Breaking news from Kobe's Kolob worker bees to members of the Mormon God's "One and Only True Church on the Face of the Earth":
"Earthquake Update #3
"I just received an email saying ALL missionaries in Japan, including all in Sendai, have been located and they are safe. We are grateful to our Heavenly Father for this wonderful miracle. The last two in Sendai were located this (Saturday in Japan) evening.
"--President [William] McIntyre"
("Japan Kobe Mission Blog, 2008-2011, McIntyre Family: Information and Pictures for Our Family and Friends During Our Service as Japan Kobe Mission President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," as "posted by President McIntyre and Family at 11:11 p.m.," 12 March 2011, at:
http://presidentmcintyre.blogspot.com/, original emphasis)
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Meanwhile, in the heart of Japan's unfolding death, destruction and utter devastation . . .
The Mormon God's heralded "miracle" in divinely shielding his missionaries from the Grim Reaper apparently involved (assuming you believe the grateful Mormon faithful) Elohim approving the killing of thousands of unlucky Japanese earthquake/tsunami victims, with 10,000 more in one port alone left unaccounted for and now feared dead.
What a Great White Guy in the Sky. Following the rolling death count:
--"Japan is continuing to be hit by aftershocks following Friday's earthquake and tsunami that are believed to have killed at least 1,800 people. . . .
"Japan has been rattled by more than 150 aftershocks since Friday's massive 8.9 magnitude quake - the largest on record in the country.
"Kyodo news agency said the number of dead or unaccounted is expected to exceed 1,800.
"Around 10,000 people are unaccounted for in the port of Minamisanriku - half of the town's population."
Tragically, those 10,000 who were first classified as missing are now thought to indeed be dead:
--"TOKYO – Police in Japan's northeastern Miyagi prefecture say they estimate that the death toll in Miyagi alone will likely exceed 10,000. Miyagi is one of the areas worst affected by a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that hit Friday.
"Miyagi police spokesman Go Sugawara said Sunday that the prefecture's police chief told a gathering of disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths in the prefecture was more than 10,000.
"There were only 379 officially confirmed deaths in Miyagi out of a total of 801 as of Sunday afternoon."
More on the rising death toll:
--"TOKYO - The death toll from Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami is likely to exceed 10,000 in Miyagi prefecture alone, its police chief told reporters Sunday.
"Naoto Takeuchi, quoted by state broadcaster NHK, said he had 'no doubt' of that number of fatalities just in his prefecture - the region hardest hit by Friday's devastating natural disaster.
"The National Police Agency's official death toll as of early Sunday was 688, with 642 missing and 1,570 injured.
"But this figure excluded a total of 400-500 bodies found at two locations in north-east Japan, where the wall of water swept ashore. There are also reports of thousands of people who are unaccounted for.
"In the small port town of Minamisanriku, which was practically swept away, some 10,000 people were missing, NHK reported earlier."
But, wait, there's more--as in still more dead Japanese:
--"TOKYO – Police say they have found another 200 bodies in quake-hit coastal areas in northern Japan.
"A police official in Miyagi said Sunday authorities were recovering the bodies. . . .
"Friday's 8.9 quake was the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world. It was followed by a massive tsunami."
And, finally, these two wrenching accounts, as the horror and death count continues to mount, mixed with frightening reports of nuclear power plant meltdowns, combined with high levels of radiation exposure to a number of local residents:
--"TAGAJO, Japan – The death toll in Japan's earthquake and tsunami will likely exceed 10,000 in one state alone, an official said Sunday, as millions of survivors were left without drinking water, electricity and proper food along the pulverized northeastern coast.
"Although the government doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the aid effort to 100,000, it seemed overwhelmed by what's turning out to be a triple disaster. Friday's quake and tsunami damaged two nuclear reactors at a power plant on the coast, and at least one of them appeared to be going through a partial meltdown, raising fears of a radiation leak.
"The police chief of Miyagi prefecture, or state, told a gathering of disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths was more than 10,000, police spokesman Go Sugawara told The Associated Press. Miyagi has a population of 2.3 million and is one of the three prefectures hardest hit in Friday's disaster. Only 379 people have officially been confirmed as dead in Miyagi.
"The nuclear crisis posed fresh concerns for those who survived the horrors of Friday's earthquake and tsunami, which hit with breathtaking force and speed, breaking or sweeping away everything in its path.
"'First I was worried about the quake, now I'm worried about radiation. I live near the plants, so I came here to find out if I'm OK. I tested negative, but I don't know what to do next,' Kenji Koshiba, a construction worker, said at an emergency center in Koriyama town near the power plant in Fukushima.
"According to officials, at least 1,000 people were killed — including 200 people whose bodies were found Sunday along the coast — and 678 were missing in the disasters.
