Nerves Frayed by Aftershock

Posted by By Eric Zager at 11 April, at 13 : 53 PM Print

A new normal is no longer normal in Japan. How can it be, with a 7.0 earthquake rattling through the country one month to the day a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami destroyed towns and villages, left as many as 25,000 dead, and created a nuclear nightmare.

Marina Seito, a 19 year old college student, told the Associated Press, “Even after a month, I still cry when I watch the news.”

Monday’s knee-bending aftershock temporarily cut power to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility. Restoration of what little power the facility had was quickly restored.

It has taken a month for Japanese authorities to start pressing people living 20 miles from Dai-ichi to evacuate their homes over the next few weeks. Previously, folks in a 12 mile ring were the only ones told to leave.

“This is not an emergency measure that people have to evacuate immediately,” Yukio Edano, chief cabinet secretary said. “We have decided this measure based on long-term health risks.”

Edano’s remarks are becoming transparent as the days pass with no known date when Fukushima will no longer present as many hazards. ”The nuclear accident has not stabilized; we can not deny the possibility the situation could get worse.”

The quake is the second one in less than a week to roll through northern Japan, with the epicenter settling about 100 miles north of Tokyo.

Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima told the AP, “My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this disaster has caused the people of our prefecture.”

(To gain a better understanding of what it looks like when fuel rods start to melt watch the video that accompanies this story on Rock The Capital.)

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Eric Zager - who has written 324 posts for Rock The Capital

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