ABC news is reporting that a Japanese news states that upwards of 88,000 people are missing.
The video footage is horrifying.
by John Cole| 98 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
ABC news is reporting that a Japanese news states that upwards of 88,000 people are missing.
The video footage is horrifying.
Comments are closed.
Cat Lady
CNN is reporting that the radiation level at one of the nuclear plants is rising. The last one leaving Japan won’t have to turn out the lights.
Aardvark Cheeselog
Totally OT: Paratrooper Dog.
We now return to your regularly scheduled doom and gloom.
Martin
Japan, we’d love to help, but the GOP is having a temper tantrum and will probably shut our government down right when we can do the most good. Sorry about that, half of us are complete assholes.
jrg
That’s horrible. I hope the rest of the world can get assistance to them quick.
shaun
Link please, because as of 12:24 EST, no such estimate appears on ABC‘s site nor any other site that I have visited. Additionally, the number is not credible considering that incredibly blow confirmed dead number.
By way of reference, the 1995 Kobe quake killed 6,500.
Martin
@shaun: Well, Japan’s infrastructure is pretty hampered, so confirmed numbers are going to be slow coming. They think two commuter trains have been washed out to sea, so that number isn’t overly shocking to me.
And yesterday’s quake was 400x stronger than the Kobe quake.
Doug Hill
Awful, just awful.
Citizen_X
@shaun: The Kobe earthquake had less shaking than this one (I’m assuming; haven’t seen numbers on ground shaking yet), without tsunamis. I would be very surprised if this quake didn’t have a death toll in the tens of thousands. And you’ve seen the chaos there: there’s going to be a lot of confusion, causing a vast gulf between the numbers of missing and confirmed dead, for quite some time.
Doug Hill
When do we start seeing the articles about how this was all the Japaneses’ fault, the way we did with the earthquake in Haiti.
BGinCHI
@Doug Hill: They aren’t black enough and never threw off their white slave masters, so no, ain’t gonna happen.
Kira
The most recent numbers on the BBC live feed are 133 confirmed dead, another 531 missing, and apparently the Japanese defense ministry has said that they expect the final death toll to be over 1,000. I think that’s probably more reliable.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
catclub
@Doug Hill: Well Katrina was because of the Gheys in New Orleans, and Japan has geishas,
so what do you expect?
Doug Hill
@Kira:
Yes, it’s looking like the worst didn’t happen in terms of destruction.
David in NY
The family we know in Sendai, probably the worst-hit city, survived, we just learned. But their apartment building did not.
By the way, estimates of dead and missing are nothing but guesses at this time. I remember in the much more limited disaster on September 11, 2001, that for some time, the number of dead was estimated as being 10,000 or maybe much more. That turned out to be quite wrong. In this case, such guesses are likely to be even more wrong, though perhaps too low, rather than too high.
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
had seen a number as high as 110k, but I would take any numbers with a salt shaker. Truth is that we don’t know and won’t for at least a day or two. Frustrating in a world of advanced communication.
JimF
Remember this happened at 2pm their time so many kids were at school and everyone else was at work. With all the families separated it probably accounts for a lot of “missing” people.
Fencedude
@catclub:
I blame Kyuubey.
/reference no one will get
Gromit
Everything I can find on the 88,000 number sources it to the Kyodo News Agency. I haven’t found it on their English language site yet, but it looks like a number of the major English language news organizations are citing them. “Missing” might not mean much this early in the disaster, in any case.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Has Pat Robertson chastened them for not accepting Jesus yet?
Doug Hill
@David in NY:
Great!
PeakVT
I don’t want to minimize what’s happened in Japan, because it’s horrible. But it’s nothing like what happened in Haiti. Roughly 2.5% of the Haitian population died in January of 2010. The same percentage in Japan would be 3 million people, and 7.5 million in the US. Japan is a rich country and will recover. Haiti, OTOH…
Citizen_X
@Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy: Word.
GregB
I am sure that the socialists in Japan had horrible and intrusive building codes that may have mitigated much disaster, but think of all of the lost capital from such onerous government intervention.
Plus, if there was more damage from shabby construction there’d be much more money to be made in rebuilding.
Martin
@PeakVT:
Have you been to New Orleans lately?
The Moar You Know
I expect Godzilla should show up around 2 in the afternoon or so.
Corner Stone
Basically, all the worst parts of the bible.
David Koch
This is what secularism leads to.
Corner Stone
@Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy:
During Hurricane Ike 2 million people tried to use their cel phones at the same time.
