Learning to shout after the Fukushima disaster
Northeast, the Sendai tsunami in Japan and the massive earthquake in Chengdu, China, the scars of disaster are still palpable. I’m part of a group of journalists brought together by canadian goose jacket the East canada goose West Center in uk canada goose Hawaii to see how the people and environments hit by these catastrophes are faring, one year, two years and five years later. We began our tour on Sept. 29. Here are the other posts in the series:
Storm warnings that work a lesson from Sandy
On the afternoon of canada goose clearance March 3, 2011, Japan’s public television network buy canada goose jacket NHK was broadcasting a session of parliament live when warning chimes and a bulletin flashed across screens: “This is an earthquake early warning,” Canada Goose UK Black Friday an announcer said. “Beware of a strong earthquake The Tokyo studio is shaking right canada goose factory sale now.” When the picture switched to the studio, the Canada Goose sale announcer continued canada goose uk shop to speak in a calm voice. This was common canada goose store practice, meant to avoid causing panic.
That changed after the 3/11 disaster, which included an earthquake, a tsunami and the nuclear power uk canada goose outlet plant accident at Fukushima. Now, news presenters may shout their warnings, said Takehiko Kusaba, director of of media strategy and cooperation in NHK’s news department. Shouting, he said, can save lives if it helps people evacuate quickly. The language can be uncharacteristically harsh canada goose coats on sale for Japanese television, as tough as a simple, “Go away!”
The expected height of the tsunami used to be included in warnings, but that too has changed. Now presenters can use words like “huge.” A more specific forecast Canada Goose Jackets might encourage people to calculate how high above Canada Goose Outlet sea canada goose uk outlet level Canada Goose Parka they are, and to figure out whether they could survive the waves.
Ayumi Yanagisawa, an NHK correspondent in the earthquake zone, was reporting in a coastal area, talking to a fisherman, when Canada Goose online the ground cracked under her feet. She continued reporting, got to higher ground and canada goose clearance sale within canada goose uk black friday half an hour, she said, “The whole town washed away in cheap canada goose uk front of me.” The full effect of the trauma didn’t hit until about a year later, when the same cold, snowy weather as on 3/11 brought back memories of the day. “If I see a tsunami next time, I’m not sure I could continue to cover the story,” she canada goose coats said.
Takeshi Koizumi remembers when the lesson in shouting began. It was the afternoon of salecanadagooseoutlets March 3 when he and ot
hers at the Japan Meteorological Agency buy canada goose jacket cheap felt the earth shake in Tokyo, more than 200 miles (300 km) away from the rupturing fault off the Japanese coast.
“It shook for a long time. It was very scary, very strong shaking,” Koizumi said. Unlike hurricanes and typh
oons, earthquakes can’t be predicted, but once the earth started to move, Koizumi and his colleagues warned of an impending tsunami with a maximum height of 10 meters. Thanks to Japan’s strong building codes, there were few cheap Canada Goose casualties from the earthquake, but more than 20,000 were killed in the floods that followed. Hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced more than two years later.
The first tsunami warning for the area around Sendai came out three minutes after the earthquake was detected. That warning was expanded to cover the entire east coast 12 minutes and 34 seconds after the earthquake. The problem, Koizumi said, is that people stop listening after the first Canada Goose Online warning, and many didn’t hear the expanded warning’s forecast of a huge tsunami.
Koizumi said the Japanese people need to be kept aware of the Canada Goose Coats On Sale risks of tsunamis, though for now, he said, “The memory of the tragedy will make them wary but I don’t know if this canada goose black friday sale will last 10 years.”.
