In the shadow of the quake

Two way tourism between Japan and South Korea had for the long time been very strong pillar of the economies. Now travel agencies feel real slow down because of the disaster, they practically stopped any operations.

Two way tourism had been proving that old time tensions had slowly started to vanish. Japanese, who had occupied Korea for 35 years, are obviously not loved by a lot of Koreans who remember the old times.

Despite bad memories common distrust had slowly vanished. Together with growing Korean Wave a lot of Japanese middle class citizens have been doing weekend shopping in Seoul, crowds of them are visiting sites of their favorite soap operas.

Japan became fashionable among Koreans and is one of their favorite destinations for Lunar New Year or other holidays to go for a visit.

Finally this tragedy had shown that there is a peace between the nations, not only between the governments.

South Korean celebrities and citizens are donating money for Japan. Samsung Group had given already 100 million yen, which is 1,22 million dollars. Daum, one of the internet providers, collected so far 40 million won.

Maybe, in the shadow of the quake, stupid conflict about Dokdo Islands with some small traces of natural resources, not really worth even to be drilled out, will finally be resolved. If this moment is not used, there might be no other opportunity.

There are other, more serious, and never resolved problems between Tokyo and Seoul. Japan had never gone through full denazification and fascist veterans are still presented there as national heroes. It may be a wind of change for both nations, and time of forgiveness. Better late than later. Or never...

15th March 2011

Earthquake in Japan 3

How can you help Japan?

In Japan currently there is sweet drinking water crisis.

My friend Mikina who is in Tokyo says:

"In my situation, I can get electricity. But no access to gas and water. It’s happening in the whole city I live.
Luckily we our family had eight 2litter drinking water bottles and full of bathtub.
Our city supplies water at every school but they say it takes 2hours to get water and it is limited to 10litters per family. We can’t know when we can get water from tap next. It can be tomorrow or one week after. (...)
Though things should be appreciated, when whole nation try to send things to suffered area, they are not handed to people appropriately and effectively. So I believe contribution of some money helps much more."


Donate Money for Japan - International Red Cross

Apart from this you can donate sweet bottled water supplies to your local Red Cross, or contact state aid agencies.

 Street cracked after the first quake in one of areas which suffered less damage, this can rip apart any second. Photo by Mikina from Tokyo.

Earthquake in Japan 2

Fukushima Power Plant had been reported to have a leak which is now decreasing. Two shakes coming one after another during recent two days had damaged the concrete building of the plant but not it's metal cover, says the authorities. Just in case 20 km zone of evacuation had been created.

The death toll is rising. For now at least 649 people had been killed by the tsunami and the quakes. The water supplies and energy situation on the Japan islands is critical, help however will soon arrive from the world.

Japan quake technology is legendary efficient, but this time it was the tsunami which caused the biggest losses.
State preparations started after the quake in 1923 which was so far the most disastrous with losses and casualties. Since then the quake conscioussness among civilians had risen, the authorities had imposed a lot of solutions including the quake training simulation which every citizen has to go through on 1st September every year.

Since 1981 new building technology makes every skyscraper and building a must have special foundations which amortise the quake up till the magnitude of 9, theoretically. This technology has proved itself very efficient and really helps during such disasters.

It seems however that the only thing which actually saves from the tsunami are high altitude natural sea banks, like on the Korean penninsula, which won't protect the fish industry or boats, but will protect vast spaces of land.

Japanese people help eachother before the rescue teams arrive, a neighbour helps a neighbour with whatever possible.

It is not safe to come back to the buildings even if they seem not to be damaged. Secondary quakes will for sure weaken their cracked structures more.

Japanese economy suffered losses which noone dares to measure yet. Nikkei went down rapidly, same for the exchange rate of yen, but Japanese economy, an export based power, will eventually drag itself from the disaster.

*******

On the side: how come the Kaddafi mess causes oil index skyrocketing and Japanese disaster which may actually harm a lot of platforms and tank ships in Pacific region is causing oil price index down?
The logic of investors is black magic for me. Or may be there is no logic, just a group panic instinct?

Earthquake in Japan

Today there was an earthquake in Japan of 8,9 magnitude. Losses are enormous, mostly in technical assets, infrastructire, businesses and others.

Circa 250 dead, 88 000 missing after strong shakes and 10 meter tsunami rushed through islands of Japan, numbers may increase with time. 
Government warns about secondary shakes and prepares civilians for situation of worse than what it is already.

For such a sudden and strong event I want to congratulate Japanese people for organization and preparations for such a case. Country was shaken but it is not paralyzed. Advanced technologically and very organized, went through struggle with powers of nature not as harmed as countries affected by Indian Ocean Tsunami and earthquake in 2004, where there have been 230 000 fatalities.

Is Korea prepared for an earthquake of this magnitude? A year ago in January there was a small shake which had risen this question in the newspapers. This time, Korean Penninsula was spared.

The authorities had noticed such threats and try to catch up, but will they catch up on time?

Soon more details.

Earthquake in Seoul

Two days ago there was an earthquake here in Seoul. A magnitude 3.0 shake occurred with its epicenter located near western Seoul on Tuesday evening. No injuries or serious property damage were reported.

The question is, how Seoul, a city of 20 million residents living in skyscrapers, is resistant to such a hazard?

Natural hazards cause loss of more than $700 million in property every year, mostly due to flooding and landslides during monsoon season. Occasionally tsunami or drought hits the peninsula adding more costs and loss to recover.

As to the risk of earthquakes, Korea is not based directly at the Pacific Hot Ring, but close enough to be called a semiseismic territory with small but present danger of an earthquake bigger than 6 Richter scale degrees.

Pacific tectonic plate meets with Eurasian one in the subduction zone through Japan and Philippines. From the west though, occasional wave of shakes may occur because of constant movement of Indian plate to the north.

Oldest chronicles note such phenomena in Korea. In 779 AD the quake killed 100 people and destroyed number of houses in Gyeongju, capital of Silla. During the Japanese occupation regular earthquake observation system was established and noted more than 320 cases of moderate magnitude.

In 1978 an earthquake of 5.0 destroyed 1128 buildings in one of the smaller cities in Korea, no casualties were reported luckily.

Before that, only public facilities, such as power plants and tunnels had any quake- resistant design. After 1978 every building taller than 6 levels has to be earthquake - resistant based on the average risk which is magnitude of 7.

If it comes to houses and apartments, this is the most vulnerable issue. Before 1988 citizens did not matter much in South Korea, or at least not their private belongings such as places to live. There was also no middle class, as middle range salary sector emerged with establishing of democracy in 1988. Since then, more attention and civil control is put to the Civil Defence.

After 1995 when severe earthquake stroke Kobe in Japan central government established special research institute which aim is to map and address the risk of quakes.

There are also a lot of agencies and offices which address the issue in terms of reaction, response and loss restoration, like Safety Management Bureau, National Safety Management Information System, National Disaster Management System, but their major problem is lack of sufficient communication systems and being understaffed ( as stated in: http://emi.pdc.org/cities/CP-Seoul-July2006.pdf).

What would be sites fragile to the quake? Squatters in some parts of the city, where rural migrants still live, as well some poor quarters of Bongcheon-dong, some sites of north Seoul, old buildings in Yongno.

What to do in case of a quake:
- don't panic
- avoid elevators
- cut off gas and electricity
- evacuate if possible

BTW. And the quake of 3.0 or similar you may as well sleep through as I did :P