Advanced communication can only build in so much redundancy redundancy.
Gromit
Hey, can we lay off the instant politicization of a tragedy? I’m sure it will be done eventually given the sheer number of attention-hungry self-righteous blowhards in the media, but why pre-empt their douchebaggery?
scav
@David Koch: Kami again?
piratedan
@David Koch: on the other hand, I’ve never seen Ultraman and Jeebus in the same place at the same time, have you? There could be a Clark Kent/Superman thing going on here….
On the other hand, maybe we should start calling Imhofe, Barton et al, the Oil Oil Power Rangers….
PeakVT
@Martin: The slow recovery in New Orleans is entirely a choice on this country’s part. Japan isn’t divided along racial lines like the US.
Mnemosyne
@PeakVT:
There’s more than one reason for that, and it’s not “they’re rich.”
(1) Earthquakes in Japan are very common, but they are very UNcommon in Haiti. They hadn’t had one in over 100 years. Which leads to fact 2 …
(2) Japan has very strict building codes and everything is built to withstand major earthquakes. Haiti has essentially no building codes and wasn’t building with an eye towards earthquakes anyway.
If an earthquake like this one hit, say, the New Madrid fault in Missouri, we would see an absolutely horrific loss of life, because none of those buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, and a lot of them (like the brick ones) are extremely likely to fail. We would probably see Haiti-like numbers there.
Kryptik
@Fencedude:
Dude, I watch that series, and as much as I hate that little weaselly fucker, that’s kind of low and unfunny.
Well, not to mention entirely too unsubtle for him. Little bastard.
Corner Stone
@David Koch: Money making opportunity for you. Put together a “Piece of Ass” Photo Calender. Then market it with “All proceeds going to Japan”, you know that time honored ruse.
May add to the additional $9B haul you made last year.
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
There’s a great deal of unclear information about the situation with the nuclear reactors, which is par for the course in relation to nuclear accidents (not that things have reached that level . . . yet). OTOH, even a potential LOC event is brown trousers time, and even the cursory reports I have seen don’t state that the situation has been stabilized.
cleek
@Gromit:
beat me to it.
not everything in the world needs a tie-in to US partisan politics.
Maude
@Gromit:
Amen.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
@David Koch: Go ahead, but I blame the bully pulpit.
Fencedude
@Kryptik:
I feel really horrible that my first thought was “Oh fuck, Walpurgisnacht” Especially coming off of watching episode 10 last night.
Immediately afterwards I felt really bad, but damn, my mind works like that now.
All in all, this whole event is terrible. I know some people in Japan, and thankfully I’ve already heard they were ok.
Emma
You know, it is beyond me why it is somehow indecent to “politicize a tragedy”: Wellstone funeral, anyone? Reagan funeral?
We keep bringing a wooden knife to a fire fight. No wonder the Republicans keep eating our lunch.
Rosalita
My step-sister and her husband live in Japan, he works for NCIS. Haven’t heard anything from them yet.
Kryptik
@Fencedude:
It’s kind of sad honestly that the only way I’m getting through all the bullshit crushing down these days is via playing You Don’t Know Jack and looking forward to the last two eps of that.
Yeah. Madoka Magica has become the bright spot in my week. That’s how depressive everything has gotten for me.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
@Rosalita:
What’s LL Cool J like in person?
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
12:35 ET: Tokyo Electric confirms pressure rise in Fukushima #1 reactor; spokesman says company is “working to find out the cause and the solution.”
Here’s hoping.
cleek
@Emma:
possibly 100,000 dead Japanese is not a “fire fight”. this is not about our fucking idiotic partisan politics. this is not about the Koch brothers or the Republicans. there are dozens of posts below this which are about that shit. this one isn’t.
Fencedude
@Kryptik:
Thats…really depressing actually. Not that I don’t eagerly look forward to each episode, but I don’t know if I’d call it a “high point”.
I always feel emotionally drained after each episode. Especially this last one. I don’t know if I could have handled this earthquake news if I hadn’t slept between them.
Rosalita
I wish I knew was LL Cool J was like in person. What a gorgeous hunk of man.
No, this guy’s a nerd.
Per Facebook they are okay, just shaken up literally and figuratively.
JPL
BBC cited the source for missing numbers. Initially the numbers are going to be artificially high. In Christchurch. the initial numbers were as high as 10,000, I think.
