QUAKE UPDATES Day 5  ++++

Yesterday I emailed Kasumi saying since Tatsuya isn't working and the kids aren't in school why not come here and wait it out, make further decisions together, we have food backup etc. I can meet you somewhere with gasoline...

Kasumi family has only a half tank of gas, roads broken and crowded, so as it is, if they could find a navigable way out they'd run out of fuel in the vehicular jam before they could get far, so I offered to drive toward them with cans of gas from here... shops even around here, far south of Tokyo, are running out of essentials as folks anticipate... this am we’re going to make a run for some essential backups, though we’ve been ahead of the game for years now, using kerosene lanterns, woodstove etc.

Six reactors now problematic, say the reassuring heads.... not to worry, just don't go outside or breathe too much... pay no attention to the frantic activities behind the radioactive curtain... we were on lunch break... the plug didn’t fit... the generators ran out of gas... the reactor coolers ran on electricity and the reactors...um... weren’t generating electricity, how could we have foreseen that in all our tons of plans on paper, so we got some more generators... we have a big plan... we’ve always had a big plan... astonishing, when all is revealed...

Once again Japan is the world’s canary in the coal mine...

Cryptic txt note from Kasumi last night: “WE FOUND A POSSIBLE ROUTE”, apparently by bus? or train? to Tokyo, then Shinkansen to Kyoto... no details... emailed back, waiting...

Thank you all again for your emotional support... will keep you posted asap...

Love to all...

+

No looting, just keeping calm and carrying on: Ordinary Japanese try to get back to normality

Chernobyl clean-up expert slams Japan, IAEA

America on radiation alert: Japan faces world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as experts warn fallout may reach U.S.

"They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots." 

 +

Strong winds last night from north, not good; today colder with snow, gentle wind from southwest, good.

Got in touch with Kasumi later this morning, she said they're thinking about delaying the departure because one of the girls has a fever; Tatsuya thinking of not coming south because he has to be ready to go to work when the company notifies him. He doesn't think it's going to be too serious but the girls should leave just in case; it's a bus-local train-another local train kind of route they figured out might work, I can't picture that, carrying so little with them, Kasumi doesn't want to take the van and run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, doesn't trust the roads or access to needfuls along the way anyway, and how would I find them, me without a cell phone...(!) Tatsuya will go with them via their route to Tokyo and then return to their apartment at least till further decision, when he solo could move quickly...  I told her to argue with him, so I suppose she is... he could get back there quickly enough from here... six reactors now problematic, it appears, fewer and fewer reactor buildings left standing, in charge of The Faceless 50... 

Another 6.0 quake up there around noon today... 

Snowing hard now; have to go out and buy supplies...  more later, w/time and energy... 

+

Got back from our foray to find a message from Kasumi, she’s been trying but can’t get a place on any buses heading out, likely all booked up for quite a while... no surprise there... I have the feeling we’ll eventually have to go get her and the girls somehow...

Shoulda said 'have to go out and try to buy supplies'... At the various country shops things are sold out completely like flashlights,batteries, buckets, water containers, masks, gas bombes, cooking stoves, tarps, certain tools, the list goes on, but don’t bother, there aren’t any. Oh. My mistake; there was one tiny flashlight left, for 50$. Asked if the big farm store will be getting some of all the other stuff soon: “No telling when; they’re all being shipped north.”

We did get some stuff though, in case the electricity goes, like a big steel pot to put atop the woodstove for hot water... harks me back to the days of living in rural Spain with no utilities (where Kasumi was born; that picture in the sidebar is us in Spain, her at the age of 3 days and I somewhat older). 

This will be just like old times... only hold the radiation, please...

Lotta snow tonight; hope those good folks up north have at least found warm places in the dark...