The Face of Disaster: "Everybody is leaving town!"

This video was posted on youtube a little more than 5 hours ago... It's like watching a real horror show. The absolute terror one must feel in a situation like this must be completely unbearable...

I can't imagine what it would be like to be there now.

Panic is obviously setting in. Something tells me we are only seeing the beginning of this...

Godspeed to all those facing this crisis.

Let us hope for a miracle.

reply to post by loam


God bless them. Just terrible, my heart goes out to everyone in Japan.

"We've just been told not to drink the water."

Who is "we"? I am sitting here right now in Tokyo, I consider myself better informed than most, and I have yet to hear anything about this.

Believe me, nobody takes the situation more seriously me, but I need some more solid sources than a weepy Youtube video. Finding out who "we" are and who "told" these people what would be a good start.

Maybe that video was filmed a few days ago when the Tokyo government said babies shouldn't drink the water?

Anyways, he is seriously freaking out in the video. Panic is never a good thing. He should get the heck out of Tokyo if he is feeling that scared. If he doesn't, the stress might send him to the grave way before the radiation does.

Originally posted by silent thunder
"We've just been told not to drink the water."

Who is "we"? I am sitting here right now in Tokyo, I consider myself better informed than most, and I have yet to hear anything about this.

Believe me, nobody takes the situation more seriously me, but I need some more solid sources than a weepy Youtube video. Finding out who "we" are and who "told" these people what would be a good start.

edit on 3/27/11 by silent thunder because: (no reason given)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good god,you still in tokyo ? thought you left on the day you headed to narita airport.
You have to keep an eye on the radiation readings.
Please keep in touch through the forum.

I seriously find it amazing to believe that any sane person would
wish to stay there,..
After the initial news of the plant failure and radioactivity increase in the area
I would have left the country..
Just another reason I do not trust governments

reply to post by silent thunder


I imagine the information you are getting there is very contradictory at this point.

But to your point:

Nuclear-plant radiation panic grows

In Tokyo, supermarket shelves remained stripped of bottled water yesterday even though radiation levels had returned to within safe limits and the city's governor was shown on television drinking tap water at a municipal purification plant.

And:

Radioactivity levels in Tokyo's tap water declared safe for infants

Radioactivity levels in tap water at Tokyo water purification plants have been detected to be safe for infants' consumption.

The levels continued to drop after samples were detected to be within the normal range for consumption on Saturday.

Thirty-four becquerels of radioactive iodine have been detected in per kilogram of sample water this morning at the Kanamachi facility in the capital's Katsushika Ward and 48 becquerels at the Asaka plant in Asaka, Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo. No radioactive iodine has been detected at the Ozaku purification plant in Hamura in the suburbs of Tokyo, the Kyodo news agency reports.

The detected figures at the three facilities of the metropolitan government's Bureau of Waterworks were below the government's set limits of 100 becquerels for safe consumption by infants under one year old and 300 becquerels for adults.

On Tuesday, 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine was detected at the Kanamachi plant, leading the government to issue an advisory for people in Tokyo's 23 wards and five of its suburban cities-Musashino, Mitaka, Machida, Tama and Inagi on Wednesday that infants should not be provided with tap water.

The metropolitan government, however, lifted the advisory on Thursday following a decline in radioactivity levels to 79 becquerels. (ANI)

***********

Also of note:

Tokyo shoppers clean store shelves of basic goods

Nearly two weeks of rolling blackouts, distribution problems and contamination fears prompted by a leaking, tsunami-damaged nuclear plant have left shelves stripped bare of some basic necessities in stores across Tokyo. Some people are even turning to the city's ubiquitous vending machines to find increasingly scarce bottles of water.

At the source of the anxiety — the overheated, radiation-leaking nuclear plant — there was yet another setback Thursday as two workers were injured when they stepped into radiation-contaminated water. The two were treated at a hospital.

Supplies of bottled water grew scarce in Tokyo, one day after city officials warned that the level of radioactive iodine in the tap water was more than twice what is considered safe for babies to drink. Tests conducted Thursday showed the levels in the city's water fell to acceptable limits for infants, but they were up in neighboring regions.

Frightened Tokyo residents hoping to stock up on bottled water and other goods flocked to shops across the city, some of which tried to prevent hoarding by imposing buying limits.

"The first thought was that I need to buy bottles of water," said Reiko Matsumoto, a real estate agent and mother of a 5-year-old, who rushed to a nearby store to stock up on supplies. "I also don't know whether I can let her take a bath."

The shortages were mainly limited to basic staples, such as rice, instant noodles and milk. Vegetables, meat and tofu, meanwhile, were readily available in most places.

And:

Pregnant women fleeing to Kansai

Kansai area hospitals and the Osaka Prefectural Government say a growing number of pregnant women from the devastated Tohoku region, as well as some in Tokyo worried about the possible effects of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear crisis, are moving to the area to give birth.

In the aftermath of the March 11 quake and tsunami, and amid fears in Tokyo of increased radiation levels in the tap water and air, many residents of eastern Japan have temporarily relocated to the Kansai region, especially pregnant women.

...fear that the plant will continue to leak radiation over a wide area for a long time, are driving the increase in women in eastern Japan fleeing to Kansai to give birth, Osaka officials and hospitals say.

