I heard late last night from a friend who was able to report on the status of her son in Tokyo and our mutual friends who were in Hiroshima dealing with the death of a family member. I was much relieved to hear of all of their safety - though sad for Natsumi and the loss of her father earlier in the week.
We have still not heard anything from Hiro. She is in one of the areas that has been the hardest hit by the continuing barrage of earthquakes. Thankfully she's located inland rather than near the coast so she's likely been unaffected by the water, but the quakes just keep coming. It makes me wonder... even the strongest and most well-built structures are likely to collapse eventually with the never-ending shaking.
The grand total for yesterdays earthquakes was about 135 over 4.5 and only 8 of them were over 6.0! The new threats are coming from the many nuclear reactors that have been damaged and reports are suggesting that there is risk of rupture at many of them. My concerns here come from the mixed messages that are being put out... on one hand the government is saying that there is very little risk, and then they are ordering mass evacuations around the power plants. Japan has a history of downplaying risky situations to avoid panicking the people. From what I've seen, the people are pulling together very well and barring any other major seismic events or nuclear catastrophes it should begin to improve in the near future. Again, we are lucky enough to be far far away from all of the worst of this experience. Please don't worry for us - our biggest concern is going to be from the possible interruptions to food supplies. We, being good Costco members, are always well stocked and if push comes to shove, I'm sure the kids would enjoy a few days without fresh veggies.
More news as it comes...
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