Earthquake in Tokyo

Of all the natural disasters, earthquakes scare me the most. Cause how can you run away with the ground shaking below you? Besides, they cannot be previewed, can they? I've never experienced one, and of course I hope I'll never do, but I can't stop picturing the situation. My mom was so shocked looking at the images on TV. She gets really emotional with these tragedies, but maybe it was partly because I keep telling her I want to visit Japan.

Guys in the pacific side of America, be aware. The tsunamis may hit some countries.

http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=523368.html
Guys I found this link!
Have a read -

Its not that am happy about it!
All day long I have been sad and worried about this issue - :s

PochinkoPotanko - Be safe!
We are all here - I feel so warm that we are all here to support the people in such a chaos -
FS is not only a sport - but a real passion - thanks to which we are all gathered here with friends/fans!

Pochi, I'm glad to know you guys are safe there.

The first thought which came to my mind when I read the breaking news was about Mao and those who are in Japan right now esp. those in this forum followed by thoughts about the tsunami hitting other countries. It's bound to happen especially after a very big calamity like this. A short period after this happened a tsunami alert was raised back home. Some have already hit by this time but not high so everything seems ok there now. But even then the damage is mostly on Japan. Those pictures are scary. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan.

I hope these tremors will end already.

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

I just got a phone call from one of our mods in the Japanese forum. She called from Sendai, Miyagi.

Sendai? OMG! Currently earthaquake in Japan is topic number 1 in our media and pictures from Sendai scared me the most I hope she'll be ok.

Thank you for all news Pochi, glad to hear you're healthy. I'm praying for you and my heart is with all people in your country.

I give all my heart to the people in Japan espacially those who are affected.

I'm so devastated by this and cannot imagine how sad Japanese people especially in Miyagi would feel.

Hope all people in Japan are safe and hope that there will be nothing worse than what we already have seen in media especailly in Sendai and Tohoko region.

Mao might have been in Nagoya with Taka-chan and Mrs Sato when it happened. Coach Sato is in Yokohama. Yuka Sato has said her parents are ok. They can only communicate via emails for now.

Detroit Skating Club coach Sato: Parents safe in Japan

http://icemusings.blogspot.com/2011/03/earthquake-and-tsunami-in-japan.html
Yuzuru and Miki are fine as well!

Lets hope things calm down a lil bit!
I am not keen to watch news channel - they tend to over hype every piece of information -
BBC is scaring me lol!

I'm so relieved that Pochi and family members of forum members are okay. I hope we hear soon that all our Japanese members are okay...thank you, Pochi, for all the information. I was really worried about Mao and the other Japanese skaters. It's a relief to hear that Mao is most likely fine, but I'm going to keep Yuzuru, the other skaters, and the people of Japan in general in my thoughts and prayers.

Also, if you can, please text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 for relief efforts.


Edit: Just saw the post above.. Thank goodness Yuzuru and Miki are fine!

MaoChan756 for the info. What a relief. I can't stand to watch the news either. All the videos on YT of the earthquake are just terrible to see. What a horrible thing to happen...

Extremely upset and horrified by the earthquake. I visited Tokyo just two months ago...I can't believe how quickly natural disasters strike. I'm sending my thoughts and prayers to all Japanese people (and those who have family and friends in Japan), but I'm especially heartbroken for our forum members who have been affected by the earthquake. And worried for Mao and Miki and all the skaters.

Please let things be okay .

Thank you soo much for these information, PPotanko ! I was so shocked when I got the info of the earthquake... In our news was said that the magnitude was 8,9 (Christmas in 2004 was 9,1! ) Take care of you please !!
In fairness my first thought was like 'omg, is Mao okay?And Taka? What will happen with worlds?' and I feel really guilty about of that!
Actually I think the biggest problem is the damaged nuclear power station in Fukushima ....
I keep you all in mind in Japan (and West US)!

josling wrote:

I keep you all in mind in Japan (and West US)!

Nothing major in California!

