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Japan

Started 1 year ago by Jiggers
Latest reply from WSLifer

Jiggers
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I'm surprised here how little, if any, very little repsonse or conversation about the earthquake and tsunami.

Posted 1 year ago #
westseattledood
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Me too Jiggs.

If folks happen to read the thread, here's a way to donate to Redcross via text msg.

Text REDCROSS to 90999

This will be an automatic $10 flat-rate donation which will show up on your monthly phone bill, regardless of your carrier. You will be able to confirm and then will receive a txt confirming donation.

$.25 of the $10 gift of goes to the company which is administering the fund drive for Red Cross. All the rest will go to Japan's Relief.

Japan is one of the most technologically-innovative countries, if not the most, and has been brought to its knees before the world by this tri-fecta of devestation: the largest quake in its history, the tsunami which encroached six miles inside the coastline and, now, the second reactor is failing.

I've seen this link only once out on Facebook or Twitter, though it is likely spreading wider. If you are able, send one of the following out to the world.

Text REDCROSS to 90999

or

http://craigconnects.org/2011/03/text-cash-for-japanese-quake-survivors-via-red-cross.html

PS. For local people, send the link to West Seattle Be Prepared to get information on how to put together a 3-day emergency kit, at a minimum.

http://westseattle.bepreparedseattle.info/site/page1.aspx

Posted 1 year ago #
Jiggers
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Good idea. dood..

Posted 1 year ago #
ToddinWestwood
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I am still waiting on a statement from The Westboro Baptist Church........

Posted 1 year ago #
pigeonmom
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I'm just sick over the whole situation, especially the nuclear reactors. I don't know what else I could say.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mookie
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TIME has a list of Six Ways You Can Help Earthquake and Tsunami Victims in Japan which includes info/links to the Red Cross, Shelterbox, and others.

A couple Twitter users worth following during this: Arclight and TimeOutTokyo.

My "Maybe this will convince you..." thread here is related to the earthquake in Japan - well, earthquake preparedness, anyway!

Posted 1 year ago #
dobro
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Its just a heartbreaking event. The nuclear situation seems to be changing too rapidly to make a relevant comment on just yet.

Posted 1 year ago #
Cait
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Todd - it's messed up, but I thought the same thing. You're going to happen upon it yourself because I won't give it credence here, but there is a lot of messed up crap being said out there that Westboro can't even take credit for.

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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jiggers...

Sometimes the only appropriate response to human tragedy of this scale is respectful silence followed by assistance.

Cait...

we saw the same thing in the US after Katrina:(
I was stunned by what i heard then from supposed Christians.
I am even more stunned by some of what i have heard now.

So far.. none of that has been said here...
and that's a good thing.

I feel enough sorrow without feeling shamed by my neighbors.

Posted 1 year ago #
WSB
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We had an early post with side notes in the initial hours. Frankly, I'm waiting for a local followup till tonight - including another reminder for West Seattle Be Prepared on the main page - to see where the fundraising focus is really going. Sometimes acting fast isn't acting best (pardon the grammatical contortion there) ... Red Cross of course usually a good bet, but it won't be clear for a few days at least what kind of help is absolutely MOST needed, whether money or actual goods. Rest assured we'll bang the drum loudly too.

Posted 1 year ago #
captainDave
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westseattledood: Good call on the Red Cross link. It's easy. They are going to need a lot of help which the Japanese people are not accustomed to asking for.

Seattle is the closest major port in the US. It will be good to know what businesses locally will be involved with helping the people of Japan to recover. It looks like substantial damage was done to their fishing fleet, regional shipping, port facilities and coastal agriculture.

Seattle's economy is linked to Japan more than any US city I think. Japan buys 20% of Washington wheat, a huge portion of our apples and seafood too. Without port facilities and warehouses to receive our goods, trade will suffer.

The Japanese are proud and humble people. They are not big on asking for charity. Helping them to save face is showing them that we want to help because it is also a benefit to us.

Surplus equipment like barges, tugs and coastal freighters would probably be very useful over there in the coming weeks to help move freight and equipment ashore. Perhaps there is some local maritime organization that can raise donations to buy some of the surplus equipment we have on the west coat? I had seen some reasonably priced giant spud barges on Craigslist a couple weeks ago that would make great temporary docks for offloading ships.

With all the restaurants that have closed lately around the state, there's probably a lot of used food handling equipment that could be brought over there too.

In situations like this, people need to think out of the box to find the most effective ways to help. The emergency relief organizations will help in recovering from the initial shock, but we need to help get things going again for our friends across the pond.

