Archive for March, 2011

Pets Survive Tsunami

Here are a few video clips about pets that miraculously survived the March 11th tsunami:

1. Feline Survivor

A woman returns to her tsunami-swept home. When the earthquake struck and there was a tsunami warning, she couldn’t find her cat and had to evacuate by herself. When they start to hear meows coming from the second floor, they know that the cat has survived!

2. Dogs defy tsunami

Daisuke Wakabayashi and Lam Thuy Vo of the Wall Street Journal report on two dogs that survived the tsunami:

They somehow broke free from the ropes tying them to the shed and ran up outdoor stairs to the second floor of Mr. Kikuchi’s house. And then they waited and waited. “I don’t know how they survived,” said Mr. Kikuchi.

Two days after the earthquake, Mr. Kikuchi ventured out from the evacuation center where his family had reunited unharmed. He walked in rubber boots on the debris-covered roads still covered in floodwater with his feet sinking in the thick mud below.

When he finally got to the house, sidestepping a car that had shifted to block the entrance to the driveway, he could hear the barking.

3. Dog guards injured friend

Walking through the wreckage of a part of Sendai, a reporter spots a dog. From the dog’s collar, he knows the animal was somebody’s pet. The dog is guarding another dog. The reporter fears that the other dog may be dead, but it begins to move. It is assumed the dog is injured.

The video has gone viral, with media outlets around the world reporting on it. Some have claimed that the two dogs have been rescued, but others dispute this claim.

Related Link: Yahoo News has an article describing the efforts to help homeless pets. The author includes a few links to animal welfare organizations that are taking donations.

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British Government: French Advice is “Not Based on Science”

Yesterday afternoon, the UK’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir John Beddington, held a telephone briefing regarding the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. He was asked to comment on French government statements about radiation danger and the need to evacuate Tokyo.

Q: Why is the French giving different advice?
Sir John: Their advice is not based on science.

Evacuations, worst case scenarios, and the trustworthiness of the Japanese government were also discussed:

Q: You now advise to “consider leaving” – at what stage would you change that to “leave”?
Sir John: Only in the worst case scenarios. The reason we said “consider leaving” – there are major disruptions to transportation and supply chain in the whole of Japan. We are NOT advising that people leave due to the risk of radiation. Even IF a plume were to reach Tokyo, it would not pose major health risks.

Q: What does plausible worst case mean? Is there an implausible worst case?
Sir John: Implausible – all reactors and all ponds go up at the same time and extreme weather conditions bring the plume to Tokyo; it’s not sensible to consider this.

Q: How do we know if the Japanese government is telling the whole story?
Sir John: There would be a series of explosions at the reactors – the Japanese government cannot hide that if it were to be the case.

[hat tip to Fukumimi & Dice]

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Anti-Hoarding PSA

An amateur PSA tells Japanese shoppers to stop panic buying and hoarding:

[hat tip to Ryuji]

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International Media Fuels Panic With Radiation Plume Map

I recently saw this lovely map, which warns of a radioactive “plume” heading towards the United States:

Little attempt is made to actually explain the graph, but if you look closely, you’ll see that it says the unit of measurement is “arbitrary.” In other words, it is complete and utter rubbish.

As the WHO has noted today, there is no public health risk beyond the 30-km exclusion zone. They have not advised anyone to leave Japan.

The “relative” level of radiation is measured on a scale of 0 to 1.0, with 0 indicating no threat to public health and 1.0 indicating no threat to public health. Pay no heed to the radiation plume maps like this one and the one being distributed by French authorities. They are meaningless.

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WHO: No Radiation Risk Outside Evacuation Zone / Safe to Visit Japan

N-H-K reports on how the World Health Organization has concluded there is no radiation danger outside of the Fukushima nuclear plant’s 30-kilometer safety zone. It is also confident enough about the future state of the nuclear plant to state that there is no public health reason to avoid travel to Japan and no reason for people to evacuate from the country:

WHO: No radiation risk outside evacuation zone

The World Health Organization has said radiation levels outside the evacuation zone in Japan are not harmful for human health.

WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl made the remarks at a regular news conference in Geneva on Friday.

The Japanese government issued an advisory on Tuesday to evacuate from a 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It also told people living within a 30-kilometer radius to stay indoors.

He said the amount of radiation being reported outside of the evacuation zone continued to be below the levels considered a public health risk.

He said the WHO finds no public health reason to avoid travel to Japan, except to the affected areas, or to recommend that foreign nationals leave the country.

Some countries are encouraging their citizens to leave Japan or are moving their embassies from Tokyo to Osaka.

Referring to an examination of Japanese food imports by some countries, he said he cannot imagine that any food from the quake-damaged areas was able to have been delivered. He said he concludes there is no risk that exported .

[hat tip to Steve Nagata]

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Company Executive Swept Away By Tsunami After Saving Chinese Workers

The Chinese media has been reporting about a Japanese fisheries company executive who saved the lives of his company’s Chinese trainee workers by leading them to high ground. The executive was later swept away by the tsunami, and is presumed to be dead:

When the tsunami hit Miyagi Prefecture on March 11, Sato Mitsuru, a commissioner with the Sato Fisheries Corporation, led the Chinese research students to a safe place and went back to search for his wife and daughter. However, waves soon engulfed the area and Sato went missing.

Yi Yanan, a research student from northeast China, said she saw Sato climb to a roof to avoid the tsunami, but he was quickly carried away by the water.

Sato’s wife and daughter remained missing too.

Cao Jing, another Chinese research student, said the executives of his corporation found a hotel for five Chinese students, even when they were out of touch with their own children.

Later, the five students were sent to a shelter and were united with other Chinese.

“I dare not imagine what would have happened if they hadn’t helped us,” Cao said.

Onagawa-cho had a population of 10,000, half of whom have not been found. All of the about 100 Chinese students were safe in the disaster. Many survived due to the help from locals.

Here is a report from ATV, showing Chinese newspaper headlines about Sato and the workers:

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