Today marks 4 years since the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. Since the last couple of days, the TV, radio and newspapers have been reporting/talking about it non-stop. There are still many people missing and suffering from that fateful day.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti7nZwxUEjU[/video]
15,889 Dead
2,601 Missing
6,152 Injured
Over 100,000 children uprooted from their homes
1,580 children lost one or both parents.
236 children were orphaned.
45,700 buildings were destroyed and 144,300 buildings were damaged. Many people are still living in temporary housing while they wait for help.
Because of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant meltdown, 200,000 people had to evacuate their homes. Most will never be able to return. Radioactive coolant water continues to leak out today with those in charge with no idea how to stop it.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn7PIbVbW5o[/video]
Personally, I live about 730 miles away from the affected area. I did not feel the earthquake and it happened while I was teaching a class. I finished the class and came down to the faculty room to find everyone gathered around the TV. I quickly learned what had happened and we all watched in shock as the helicopters were recording the tsunami as it was happening. This is a video of what I saw first on TV.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcGKie1RG98[/video]
Our area was in the tsunami warning as well so they decided to send the students home right away. I protested that was a bad idea since a couple of our buses went along the coastline. I still wished they had waited for everything to calm down first before they started sending the kids home. But in the end we only got a few inches and no damage.
Almost everyone knew someone who was affected by the disaster. My wife's uncle lived in that area and they lost contact with him for about a week and feared the worst, but finally heard from him that he and his family were ok. Their home had been damaged and they had to evacuate.
Since then, some of the people who lost their homes from the earthquake/tsunami or who had to evacuate their hometowns because of the nuclear disaster have moved to our town. I have a few students who moved down here with their families after losing everything. One boy who is in my 8th grade class still has nightmares and is scared of eating anything that might be contaminated.
You never know when something might happen so my wife and I have prepared as best we can with a evacuation kit with supplies for each family member. We have cash, food, copies of documents and other things we will need if we have to evacuate immediately. We have our evacuation shelter and our escape route planned if we have to get out of town. In our case, there is always the threat of the volcano erupting so we try to be as ready as we can for that. Every area of the world has something that could happen so everyone should be prepared if something should happen. Where to meet, how to contact each other and to try to be as prepared as possible.
Prayers for the Japanese people and everyone who lost loved ones and their homes.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti7nZwxUEjU[/video]
15,889 Dead
2,601 Missing
6,152 Injured
Over 100,000 children uprooted from their homes
1,580 children lost one or both parents.
236 children were orphaned.
45,700 buildings were destroyed and 144,300 buildings were damaged. Many people are still living in temporary housing while they wait for help.
Because of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant meltdown, 200,000 people had to evacuate their homes. Most will never be able to return. Radioactive coolant water continues to leak out today with those in charge with no idea how to stop it.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn7PIbVbW5o[/video]
Personally, I live about 730 miles away from the affected area. I did not feel the earthquake and it happened while I was teaching a class. I finished the class and came down to the faculty room to find everyone gathered around the TV. I quickly learned what had happened and we all watched in shock as the helicopters were recording the tsunami as it was happening. This is a video of what I saw first on TV.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcGKie1RG98[/video]
Our area was in the tsunami warning as well so they decided to send the students home right away. I protested that was a bad idea since a couple of our buses went along the coastline. I still wished they had waited for everything to calm down first before they started sending the kids home. But in the end we only got a few inches and no damage.
Almost everyone knew someone who was affected by the disaster. My wife's uncle lived in that area and they lost contact with him for about a week and feared the worst, but finally heard from him that he and his family were ok. Their home had been damaged and they had to evacuate.
Since then, some of the people who lost their homes from the earthquake/tsunami or who had to evacuate their hometowns because of the nuclear disaster have moved to our town. I have a few students who moved down here with their families after losing everything. One boy who is in my 8th grade class still has nightmares and is scared of eating anything that might be contaminated.
You never know when something might happen so my wife and I have prepared as best we can with a evacuation kit with supplies for each family member. We have cash, food, copies of documents and other things we will need if we have to evacuate immediately. We have our evacuation shelter and our escape route planned if we have to get out of town. In our case, there is always the threat of the volcano erupting so we try to be as ready as we can for that. Every area of the world has something that could happen so everyone should be prepared if something should happen. Where to meet, how to contact each other and to try to be as prepared as possible.
Prayers for the Japanese people and everyone who lost loved ones and their homes.