for the Japanese to deal with the crisis. For those in the US, this means that the availability of some vehicles, like the Toyota Prius, Lexus, and other hybrids are going to be limited in the short run.

UPDATE:
Moved the link for helping with relief efforts to top, and note that the NY Times has an excellent interactive primer on the ongoing troubles at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

UPDATE:
Telecommunications providers are scrambling to reroute and repair numerous undersea cables that were damaged or cut as a result of the massive quake. The damage to the cables has reduced Internet connectivity with Japan and made an already tough situation even more difficult.

The Situation Remains Dire In Japan As Rescue and Relief Efforts Continue

Japan faces a three-pronged disaster, with recovery and relief efforts focusing on searching for survivors and victims from the massive 9.0 earthquake (revised upwards from 8.9 by Japanese scientists) and ensuing tsunami, and warily eying the dire situation at several nuclear reactors in the hard stricken area.



Reports are indicating that perhaps 10,000 or more were killed in Miyagi prefecture alone, and that's on top of the 1,000 that are officially listed as killed from the tsunami and quake.



Video from Chiba, where the tsunami came roaring through:


Meanwhile, while much of the world has seen the flooding at Sendai's airport, video has emerged showing the tsunami striking from within one of the terminal buildings and the onlookers at first staring in wonderment and then quickly moving away from the windows and walls as the wall of water approaches:


At the same time, there continues to be mixed reports about the seriousness of the situation at several nuclear reactors. Some headlines are indicating that meltdowns are in progress, while others are noting that there hasn't been any breach of the reactor containment vessels nor a release of massive amounts of radiation. The explosion witnessed yesterday was the result of hydrogen gas exploding during the release of gas to bring down the pressure within the reactor. Japanese scientists are bringing down the temperature at the reactors in the Fukushima complex with sea water and boric acid, which tamps down the nuclear chain reactions.

MSNBC - headlines the term meltdown, but dig a little deeper, and the term isn't clearly defined.

A "meltdown" is not a technical term. Rather, it is an informal way of referring to a very serious collapse of a power plant's systems and its ability to manage temperatures. Yaroslov Shtrombakh, a Russian nuclear expert, said a Chernobyl-style meltdown was unlikely.

"It's not a fast reaction like at Chernobyl," he said. "I think that everything will be contained within the grounds, and there will be no big catastrophe."
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe. That reactor — unlike the Fukushima one — was not housed in a sealed container, so there was no way to contain the radiation once the reactor exploded.

Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which opposes nuclear energy, told msnbc.com Friday that TEPCO was facing a potential catastrophe.

"What's critical is, are they able to restore cooling and prevent fuel damage? If the fuel starts to get damaged, eventually it will melt through the reactor vessel and drop to the floor of the containment building," raising the odds that highly radioactive materials could be released into the environment, he said.
msnbc.com

But Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the U.S.-based Nuclear Energy Institute, said that while the situation was serious, a meltdown remains unlikely and, even if it occurred would not necessarily pose a threat to public health and safety.

Scientists are trying to get a handle on the nuclear chain reactions to keep the pressure within the reactor from getting to supercritical levels causing an explosion and breach of the containment vessel in which the uranium cores sit. Moderator rods are present to soak up the energy but even a reactor that is shut down is still releasing tremendous amounts of energy - and requires coolant systems. It is those systems that failed, particularly the backup systems that should have kicked in when the quake struck.

UPDATE:
Here are before/after images of many of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami. Of particular note is one of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which shows many of the secondary buildings wiped away by the tsunami. That could explain why the coolant systems failed.

UPDATE:
Rethinking sea walls against tsunami is already underway - but it will take some time before the full effect of whether they saved lives in some areas and provided a false sense of security in others - particularly around the Fukushima reactor complex.

Japan Begins Massive Rescue and Relief Effort While Warily Eyeing Nuclear Plants

The massive 8.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan caused tremendous damage and the tsunami spawned by the quake roared throughout the Pacific Ocean, causing damage as far away as Oregon and California. Hundreds are dead in Japan and thousands are missing, particularly in the city of Sendai.

