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Rescue workers in northeastern Japan used chain saws and pick axes Monday to remove bodies from mountains of rubble left by a massive earthquake and tsunami that has killed thousands and triggered a growing crisis at one of the country’s nuclear power plants.
Millions of survivors were spending a fourth night without water, food or heat in near-freezing temperatures along Japan’s devastated coast, where officials say as many as 10,000 may have been killed on Friday by the magnitude-8.9 quake and the giant waves that followed.
Map of Japan Earthquake Epicenter
“This is Japan’s most severe crisis since the war ended 65 years ago,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters, adding that Japan’s future would be decided by its response.
via Millions Of Stricken Japanese Lack Water, Food, Heat : NPR.
I went through Hurricane Katrina in Picayune, MS. I felt the concrete slab of the house I was in tremble under my feet as we were battered by 120MPH+ winds. I heard the roar of the wind, watched the sheets of rain, observed trees falling, experienced the fear of uncertainty, lived twelve days without power, and a month without a landline phone. I had to drive 100 miles to get gas for our generator. Even then I had to wait in line. Many lost everything that they had. Recovery is still continuing on the MS Gulf Coast.
Japan’s trouble is no Katrina.
It will take years and years for Japan to recover. Many years longer than MS and LA require. Their power plants are essentially gone. They have lost at least fifty years of progress, in some senses.
New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have been blessed.
Pray for Japan.
Related articles
- “Katrina And The Haiti Earthquake Rolled Into One” Ctd (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
- Japan: the crisis mounts | Editorial (guardian.co.uk)
- Quake takes toll on Japan’s economy (edition.cnn.com)
- Hurricane Katrina: Five Years Later, Crimes Still Being Exposed [Investigations] (gawker.com)
- Japan Earthquake And Tsunami: How To help (harlemworldblog.wordpress.com)