The situation is just unreal, and it's not just the tsunamis and fires. There's been over one hundred quakes (aftershocks incl.) recorded in Japan over the past half day or so and just another M6 quake struck the center of inland Japan this time - right around Nagano and Niigata prefecture.

Thanks everyone for being concerned again. I'm fine!
But we've just had another earthquake. This time the center is assumed to be somewhere near the Nagano prefecture. They have been hit by a seismic intensity 6+ level earthquake.

This is quite big, and I'm not sure if it's coming from the same plate (we call them earthquake plates, they're layers of well...earth I guess, which can be found under most of Japan. Some are connected, some aren't and the places where we have these plates are mainly the areas where we have earthquakes, cause they are the stuff which are shaking in the earth) as the one based in Miyagi. No, the center is based in the Niigata prefecture which is located right above Nagano. But the earthquake shook most in Nagano. Tokyo's seismic intensity was observed as 2. It did shake but not much here.

And right after that, we had another earthquake alert on tv, this time the center is assumed to be somewhere around Ibaraki prefecture...but somewhere in the ocean this time. I'm not sure if the last shake I felt was from this one or the one which struck Nagano and Niigata. And another earthquake alert on TV, this time the center is assumed to be Nagano and Niigata again. This earthquake alerting system was developed a few years ago...it's supposed to alert us before an earthquake strikes, but 'before' is like half a second or even after it's already started to shake. And I'm feeling nothing, so I guess that last one was either a false alarm or maybe it was too weak to reach Tokyo.



Okay, sorry for the big map! We've been starting to have some shaking, eversince about half an hour ago again. And we've just had another one while I was uploading this map. This time the center is Chiba! Which is at the east of Tokyo. It seems this whole chain of earthquakes have started to head down south. We had a new quake alert on tv again, and this time they've included Tokyo in the assumed area...but it only shook a very little bit. They alerted us for a big one coming, so I guess they were wrong. I don't know how this alerting system works, so don't ask. But anyway, Mao is still probabaly okay, since the last large 6+ quake which hit Nagano and Niigata only influenced Aichi prefecture with a seismic intensity of only 1. No changes here in Tokyo...the quakes centering in Niigata, Ibaraki and Chiba have not affected Tokyo that much. I'm fine. Our dog has been trembling with fear all day, and she still is, but our cats are sleeping as if nothing ever happened. I did hear one fire truck siren a few minutes ago outside. Somebody's house may have caught fire somewhere, but it seemed like only one fire truck was off to the rescue so it shouldn't be that serious.

Anyway, Tokyo is still fine. But I think most people are still awake though it's 4:40 in the morning. Countless people are spending the night in Tokyo although they don't live here cause most of the trains have stopped and they can't go home. Universities and large public buildings are opened for sheltering such people everywhere in Tokyo tonight. Usually by 5 in the morning, the trains start running again, but since we're still having these little quakes on and on, I don't think the railways will start funtioning yet.

I'm getting sleepy, but...I think I'd better stay awake for a while cause we just had a mild shake again. When is this going to end???

PS:clovera, if you're reading this, try to check on your father if you can again. Things are not looking so good in Ibaraki it seems. It's not just the ryokan your father was staying at which collapsed there, and people who were in those buildings weren't as lucky as your father and his colleages.

hi everybody, and the best wishes for PochinkoPotanko and all the memeber of this forum in Japan

i feel so depresed today, i was at work when my boss told me that there
was a sunami in Japan, it was a horrible sensation even though i don´t
have any relatives there and i´m not from Japan.

what a bad day today.... i hope the earth stop moving please.

i´ll pray for Japan

i must admit i thought about the wordls in Tokio all day, but time passes and right now i care less and less, i´m worried about what we will see tomorrow and i just hope the news say it stoped at last and to be sure Mao is fine and all the skaters and their families.

my best wishes for Japan

hope everyone is ok i was very worried

Thank you for updating us Pochi!

In light of this recent tragedy, I found this uplifting message:



Dear everyone in Japan;
Please stay strong against
the earthquakes and tsunamis.
The whole world is praying
for your safety.