Yet, for all those concerns, a renewed tsunami warning as aftershocks continue rumbling off the Northeastern coast of Japan, a new and potentially more dangerous threat looms as one of the nuclear power plants in the area most affected by the quake may be in the process of a meltdown.



An explosion was captured on video at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and there's little information coming from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, at this time so speculation is rampant. Radiation levels outside the plant have been above normal levels since the earthquake struck.



What we do know is that the operators have been having trouble since the quake hit in trying to restore coolant flow to the reactor core of the oldest reactor in the complex, which went online in 1970. Coolant flow is critical because even when a reactor is shut down, tremendous amounts of heat and energy are being released and has to be dissipated to keep pressures within the reactor from getting to critical levels.

Nuclear reactors are built to withstand earthquakes - but not necessarily to a quake the size of the one experienced yesterday, but the reactor that is the most likely to have been involved at the Fukushima plant was an older reactor and pressures within the reactor reached 2.1 times the design limit after initially rising 1.5 times. Add to the fact that the backup systems failed for a reason that has yet to be determined.

Yesterday, President Obama called the situation heartbreaking and pledged to provide all manner of humanitarian assistance:


To that end, the US has deployed a carrier task force to head to Japan to provide relief assistance, particularly helicopter assets that can help the Japanese reach hard hit areas that have seen roads, airports, and other infrastructure washed away.

UPDATE:
The Wall Street Journal reports that a building collapsed at the Fukushima power plant, but no indication on whether that was a reactor containment building or ancillary structure.

A portion of the reactor's fuel rods, which create heat through a nuclear reaction, had become exposed due to the cooling-system failure. The spokesman for Tepco said 1.5 meters of the 4.5 meter long fuel rods were exposed. It was unclear Saturday afternoon whether the water added by workers had re-covered the rods.

Loss of cooling water resulted in a near meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania in 1979, the worst nuclear incident in U.S. history.

If coolant isn't restored, the result could be what's known as a meltdown -- extreme heat can melt through the reactor vessel and result in a radioactive release. Reactors have containment domes to catch any release. But there is always the chance that an earthquake could create cracks or other breaches in that containment system.

The Japanese government on Friday declared an emergency at the plant and ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents in the area. Officials steadily increased the evacuation perimeter Saturday, extending it to 20 kilometers Saturday evening.

By Saturday morning, some 20,000 people had been evacuated from the areas around the two troubled nuclear power plants in the Fukushima prefecture, according to Kyodo News.

Shortly after that, the government nuclear agency confirmed the radiation level at the gate of the plant was eight times as high as normal after some mildly radioactive vapor was released by the plant in an effort to ease pressure. Fukushima Daiichi has six reactors, all built in the 1970s, and three were operating when the quake happened. The No. 1 unit, the oldest and smallest of the reactors, appears to be the main source of the problems.

Asked about the impact of radiation at eight times higher than normal levels, Naoto Sekimura, a professor of quantum engineering at Tokyo University, said on national broadcaster NHK, "This is a minuscule amount. This is not going to have negative impact on the human body."

Inside the control room at Unit 1, the amount of radiation earlier Saturday reached around 1,000 times normal, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said, according to Kyodo.

Radiation levels aren't supposed to rise in a control room, which is designed to allow operators to continue working during emergencies and is equipped with filtration systems and other design features to protect workers from radiation exposure. Nevertheless, experts said that a level that is 1,000 times normal probably isn't immediately harmful.

UPDATE:
The explosion seriously damaged the containment building, but officials say that the inner reactor containment vessel was intact: Photos show the before and after view of the complex at Fukushima.

UPDATE:
Japanese officials are trying to figure out the situation at Fukushima, and are preparing for a worst case scenario by stockpiling iodine just in case, all while expanding the evacuation zone around the stricken plant.

