Howdy...
My power just came back on a few minutes ago and it's 11:15 pm Friday. Unbelievable is all I can say. There were 4 different quakes within 30 minutes that spread across the entire Pacific tectonic plate just offshore. I live close to the second one - a 7.4 quake.
The first (8.8 magnitude) massive one was 300 km north of me. It was so strong that I was thrown around like a rag doll inside a stopped car and could not get out. The car (Mercedes station wagon)was bouncing like a toy. My wife was outdoors in a clear area and could barely keep standing. And that was 300km from the quake. The news is reporting that it was the largest quake ever recorded in Japanese history. The aftershocks have been continuous and very strong.
1. The photo above is a gas facility near Tokyo, not a nuclear power plant.
2. There is no emergency at the nuclear plant in Fukushima. People within 3 km are being evacuated because there is still a possibility of more tsunamis in the area. It is precautionary.
3. If this had been closer to Tokyo, I couldn't even imagine the casualties.
4. It has been reported that this such a rare tectonic event that it's possible there could be another within the next week.
There have been three aftershocks as I wrote this, that's how frequently they are happening, even after 8 hours after the first quake. We are very lucky and have no damage at all to our place. A lot of people are not as lucky.