There are discussions under way in Osaka about what to do if the area receives a mass influx of Kanto residents requesting not only maternity care but other forms of assistance. Options mentioned include accepting possibly up to 10,000 evacuees from quake- and tsunami-stricken areas.

While he's clearly upset, I think he is exaggerating a little bit. Everybody is not leaving town - a lot of foreigners have left since the disaster (over 160,000 foreigners, according to the Japanese Immigration Department). Many of those people would be employees of foreign companies and their families. Most people with permanent residence are sticking it out, and with all the non-Japanese out of the way, that still leaves tens of millions of Japanese people with nowhere else to go.

Advisories not to drink the water would make anyone think twice, but there is no evacuation of Japan going on. Should there be? Who knows...I don't think the government is being 100% honest, so its probably quite a bit more risky than they have stated.

Even if they did want to "evacuate Japan", logistically it would be almost impossible. Panic would ensue and more people would be killed and injured than probably affected by the radiation.

I have to say though, if I was there now and had an opportunity to leave, I sure as hell would.

I thought you you headed to narita airport.

reply to post by silent thunder

Originally posted by silent thunder
"We've just been told not to drink the water."

...

Finding out who "we" are and who "told" these people what would be a good start.

I'm wondering if this advice came from his employer?

I don´t understand anyone who is not leaving Tokyo. The government is lying. Tepco is lying. Do you think it is getting better??

Tokyo is about 200 Miles from Fukushima away - let´s compare it with Chernobyl:

Increased rate of thyroid cancer was found in children from 4 to 15 years years after Chernobyl, in Cities up to 300 miles distant.

Girls and those particularly young at the time of exposure are higher at risk, in cities at about 200 miles from Chernobyl particularly in Belarus, with incidences decreasing to 5 cases a year at 300 miles away.

The number of cases of thyroid cancer in children in the Belarus town of Gomel,population about 50,0000, 90 North miles from Chernoby went from one or two cases a year to peak at 38 cases in 1991 5 years after the accident.

reply to post by ckno1


I agree. I would not have stayed.

I was googling radiation yesterday. Unbelievably on the same page, there were links to sites claiming the death toll from Chernobyl was only a handful of those in the immediate vicinity to a million ensuing deaths and all points in between.
I was also checking out the effects of, say, medical X rays. Basically the consensus seems to be that no extra is a good extra. Also a very good point was made that if the global incidence of cancer was to rise by just 1%, that's still a helluvalot of people
I think that pregnant women especially and those with families should get out now - if they haven't done so already. The bar just keeps getting raised. When this first happened the world and his wife were going online to say it was nothing like Chernobyl. There are still a few saying that. But there are more and more saying it's a lot worse.
The Japanese government keeps repeating the mantra of 'no immediate health effects'. But what's going to get you 10 years down the line?

You know, it occurs to me that in addition to the obvious physical manifestations of this disaster, there is also the psychological toll.

Normal people behave very differently under extreme stress. At some point, people are going to snap.

hey but i think Japan will eventually evacuate ..its only a matter of time..that island will be turned into a nuclear wasteland..i know its sad..but its was confirmed to me once i saw all those explosions happening in the herath of the reactors...i mean come on...explosions does happen for a reason..imagine that in the hearth of the explosion there is infinite amount of toxic fuel

Radiation in reactor's building tests 10 million times above normal

reply to post by silent thunder

Gov't asks treatment plants not to take in rainwater due to radiation

The health ministry has instructed the operator of water purification plants nationwide to temporarily stop taking in rainwater to prevent contamination in tap water following radiation leaks from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, ministry officials said Sunday.

While calling on the plants to ensure stable supply of tap water, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare also proposed covering pools of the plants with tarps to keep out rainwater or to use powdered activated carbon that can help get rid of radioactive materials.

The instruction by the ministry came after radiation levels beyond Japan's regulated standard were found in tap water at multiple purification plants in Fukushima and other prefectures including Tokyo, 220 kilometers southwest of the plant.

Radioactive materials emitted to the atmosphere from the nuclear plant apparently fell down to earth with the rain. Radiation levels in water fall over time after it stops raining.

Originally posted by heineken

Radiation in reactor's building tests 10 million times above normal

Breaking News: Operators say extremely high reading of 10 million times the normal level was inaccurate - AP

Sure....It was only 1 Million times higher....

Good god,you still in tokyo ? thought you left on the day you headed to narita airport.
You have to keep an eye on the radiation readings.
Please keep in touch through the forum.

I left but returned. I will be going back and forth from Southeast Asia to Tokyo for a few weeks at least.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ba7e2bd52fe3.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by ckno1


It`s not so easy to leave. Especially for people who don`t have that much money, have jobs here, have nowhere to go, have families and have made their lives in Japan for many years.

It is so frustrating, on top of all the stressful current situation, when people from the outside say - leave, leave, you just have to go...The utmost intention is to leave...But where to? Do what? Until when? It`s really a lot more easier said than done.

Japan is through..You might as well mark it off your map....Its no go for anything now or in the forseeable future...Once again they have done their job well....We are next, so get ready if your not already ready....