Poopyman
@Gromit: “Unaccounted for” numbers are going to be large any time communications are wiped out. The scenario isn’t rosy, but that number (I hope!) is going to come way down.
Yutsano
@Poopyman: Communications will be spotty, especially for a cell phone crazed society like Japan. I’m thinking the word will eventually get out and the missing/unaccounted for numbers will drop. The only fortunate thing is this happened in late winter and not a lot of Japanese were vacationing at the sea.
Martin
@Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy: No, it doesn’t sound like it’s stable yet. Not out of control, but in that icky middle ground where it could still go either way. The power plant was also impacted by the tsunami, so compounding the regular shut down processes are a lot of collateral issues. The positive spin I’d put on this is that as time passes, the ability to bring assets in goes up. Basically, they just need to keep a lid on the problem until more help arrives.
lostinube
Via NHK:
142 confirmed dead in the quake
One-hundred-and-forty-two people are confirmed dead and more than 500 are missing across several prefectures hit by Friday’s earthquake.
The scope of the devastation is not clear. Police say 200 to 300 unidentified bodies have been found in Miyagi Prefecture. They say victims may have been hit by a tsunami.
At least 57 people are dead in Iwate Prefecture. Police there say many people are missing in coastal areas.
Forty-eight people have been confirmed dead and more than 370 are missing in Fukushima Prefecture.
More than 10 people are reported to have died in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures.
Japan’s Self Defense Forces say fire is spreading across wide areas of Miyagi Prefecture, engulfing houses and apartment blocks.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 02:00 +0900 (JST)
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_h09.html
It’s possible that the 110,000 number came about because lots of people are still stranded in various places around Japan and people simply can’t get in touch with them.
Also, most third year junior high school and high school students have completed their school years and would already be out of school preparing for entrance exams. Whether or not lower grade students are finished depends on the schools. So they might not all be separated from their families.
All of the mobile carriers in Japan have a disaster emergency message board system that people are advised to use in lieu of trying to use their phones to call or mail people.
Poopyman
@Yutsano: I think it was the Stars and Stripes article that said cell phones were dead. Dunno if that was just on Misawa, but I’m betting it was general. And land lines? Fuggedaboutit.
trollhattan
I was riveted to the coverage far to late into the night, last night. It seems especially weird the waves are just now hitting our California coast.
Among the emerging details are a burst dam and a missing ship with 100 aboard. It’s still hard to fathom, much less define the scale of this disaster and I fear the actual toll will be very high indeed (mostly from the tsunami).
One small observation–the CNN anchors at that odd hour were all Aussies and seemed quite competent. Who knew?
Annamal
In Christchurch it was amazing how quickly unsubstantiated rumours became cast-iron fact (news reports kept citing 22 people inside the cathedral when it came down for days and days, turned out everyone got out safely).
Having said that, god the images look terrible.
Yutsano
@trollhattan:
Competent sociallists? Hoocoodanode?
The folks on Al-Jazeera were quite good as well. I haven’t bothered with any of the American channels yet.
@Poopyman: Right now the focus is on counting heads, which means accounting for as many breathing bodies as possible. IIRC there are drills Japanese are taught from childhood for how to deal with earthquake/tsunami situations. Hopefully they put those lessons into practice. And may Kami-sama care for them all.
Martin
@Yutsano: The problem is that so many Japanese live on the coast. Anyone north of Tokyo would have felt the quake, struggled to get situated and then maybe 3-5 minutes later been hit by the tsunami. Those first 3-5 minutes go by VERY quickly when there’s damage. Whether the death toll is high or low will depend entirely on how many villages and towns effectively got washed out to sea before anyone had a chance to get on their feet. And we’re not seeing much video of those places yet.
The affected nuke plant is right on the ocean facing the epicenter. Most of the location likely significantly flooded right while they were trying to power it down.
Pococurante
Watching the tsunami footage it is difficult for me to believe the total dead would not be five figures or more.
eemom
why the fixation with NUMBERS, when the event is only hours old and the place is still reeling from the impact? And WHY IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THAT??
Fuck, that’s what gave the despicable Ghouliani his moment of glory on 9/11: “More than any of us can bear.”
You only have to look at the pictures to grasp the magnitude of the devastation here.
Earlier I heard an NPR reporter cheerily chirping that the death toll was “only in the hundreds so far.”
WTF??
Pococurante
@eemom: Because we all feel helpless and there is nothing more to go on?
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
trollhatten: Probably CNN Int’l. Only CNN America anchors are complete fucking morons (I’m looking at you Wolf); the rest of the world prefers presenters that can tie their own shoes.