What a terrible thing to happen! A lot of bad things seem to be happening to the world lately: The whole North and South Korea animosity, rebellions in Egypt and senseless massacres in Libya. And then a natural calamity such as this!

To be honest, my first thought when I heard that the earthquake was 8.9 (Pochi said it was 8.8, but it's a small difference) was "Oh no! Is Mao okay? Are the other skaters okay? What about our forum members who are in Japan? Did anything serious happen to them?" My mind was racing. When I relayed the info to my classmate, she got quiet. Her mom, it seems, lives in Nagoya. But since Pochi reported that Nagoya is quite far from the center and did not receive a lot of damages compared to other parts of Japan such as Miyagi Prefecture, I am sure she'll feel relieved now.

Quote :

I just got a phone call from one of our mods in the Japanese forum. She called from Sendai, Miyagi. It seems she lives there and told me we won't be able to get in touch with her for a while and asked me to mail a few people to pass the message. She was quite shook up, and cried a bit while she was on the phone. But it was a pay phone, which tells us that all personal phonelines are dead and cell phones are all busy. There must've been dozens of people in line back of her waiting to use the pay phone so I was only able to talk to her for a short time. She said she and her family are okay, but mentally not okay. I think everyone in Sendai is still in a state of shock, and since even at this point we're still having short shakes from time to time in Tokyo, Sendai must be suffering shakes at the same time with larger seismic intensity. I hope her house or apartment or which ever household she lives in survived the first big shake...I thought since Sendai isn't in flames like Kobe was, at least not now, the damages might've been lighter, but hearing my friend all shook up on the phone made me think that maybe we haven't seen the worst yet. Most of the roads are probabaly closed, or destroyed so camera crews for the media haven't sent us all the images of the actual damage happeneing there.

Pochi, this post about your friend made me upset.

I saw the news. I saw what happened to Sendai region. My first thought was the safety of the people. And then I thought about the farms and the produce. So much waste... And I saw some of the cars and other houses drenched in water. Your friend's story seems to touch only the tip of the iceburg; I can just imagine the psychological and emotional shock the people there are feeling now.

Last post before I got sleep.
It still shakes sometimes even in Tokyo, but I think it's finally starting to end.

And more good news!
According to the tweets of Shizuka, Honda Takeshi, Akiko and some other skaters, it seems Yuzuru Hanyu is fine! And so are all the other skaters who reside in Miyagi and practice at the main rinks there.

Plus, many skaters in other countries have tweeted their concern for Japan! It's so heartwarming, and I am so touched by this that I have to share...

Quote :

Plush: http://twitter.com/Evgeniplushenko/status/46173811606962176

Maia Shibutani: http://twitter.com/MaiaShibutani/status/46170856132579328

Todd Eldridge: http://twitter.com/toddeldredge/status/46201846859177984

Jeremy~!: http://twitter.com/jeremyabbottpcf/status/46216782410809345

@J_Butt: wrote:

Jeff: This is so frightening. My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with everyone in Japan.

@JoannieRochette: wrote:

Joannie: My thought and prayers are with Japan during this terrible time! It is such a beautiful place with wonderful warm people xoxo

@brezinamichal: wrote:

Michal: I cant watch it anymore... its all over the news and i'm just too sad to watch the disaster...

@jeremyabbottpcf: wrote:

Jeremy again: Nothing I can say at this moment is significant, but my thoughts and love are with all of Japan. You're a great nation of amazing people <3

@EvanLysacek: wrote:

Evan: Praying for all the people in Japan affected by the terrible tsunami. Please stay safe.

@JohnnyGWeir: wrote:

Johnny!: My heart and prayers are with Japan.

@AshWagner2010: wrote:

Sweet Ashley: I hope everyone is okay out in Japan..stay safe guys:/

@TanithJLB: wrote:

Tanith: Trying to absorb this tragedy. Heart and thoughts to Japan & those affected by the tsunami. Incredible country and ppl.

@RyanSBradley: wrote:

Ryan Bradley: I'm stunned about the happenings in Japan. What a terrible situation. My thoughts are with them and their safety.

