Zuimei is okay, his bar survived the 8.9 Richter earthquake which has devastated parts of Japan. I am obviously relieved. It could have been much worse. If the earthquake had happened farther south Tokyo would have been rocked even harder.
This video makes me a little nauseas even though that is exactly what buildings are supposed to do. It did get me thinking however about information and how rapidly it is distributed these days. I called Zuimei last night at around 11:30 so that should have been 12:30 pm his time.
This was a few hours before the earthquake. The quake, which happened around 3:00 pm local time, was reported on twitter as it happened, was on you tube within minutes and hit the major news networks within the hour. In fact, there is live footage of the tsunami response was so fast.
A hundred years ago, when there is a disaster we wouldn’t have known about it until long after it was over and the clean up was well underway. Now we can respond in hours and help out immediately. Donate to Japan’s disaster relief here or by using a mobile device and text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
You can also find Google’s crisis response information where you can find more information and contact friends and family who might be there.
And if you live on the West Coast, please get a disaster survival kit. BC is overdue for another large one.