Japan Quake/Tsunami

[vash23n]

I'm not talking about professionals - that is their job and possibly they are insured as such and so on.

That and when it's hard news crew footage that's because a reporter's duty is to report and something like this is certainly news after all.

That's pretty much what I thought. He was just there. What else was he going to do? No time to drive away. Jumping in a boat probably didn't seem like the best plan. Standing next to a set of stairs with an escape route up, if needed, and setting the camera on video mode might very well have been the best course of action. He had no way of knowing the water would actually get that high.

Precisely because he had no way of knowing the water would actually get that high he shouldn't have stayed there. The first video is 10 minutes long and at the start during several minutes it really appears that he could easily have gone away from the sea front and it is very likely into a safer location by doing so. It really does not look like he was already "trapped".

If people are trapped, well yeah why not record it anyway. Even if he was trapped already he was still not staying in the safest spot (as demonstrated by running up the stairs a couple of times). In doing so he sets himself up to be surprised by a wave that is faster or that reaches higher than expected.

This is a known phenomena that people underestimate the disaster and suffer because of it. Same happened in the one that affected Thailand.

I could see you both being right - maybe they had been given a warning to stay put because the wave was coming and they wouldn't have time to get away. Since they were stuck they decided to film what was happening. At the same time, this tsunami killed like 5 or 6 people in the US (California I think, I can't remember the exact amount so don't worry about correcting me) because they were trying to film it.

Anyone have a link to the article about the guy who stole scuba equipment (maybe stole or borrowed or his own) and swam through his flooded town searching for his wife and mother. I will see if I can find it.

Found it! The bottom has a the sources, but this article seemed to make the whole thing more exciting.

http://badassoftheweek.com/akaiwa.html

[Ivo]

Anyone have a link to the article about the guy who stole scuba equipment (maybe stole or borrowed or his own) and swam through his flooded town searching for his wife and mother. I will see if I can find it.

Found it! The bottom has a the sources, but this article seemed to make the whole thing more exciting.

http://badassoftheweek.com/akaiwa.html

That is really cool, had not read about that.

Ivo.

[hashiriya1]

http://badassoftheweek.com/akaiwa.html

That is a cool story, but the way it was written was annoying.

[D.D.D.]

Yes my life could be worse if I was in the tsunami areas or closer to Fukushima but I'm still very upset that my life in Japan is over because of seeping radiation throughout the Kanto region. This just sucks for everyone involved and it's just really sinking in now how bad it is and that potentially my life as I know it now is over.

[Breetai]

http://badassoftheweek.com/akaiwa.html

That is a cool story, but the way it was written was annoying.

I thought it was funny, but that sort of humour definitely is not for everyone. It was a very serious scenario, and maybe the style was questionable... but that man is truly awesome for doing what he did.

[jfrost]

Yes my life could be worse if I was in the tsunami areas or closer to Fukushima but I'm still very upset that my life in Japan is over because of seeping radiation throughout the Kanto region. This just sucks for everyone involved and it's just really sinking in now how bad it is and that potentially my life as I know it now is over.

Are you set on moving?

[Ivo]

Yes my life could be worse if I was in the tsunami areas or closer to Fukushima but I'm still very upset that my life in Japan is over because of seeping radiation throughout the Kanto region. This just sucks for everyone involved and it's just really sinking in now how bad it is and that potentially my life as I know it now is over.

DDD please try to calm down a bit more. I know you are there and all, but the radiation isn't nearly as big of a deal as most of the media is making it out to be.

Try to inform yourself better with unbiased scientific data before you make any rash decisions!

Ivo.

[YoshiEgg25]

From Randall Munroe (writer of xkcd) for PBS's website:



Read the full article here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/th ... uide/8124/

Basically what it's saying is that you're not in too much danger. Even if this "meltdown" was on par with Three Mile Island (which it isn't right now), it was only 80 microsieverts if you lived within 10 miles of it. Considering that you're much farther away, you're fine and have absolutely no reason to move right now because of that.

[vash23n]

http://badassoftheweek.com/akaiwa.html

That is a cool story, but the way it was written was annoying.

I thought it was funny, but that sort of humour definitely is not for everyone. It was a very serious scenario, and maybe the style was questionable... but that man is truly awesome for doing what he did.

Agreed. I found the way it was written a bit annoying at times, but if you click on the links at the bottom it takes you to the sources where you can get the perspective of more professional minded people.

[D.D.D.]

For those who think I'm acting rash it's because you're not in the situation and you have not had your life uprooted by disasters 4 times already.
As a family guy my first priority is to ensure the safety of my family and regardless of the "safety" of the seepage into the environment, we're dealing with uncharted territory here: 6 reactors in one location and other plants that are also not in good shape either. I'd like to think everything will be okay but this is a situation where it's much better to be safe than sorry.