Last night was bad- strong aftershocks occurred throughout northeastern Japan almost without break .
At 3:59 AM, Niigata (where I live with my family) and neighboring prefecture Nagano (of 1998 Olympics fame) registered a quake of magnitude 6.7. Damage to road and rail lines was sustained.
Reports of tsunami-affected areas are quite worse today (March 12th) than last night- it's hard to be hopeful.
Today: entire cities are gone. Roads and raillines have disappeared. Surviving communities are unreachable. Many areas look like Hiroshima or Nagasaki after the atomic bombings.
The number of confirmed casualties has been raised to 2,000 (since last night): estimates of total casualties reach the tens of 1000s.
Additionally (as of 3 PM) , 1 of 4 reactors at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture has exploded, releasing radiation into the atmosphere.
This is very serious. It feels like the end of the world.
If you can help in any way, please do.
Thank you.
Brian Southwick
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Brian, We have been planning to visit Niigata and Sado Island, also Bandai-Asahi National Park, in early April (arriving in Japan on 4/8 and in Niigata on 4/12). This is part of an around-the-world exploration of the 38th parallel for a University of California Press book. We don't know how we might help or even if we'll be able to come to the area in April now, but please let us know how things are and what we might possibly do. Our blog is at http://paralleluniverse38n.blogspot.com. And email is carle@qnet.com.
David and Janet Carle
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