As more shocking news from Japan hits us by the hour, we would like to send out this message of support to all our members in the Pacific region and to everyone else who has been affected!
In the early hours of Friday morning CET (afternoon in local time), the worst earthquake in recorded history – measured at 8.9 – struck Japan. Only a few hours later, a tsunami wave reaching heights of up to 10 m flooded the north coast of the main island Honshu. Closest to the epicentre was the sea port city of Sendai, where earthquake and tsunami have claimed 200 to 300 hundred victims already. The total death toll is still unclear.
Victims have also been reported in the Tokyo region, where all train services have been suspended and skyscrapers were swaying as the ground rumbled. The tsunami which was triggered by the earthquake is expected to affect the whole Pacific region and may hit California this afternoon. Another cause for concern are Japan’s nuclear power plants, some of which had to be shut down and are running their cooling systems on emergency battery power only.
We haven’t heard from our Ambassadors or any of our members in the area yet, but we sincerely hope that nobody was hurt. Take care!
Thanks for putting this up.I have an old friend in Chiba who has yet to respond, but I haven’t spoken to her in years and there are any number of reasons why that could be.Last I heard, she didn’t live on the coastal side of the prefecture–she was closer to Tokyo, really–so the chances she was impacted by the tsunami are probably pretty low. The earthquake is another story.I’m keeping my fingers crossed.