Earthquake &!;

A magnitude 8.9 earthquake just hit off the coast of Japan. Just before 3PM their time, so just before 1AM central time. I am still awake to hear about this, thankfully, and my brother was online when I got online to check on him. He is fine, thank goodness. He is at the school where he works, and everyone there is fine, although he has heard that one of the walls now has a huge crack in it.
However, he hasn’t been able to get hold of his wife, who has their baby… He is sure that it’s just that the cell phone towers are jammed. I’m sure that’s all it is. Still, I can’t help but worry.

I’m watching a live news feed (currently at http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ though I have no idea what that is showing now as you’re looking at it), where they just said, “One woman has been reported to have died after a building collapsed on her in Ibaraki Prefecture,” and of course that’s the prefecture where my brother lives. But it’s a huge place and I can’t help but worry.

Right now there are several fires in Tokyo, including one at an oil refinery; there are 4 million homes without power; all transportation is shut down, including metros; one of the nuclear power plants has automatically shut down; and there has been a 1 meter tsunami, along with warnings for Russia, the Northern Marianas, Guam, Taiwan, Hawaii…

I will update you when I hear more, either when I get up in the morning and the news tells me or when I hear back from my brother.

&&!;
Jason’s facebook status: “Big earthquake is big. Apartment is a wreck but everyone’s fine.”
Staying up until 3:30 in the morning worrying about whether my family members are safe is not something I ever want to experience again.

Then there is this facebook status from …someone I’m not going to name. “TV news is being way too sensationalist about this tsunami. It’s bad but they’re making it sound like the country is destroyed like the Sumatra tsunami. Way to fail again CNN, Fox, and MSNBC.”
Let’s talk about how hard it’s going to be to not be mad at him next time I see him.

((brilliant))

March 11, 2011

I’m glad your brother is okay, and I hope hope hope everything is okay with his wife and Chubby. <3

I hope everyone is okay! Fingers crossed for you and your family.

dellusion

eek, glad your family is ok. how scary. feels like these natural disasters are increasing in frequency over the years….either that or i’m just paying better attention.

anne, awakening

that guy sounds like an ignorant douchebag. ugh. SOOO glad your family is safe!!!

little mercy.

Glad to hear your brother is ok. I thought of you this morning while I was watching the news.

So, so glad that your brother’s OK! ♥ I can’t even imagine the worry that would bubble up, knowing that part of your family is right in the middle of things.Has he sent you any interesting info about what it’s like to be there in a first-person perspective? It always fascinates me to know what it’s REALLY like in tragedies like this.

Hi Laura, In a disaster such as this,where your brother is trying to phone his wife, but the available cell towers are jammed, tell him to send a text message. Unlike a phone call which just is a single dead end if the line is busy, a text message will keep bouncing around cyberspace until it gets through, it does not go dead. Usually at least. Prayers for your brother everyone affected. paisley

l'hiver approche.

March 12, 2011

yea i was listening to this at 430am… i hope everything is ok.

pandemonium's box

it’s funny- i was thinking about if i knew anyone who knows anyone in japan and i only thought of you and your brother. i’m glad he and his cute little family are okay. and i can’t imagine the anxiety you must have been going through. it’s good you can breathe a little bit now.

Laura, I am hoping that your brother is well and I have been praying for him. Here is a link that I found to an English-speaking Japanese TV station. I hesitated to send it to you, given that the news is so bad, however, for your brother’s sake it is better to know than to not know. http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm David Hall, Lititz, PA paisley62@ymail.com