Japan Triple Disasters – Update 19 April

Great East Japan Earthquake: 92 percent of the March 11 victims died of drowning

Japan authorities have revealed that 92 percent of the victims of Great East Japan Earthquake, whose bodies have so far been recovered, died of drowning as a result of the deadly tsunami that was spawned by the Mega Quake in the Tohoku region on March 11.

Human Cost of Japan’s March 11 Disasters

• Death toll: About 14,000
• No. of Missing: Just over 14,000
• Main Cause of Death:  About 92% of the victims died of drowning in the tsunami
• Age Distribution: About two-thirds of the victims were aged 65 or older
• Source: NHK

Other Stats:

• No. of Homeless: At least 155,000 [Many others who have moved in with their relatives are NOT included in the govt stats.]
• Others Missing: In addition to the 14,030 people who are officially missing, an unknown number of others who lived in remote, inaccessible  areas may also have perished, but no records were available as of posting.

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Technicians at Fukushima NPP have begun removing highly radioactive water  from basement of Reactor 2 .

Authorities say a total of 70,000 tons of radioactive water is accumulated in the plant’s reactor and turbine buildings, and surrounding trenches.

Remote-controlled robots sent into reactor buildings 1, 2 and 3 on Sunday and Monday showed  radiation levels inside two of the units (1 and 3) were too high for humans.

A remote-controlled robot dubbed “Packbot,” capable of manoeuvring through buildings, taking photos, and measuring radiation levels, is photographed by another Packbot in the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant No.1 reactor building in Fukushima, N. Japan on April 18, 2011. Photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on April 19, 2011. TEPCO handout photo via Reuters.

Other News

“It was clear even before this disaster and the need to secure funds for reconstruction that to ensure a sustainable fiscal situation, some sort of reform of spending and revenues was necessary,” said Internal Affairs Minister Yoshiro Katayama. “The debate over the fiscal situation is not something that began with this disaster,” he told reporters.

• Sales tax May rise to pay for post-quake rebuild

A Japanese restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand has attached bells to its charity donation buckets after a thief stole cash intended for Japan’s earthquake and tsunami victims, a report said. “At least seven donation buckets in Japanese businesses around Auckland have been filched recently.”

Related Links

• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts

Japan radiation: “serious situation”

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis “very serious”—IAEA

Japan food radiation “serious situation”—WHO

Engineers at Fukushima NPP have restored power to all six reactors, but have managed to start the cooling pump at only one reactor.

IAEA says the situation remains very serious, despite the progress. “There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious,” said a senior IAEA official.

Meanwhile, some of the engineers were evacuated from the plant after a gray plume of steam and smoke escaped from the Reactor 3. The incident was followed by a large plume of steam and smoke rising from Reactor 2.

“The crisis has still not been resolved and the situation at Fukushima [nuclear power plant] remains very serious,” Yukiya Amano, the IAEA boss has announced.

I have no doubt that this crisis will be effectively overcome.” He added.

Contaminated Water

Residents living near the plant have been told not to drink tap water because high levels of radioactive iodine has been detected.

Radioactive contamination detected in the water exceeds three times the legal safety limit, according to local reports.

Food Contamination

“The World Health Organization said it had no evidence of contaminated food reaching other countries. However, China, Taiwan and South Korea have announced plans to toughen checks of Japanese imports.” BBC reported.

However, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) regional office for the Western Pacific told Reuters that the situation “it’s a serious situation.”

“It’s a lot more serious than anybody thought in the early days when we thought that this kind of problem can be limited to 20 to 30 kilometers … It’s safe to suppose that some contaminated produce got out of the contamination zone.”

The health officials in Tokyo earlier reported that abnormal levels of iodine were found in edible chrysanthemum flowers.

Rising Death Toll

The official death toll in the mega quake and tsunami twin disasters has now climbed to about 8,500, with up to 13,000 reported as missing.

The Humanitarian Crisis

Up to half a million people have been left homeless as a result of the Tohoku Megaquake and the ensuing deadly tsunami. Most of the surving victims are in thousands of emergency shelters, where there are still severe shortages of water, food, heating fuel, warm clothes and other basic essentials.

Up to a million homes are reportedly without water.

Related Links

• TEPCO FALSIFIED SAFETY RECORDS
• Japan Earthquakes: FIRE-EARTH Forecasts and Recent History

Tsunami Damage at Ishinomaki, Japan – Satellite Images

Tsunami-hit Ishinomaki: Total Destruction

Click here to download larger image (3 MB, JPEG) —  acquired March 14, 2011

Click here to download larger  image (4 MB, JPEG)  —  acquired August 8, 2008

City of Ishinomaki was one of the worst hit areas when the deadly tsunami struck on March 11, 2011. The two false color images above were taken by ASTER on NASA’s Terra satellite, the top image on March 14, the lower image on August 8, 2008 (included for comparison). Source: NASA-EO. Click images to enlarge.

NASA’s MISR Images Tsunami Flooding Along Japan’s Eastern Coast of Honshu

Annotated Image. Click to enlarge.

