A man looks for his missing son at a makeshift morgue in coastal city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, March 20.

A man makes his way through Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, on March 21. Heavy rain along the northeast coast disrupted rescue efforts and compounded the misery of survivors now fearing radioactive fallout from the wrecked Fukushima plant.

The epicenter was in northern Ibaraki Prefecture with a focal depth of 10kn. The size of teh earthquakes magnitude is estimated to be a 4.3 But there is no risk of another tsunami.  (via http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00195609.html)

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is improving. He says unpredictable factors remain but the government will do its best to fix the problem.

Edano made the remarks in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.

He said he believes the water-spraying over the spent fuel rod pool in the No.3 reactor was successful.
He added that the current situation is more stable than before.

Edano said the government will continue to spray water over the No.3 reactor and the Self-Defense Forces are preparing to spray water over the No.4 reactor.

The Chief Cabinet Secretary said the government is trying to fully resolve the problem and create stable conditions by monitoring and cooling down each nuclear reactor at the plant.

He said he cannot give an exact time when power will be fully restored at the plant but the overall situation is improving step by step.

Saturday, March 19, 2011 21:23 +0900 (JST) (via http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/19_28.html)

The water temperature is dropping in the spent fuel rod pool of the No.5 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company restored a power generator at the No.6 reactor on Saturday morning.

One of the 2 generators at the No. 6 reactor has been used since the quake to cool the spent fuel rod pools of the No.5 and No.6 reactors.

But water temperatures rose as the generator could not supply enough power by itself.

The newly restored generator is being used to activate a cooling pump in the No.5 reactor.

The 2 generators can now generate enough power to maintain the cooling functions of the No.5 and No.6 reactors.

The power company measured the water temperature of the No.5 reactor and found it had decreased from 68.5 degrees Celsius at 5 AM, local time, to 63.8 degrees at 2 PM.

The company said the partial recovery of the cooling functions will bring a sense of safety.

It hopes to fully restore connections to external power sources and stably cool down the reactors.

The company also said it made holes in the roofs of the No.5 and No.6 reactors to remove hydrogen to prevent the explosions that occurred at the No.1 and No. 3 reactors.

Saturday, March 19, 2011 22:11 +0900 (JST) (via http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/19_32.html)

The Day of Destruction in Japan 

Two American teachers that were missing have been found

(出典: omnomnomjapanesefood)

New footage of the Tsunami. The first few seconds is a different town, but the main portion of the video is insane. you really can watch as a whole town in taken. If you watch along the bottom of the screen you can see someone in black trying to outrun the tsunami. I’m pretty sure the people you can hear see that person as they keep yelling for someone to run faster and hoping they make it. Although I can’t tell at the end if the person is okay, but I really hope so…..

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has arranged for over 600 seats on several buses for transportation from Sendai City Hall to Tokyo. Priority for seats will be given to U.S. citizens and their immediate dependents. No reservation is required. However, passengers will be required to sign a promissory note to reimburse the U.S. Government for the normal bus fare from Sendai to Tokyo.

The first buses began to load at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, March 18 in front of Sendai City Hall (仙台市役所前広場). Buses will load from the same location at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 19. When all passengers present have been loaded on the buses, the buses will depart. Because adequate commercial alternatives are available, the U.S. Government will not provide any additional chartered bus services after Saturday morning, March 19 2011..

(CNN) — Their stories have been of loss and of resilience.

Hiromitsu Shinkawa, a 60-year-old from Minamisoma, was rescued at sea two days after seeing his wife and house swept away by a tidal wave.

A 70-year-old woman in Iwate prefecture who, along with her house, was carried away by the tsunami, but managed to survive the ordeal.An 83-year-old Japanese woman escaped the tsunami by jumping on her bicycle  and riding to safe ground.

In Japan, where nearly a quarter of the population is aged 65 and older and where women hold the world record for longest life expectancy, many of the faces of the disaster have been elderly.