UPDATE:
More details emerging on why the explosion took place at Fukushima.

"At this point, there has been no major change to the level of radiation leakage outside (from before and after the explosion), so we'd like everyone to respond calmly," Edano said.

"We've decided to fill the reactor container with sea water. Trade minister Kaieda has instructed us to do so. By doing this, we will use boric acid to prevent criticality."

Edano said it would take about five to 10 hours to fill the reactor core with sea water and around 10 days to complete the process.

Edano said due to the falling level of cooling water, hydrogen was generated and that leaked to the space between the building and the container and the explosion happened when the hydrogen mixed with oxygen there.

One of the ongoing concerns is that the lack of water to act as a coolant allowed temperatures and pressure to rise. What water was available was turned to steam or broken down into oxygen and hydrogen, which could spark and set off an explosion - and that appears to be what happened.

Expect that future plant designs will incorporate the lessons learned from the Fukushima plant disaster. That will include more robust backup systems that allow the plant to shut down in an orderly and safe fashion.

UPDATE:
The death toll continues rising, and is currently ranging from 1,300 to 1,700. Most of those killed were from the effects of the massive tsunamis that roared ashore and swept several miles inland overtaking everything in its path and reducing the countryside to a jumbled mess of rubble and debris. Entire towns are still unaccounted for and communications remains troublesome.

Japanese Benefited From Early Alert System; Where Is US System?

This is pretty damned spectacular and cool. Tokyo and other areas of the country received alerts of the impending massive 8.9 quake before it could be felt.

In Tokyo, because of its distance from northern Japan, the warning message reached people before the quake actually jolted the capital. When an earthquake occurs, seismometers near its source detect the first shockwave, which is usually mild and harmless. This wave is followed by another wave that travels more slowly and is much stronger and potentially destructive.

The agency's computer system analyzes the first, faster-traveling wave and quickly estimates how powerful the second wave will be; if it is likely to be very powerful, the system immediately issues a warning message.

The message comes on TV and radio, and many Japanese cellphones can receive and display the message. Some power and gas facilities as well as railway and industrial systems automatically halt their operations the moment they receive the warning message, the spokesman said.

In places relatively far from the seismic center, people can receive the warning up to half a minute or so before the quake reaches those areas.

Japan is the only country that has such an early warning system, according to the meteorological agency. The agency developed the system with help from scientists and launched it in December 2007.

The system is designed to send out the warning only if the intensity of the quake is lower 5 or stronger on the Japanese scale. (The scale has three levels for each number, so there's lower 5, 5 and upper 5.) Friday's quake was 7 on that scale, and the system sent out the warning message 8.6 seconds after it detected the very first shock wave.

Note that this was developed by the Japanese equivalent to the American NOAA.

30 seconds might not seem like a lot - but that's enough time to duck and cover or get others to a safer location. It can also help shut down chemical processes before the tremor hits - limiting damage further.

Scientists have been working on developing alert systems for years - discerning trigger signals that act as precursors to the movement that causes the potential damaging shaking.

­­P-waves and ­S-waves. Both types leave the fault surface at the same time, but there the similarities end. ­­P-waves, like sound waves, are compression waves. They travel relatively quickly, but they do not carry much power. During an earthquake, you feel the ­P-waves as a sudden, vertical thump. ­S-waves are more like ocean waves, slow movers that contain most of the energy and bring the strongest shak­ing. The ground motion is horizontal and vertical, and they can bat entire buildings around like they were dinghies in the surf.

In addition, not all waves look alike; they take on different shapes depending on the size of the slip patch. The ­P-wave radiation for small slip patches has relatively low amplitude and high frequency—a small but sharp pulse. Bigger earthquakes rupture larger areas of a fault and have more slip, so the ­P-wave is larger in amplitude and lower in frequency. It is akin to the difference between the squeak of a small bird and the roar of a grizzly bear.