@Armin_hammer: wrote:

Armin!: My thoughts are with everyone in Japan today. The video is almost surreal. Please stay safe!

@seanrabbitt: wrote:

Sean Rabbit?: 日本で皆さん大丈夫ですか？私は誰もが安全なことを望む(Is everyone all right in Japan? I hope everybody is safe)

@Tara_Lipinski: wrote:

Tara: These videos and images are horrific...Japan holds such a special special place in my heart...#PrayForJapan

@Tenis_Den: wrote:

Denis!: Please be strong and stay safe, Japan! All my thoughts and prayers are with all of you right now!!!

@yanarudkovskaya: wrote:

Plush's wife!!!!: My most dear and favourite Japan! I love you so much!! Be strong and steady. We are always with you!

@nobutaro1001: wrote:

Nobunari: 日本で大地震があったとニュースで見てビックリして、ツイートしてます。皆さん大丈夫ですか!?めちゃくちゃ心配です。。無事を祈っています！/ I saw in the news that Japan had a major earthquake and I'm so shocked that's why I'm tweeting. Is everybody all right!? I'm worried like crazy...I'll be praying for everyone's safety!

@181712: wrote:

Miki: 地震、津波の被害にあった地域の方々大丈夫でしょうか？ 大変かと思いますがとにかく無事を願います。 空を通じて本当に無事を願います。 被害がこれ以上になりませんように… /I hope the people in the areas which suffered from the earthquake and tsunami damages are all safe? You all must be having a hard time, but I will keep on praying for your safety. I really will hope for your well being from the sky. I so hope that there won't be anymore damage...

@takahito3211: wrote:

Takahito Mura: 余震が続いてるんだね。気をつけてください(´･_･`) / I've heard that aftershocks are continuing. Please be careful everyone(´･_･`)[/

@FluffyChebu: wrote:

Daisuke Murakami: 日本の皆さん大丈夫ですか？？心配。。。/Everyone in Japan, are you all right?? I'm worried...

@tiramisu11: wrote:

Shizuka: カーテンは閉めておくこと。もしも窓が割れたとき、ガラスが室内へ散乱するのをおさえる役割してくれるから。と、母に言われました。/ Keep the curtains shut. In case your window breaks, this will keep the glass from shattering into your room. This is what my mother told me (in case of an earthquake)

@ken10gomachan: wrote:

Kento Nakamura: 大学で映画見てる俺って… / I feel so bad just watching a movie in my college campus during all this...

Note: no tweets from Pattie and Yuna??? If there are, please post.

Furthermore news...It seems ISU has announced that they will be holding this season's Worlds as planned from the 21st of this month in Tokyo. They have confirmed that there had been no damages in the Yoyogi Skating Rink by the members of JSF. Although they will be observing the outcomes (of the earthquake situation), they will at the same time go on preparing the competition as scheduled. http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2011031101134

However, IMO I think ISU and the Japan Fed had rushed into conclusions on this matter too fast. As I've posted from the very start, the major earthquake magnitude 8.8 did not strike all of Japan. However...the earthquake did influence the whole country. Right now, one of our nuclear power stations in Ibaraki has been stopped because of some technical problems resulting from the earthquake. After Nagano and Niigata prefecture was struck by a seismic intensity 6+ level earthquake a few hours ago, it's been reported that a different nuclear power station in Niigata had some 'water leaks' whatever that means, so they might stop it just to be on the safe side as well. There is also another nuclear power station in Miyagi too. It seems to be all right so far, stable and all. But there are high chances of this power station being closed down due to safety reasons any minute as well. So 1 down, 1 on the verge of going down, and 1 in the area where the largest earthquake and tsunami hit. The electricity company has already started calling out to people asking them to save energy, otherwise there may not be any left to use in the damaged areas. The more others save energy, the more chances there will be in rescuing the victims of the earthquake and the tsunami. They are havng a black out in Miyagi since last night, and also in some parts of the Kanto area (Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama). Over 600 households are having black outs, due to some earthquake damages, but also maybe because one of our nuclear power stations have stopped. Plus, they say that there is no danger of a nuclear outblast, but still they had people living close to the station evacuate their homes.

