Hi PennsylvaniaMom. I am in a suburb of Tokyo. We had severe and scary shaking at the office on Friday, and I watched out the 14th floor of the office as several fires burned across the city.
No one was injured or hurt in Tokyo for the most part, but I heard 6 people died in Tokyo due to industrial accidents that occurred as a direct result of the earthquake.
I actually stayed at the office working and assessing the situation for the next four hours, and finally left at 7pm, and just went to a pub with my co-worker to have some fun and conversation and drinks until the trains started running again. The only thing affected by the quake in Tokyo was the train schedule, and it will be that way for the next couple days as well.
We have all our electricity, but have been told to expect rolling outages should there be residual problems with power generation, such as the further shutting down of reactors, or discovering new damage that could influence municipal services.
The grocery stores have been hit moderately for supplies, but remain very well stocked. I noticed all the cup noodles, chocolate, and other easy to prepare, or emergency energy items were sold out or low, but there is no panic whatsoever. Most stores are still open, including all convenience stores, and people on the streets are going about their regular weekend business in Tokyo.
The towns and villages that were erased are localized disasters, and we all feel for them, but overall, everything outside of the destroyed areas is running as normal.
I fully expect to be back at work on Monday unless something else happens to change that.
There have been hundreds of aftershocks of 5.4M or more. Please see this map for an idea of what we are going through. Anything less than a nearby 6.8M is run of the mill throughout Japan though, so we ignore those and go about our daily business.
I’m sorry, I forgot to post the link:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/140_35.php
Amazing how people can get used to just about anything.
I only experienced the merest "push" of a tremor one time when I was in a Tokyo hotel (it was over ten years ago), and that was more than I cared to handle...
Thank you for the nice post and update. I was away from FR, media for a few hours and was stunned to see the new Drudge headlines (the huge evacuation count; the third reactor with colling issues). It is great to hear, first hand, that life is going on as normal as possible in Tokyo. Nornal routines (as much as we all complain about Mondays, or wanting a vacation) are what keep us going. That, and socializing with friends in a Pub :)
Please keep checking in when you can to FR (ping me!) so that we know you are still safe and well. G-d Bless!