10.23.2004

Earthquakes - We're OK

There was a series of big earthquakes on the other side of Japan this evening and even our place in Tokyo was shaking for a few minutes several times. The kids all scrambled under the table right away for the first three quakes but didn't seem to notice any of the smaller, later tremors.

A special news bulletin has replaced the show the kids wanted to watch, and it looks like there has been some damage from loose (from all the rain we had last week and this) soil on hills avalanching and a single car was buried. Two deaths from fallen ceilings and 30 injuries have been reported. There is apparently no threat of tidal wave damage. One of the high speed bullet trains was lightly derailed but none of the passengers were injured.

The cameras in Tokyo showed swaying horizontal motion, but the Niigata cameras were jumping up and down. I am glad the damage is as small as it is, the quakes are similar in magnitude to the Kobe quakes which killed 6,400 people early one winter morning 9 years ago. At dinner time today, more people were awake and ready to follow their emergency plans.



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