I am in awe and horror at the videos that are coming now from everywhere. National Geographic is going to have a heck of a special when they get around to do it....
The Guardian has quite a selection (as many other do but at least they do not slobber over them with editorial comments). This one shows you the brute force of the water quite dramatically. You can actually see some people over a topsy turvied home, and a bus trying to escape the rising waters, I imagine with passengers on board (I think they made it but there is no way to tell for sure).
This video about the damages in one of the towns, what is left of it, with railroad as a picket fence now.
In this video you can hear the alarm system at first but clearly the images tell you that the alarm was, well, useless if you were unable to leave the street early enough..... some of the earlier part was shown a lot on TV but it pays to watch it completely, the horror of these people watching their city disappear sunks in, deeply.
The attitude of the surviving Japanese is extraordinary. In addition this video has some scenes of the day after that tell you how amazingly high the water rose in some areas.
But the video that got me was from the day after at Minamisanriku by the team from France 2 TV when they visited the pediatric ward, or rather, what was left of it. Yours truly, starting at 50sec, could not keep a dry eye. (warning, the French are so special that they do not use the standard video formats so your computer might ask you to download stuff).
Nuclear Fallout Map.
ReplyDeletehttp://10373f8b.tinylinks.co/
I am sympathetic but I will be more sympathetic when they stop having a Pedophile culture and ban things like kiddie porn.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen this one?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1605260179420&comments
You must have facebook to see it and be logged on, but it worth seeing. It’s very humbling.
Amazing videos, Daniel, great job compiling them.
ReplyDeleteBut what have me worried is the nuclear part. I wrote a post
http://cuentosintrascendentes.blogspot.com/2011/03/lecciones-de-japon.html
bruni
ReplyDeletethis seem to be the common consensus in office talk this week, thanking heavens that we do not have a nuclear plant in venezuela, that we are not in a subduction zone (for those in the know), what would happen in caracas with a 8 earthquake or a tsunami in cumana and barcelona, etc, etc...
all in all, we are admitting without wanting to admit it that we are an irresponsible country.
The tsunami wall didn't work. These concrete barriers were put up all over Japan in the nineties to keep the construction industry humming along and to 'get the economy going again'. This (rather corrupt) scheme contributed heavily to Japans enormous debt.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was all money wasted. Hubris and futility.
"Chávez congeló planes de Programa Nuclear Pacífico Venezolano"
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese situation was the excuse Chavez was waiting for to stop a nuclear program he can't afford. Argentinian engineers will have to go somewhere else, and the Chinese will have problems selling their old nucleat plants. I'm not sorry.
Having a nuke plant in Vnzla? Come on, part of Amuay went up in smoke yesterday, thank to the Potemkin XXI century revolution.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, with all the havoc occurring in Northern Japan these days, there is no looting. These people deserve all the help they can get. It has been a long time I have not been so distressed.
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ReplyDeleteUPDATE 2-Thriving metropolis or ghost town? Crisis transforms Tokyo
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http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E7EG1U220110316
Watching cars go floating along like rubber ducks is surreal. And then the houses start passing. In the third link, I think the house at 2:10 is upside-down.
ReplyDeleteHere's another good video, which shows a different side of the survival attitude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3TM9GL2iLI . The good news is both were rescued.