If you were to take a look at the Earth’s tectonic plates, Japan is in an extremely unfortunate spot, sitting on the border of the North American, Eurasian, Pacific and Filipino plates. It comes as no surprise that the region has been covered by numerous disasters over its history; the most recent addition being the earthquake and tsunami off the Japanese east coast mid-March.
The earthquake hit 130 kilometres east of Tōhoku on March 11 with a magnitude of 9.0, the fourth-largest earthquake in the world since record-keeping began around 1900. A tsunami followed the earthquake and reached over 7 metres high in northeastern Japan, destroying city blocks and farms in the areas near Tōhoku and Sendai. The tsunami was followed by more than 50 aftershocks over the day, many of a high magnitude. Trains that would normally be punctual ground to a halt and many commuters suffered service outages as networks went down across Tokyo. The death toll had risen to just under 7000 in the week after the initial earthquake, but over 10,000 people were still unaccounted for.
While the earthquake had devastating effects, especially in northeastern Japan, the deaths due to the tsunami and earthquake were minimized in what some would claim a success in safety and engineering. Compare this year’s earthquake to the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, which caused 100,000 deaths with a magnitude of 7.9; the deadliest recorded earthquake to hit Japan. The 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, with over 6000 deaths from a magnitude of 6.8, was not as deadly as this year’s earthquake but not nearly as powerful.
The advancements in safety procedures and engineering have dramatically decreased risk of death or injury in disasters. Engineers around the world see tsunami-resistant buildings as a goal to reach, as earthquake resistance is something most engineers have managed to accomplish, especially in Japan. Japan’s strict building codes are higher than in most countries and, for the most part, buildings managed to hold up against the disaster. The country’s tsunami warning system has been regarded as the most successful in the world, with advisories sent well in advance and giving citizens an acceptable amount of time to evacuate to higher ground or shelters. The highly-regarded seawalls that scatter Japan’s shores as much as fishing boats, which were expected to hold off major tsunamis, failed to protect northeastern Japan from this month’s disaster, as the tsunami easily swept over the seawalls and hit many key areas, specifically the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility near Ōkuma and the Fukushima Daini nuclear facility near Naraha. The former plant is now a major source of concern as the water disabled the reactor cooling systems.
Unfortunately, radiation issues from the nuclear facilities in northeastern Japan have caused more trouble following the initial incident. When the tsunami disabled the cooling systems at the Daiichi facility, three separate explosions occurred in the days that followed. The Japanese authorities responded by evacuating all regions within 20 kilometres of the plant, and all regions within 10 kilometres of the Daini plant in case of an explosion at that facility. Engineers injected the reactor core at Daiichi with seawater and boron to cool it as an emergency procedure, assisted by military helicopters and police trucks equipped with water cannons. There was a temporary fire at one of the nuclear fuel storage ponds which directly released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. One week after the initial incident, Japan considered preparation for a last-resort “Chernobyl solution”, where it would bury the plant in sand and concrete, leaving that section of the country off-limits for many years. The Japanese government did not believe it would come to that at this point, and if it does, they would still have to fully cool the reactor cores before they are buried.
The radiation concerns have had dramatic effects on Japanese society, especially within major cities. The typically bustling and bright Tokyo is dark, quiet and empty, as power supplies are strained and the consensus amongst residents is that they don’t want to breathe the outdoor air because something very wrong is going on at the malfunctioning nuclear facilities. The public’s frustration with the lack of information coming from the government about the nuclear plants is rapidly increasing and aftershocks still shake the city every day, leaving those still there with worries about when the damage will end.
CECS has been in contact with the ten Waterloo co-op students who were in Japan at the time of the incident and gave them the option of leaving the country with the support of CECS and the employers. Foreign governments are helping citizens leave the country by ordering charter flights.
Companies are also making an effort to help victims of the earthquake by harnessing their corporate strengths. Apple Stores in Japan are known for being some of the only public free Wi-Fi locations still operating around the country, and Apple has been letting citizens gather to use the Internet during the night. During the day, employees brought out surge protectors and extension cords for people to charge their devices so they can keep in contact with their families and friends. Displaced retail and corporate employees and their families were able to sleep in the store boardrooms and if they chose to leave the country until things improve, Apple assured them they will have a job when they come back. They also offered to pay for food and transportation in case money was an issue in leaving.
Google has set up a Google Crisis Response page where people can either find missing persons or upload information they have about them. Google also has transit routes, government agencies, shelter information, translation, message boards, phone lines and many other resources to help people in Japan or outside. Microsoft’s assistance is more business-oriented, but their contributions to getting the economy back up to par are not insignificant. Microsoft is committing $2 million, which includes reaching out to organizations and customers to support relief and conducting impact assessments. They are also offering free temporary licenses for software to any impacted customers and governments, free incident support, a cloud-based disaster response portal based on Windows Azure, and 90 day use of their online Exchange and SharePoint services, all to help companies and customers continue operations. Various companies around the country have been restricting electricity usage due to the huge dent in electricity production cause by the nuclear reactors.
If you want to donate to helping the people in Japan, there are many outlets to help out. Apple has a page in the iTunes Store where users can directly donate to the American Red Cross, which can be accessed from Apple’s homepage or from the iTunes Store homepage. Google also has a spot to enter donations to the Japanese Red Cross on their Crisis Response page. On Facebook, the Red Cross has set up a Causes profile to fund relief efforts to which users can donate. The Canadian Red Cross is accepting donations on their website at http://www.redcross.ca, by phone at 1-800-418-1111, by mail or at Red Cross offices across Canada. If you want to help out people in Japan, donate via any of the previously mentioned services or to a charity you know is helping with relief efforts. Just be careful of fake accounts that claim to be donating but are really looking for your phone number or personal information. It’s important to consider your own safety as well as the safety of others. Hopefully, the radiation in Japan does not rise much further and the aftershocks stop so the Japanese can get back to the life they once had.
Btuuced Mkmkm
I really love Japanese engineering