Althouse: "Entire villages in parts of Japan’s northern Pacific coast have vanished under a wall of water..."

March 12, 2011

"Entire villages in parts of Japan’s northern Pacific coast have vanished under a wall of water..."

"... many communities are cut off, and a nuclear emergency was unfolding at two stricken reactors as Japanese tried to absorb the scale of the destruction after Friday’s powerful earthquake and devastating tsunami."

16 comments:

Meade said...: Sure puts our little Wisconsin hill of beans in perspective.; 3/12/11, 7:21 PM
bgates said...: On the bright side, I heard Obama was only 2 over on the back 9 this morning. So I'd say that balances things out.; 3/12/11, 7:25 PM
Toad Trend said...: @Meade

Indeed.

The people of Japan deserve and need our prayers and support.; 3/12/11, 7:28 PM
Anonymous said...: I know... it's unbelievable… Keep the poor people of Japan in your prayers.; 3/12/11, 7:28 PM
Hagar said...: I saw an item that Japan now is 8 ft. closer to the U.S. than it was last week.

If Tina Fey lives long enough, she might one day be able to see Japan from her house.

Wv: herstop - Tina Fey?; 3/12/11, 7:29 PM
Unknown said...: Now the US is coming to save Japan in the wake of its disaster.

Ironic.

PS From one source I saw, there was concern that much of the land involved had been reclaimed from the sea and was part of the problem.; 3/12/11, 7:34 PM
Known Unknown said...: I feel compelled to go there to help.; 3/12/11, 8:24 PM
vbspurs said...: Sooo, this has got to be asked:

What Japanese genius said to himself, hey you know what would go really well in the middle of the earth's most dangerous earthquake zone? Nuclear reactors!

'Cause damn.; 3/12/11, 9:53 PM
HT said...: No cities were leveled thanks to superior engineering. There is no worry with regards to the nuclear reactors. To worry means you are dumb and hysterical. And if there is trouble, then you are silly and naive for believing in perfection, even perfection in nuclear power plants. And probably immoral for thinking and saying nuclear accidents are especially grizzly in comparison to other disasters.

Sincerely,
your commenters; 3/12/11, 10:30 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: I wouldn't say that the reactor accident is "especially grizzly". No one has been killed, a few workers have radiation sickness and a bunch of people have had to temporarily evacuate their homes. It's certainly not good, but overall it is a pretty trivial event in the context of a disat that has killed thousands of people and swept entire towns away without a trace.

We need to maintain a sense of perspective here.; 3/12/11, 10:38 PM
BJM said...: @VB

Weeeelll, CA allowed PG&E to build Diablo Canyon 2-1/2 miles from the Hosgri fault and a mile from the Shoreline fault.

PG&E ratepayers have be taking it in the shorts ever since the plant hit the drawing board.

There will not be another nuke built in CA, of that I am sure.

If you are a Comcast cable customer check their channel guide, as they have unscrambled the Japanese news channel for a week. There's a SAP translation, but it's not accurate and is badly out of sync...the visuals are self explanatory.

We've lived in Japan and if any country on the planet was prepared for this, it was Japan. One can only imagine what happens when a quake of this magnitude hits Seattle, SF, LA or the New Madrid.; 3/12/11, 10:45 PM
Emil Blatz said...: Yah, and how about the video of the rampant looting? (just kidding!); 3/12/11, 11:04 PM
Christy said...: BJM, could you give me more hints about that channel. I couldn't find it, even going to the comcast site and doing a search. What is the channel descriptor - ABC, HSN, or whatever. Did find a nice rock concert, though.

I've spent the last couple of days searching through the reporting, trying to figure out what is going on at the nukes. What we got, unsurprisingly, at the beginning made no sense.

I spent decades in one capacity or another as part of the response/recovery team for pressurized reactors of the same generation. The Fukushima units are Boilers - different enough to add to my confusion. Anyhow, I also was responsible for developing the simulation model of our plants, taking that model and messing with the coolant system to see what developed. A career spent preparing for such an accident as this. And there it is.

FWIW, the best info is coming out of blogs. MSM has been misleading in so very many ways.

This accident exceeded design parameters. The folks handling the situation have been remarkable.; 3/13/11, 12:22 AM
Revenant said...: What Japanese genius said to himself, hey you know what would go really well in the middle of the earth's most dangerous earthquake zone?

Apparently it wasn't the earthquake that was the problem, but the tsunami that followed it.; 3/13/11, 1:44 AM
BJM said...: @Christy

Look for "TV Japan", it's in the International subscription array, #330 in our system if that helps.

I worked with a Russian who's brother was working in the control room of the reactor next to the one that blew at Chernobyl, he and dozens of others stayed to shut their units down, he died 3 months later. Of course Chernobyl was an accident waiting to happen and human arrogance insured it did.

As you know, the Japanese are uber cautious about nukes, well about most everything, but unfortunately natural disasters often push design limits to failure.

Let's hope they get a handle on it.; 3/13/11, 1:47 AM
Gary Rosen said...: At least it is nowhere as bad as Chernobyl, which exemplified the kind of environmental catastrophe that can take place when there is insufficient government control and regulation.

Oh wait ...; 3/13/11, 6:57 PM