It's Monday morning here.
Just had another big quake about 10 minutes ago very near my place. Sigh
Cell phone service is returning... slowly.
Undersea telephone cables were cut during quake, so many international telephone providers may have no service.
Central Tokyo will keep power all the time. The rest of us in the suburban areas are going to have blackouts starting today. I will lose power 6-10 am and 5 to 8:30 pm every day. Those blackouts will affect everything, including traffic signals, water service, everything. Imagine the impact on businesses... 45 million people are affected by this rationing.
All the gas stations have run out of gasoline here.
Everyone has followed the traditional custom of hoarding 1 year worth of toilet paper and tissue. Supermarkets as running out of food.
No trains or highway traffic beyond 30 minutes north of me. The train and highway bridges were damaged.
Very few trains are running this morning in Tokyo. The new schedules will only have some morning and afternoon trains - stopping mid-day.
They say the electricity rationing is only through April, but I'm not sure that will be true. Could be a stopgap until they work out some other rationing system since those nuclear plants are not coming back on line and I don't know where they will get the generating capacity so quickly. I feel it's like the hostess telling you the wait for a table is only 15 minutes, but the truth is that it will be an hour.
Things are confusing this morning as people try to go to work. The transportation and blackout timing will take some time to iron out. People are very patient and there is no panic. Japanese are quite calm and don't overreact in situations like this.
On the other hand, the foreign reporting I've read of the nuclear plant situation is overboard and sensationalism. It's a disservice to society to have so much fear mongering for the sake of ratings. There is no possibility of a "Chernobyl" incident - zero chance. Also, no "China Syndrome" as long as the containment vessels are undamaged, which is the case so far. Melting fuel can reach temperatures high enough to melt itself, but it cannot get high enough to penetrate the steel used in containment vessel construction.
If the containment vessels hold through a 9.0 quake, all of the aftershocks and tsunamis, I am impressed. The people exposed to radiation is the same amount as a chest X-ray.
I feel so sorry for the people up north. It's going to be cold with rain and snow tomorrow. It's truly hell for them. There is still a possibility of another large quake. Apparently it's normal to have a second quake after about a week that is 1 magnitude less, which would be an 8.0. That would trigger another tsunami. Let's hope that we defy the odds on that scenario.
