My wife told me this morning after watching The Today Show that she thinks Japan is just going to cease to exist. I'm not sure if there were actual scientists on there explaining how Japan is going to cease to exist or she just got sucked into Lauer's fear-mongering but the point remains...Japan is fucked. This is going to make Hiroshima look like whatever it is that makes getting an A-Bomb dropped on you insignificant.
In case you've been living under a rock for the past three days...a massive earthquake followed by a massive tsunami has completely detroyed Japan's coastline, killing thousands of people, and leaving in it's wake a path of destruction, terror, and mayhem the likes of which people only write about. If that's not bad enough, nuclear power plants are exploding all over the place* and depending on who you ask, there's a real possibility of a complete nuclear meltdown. So yeah...that would be horrific. Hey...at least the volcanoes still work?
It seems like the past 5 or 6 years have brought us an unusual amount of natural disasters (not to mention the man-made disasters) but what we have here in Japan could eclipse all of them combined. I don't really have a point here but your empathy for that place would be well beyond warranted.
*Bonus crazy rapture discussion in comment section under video
Bear in mind that Tokyo did not get much damage, and southern and western cities didn't either. Just the northeast coast. Of Japan's 127 million people, I'll bet well over 110 million have intact houses and workplaces with electricity, water, and food. Their roads are fine, though the train service is limited now. The country will endure, and will probably clear debris and rebuild faster than Haiti given its superior resources.
Granted, the coastal communities will need massive engineering changes. The seawalls were easily swamped by the tsunami, and that area lost a couple feet of elevation so it's even more vulnerable to flooding now.
Posted by: Schmoopie | March 14, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Yeah, but what about the radiation?
Posted by: Vandelay | March 14, 2011 at 01:07 PM
Who the fuck would put a nuclear reactor on a goddamn fault line?? Oh right, never mind.
Posted by: Mr. Kruger | March 14, 2011 at 06:26 PM
Well, the radiation might blow more toward the Pacific and only render a relatively small area utterly uninhabitable. Luckily, Japan has plenty of room to relocate communities! Have you seen all that undeveloped coastal land? Oh, wait.
Posted by: Schmoopie | March 14, 2011 at 11:39 PM
"Completely destroyed Japan's coastline?"
Stop. Step back. Take a breath.
Did Katrina "completely flood the US?" No.
Did Chernobyl "completely irradiate the entire USSR?" No.
Did every single British person die in a Paris car wreck in 1997? No.
Japan has a lot of coastline. A little of it was affected last weekend.
I feel for everyone who lost homes, family members, loved ones, or whatever in this tragedy, but it's not the end of the world, or even Japan. They'll bounce back.
Posted by: Bookman | March 15, 2011 at 03:24 AM
Yeah, no...that was poorly phrased. I meant it completely destroyed the coastline that it hit. Thanks.
Posted by: Vandelay | March 15, 2011 at 10:46 AM
If its any consolation... at least they've dealt with nuclear fallout before... I mean, this isn't their first Radon Rodeo... (I know its not really radon, but uranium or plutonium rodeo just didn't have the same ring to it...)
Posted by: SteelSox | March 16, 2011 at 09:57 PM