I did write in my very first posts that the earthquake which hit mainly the Miyagi prefecture, did not cause all of Japan a major earthquake accordingly. However, this earthquake was very widespread so it did influence most of the country. I'm definitely sure that Japan won't be able to calm things down and go back to normal within just 10 days or so. The number of confirmed casualties is rising every minute, and is over 1000 deaths by now. It used to be only some 400 casualties up till an hour ago, but it suddenly changed to over 1000. And there will be much much more.

Also, from around 4AM, other parts of Japan has started being struck by 6+ level earthquakes. The center of this new earthquake was not in Miyagi but in a different prefecture called Niigata. So although it occured by the influence of the Miyagi centered earthquake, it's basically a different earthquake, and we can't be sure that that would be the last of other quakes occuring in relavance to the Miyagi quake. We've already been having some minor quakes, although they did have merely level 4 seismic intensity, the center was located to be somewhere close to Tochigi, Chiba or Tokyo. The first earthquake seems to have triggered quakes in other areas, which are much more closer to Tokyo.

So frankly, I think it's crazy for the ISU or our Skating Fed to conclude they'll be having Worlds in Tokyo as planned. IMO, they should at leas postpone it for another month or so, or do it in another country. Think about it...after reading all the info I've posted here, would you feel like sending your country's skaters to Japan within a few days? Would the skaters be able to focus on the competition knowing many have died and many are still missing in the same country the competition will be held? What if another earthquake shakes up Tokyo during the competition? It's not rare for aftershocks to come out of the blue a few days after a major earthquake.

As much as I want to see Worlds, esp in Tokyo, I think it's a bad idea to do it. Alot of people in society will also think it's not right to have a joyful event soon after such a disaster, with so many people still mourning the loss of family and friends. I'm going to sleep now, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this matter.

I hope they could postpone the world championship or change it to other places. My city was affected during 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China. I remember how scare I was in the following weeks. I don't think it is a good idea for athletes to compete after such circumstances. And I have more concerns about the nuclear power plants. Hope they would be safe. Hope everyone would be safe.
btw. Mirai said she can't get in touch with her grandparents:(

tianrushui wrote:

I hope they could postpone the world championship or change it to other places. My city was affected during 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China. I remember how scare I was in the following weeks. I don't think it is a good idea for athletes to compete after such circumstances. And I have more concerns about the nuclear power plants. Hope they would be safe. Hope everyone would be safe.
btw. Mirai said she can't get in touch with her grandparents:(

Thanks for the insight, tianrushui! I remember that earthquake in China! Thank goodness you are alright.
Oh no, Mirai! I hope her grandparents are okay!

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Japan.

Thanks for your updates Pochi I'm glad you (and other mods) are safe. I hope the conditions will get better soon, and that they won't rush into things just for the World Championships- I think Japanese people right now need all the resources they can get, so I'm not sure if diverting those resources for Worlds is a good idea.

My thoughts and prayers are with Japan. Does anyone know if Mao is okay ?

Jtsmith1, the last I've heard is that Mao is with the Satos and they're all fine. However, I just read on FSU that Fumie tweeted about her grandfather's death. Can anyone confirm?

klarification wrote:

Jtsmith1, the last I've heard is that Mao is with the Satos and they're all fine. However, I just read on FSU that Fumie tweeted about her grandfather's death. Can anyone confirm?

OMG!!!

I guess it's definitely better to postpone Worlds. It won't be safe and surely too painful for the Japanese skaters and audience.

klarification wrote:

Jtsmith1, the last I've heard is that Mao is with the Satos and they're all fine. However, I just read on FSU that Fumie tweeted about her grandfather's death. Can anyone confirm?

If this is true...I have no words. My heart goes out to Fumie. And does anyone know where Mirai's grandparents live? Are they in the worst affected area?

I agree with you guys that they should either postpone or relocate Worlds. It's just too soon, and the country is dealing with so much right now. Scheduling it in place of the WTT would work well, IMO.