Posted 1 year ago #
westseattledood
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Regarding the nuclear reactors situation, this is a very long article written by credible scientist to explain what headlines are missing so laypersons have a proper understanding.

It is VERY good, high quality writing and I am VERY glad I took the time to read it. I encourage all to read it and perhaps find some reassurance based on lots of facts.

http://bit.ly/eCQgae

Posted 1 year ago #
cjboffoli
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Going the TEXT route with making a donation may seem convenient. But I'm told there can be significant delays in that money making it through the billing systems of the cellular companies. Telecoms aren't really known for their efficiency.

Making a direct gift, to aid groups that are already established in the country needing aid, is always a superior way to maximize the power of your donation and to make sure it gets there as quickly as possible.

Posted 1 year ago #
westseattledood
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cjb -

have you seen a list of those orgs anywhere? I'd like to take a gander, if you have.

[edit: and which orgs have been vetted? I wonder]

Posted 1 year ago #
DP
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'dood: you're right; that was a good article on the nuclear situation in Japan.

Two conclusions I take away from it:

1) Don't panic, BUT . . .

2) Don't assume that nuclear energy can ever be made safe.

All questions of phyics aside, nuclear energy can only be made as safe as our textbook "worst-case-disaster" scenarios allow us to make it. If we guess any of the major variables wrong, though, we could be toast . . .

Here's a curious tidbit from the beginning of the main blog article: "The earthquake that hit Japan was 7 times more powerful than the worst earthquake the nuclear power plant was built for . . ."

—Well what do you know about that? The engineers planned for a worst-case 8.2 quake, but what Mother Nature handed them instead was an 8.9 quake. In other words, the quake that actually happened was seven times more powerful than the one they planned for!

Then Mother Nature had the audacity to go and throw a tsunami in there that knocked out the backup power system and possibly contaminated the system. Then, on top of that, some of the safety engineering just . . . well . . . failed. Mysteriously.

Oh well, shucks. You can't plan for every little contingency, can you?

—No, indeed you can't. And that is precisely why we should be turning away from nuclear power and toward safer energy sources. Energy sources that don't depend on us getting all the worst-case-scenario variables exactly right, every time.

Posted 1 year ago #
cjboffoli
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wsdood: I haven't seen any good short lists. Most searches bring up a range of different charities. The choices can be a bit overwhelming.

I made a gift to Save the Children as I have a friend and former colleague who used to be one of their VPs and I happen to know they have very low overhead and that most of their donations go right into action. (Good charities generally have overhead below 10%) They've also been well-established in Japan for about 25 years. And children are particularly vulnerable in the wake of a disaster.

http://bit.ly/b0JGLN

Posted 1 year ago #
Genesee Hill
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Another group vulnerable is the elderly. God forbid we should ever get old.

Posted 1 year ago #
westseattledood
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Thanks cjb

Posted 1 year ago #
sam-c
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charity navigator also had a list related to aiding others in this tragedy:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1221

thanks for the info and links on the reactors.

Posted 1 year ago #
Jiggers
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The sad thing is the scammers are already up and running using the tragedy as their way to get to your dollars.

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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CaptainDave...

i am with you...
in a disaster of this magnitude..
i think the most useful solutions are going to come from those who are looking outside the box...

great ideas btw.

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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dood...

maybe not so safe when the US military is pulling troops in the vicinity of the nuclear reactors due to positive skin tests for radiation :(

Posted 1 year ago #
andrea
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CNN is reporting that the following charities are currently active and on the ground helping in Japan (if you prefer to contribute to them directly):

-Salvation Army in Japan
-World Vision
-AmeriCares
-International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
-Save The Children
-The Salvation Army
-Doctors Without Borders
-Convoy of Hope
-ShelterBox
-International Medical Corps

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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andrea..

that echoes the list KIRO 7 published as being safe places to donate to relief efforts..

http://www.kirotv.com/news/27168049/detail.html

Posted 1 year ago #
WorldCitizen
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JoB: re: post #22

Go read the link posted in #12 above. It's an excellent read (one I was about to post as I stumbled upon this thread).

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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World Citizen...

I did read the post.
it didn't tell me anything i didn't already know.

They are a long way down their list of fail-safes they never thought they would need for this generator...
and still counting on the next one .. which is pretty dang close to the last one... working in time.

and that radiation release that he says becomes inactive in seconds...
is registering on the skin of humans exposed to it.
The US Navy has moved it's ships further away and pulled personnel who were guarding the reactor...

just in case.

