Often you will hear things, "Acts of God" as they are called. Storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. They always happen in some country far away. They never make an impact on you.
Yesterday, March 11th, Japan was hit with an earthquake that reached 8.9 on the Richter scale. The Richter scale only has categories that go up to 10. Beyond that they have no classification and so as you can imagine, this one was huge.
This earthquake was almost in the 2nd highest class of earthquake. For five minutes yesterday, it was hell on earth for the Japanese people caught up in the middle of something that even the greatest mind's of this earth cannot predict, something that is naturally destructive and cannot be prevented or circumvented.
Since the year 684 AD there have been 34 earthquakes with a Richter scale rating of 6.5 or higher. This was the largest of them all. It is also the 3rd, 4th or 5th largest earthquake since seismological records began.
An earthquake of this magnitude doesn't come alone. Due the the epicenter of the earthquake, which was
near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, 231 miles northeast of Tokyo there was a massive Tsunami.
The Tsunami that ensued caused as much, if not more, damage than the earthquake itself.
Courtesy of the ITN website
Houses were washed away in seconds, probably with people - families - inside of them.
The Tsunami now threatens places all over the Pacific Ocean, including North and South America all the way from Alaska to Chile, traveling at 500 mph across the ocean at an estimated 33ft (10 metres) high.
As of yet there is no official death toll with reports varying from 1,300 to 1,600 with many more expected to be found. Alongside those horrific statistics there are hundreds missing and whole towns with which there have been 10,000 feared missing or dead in a port town in North Japan.
The Tsunami brings devastation of it's own with massive whirlpools collecting around the coast of Japan.
Numerous vessels at sea have been dragged into these whirlpool's, trapped for the time being. Some of the whirlpool's aren't too deep and so the boats aren't being dragged under but there may still be boats being easily pulled underwater by the pools.
There are also very serious dangers relating to the Nuclear Power station in Fukushima Daiichi. Due to the Tsunami, the electricity has been cut from a lot of the country and, as such, the Power station does not have the power to keep the cooling systems going that regulate water in and out of the core.
The water began to boil and turn to steam. This increased the pressure in the reactor which was released with the smoke into the air above Fukushima. Some of the water was converted to Hydrogen which exploded. There has been a 20 km evacuation of the area surrounding the plant.
All of this seems more than one country could handle. Many are likening it to the 2012 predicitions. It is a disgrace that this fairytale-esque story is being compared to the real pain and suffering felt by thousands, millions of people living in Japan.
What strikes me the most about this tragedy is that most other massive world changing incidents happen in less developed countries like the Tsunami in Thailand, the earthquake in Chile, the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, the earthquake in Haiti.
But then you get places like Christchurch in New Zealand getting hit with a 6.3 magnitude earthquake just last month, and the technological tycoon, Japan, who prided themselves in being better prepared for earthquakes than anywhere else in the world, being struck by this insane act of nature, obliterating their defences and preparations like they were nothing.
What strikes me most about this is that I had never associated Japan with natural disasters. But now, seeing these reports, all I can think about is the very real people caught up in the middle. People who had lives, families, jobs, aspirations, pet-peevs, friends. All of these people are in danger. A lot of these people are already dead. And one recurring thought rolls around my brain:
How will they recover from this?
And I know it's a cliché and you have probably heard it from a million different sources but keep all of the people suffering in Japan in your thoughts and donate whatever you can to help.
The Red Cross is the only place I know that you can send money to:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/
Please, give whatever you can. I know a lot of you won't or can't donate money but at least, by doing this, I can say that I tried to help these people rebuild their lives.
