Gordon? Anyone else?
There was a post at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=170877&parent=749296 that Gordon says he is ok.
Everyone I know in Hokkaido is safe. We are 500km north of the earthquake and had no tsunami except in Hakodate where Peter Ruthven-Stuart lives. The situation is far worse than the terrible scenes you see on TV. It is not about missing people, but missing *towns*. The East Japan Railway reports they *lost* three trains. How does a train disappear? No one has time to count the dead, just uncover and rescue. Will 10,000, 20,000 perish? Probably more. The sad thing is that the disaster was so vast and so total that virtually no rescue to uncover buried people was possible during the first 48 hours while temperatures dropped below freezing. I feel helpless up here, with no way to assist unless I had a helicopter. The least we can do is contribute in some way--the Red Cross is one place to start: http://american.redcross.org/
Hi Don
Thank you very much for letting us know. Good to hear that you are ok after this unbelievable and surrealistic catastrophe.
Ohh No.... May GOD Bless them All...
I heard that Mits (Mitsuhiro Yoshida), our translator of Moodle into Japanese, is also ok.
Don, thanks for your report. Thinking of everyone in Japan at this incredibly sad time.
Thanks for all these updates from Japan. It is good to hear some friends are fine. Thoughts of support to all in Japan and elsewhere at this devastating time.
My prayers and thoughts are for Japanese earthquake victims, that they may find strength to sustain them during this extremely difficult period.
I heard from Peter Ruthven-Stuart that he is doing fine in Hakodate, where they got less than a meter of tsunami flooding. Life in Hokkaido, the northern island, is very normal. Down south, still whole towns are missing. I anticipate 20,000-30,000 deaths--so vast that it is beyond ordinary rescue work. The nuclear plants seem under control and these explosions are merely the outside shells bursting from pressure--little or no radiation. It probably means these three reactors will be junked due to exposure to seawater (as an emergency coolant), but unlikely of any serious fallout. Our electricity prices will go up in the long term.
A friend of mine is organizing a trip to help out, but the logistics are incredibly difficult. He wrote: "I am trying to organize a group of volunteers myself but the only way you can get into the area is by authorized air! All bridges, ferries and trains have been shut down due to the fact the area is still unstable. (even local people are trapped on the islands..) It would not matter whether you have a vehicle or not. The vehicles that are already in Tohoku were either there before or flew in. Temporary opening of the bridges not effected were granted to government and authorized EMT/ERT members only and arrangement for transportation are being made for all recruits requested by the government of Japan. No other members are accepted at this time. It will be a couple of weeks until private personal or volunteers will be accepted. Either way the other issue is fuel. Again only government personnel are granted a maximum of 30L per fuel stop. only local people from the area are allowed small rations of fuel."
Did you see where Microsoft tried use the disaster for their marketing? http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/microsoft-apologizes-using-japan-disaster-mar?source=NWWNLE_nlt_voices_networking_2011-03-14
Really dumb, as McNamara says, but not a surprising tactic for that company. Lord, I hate those guys.
Cheers, Don