Original Caption: The extent of inundation from the destructive and deadly tsunami triggered by the March 11, 2011, magnitude [9.0] earthquake centered off Japan’s northeastern coast about 130 kilometers (82 miles) east of the city of Sendai is revealed in this image pair from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft. The new image, shown on the right, was acquired at 10:30 a.m. local time (01:30 UTC) on March 12, 2011 during Terra orbit 59731. For comparison, a MISR image from March 16, 2001, acquired under nearly identical illumination conditions during Terra orbit 6607, is shown on the left.

From top to bottom, each image extends from just north of the Abukuma River (which is about 21 kilometers, or 13 miles, south of Sendai) to south of the town of Minamisoma (population 71,000, located in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture about 70 kilometers, or 44 miles, south of Sendai), and covers an area of 78 kilometers (48 miles) by 104 kilometers (65 miles). Flooding extending more than 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) inland from the eastern shoreline is visible in the post-earthquake image. The white sand beaches visible in the pre-earthquake view are now covered by water and can no longer be seen. Among the locations where severe flooding is visible is the area around Matsukawa-ura Bay, located just north and east of the image center.

These unique images enhance the presence of water in two ways. First, their near-infrared observations cause vegetated areas to appear red, which contrasts strongly with water. Second, by combining nadir (vertical-viewing) imagery with observations acquired at a view angle of 26 degrees, reflected sunglint enhances the brightness of water, which is shown in shades of blue. This use of observations at different view angles causes a stereoscopic effect, where elevated clouds have a yellow tinge at their top edges and blue tinge at their bottom edges.

Image Credit:NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

Other NASA images of the Megaquake and Tsunami-hit Honshu Coast

• Japan’s Tsunami Floods – Satellite Images Posted by feww on March 13, 2011
• JAPAN MEGA QUAKE UPDATE 3 – March 12

JAPAN M8.9 MEGA QUAKE UPDATE

A 10-m wall of tsunami traveling across Japan is sweeping everything in its path

MEGA QUAKE 8.9Mw STRIKES OFF NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

MEGA QUAKE and TSUNAMI HAVE CAUSED TREMENDOUS DAMAGE in JAPAN’S COASTAL AREAS

• Large number of people in Myiagi prefecture are reported as missing.
  

6 MAJOR AFTERSHOCKS REPORTED BY USGS/EHP

TSUNAMI UPDATE

The Pacific Tsunami Center Warning Center has extended the tsunami warning to the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Pacific coast of Russia and Hawaii,  Australia, New Zealand, and the entire coast of Central and South America.

• Click to see table
  

Tsunami Warning/Advisory for Japan Region

Issued at 16:08 JST 11 Mar 2011

******************Headline******************
Major Tsunami and Tsunami have been issued.
JAPAN SEA COAST OF AOMORI PREF.
UCHIBO AREA, CHIBA PREF.
OGASAWARA ISLANDS
SAGAMI BAY AND MIURA PENINSULA
SHIZUOKA PREF.
WAKAYAMA PREF.
TOKUSHIMA PREF.
SETONAIKAI COAST OF OITA PREF.
WESTERN PART OF KAGOSHIMA PREF.
Tsunami attentions are in effect at some of the other coasts now.

Tsunami Advisory
<Tsunami Advisory>
AKITA PREF.
*YAMAGATA PREF.
NIIGATA PREF.,EXCEPT SADOGASHIMA ISLAND
SADOGASHIMA ISLAND
TOYAMA PREF.
NOTO AREA, ISHIKAWA PREF.
HIROSHIMA PREF.
SETONAIKAI COAST OF YAMAGUCHI PREF.

Changed;
Tsunami Advisory –> Tsunami Warning

SETONAIKAI COAST OF OITA PREF.
WESTERN PART OF KAGOSHIMA PREF.
Evacuate from the seashore immediately to the safe places near the above coasts.

Tsunami Warning –> Tsunami Warning

JAPAN SEA COAST OF AOMORI PREF.
UCHIBO AREA, CHIBA PREF.
OGASAWARA ISLANDS
SAGAMI BAY AND MIURA PENINSULA
SHIZUOKA PREF.
WAKAYAMA PREF.
TOKUSHIMA PREF.

At the following coasts (* marks) tsunamis are
expected to arrive right away.
YAMAGATA PREF.

*******Tsunami forecast now in effect********
<Major Tsunami>
IWATE PREF.
MIYAGI PREF.
FUKUSHIMA PREF.
CENTRAL PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO
PACIFIC COAST OF AOMORI PREF.
IBARAKI PREF.
KUJUKURI AND SOTOBO AREA, CHIBA PREF.
IZU ISLANDS
EASTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO
WESTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO
JAPAN SEA COAST OF AOMORI PREF.
UCHIBO AREA, CHIBA PREF.
OGASAWARA ISLANDS

Related NEWS LINKS:

• Tsunami hits Japan after 8.9 earthquake
• Tsunami hits north-eastern Japan after massive quake

Related Links:

• MEGA QUAKE STRIKES NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU

• Tectonics Update – March 10
• Japan 7.2 Quake Strikes Off the Coast of Honshu
• Honshu Earthquake Warning