Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Maggi Young on March 11, 2011, 01:02:59 PM
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I hope that no Forumists are caught up in this latest natural tragedy to hit the world. The earthquake that has hit Japan seems to be a really big one and there are tsunami effects as well.
Good luck to all our Japanese Forumists... hope you are all safe.
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Its been very scary watching it on the news and seeing people running from the water and debris. The waves smashing through buildings and ?greenhouses like they were made of paper
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All is right for Tetsuo and YT ;)
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At least it sounds like the fire at the nuclear power plant is out and there won't be a Japanese Chernobyl after all (assuming of course that the authorities are telling the truth about there not having been a release of radioactive material and aren't just trying to avoid a mass panic). Surely there have to be some serious questions about the safety issues surrounding building nuclear plants on and around major fault lines (even more than anywhere else).
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Glad to hear that Tetsuo and YT are OK. Thinking of everyone else, hope all is well. It is really terrifying watching the wave pick up huge vehicles and tossing them about like toy cars.
Angie :-[
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My oldest daughter lives in Tokyo. We've heard from her that it was scary, but she's ok. Tokyo did not get the worst of it. Communications remain disrupted and they're sorting things out.
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All good news so far.... haven't heard about KK's son..... fingers crossed all is well.
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I've heard from Koko ( KK in Ann Arbor).... all is well but it has been especially distressing for her.....
" My son sent us an e-mail early this morning telling us that he was OK. However, he was going to spend the night at work because of the transportation havoc. I am actually from the area directly impacted, the northern part of the Honshu island on the Pacific Ocean side. It is just horrifying to see the wave swallowing everything. I heard that there was only 30 min between the earthquake and the tidal wave. Fortunately all my relatives in that town live on the other side, away from water.
Thank you again for your thought.
Koko"
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It was horrifying just watching on TV, It must be terrifying to experience such events - our thought are with those affected. Relieved to hear our friends are safe at least.
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Thank you very much for all your warm-hearted comments.
Though the earthquake and tsunami was really big and terrible, we didn't get any damages at my living area. The centre of the quake was relatively far from here, so we had a bit of earth moving and only 1m tsunami was recorded. Now we are still having a highest alert of tsunami but it seems the alert will be cancelled shortly. Thank you again for thinking of us.
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Good to hear at least some of our friends in the country are OK! Unimaginable images for those closer to the area.....
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Looks like I spoke too soon about nuclear disaster being averted. They're having to vent radioactive steam from one reactor where the cooling system failed, to reduce the pressure build-up and presumably to stop the containment building fracturing or exploding. That's a scary scenario, and they'll have to keep venting unless the cooling system can be repaired, or risk a Chernobyle-style explosion. I assume core melt-down isn't out of the question. I mean, nuclear power stations on a major tectonic fault line?!!
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On the news tonight they said that they are now evacuating people living within 6 miles of the nuclear plant. That sounds ominous.
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I pity the poor engineers who may have to go into the containment building full of radioactive vapour and try to repair the cooling system.
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The evacuation zone may (hopefully!) only be to get people out of immediate danger from the plume of radioactive steam, rather than the danger of an explosion. Fingers crossed! If an explosion was imminent, I suspect they'd be evacuating a much wider area. But it sounds like there will be multiple releases of radioactive steam to keep the pressure down.
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Now that at last I have my computer problem under control, I'd like to add that my thoughts and prayers too, are with all in Japan and especially our Japanese Forumists and their families. This devastating event makes our own Christchurch quake pale into insignificance. There is so little we can do to help. The wonderful USAR team of Japanese who have helped here for a couple of weeks have just arrived home to their own appalling disaster and thankfully and with much gratitude, we are happy to send our own people to Japan but it is so little.
It seems there are two or maybe three nuclear stations affected and all the world must hope they can be contained and cooled effectively. I feel not only for the Japanese, but for the people of those tiny Atoll nations of the Pacific, like Tuvalu and others whose total land mass is literally just a meter or two above calm sea level. Tsunamis can wipe them from the face of the earth, and any release of radioactive steam, blown, as we are told it will be, eastward over the sea, could affect them too.
All of us who live on the Pacific's "Rim of Fire," the cordon of fault lines around the Pacific ocean, are all feeling on edge now.
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One of our television station coverages on the weekend claimed that the whole island of Honshu was moved 8 feet to the right (into the Pacific) by the shock. Can't vouch for the accuracy of the report but it does give a sense of the power of the event.
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The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts invites you and your friends to a very special exhibition.
The Way To Northern Cherry Blossoms
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Charity Exhibition
A group of Scottish artists, whose work has been inspired by Japan, are staging an exhibition and events to raise money for the stricken country.
Wednesday 6th April, 11am
Japanese Consul General, Mr Masataka Tarahara, will officially launch The Way To Northern Cherry Blossoms, along with the RGI President Gordon Macpherson at the RGI Kelly Gallery.
Wednesday 6th April, 5-7pm
An evening event at the Kelly giving those who couldn't make it along during the day a chance to come, see and support this charity event.
Saturday 9th April from 1pm
Saturday get-together at Blair Thomson's studio with demonstrations by the artists at 1pm, including aspects of Japanese traditional art forms.
Exhibition times and locations:
Kelly Gallery, 118 Douglas Street, Glasgow G2 4ET
Wednesday 6th, 10.30am-7pm Thursday 7th, 10.30am-5pm
Blair Thomson’s Studio, 143 West Regent Street, Glasgow
Friday 8th & Saturday 9th, 10.30am-5pm Sunday 10th, 12noon-5pm
Artist Blair Thomson came up with the idea for the exhibition which will donate 70% to 80% of sales to the Japan Red Cross to help the people of the Tohoku, the area worst hit by the recent earthquake and tsunami, and also to the Japan Society appeal.
Other participating artists include Campbell Sandilands, glass artist Keiko Mukaide, American photographer Laurel Casjens, and illustrator Stuart Kerr.
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I hope this exhibition will be well supported. People all over the world - including Japan - have been so generous to Christchurch with their terrible events but the Japanese quake was on a scale, especially with the tsunami and subsequent nuclear plant problems, that helping seems almost beyond us.
I suppose aftershocks are still on the cards in Chch but in a way we think of it as a past event now, yet in some ways the worst is still happening and yet to come with hundreds of previously thriving businesses gone tempoararily or forever, and thousands of people out of jobs as well as their homes. The central business district will never be the same and the city's character, however it is re-established, will be totally different from what we all thought of as a beautiful and entirely stable city and society.
I had an email yesterday from a Japanese contact thanking me for some seed I'd sent. He thanked me too, and was grateful to NZers for the help WE had been able to give to JAPAN. That he and they could even think of us in their sad circumstances, almost made me weep with humility.
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Dear me, just heard the news that another big earthquake has hit Japan and that a Tsunami warning has been issued.