"The U.S. Geological Survey calculated the initial quake to have a magnitude of 8.9, while Japanese officials raised their estimate on Sunday to 9.0. Either way it was the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan. It has been followed by hundreds of powerful aftershocks.
"Teams searched for the missing along hundreds of miles . . . of Japanese coastline, and hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers that were cut off from rescuers and aid. At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 2.5 million households were without electricity.
"Japanese Trade Minister Banri Kaeda said the region was likely to face further blackouts and that power would be rationed to ensure supplies go to essential needs.
"Large areas of the countryside remained surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed and people were running out of gasoline for their vehicles.
"Public broadcaster NHK said around 380,000 people have been evacuated to emergency shelters, many of them without power.
"In Iwaki town, residents were leaving due to concerns over dwindling food and fuel supplies. The town had no electricity and all stores were closed. Local police took in about 90 people and gave them blankets and rice balls but there was no sign of government or military aid trucks.
"At a large refinery on the outskirts of the hard-hit port city of Sendai, 100-foot (30-meter) high bright orange flames rose in the air, spitting out dark plumes of smoke. The facility has been burning since Friday. A reporter who approached the area could hear the roaring fire from afar, and after a few minutes the gaseous stench began burning the eyes and throat.
"At a small park near the refinery, trees and large swathes of grass were covered in thick black crude oil. Two large tanker trucks were jammed sideways among the trees, their gas tanks crumpled.
"Mayumi Yagoshi, an office worker at the refinery, said she had taken the day off Friday because she had slipped and hurt her back.
"'I was lucky, but I feel really bad. My mobile phone doesn't work and I have no idea what happened to everyone else,' she said.
"In the small town of Tagajo, near the hard-hit port city of Sendai, dazed residents roamed streets cluttered with smashed cars, broken homes and twisted metal.
"Residents said the water surged in and quickly rose higher than the first floor of buildings. At Sengen General Hospital the staff worked feverishly to haul bedridden patients up the stairs one at a time. With the halls now dark, those that can leave have gone to the local community center.
"'There is still no water or power, and we've got some very sick people in here,' said hospital official Ikuro Matsumoto.
"One older neighborhood sits on low ground near a canal. The tsunami came in from the canal side and blasted through the frail wooden houses, coating the interiors with a thick layer of mud and spilling their contents out into the street on the other side.
"'It's been two days, and all I've been given so far is a piece of bread and a rice ball,' said Masashi Imai, 56.
"Police cars drove slowly through the town and warned residents through loudspeakers to seek higher ground, but most simply stood by and watched them pass.
"Dozens of countries have offered assistance. Two U.S. aircraft carrier groups were off Japan's coast and ready to provide assistance.
"Two other U.S. rescue teams of 72 personnel each and rescue dogs were scheduled to arrive later Sunday, as was a five-dog team from Singapore."
--"TOKYO - The number of missing and feared dead in Japan's epic earthquake soared to more than 2,000 by early Sunday as a reeling nation struggled to contain an unprecedented nuclear crisis, pluck people in tsunami-inundated areas to safety, quell raging blazes and provide relief to hundreds of thousands of frightened people left homeless and dazed.
"As the second full post-quake day dawned today, authorities said about 400,000 people had been forced to flee the quake's giant swath of destruction - more than a quarter of them refugees from the area surrounding the Fukushima nuclear plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo. The crisis intensified as officials reported three of the Fukushima complex's six reactors were in trouble, and emergency measures were being taken to cool them.
"Dozens of people were believed to have been exposed to elevated levels of radiation, and officials sought to reassure a frightened public that the radiation leak was under control. Cesium and iodine, byproducts of nuclear fission, were detected around the plant in what could rank as the worst atomic incident in Japan's roughly half-century of nuclear-power generation.
"With punishing aftershocks continuing to jolt the quake zone, the Japanese military was mobilizing 50,000 of its personnel, together with ships and planes, to aid in a rescue effort that has swiftly turned into a deadly race against time. In a country where every modern convenience has long extended into even remote areas, the basics of daily survival - food, water, power - were unaccustomedly threatened. . . .
"As of early today, the confirmed death toll stood at about 800, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing police figures. That did not include another 200 to 300 unidentified corpses - mostly tsunami victims - that had been transported to Sendai, the hardest-hit large city.
"'It is believed that more than 1,000 people have lost their lives,' said Yukio Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary.
"But assessments of the disaster were far from certain. Although the official missing tally stood at 650, in Miyagi prefecture north of Tokyo, officials said Saturday night that there had been no contact with about 10,000 people in the small town of Minamisanriku, more than half its population.
"Some people decided to try to get more information about missing relatives on their own. When Tokyo office worker Yuki Ochiai, 25, heard that three-quarters of the 24,000 people living in the northern coastal town of Rikuzentakata were unaccounted for, he headed north to find out the fate of family living there. He rode his motorcycle because roads were impassable by car.
