Big earthquake in Japan

[tokusatsufan]

Originally Posted by ryuhebi13

Oh jeez. History not a strong point then

Isn't he Jamaican though? He wouldn't know so much.

[Eiffel]

Is reactor 2 ok ? the building isn't destroyed. May be they've found the solution here.

[Kuroyagi]

In European news the nuclear threat is far too exaggerated. It's partly due to the ignorance people have in connection with nuclear substances. Basically they are as harmful or as harmless as sunlight: if one gets exposed too much one can get cancer but if one doesn't live in contact with highly active material a short exposure is no problem, esp. if one is thoroughly cleaned thereafter. The vicinity of the Fukushima reactors is certainly dangerous but (staying in) Tokyo isn't.

[Wendy88]

I hope my friends fiancee's sister is okay. they've not heard anything from her since after the earthquake. are all the tele-communications dead in fukushima?

[RealJames]

Originally Posted by Wendy88

I hope my friends fiancee's sister is okay. they've not heard anything from her since after the earthquake. are all the tele-communications dead in fukushima?

the landlines are out but in a lot of the shelters there are free phones and cell phones still work if you can get a charge.
171 is the find/claim a person number, if you speak japanese

[MMM]

Originally Posted by RealJames

the landlines are out but in a lot of the shelters there are free phones and cell phones still work if you can get a charge.
171 is the find/claim a person number, if you speak japanese

Are they able to make international calls from there?

[RealJames]

Originally Posted by MMM

Are they able to make international calls from there?

hmm... I haven't tried, it runs on the same service as 119 and other emergency numbers, probably only local...
good point

can you call 911 long distance? lol

[tipsygypsy]

Originally Posted by MMM

Are they able to make international calls from there?

Google Japan provides person finder service

東日本大震災（東北地方太平洋沖地震）

[keeperxiii]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I think in general the image of natural disasters is shaped by those that are familiar... In the case of large scale events like this, it seems the common image in the mind of the public is falling down buildings in the middle east. Enough people have commented to me about the difference in the appearance of survivors that I am pretty sure this is the case. They expect to see people covered in dust from disintegrated concrete buildings, in a desert like setting. The environment in Japan is different, and the disaster itself was of a different type. Most of the people who survived weren`t pulling themselves out from the rubble - they fled and so were not washed away. They were never "dirty" to begin with... And while there is plenty of mud, there isn`t concrete dust floating around.

Thanks for clearing that up, I just thought that because I had the idea that Japan was in worse shape.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by keeperxiii

Thanks for clearing that up, I just thought that because I had the idea that Japan was in worse shape.

Whether that is true really depends on how you look at it... But Japan is a first world country, with sanitation policies that are being followed to reduce illness and other problems.
Also, this only happened to a small part of Japan - while some places were completely destroyed, there was still some level of access. If you`ve seen pictures or video of people, someone had to get to them... And if reporters are getting there, supplies have gotten there.