Poopyman
@eemom: You’re not going to tell us it would be irresponsible to speculate, are you?
Martin
Numbers are the only way to organize information like this. You get a few pictures, mostly from random places. Is all of Japan like that, or just this one place? Numbers help answer that question.
There’s a lot of people (like me) that are highly analytical. Almost everything gets reduced to numbers – sometimes very quickly. A number of years ago there was a large explosion in one of our buildings that I just happened to be standing outside of at the time. I can distinctly remember working out about how many people were likely working in the building (30) and whether there were any classes in there at the time (no), and roughly how much damage might be inside before I decided to run in and help get people out (localized to one set of facilities, but not widespread). I don’t think I would have gone in there if I couldn’t have worked out why it was important to do that. I was very aware that I was doing something that my emotions told me was 11 kinds of stupid and dangerous, but rationally I had figured out it would probably be okay and that help was probably needed, and that overruled the emotions. It’s just how I function.
lostinube
Posted this in the other thread but here are some Japanese TV stations with their coverage (all are in Japanese):
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-gtv
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/annnews
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/earthquake-in-japan <– this one has some emergency info done in English and other languages. It is a mirror of the nhk-gtv one.
The graphic of the map of Japan is showing where there are still tsunami warnings in effect. The graphic won't leave until the all clear signs are given.
There may be updates from time to time on the top of the screens. Those are usually when yet another aftershock has hit.
catclub
@Martin: 1. The US is doing fine.
and 2. The Superdome was repaired post haste so the Saints could play. The schools, not so much.
Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder's Dead)
All this footage of Japan is making me hungry for sushi
Carl Nyberg
That would be like 9/11 (c. 3,000) + Katrina (c. 3,000) + Iraq (c. 5,000) + Afghanistan (c. 2,000?) + Vietnam (c. 50,000) + some other bad shit… all in a day.
Poopyman
@Mike Kay (Ding-Dong-Broder’s Dead): Are you in California?
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Jesus. Now I understand why so many Japanese films end up with Tokyo destroyed.
Let’s hope the figures are low: those of us on the West Coast know it’s only a matter of time before our number comes up, too.
Carl Nyberg
@Doug Hill: LOL.
Dexter
According to BBC…the situation at the nuclear reactor at Fukushima seems to be worsening. Japanese authorities are now to release radioactive vapour to ease pressure.
Poopyman
@Carl Nyberg:
Just to make it more accurate and less imaginable.
rikryah
they need our prayers and whatever help our country can give. the nuclear power plant news is scary as hell.
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
Well, venting (didn’t see if it was to atmosphere or to containment) will reduce the stress on the reactor vessel, but it would also appear that they aren’t yet able to restore coolant flow. From what I have seen, they seem to be able to add coolant to the reactor vessel (good), but without the ability to move coolant to the heat exchangers, the cooldown of the pile is mostly resting on the boiling off of coolant (bad).
What I don’t like is the way info keeps coming out in dribs and drabs. That’s the way NPPs roll, but it isn’t reassuring or transparant.
Dr. J
Initial estimates of expected loss of life from the USGS based on the level of shaking are less than 1000. This estimate does not include those who might be swept away by Tsunami.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/pager/events/us/c0001xgp/index.html
cmorenc
There’s nobody happier about the timing of the Japanese earthquake than mis-Governor Scott Walker, because it will such a huge amount of the media oxygen away from focusing on Madison and redirect it to Tokyo and Hawaii. I’m not saying that even he wished earthquakes on the Japanese, but assuming the earthquake is simply one of those “shit happens now and then” sort of unpredictable, but periodically inevitable natural events, he’s no doubt grateful for the timing and if anything, wished it came two or three days earlier if it was going to happen anyway.
lostinube
Aaaaannd a shindo 6 just hit Nagano and Niigata prefectures at 4 in the morning. I’m not entirely sure how shindo converts to magnitude but just for reference, today’s big one was a shindo 7.
EthylEster
@shaun:
Yeah, that that number is obviously bogus. I suppose 88,000 people could eventually be missing but it’s way too soon to know that now. Our host’s credulity has been exposed.
Corner Stone
@EthylEster:
Did he make a sarcastic quip and the military gnomes stole his underpants?
Doug Hill
@eemom:
I see what you’re getting at, but people wanting to know how bad the devastation was, how many people were hurt…I don’t see that as bad, I see that as kindly.