I don't think there is any reason to be alarmist
and quite frankly am a little annoyed at the inflated concern that radioactive matter would reach Seattle...

but i do think there is still plenty of reason for concern.

I am sure the theory is unassailable...
but it is untested theory
and reality is not cooperating.

Engineers at the turn of the century built their bridges to withstand a perfect storm multiplied by 10.

Today's standards conclude that a perfect storm is statistically irrelevant and therefore not worth the cost of prevention :(

not a good plan when you are dealing with something that has the potential this does for compounding what is already a disaster.

Posted 1 year ago #
SarahScoot
Member Profile

"...and quite frankly am a little annoyed at the inflated concern that radioactive matter would reach Seattle..."
This, and other "what about us?!" reactions, are bothering me as well. The fact is, anything that happens to us here in Seattle is going to be so much less devastating than what has happened to Japan. I understand worrying about after-effects for us, but I was quite irritated that most people I heard discussing the earthquake last Friday were actually talking about it in terms of how it will affect us Americans. "Did you hear about the tsunami heading for the Wasington coast?" Oh, the 2' tall one? Yep, that's worth acknowledging before the plight of thousands of dead, injured and homeless Japanese... It just seems so self-centered.

Posted 1 year ago #
Magpie
Member Profile

Visa will waive all interchange fees on donations to American Red Cross, Americares, Habitat for Humanity, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Save the Children, Us Fund for Unicef and World Vision. It will also donate the revnue it generates from eligible charitable contributions through April 30, directly to the Red Cross. That means all donations to these charities will be 100 percent of what is donated.

Posted 1 year ago #
JoB
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from the Union of Concerned Scientists...

http://allthingsnuclear.org/tagged/Japan_nuclear

Posted 1 year ago #
captainDave
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Pursuant to my previous post, I have been searching for some surplus barge equipment that would probably be very useful in Northern Japan since they have lost a great deal of their port facilities. Many of their docks are destroyed and their harbor tugs, barges and ships are now all up on dry land. With many of the roads and rail lines wiped out, they will be needing to move supplies in by sea.

I propose that we Seattleites find a way to purchase and donate a few large barges for our friends in Japan. Maybe Crowley Maritime or Foss will put together a donation program? Anyone in West Seattle work for those guys?

I found a perfect barge on Craigslist today:
130’ x 44’ Spud/Ramp Barge - $315000 - (800) 714-3166
(http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/boa/2264663255.html)

I know I had seen a couple less expensive spud/ramp barges a couple weeks ago on Craigslist too. Hopefully they will post them again soon - I am pretty sure they have not sold since there has not been much use for them on the West Coast lately. These things would be great because they are designed to cary heavy equipment to a beach. The can also be used for temporary docks - say for the remaining part of their fishing fleet that was out to sea when the tsunami hit... or for moving supplies in from sea.. or maybe even taking away things like burn out reactor cores and the like?

It think it would be a very practical and useful gift from Seattle. Much better than flowers.

...And no, I am not affiliated with anyone selling barges. I spend a lot of time at the port of Seattle and know that the kind of damage they have in Japan would mean that they need some temporary ways to get things from sea to shore until they can make repairs to their port facilities.

Posted 1 year ago #
angelescrest
Member Profile

This may seem so naive--and the idea is so out of the box--but how do you move a barge to Japan? Are there no barges closer to Japan for purchase (China, etc.)?

I know so nothing about this.

Posted 1 year ago #
westseattledood
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And here's Seattle's relief website, from the local Japanese community. ow.ly/4edOk

Posted 1 year ago #
westseattledood
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And, yet another angle to consider made by Slate:

The best way to donate to relief efforts in Japan slate.me/dQhHgk"

Posted 1 year ago #
captainDave
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Great deal on Living Social - they will match donations - donate $5.00, they send $10 to Japan

http://livingsocial.com/deals/32115-5-for-10-donation-to-red-cross-relief-efforts

Posted 1 year ago #
westseattledood
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Here's a link to some Animal Rescue orgs which need assist too as they begin their work:

http://huff.to/gYvphF

Posted 1 year ago #
WSLifer
Member Profile

I'll add another agency to the list for support of the people of Japan. This group does amazing things all over the world. It's the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and donations can be made at http://www.umcor.org
The thing that is so great about UMCOR is that their overhead is funded by a budget drive that they conduct once per year. This means that every single cent donated goes to the disaster listed by the donor. 100%!!

Posted 1 year ago #