Earthquake in Japan

[P h o t o G a l]

Everyone, whatever your religion, please pray for those on the pacific coast whatever be the country. They are in danger, they are in trouble, they may be hurt or killed. Please pray for them, so that they may be safe and happy, even if they have passed from this world to another.

There is so much going on, and they need our help, they need our prayers. Don't bring politics into this, just pray for them, donate to the Red Cross, whatever. Just help, in any way you can.

Thank you all, and God bless you <3

[Gulf Coast Girl]

My heart goes out to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Living in Hurricane country myself, I understand the devastation mother nature can dish out and the time and effort it takes to recover from such an a** whopping.

Personally I will donate money, just as I have after every major disaster before. I used to just automatically donate to the American Red Cross .... although I've since learned this isn't the best thing as they don't necessarily make sure all funds get to where they are supposed to. The International Red Cross is probably a better option for making sure donations given get to where the crisis actually is if it isn't here in the US. For the Haiti earthquake I skipped the Red Cross altogether and donated to Doctors Without Borders.

I think the best thing is to do your homework before donating money. Charity Navigator is a pretty good place to start researching Charity Navigator - America's Largest Charity Evaluator | Home


For this disaster I'm leaning towards AmeriCares. From what I've read they plan on having boots on the ground by this weekend and they have a 4 star rating on Charity Navigator with 99% of their funds going towards their actual program efforts. If anyone knows of a better place to give..... please post it.

All my best to our friends in Japan

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

Personally I will donate money, just as I have after every major disaster before. I used to just automatically donate to the American Red Cross .... although I've since learned this isn't the best thing as they don't necessarily make sure all funds get to where they are supposed to. The International Red Cross is probably a better option for making sure donations given get to where the crisis actually is if it isn't here in the US. For the Haiti earthquake I skipped the Red Cross altogether and donated to Doctors Without Borders.

FWIW, if you specify a use for your donation, they're required to use it for that. Several charities had problems after 9/11 because they had money they couldn't (use because of the rule). Obviously this is for the U.S., don't know how organizations from other countries handle it.

[andyw]

Originally Posted by P h o t o G a l

Don't bring politics into this, just pray for them,

<3

Nor religion either thank you.


Having lived in Japan for a couple of years then I can assure you that the Japanese are more capable of asking their own "gods" for any help they may need on that front.

What they will need is skilled rescue teams and teams of people with the skills to identify the bodies when found.

I would rather live in the real world and concentrate on giving proper help to those that need it.

Thanks

[theosus]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

My heart goes out to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Living in Hurricane country myself, I understand the devastation mother nature can dish out and the time and effort it takes to recover from such an a** whopping.

Having spent the night living through hurricane Hugo in the late 80s, wondering if the house was going to come down around my ears, I concur. It took a decade or more to recover (of course everyone forgot about us when Andrew nailed South Florida a few years later).

Just don't go down to the shore to take pictures. Already saw on the news where some guy went down to take pictures, and got swept away and killed.

[ravncat]

Things here are both normal and hectic - mostly depending on where one is located. The Northern part of the country was hit hardest. The Kansai region (kinda midwestern) (Kyoto - Osaka) was pretty much undamaged, I didn't feel a thing here - though those in high buildings talked about it, some people had papers fall on desks...

The news is nonstop, and on just about every channel, and if it isn't on the channel there's a warning for the tsunami's - they'll hit just about every coast Japan has - but many coasts - are expecting no more than 50cm. The areas near and "cradling" the epicenter of the earthquake have been hardest hit and more strong tsunami's are expected - the news is reporting those in the 2 meter height range.

Our hearts go out to those in and the families of those involved in the 6 meter tsunami - the news coverage was pretty horrifying, we watched live as a giant wave subsumed the land and just kept going. I've heard some reports of rural townships being swept away, the reporters were pretty stunned... it was hard to watch and hard to look away from.

Fires, burst pipes and lots of other collateral damage in Tokyo itself. I hope they will make a quick recovery. This quake is the third major one in less than a week, and the largest recorded in Japan, in Japan's history - maxing out the Japanese scale.

People have been asked to evacuate to 10 miles from the #1 reactor of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and 3 miles of the #2 reactor, but to remain on alert. We hope they are well designed. They hold drills for this type of thing periodically and Japan is generally pretty aware of earthquake potential - but this one was certainly "The big one" for many living that way

I'm not much of a reporter - just repeating what I've heard and seen in the news. I count myself lucky, my trains weren't even delayed yesterday. I've been receiving a billion inquiries from family and friends overseas. I hope the other expatriates and tourists are ok - as it can be harder to go through these ordeals as a foreigner, especially in a country where English is more an afterthought. News is being broadcast in Many major languages on the alternate audio channels of the Japanese Broadcasting Channels (BS1-2-3)

[RLucas]

And now they have this to worry about. .
Snap analysis: Japan may have hours to prevent nuclear meltdown | Reuters

My thoughts are with the people of Japan.

[inkista]

ravncat--I know it's going to be hard to do it, but give yourself a break from the news every now and then. It's going to be exhaustive, all-encompassing, and it's going to go on for DAYS. Take time out to just breathe and not live this thing completely. I've been through it with the Cedar Fires, and (to a lesser degree) the Loma Prieta and Northridge quakes. The endless onslaught of media reporting can really take a toll after a while. Do what you can. Even if it's just turning off the lights you don't need. Every little bit you can do to help buttress the infrastructure counts. I felt a little silly rationing my A/C during the Cedar Fires, but I found out later that SDG&E had been 20 minutes away from losing the grid entirely until we got the emergency power from Arizona. It matters.

Also, Google's Crisis Response is up and running for this one. For anybody attempting to contact a loved one or friend in the affected area, I'd really recommending going this way, rather than via phones or anything else that will stress the infrastructure in the affected area. Those guys need their phones/power for other things, right now.

And in case you are wondering why we're discussing this on a photography website:
From Thom Hogan's site:

Japan Quakes
Mar 11 updated (news)--The strongest recorded quake to hit Japan and the seventh strongest since records have been kept, hit the Northeast coast of the main island of Honshu. The 8.9 Richter quake was relatively shallow (6 miles, 10km) and reportedly as little as 81 miles (130km) east of Sendai.

That city name will be familiar to Nikon users: it's where Nikon's professional camera body manufacturing plant is located. D700, D3s, and D3x cameras are made there, as would be the followup camera to the D700 and the D4 expected later this year. The Sendai airport, which is not far from the plant, suffered massive flooding from a 10m-high tsunami wave that hit the coast (see this video). Initial reports said that the Nikon plant was not significantly affected, but almost certainly there are power, people, transportation, and perhaps even more issues that will directly impact the plant, even if it wasn't hit with the water. ....

[mikethomas]

Originally Posted by andyw

Nor religion either thank you.


Having lived in Japan for a couple of years then I can assure you that the Japanese are more capable of asking their own "gods" for any help they may need on that front.

What they will need is skilled rescue teams and teams of people with the skills to identify the bodies when found.

I would rather live in the real world and concentrate on giving proper help to those that need it.

Thanks

You really do live up to that sentance below your Username..

Stop creating a fuss/nit picking and share a couple of seconds of sympathy.

[NZMXr]

Since I have been through 2 major earthquakes recently (and well over 5000 aftershocks) I well know what the people in Japan are going through, The devastation is brutal and my thoughts are also with them as well as those here who tragically lost their lives families and friends ... mother nature has been truely showing us her power

MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY SINGLE DAY PEOPLE you just never know what is around the corner!