"'This is crazy,' he said as he stopped to buy water and gas outside of Fukushima, still far from his destination. 'One place. The other 18,000 people, they don't know where they are?'
"Japan's peacetime military, the Self-Defense Forces, was mobilizing a relief-and-rescue force of 50,000, the defense ministry said, including a special unit detailed to help nuclear evacuees. Nearly 200 aircraft and 45 ships were en route or in the tsunami zone, according to the ministry.
"The U.S. military, whose bases are sometimes an irritant to local residents, was aiding in the relief effort as well. . . .
"The task was a daunting one. Whole communities were still under water in the wake of the massive tsunami unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude quake, the most powerful in Japan's recorded history. Those included Rikuzentakata and the smaller town of Miyako, both in Iwate prefecture.
"Despite Japan's much-vaunted earthquake engineering, which saved countless lives, at least 3,400 buildings were known to have been destroyed by the quake and by blazes, Kyodo news agency said, citing the national fire agency. But that figure too could grow exponentially. In the town of Kesennuma, in hard-hit Miyagi prefecture, fires merged into a mega-blaze stretching for more than half a mile. The welfare ministry said 171 'welfare facilities,' such as nursing homes, had suffered damage.
"Lending critical urgency to the rescue effort, nearly 6 million homes were reported to be without electricity, and more than 1 million lacked water.
"Quake survivors were further terrorized by aftershocks, one of which was measured at magnitude of 6.7. . . .
"At the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima, authorities were still were unable to explain why excess levels of radiation were detected outside the complex's grounds. An explosion was heard near the plant's No. 1 reactor about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, and plumes of white smoke could be seen.
"Edano, the Cabinet secretary, said the blast was caused by a buildup of hydrogen in the cooling system and described the evacuation of more than 200,000 people across a 12-mile area as a "precaution."
"Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency said more than 70 people were believed to have been exposed to elevated radiation levels, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. Most were waiting to be airlifted from a field at the local high school in the town of Futaba, near Fukushima.
"Today, the cooling system at a third reactor at the Fukushima plant was reported to be malfunctioning as well. Edano said steam was being vented and water added, "and those measures should stabilize the situation."
"The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said it was told by Japanese officials that they would distribute iodine tablets to residents nearby.
"Iodine is known to protect against thyroid cancer that can develop from radiation poisoning.
"The biggest concern about the plant is the possibility of the core overheating and nuclear material escaping from the containment vessel.
"When the earthquake struck Friday afternoon, the reactors automatically shut down as they were supposed to, a safety measure built into the design. But cooling systems - which were supposed to remain on - apparently failed because of the low electrical power. Four backup diesel generators to supply emergency power also failed.
"On Saturday, officials said that the plant's engineers used seawater in an attempt to cool the reactor. They released steam containing low levels of radiation as an emergency cooling measure.
"Japan's heavy dependence on nuclear power - which supplies 30 percent of its energy - makes it even more vulnerable in an earthquake."
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Praise the Lord--and pass the body bags.
If this is an example of a "wonderful Mormon miracle," spare us their version of a disaster.
("Quake Aftershocks Strike Devastated Japan," on "Sky News," 13 March 2011, at:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Video-Japan-Earthquake-And-Tsunami-Estimated-Death-Toll-Rises-As-International-Aid-Starts-Arriving/Article/200711215951281?lpos=World_News_Top_Stories_Header_1&lid=ARTICLE_15951281_Video%3A_Japan_Earthquake_And_Tsunami_Estimated_Death_Toll_Rises_As_International_Aid_Starts_Arriving; "Police: Deaths in Japan's Miyagi May Pass 10,000," at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110313/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake ; "Over 10,000 Feared Dead in Japan Quake," in "Bali Tims," 13 March 2011, at:
http://www.thebalitimes.com/2011/03/13/over-10000-feared-dead-in-japan-quake/; "Japanese Police Find Another 200 Bodies," by Shino Yuasa, "Associated Press," at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/12/japan-police-find-another-200-bodies/; Japan Quake-Tsunami Death Toll Likely Over 10,000," by Jay Alabaster, "Associated Press," 13 March 2011, at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110313/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake; and
"Japan Quake: Death Toll Soars, May Rise Into the Thousands," published in "Los Angeles Times," reprinted in "Arizona Republic," 13 March 2011, at:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/03/13/20110313japan-earthquake-death-toll.html)
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(For the record, I served my LDS mission in Japan West/Fukuoka, 1973-75 (Naha and Oroku, Okinawa; Miyazaki; Sasebo; and Hiroshima--in that latter nuclear-radiated city as a zone leader).
Edited 49 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2011 06:58AM by steve benson.