Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Plant

As you know already, Japan had the historical earthquake on March 11. From the record available, this is the 4th largest in the world history. Then, tsunami and nuclear power plant explosions made the whole country in crisis.

This is beyond my imagination. Growing up in Osaka, I did experience earthquake periodically, several times per year but luckily never a serious damage in my town. But in 1995, the magnitude 6.9 earthquake broke the city of Kobe. It was only 20 miles away from Osaka and my uncle's house in Kobe crushed.  The whole city collapsed to the ground. It was unreal and I wanted to think it was just a bad dream. It took him 3 years and all his retirement money to build a new house.
       When I heard the news about the new earthquake, I hoped not Kobe again! Yesterday, I called my uncle in Kobe. Though this time the earthquake was hundreds miles away from him, he knew what the survivors were going through and felt their pain. He said "I did not live to 90 years old to see this again, not again." It made me cry.
      
This Northern Japan Earthquake was worse than  the Kobe Earthquake. Giant waves swallowed the shore and froze the region to below zero. To make it far worse, the nuclear power plants exploded. Tokyo is only 180 miles away and was effected with black-out for a few days. The radiation contaminated the water and at this point only God knows how deep the contamination is.

I called my friend who lives in Kanagawa, near Tokyo. She told me the earthquake was only enough to shake her bookshelves. The scarily part was that it went for a long time, the longest time she ever had.

I heard that my hometown Osaka had no damage. I hope they can support the relief effort. And I hope I can support it, too. I decided to donate part of my earnings to International Relief. I don't know how high I can reach but I'll try my best... least I can do.

Thank you for reading such a long post. Lastly if I may, let me share with you what I've learned about earthquake recently.

The BBC online page blow shows you the cause and effect of Earthquake;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4126809.stm

About Tsunami?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7533972.stm

More on later.
Prayers to Tohoku people and the relief effort,
Kuniko