EARTHQUAKE UPDATES   ++++

Thanks and embraces for all your kind messages-- We are all fine, no evidence of quake up here on the mountain, but Kasumi, who lives near the shore up north in Ibaraki, texted that she'd been at home while the girls were at school when everything in the apartment crashed to the floor-- no electricity, no water, she rode her bicycle to pick up the girls at school, all the kids there were milling around not knowing what to do, Tatsuya, K's husband, had to walk about 6 hours to get home, they had to sleep in their van, no water, no food, can't easily go back into apartment cell phone battery prob fading as they run out of gas, just texted her this am to find out whats up, awaiting reply while watching images on tv of tsunami and after effects-- chilling; now a possible reactor meltdown about 30 km from there; will update with details as they arrive... Hugs to you all...

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No word back from Kasumi yet... the com networks must be far overloaded... I felt the quake at the office in Osaka, far south of the epicenter in Sendai, the building swayed for a long time, not the usual few seconds... then again ... and again... Been here 40 years, never felt that type of quake before... ominous... more later

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8:50 am - Still awaiting word from Kasumi... seeing those videos of the tsunami right near where they live, 10 minutes from the ocean and sleeping in their car, hope they were able to drive away somewhat but roads jammed from what I understand... don't want to picture it...  Quake was magnitude 8.9; most powerful in Japan's history

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10:08am - Text fm Kasumi that they didn't sleep all night, too cold... and too dark to go back into apartment, got a bottle of water from roving assistance people, so she and the girls huddled in the van... Tatsuya arrived home at 10:30 after walking from work 7 hrs away, morning came they went into apt and got some blankets etc. chaos in there, possibly structurally unstable in re continuous strong aftershocks... at dawn they were all evacuated, drove to high school gym, roads heavily damaged... still no utilities, no food so far... nearby reactor still uncertain - Headline says Japan may have hours to prevent nuclear meltdown, unthinkable - that be a whole new half-life ballgame for this nation -

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12:40pm - No further word from Kasumi-- hope they can drive out of there soon--  At the compromised nuke plants a few kms away, because its now too dangerous  to do close-up meltdown-preventive work, the fixers are sitting around at the perimeter trying to figure out what uncertain step to take next, before there's nothing anyone can do (last emergency steam release from a reactor was at Three-Mile Island, btw)... 4000 people evacuated from that neighborhood so far, as the circle widens... 3km...10km... ???km... people seem to be returning to their mountain houses up here... we wait for news fm Kasumi family... wish I could drive there with water, food and wet masks... remaining roads jammed... we gotta try something... going out now, be back...