A single seismometer could estimate the magnitude of the earthquake based on just this information. Any ­P-wave with high amplitude and low frequency would trigger a warning. This single-station approach is the fastest way to give warnings near the epicenter. Yet the character of earthquake ruptures varies—not all magnitude 5.0 earthquakes look the same—and the specific sediments underneath the seismometer modify the ­P-wave. This variability increases the risk of both false alarms—warnings when there is no earthquake—and missed alarms when a damaging earthquake is under way.

The Japanese meteorological agency managed to install their system, but the US has been sorely lagging in this department.

The US, and particularly the West Coast and California, would benefit from such a system, but work on a similar system is well behind the curve. Even Mexico has a system in place, but the Japanese have taken it to another level with alerts that are broadcast not only on televisions and radio, but with text messages and email alerts for all manner of communications paths.

The Japanese system's merits were proven in earlier quakes, coincidentally hitting near Sendai (the epicenter of the worst damage in today's quake), when factories managed to shut down key systems reducing fire and other damage.

So, why has the US lagged? Funding - or the lack of same. Part of the problem is the deployment of thousands of sensors around California and the most quake-prone areas. There are significant gaps in the sensor placement. That's critical data that is missing.

And the cost for the installation? $80 million.

That's a small price to pay for the potential of saving countless lives, and reducing property damage.

Massive Quake Strikes Northern Japan Spawning Tsunamis and Warnings Around Pacific Rim

A massive 8.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Northern Japan causing widespread damage and a tsunami that inundated the city of Sendai. At least 60 people were killed, and the tsunami caused tremendous damage as it swept through the coastline of Northern Japan.

Tsunami warnings blanketed the entire Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast. The first waves from the tsunami hit Hawaii at about 8:30 a.m. ET.

The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake was followed by at least 20 aftershocks, most of them of more than magnitude 6.0. Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles from the epicenter.

"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference.

Police said at least 60 people were killed and 56 were missing. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of the disaster.

Power outages were reported, in part due to the shutdown of several nuclear reactors that were in the region affected - one reported a turbine fire, while another had an issue with its coolant system.

Japan ordered thousands of residents near a nuclear power plant to evacuate on Friday following a massive earthquake that caused a problem in the plant's cooling system.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the Fukushima No. 1 power plant was not leaking radiation. The plant is in Onahama city, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.

Japan's nuclear safety agency ordered more than 2,800 people in the area to evacuate following the government's declaration of a state of emergency at the plant.

The quake triggered a power failure and when a backup generator also failed, the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the reactor. The reactor core remains hot even after a shutdown.

The agency said plant workers were scrambling to restore the water supply. There was no prospect for an immediate success.

The images and video are startling as cameras trained on the coast and from helicopters overhead captured the tsunami as it roared inland and the strength of the quake surprised even many seasoned Japanese observers and scientists. The quake ranks among the most powerful ever recorded in the world.



The tsunami was expected to reach Hawaii around 9am ET, which was 3am local time. Wave heights were expected to be about 6 feet, but local conditions could lead to even higher waves and damage inland and close to shore.

The Pacific rim has braced itself for the arrival of tsunamis and its effects are expect to hit the West Coast of the US in several more hours. Local communities in Oregon are bracing for landfall later this morning.

Complicating relief efforts initially will be the fact that the Sendai airport was inundated by the tsunami, rendering it unusable for the time being.

President Obama announced that the US is ready to render assistance.

The tsunami and quake damage in Japan also may harm the country's fragile economic recovery, and are expected to affect exports and business operations to some degree. Cars ready for shipping were tossed about.

UPDATE:
The death toll continues rising, andA massive petrochemical plant is on fire:


Sendai airport is completely inundated and people scrambled to the roof to avoid being swept away by the incoming waves. Tokyo's Narita international airport also closed to traffic:




UPDATE:
Hundreds are reported dead in the quake and the ensuing tsunami and many more are missing. I suspect that the majority of those killed were from the effects of the tsunami.