Calouste
@lostinube:
USGS reports it as a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. They also list 139 earthquakes 4.5 or over near Japan in the last week.
Edo the Japanophile
@Doug Hill: You won’t, because the Japanese are Aryans too.
And the Japanese equivalent (blaming the Koreans) wouldn’t really fly as well as it did the first time.
(Also, a random and sobering thought: when the Army killed some politicals for causing the earthquake – no typo, causing the quake – there was a serious public outcry and the OIC had to serve time. I’m not confident that we could do that well now.)
Calouste
The 6.2 earthquake was extremely shallow at a depth of only 1 km. The shallow earthquakes typically cause more damage.(The Christchurch earthquake had a depth of 5 km).
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
Withdrawn. It’s not clear that they are able to add coolant, and officials seem to be laying the groundwork for a “small” release of radiation.
lostinube
@Calouste:
Not just “near Japan.” On the 9th and 10th there were fairly large quakes in the same area as the big one that hit Miyagi – off the Sanriku Coast which is an area of significant seismic activity.
But the Nagano and Niigata quake(s) are notable because they are farther inland than Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima and had until now only experienced minor quakes yesterday and today.
Edo the Japanophile
@Doug Hill: You won’t, because the Japanese earned their whiteness after WW2. (And the local equivalent wouldn’t work as well as it did the first time.)
@Fencedude: If Madoka had just made a contract already, none of this would ever have happened.
Also, some good news on my side: if I’ve reconstructed the shards of Chaos correctly, my dearest (spending her third term as an ASL teacher in Sendai) is alive, well, and sleeping off a very long day.
Annamal
Also a volcano in Indonesia just erupted. Ring of fire is really living up to its name at the moment…
Edo the Japanophile
Disregard this; redundant post was redundant.
John Cole
@EthylEster: For chrissakes. LINK
Missing doesn’t mean dead.
Arclite
Okay, Hawaii seems to have survived with some damage, no reports of deaths or injuries yet. Idiots went out at 3AM to watch the tsunami, even though Waikiki is only 10′ above sea level. They were chased off by firefighters in helicopters. My family is fine. Wife’s family in Tokyo is fine. But we have many friends with relatives in northern Japan we cannot contact. The video footage of the tsunami and earthquake damage is horrifying. Many hundreds or even thousands must have died. It’s incredibly tragic.
D-Chance.
From the Dept of Bad Timing… do we have an editor in the Daily Beast house?
Mnemosyne
@Arclite:
Speaking of idiots, we had several here in California who decided to watch the “show” and were swept out to sea. Three have been recovered safely, but one is still missing and the Coast Guard is searching for him.
Svensker
@cmorenc:
No. Rush Limbaugh says environmentalists are happy because the hardest hit area in Japan is where cars are manufactured. What a rancid sack of crap the gasbag is. Comparing him to Jabba the Hut is to insult Jabba.
Marc McKenzie
88,000 missing…sweet Jesus.
Hopefully that number will fall, and it’s the result of the chaos that’s going on.
The death toll is estimated at 1,000…most of the deaths were more likely due to the tsunami.
Wile E. Quixote
@Emma:
No kidding, the only reason you should ever bring a knife to a gunfight is so that you can carve your initials into the bullet riddled corpses of your enemies and cut off their ears to keep as souvenirs.
Liberals need to start dealing with conservatives the way dealt with the Nazis during World War II and need to be as unrepentant about it as Harris was.
Pointing out that the Republicans are trying to gut funding for the USGS and using the Japanese earthquake as an example of just why you want to have things like the USGS and why this is stupid is an entirely legitimate thing to do. If the talking heads in the media don’t like it fuck them. They’re nothing more than cheerleaders and enablers for the conservatives and the sooner we stop caring about what they say the better.
4tehlulz
@Fencedude: Homura lost again.
magurakurin
I don’t think I’ve ever read a post with so much wrong information. It’s bad, but it is far from the apocalypse. Some small towns in Miyagi and Ibaragi are totally wiped out, but for the most part many people escaped. Many areas had 30 minutes warning. Not much, but enough for some. Not everyone, obviously. About eight policeman have lost their lives so far as they stayed behind after people fled the little towns, villages and cities that do the relatively sparsely populated Northeastern coast of Japan. In areas where the tsunamis did hit hardest the devastation is complete. In Tokyo, though, only four people died. The truth is, this could have been much, much worse if the epicenter had been closer to Tokyo.
with love from an undisclosed location in Japan.