More video - this time a long sequence of the tsunami hitting Natori:


UPDATE:
The rigorous Japanese building codes appears to have spared the country the loss of life seen with other massive quakes in recent years.

UPDATE:
The USGS continues monitoring the situation and lists the ongoing aftershocks from the main quake The list is piling up with significant quakes listed in red. There have been 16 aftershocks registering above 6.0, and the potential remains for further damaging quakes and possible tsunamis resulting from those aftershocks.

UPDATE:
US airlifts coolant to deal with ongoing emergency at Japanese nuclear reactor.

The United States has transported coolant to a Japanese nuclear plant hit by the massive Friday earthquake, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

"We just had our Air Force assets in Japan transport some really important coolant to one of the nuclear plants," Clinton said at a meeting of the President's Export Council.

"Japan is very reliant on nuclear power and they have very high engineering standards but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," Clinton said.

In addition, the Japanese defense ministry said it had dispatched dozens of troops trained to deal with chemical disaster to the plant in case of a radiation leak.

The moves came after Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) reported that pressure inside No.1 reactor at Fukushima-Daiichi nuke plant is rising, with risk of radiation leak.

The crisis at the plant led Japanese authorities to order the evacuation of thousands of residents from the area around the reactor. Officials, however, said there was no sign of leakage at present.

UPDATE:
More detail on the situation at the nuclear power plants. Four plants shut down as precautions due to the quake, but two had issues with coolant systems, one because of a problem with a backup system that allows coolant to continue flowing even if there's a power disruption. 20% of the Japanese nuclear power generating capacity was shut down due to the quake.

UPDATE:
Skyscrapers swaying from the effects of the quake -

That would be pretty unnerving to say the least, although it's a testament to Japanese building codes that the structures withstood the quake and dissipated the energy with swaying rather than collapsing.

Developing: 7.4 Quake Hits Pakistan

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has hit Southwestern Pakistan. Thus far, no reports of damage or casualties, but with a significant quake of this magnitude and the poor construction techniques prevalent in the region, I would expect to see damage and casualty reports coming in soon. A saving grace against a high death toll is the relatively low population density in this part of Pakistan.

Death Toll Mounts In Trio of Indonesian Natural Disasters

The death toll continues rising in the aftermath of the trio of natural disasters to strike Indonesia - an erupting Mount Merapi, earthquake, and subsequent tsunami.



Tsunami buoys were vandalized, but it isn't clear that it would have made any difference because of the close proximity between the epicenter of the quake and nearby villages. They may not have had any chance, even if warnings were sounded. Nearly 700 people are missing and presumed to have been swept out to sea. More than 340 others were killed in the combined natural disasters.

Mount Merapi has renewed its eruptions, putting thousands at risk from the ashfall.

More than 20,000 have been displaced.

Triple Natural Disasters Rock Indonesia

Indonesia has been rocked by a major earthquake, tsunami and volcanic eruptions in a triple display of nature's power. Villages near Mount Merapi are being urged to evacuate over the potential for a significant eruption. Scientists are concerned that a major eruption could threaten more than 11,000 people living nearby.

A 2-month old baby reportedly died as panicked villagers fled the area.

Up to 20 people were injured by hot ash spewed from Mount Merapi, said an AP reporter who witnessed them being taken away for treatment.

Some 11,400 villagers who live on the 9,737-foot (2,968-metre) -high mountain were urged to evacuate, but only those with four miles (seven kilometers) of the crater were forced by authorities to do so. Most of those who fled were the elderly and children. Some adults said they decided to stay to tend to homes and farms on the fertile slopes.

Private MetroTV reported that the baby died when a mother ran in panic after the eruption started. Its report cited a local doctor and showed the mother weeping as the baby was covered with white blanket at a hospital. The report did not make clear if it was a boy or girl.

That comes after a major 7.5 earthquake rocked the coast near Sumatra, setting off a tsunami. At least 100 were killed and hundreds more were missing when the tsunami swept through the coastal areas. Several major aftershocks were reported above magnitude 6.