10 Year Anniversary of Tohoku Earthquake

March 11, 2021 4:36 AM

Ten years and a couple hours ago, the Tohoku earthquake happened, setting off the tsunami and nuclear power disaster in Fukushima. It was my last day at a high school in suburban Chiba, outside of Tokyo, and, pre-smart phone, I had no way of getting in touch with Mrs. Ghidorah, or knowing much of what was happening. The thread on the blue was an immense help at the time.

That thread will always be sort of a touchstone for me. The compassion users around the world showed really made me feel like I was a member of a community. The various users asking after members in Japan, and the general sense of relief when someone checked in is something I'll never forget. Just sort of wanted to say thanks again for that.

posted by Ghidorah to MetaFilter-Related at 4:36 AM (13 comments total)

<3
posted by cooker girl at 6:33 AM on March 11, 2021

I enjoy your posts from Japan and your perspective. Nearly 16,00 people died; I can only imagine the national mourning, grief and outrage. I'm glad MeFi provided some solace. ♡
posted by theora55 at 7:05 AM on March 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

I remember those days and those posts so vividly. It's unreal to think it's been ten years. <3
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:02 AM on March 11, 2021

That was my very first FPP! As I said that day:

Yeah, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my first FPP would be a 9.0 earthquake, giant tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. :|

Such a horrifying day even from afar, but I’m so thankful there was a place we could all connect.
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:10 AM on March 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

By "those threads" I mean the initial earthquake/tsunami thread on the blue linked above (3000+ comments), and the Metatalk check in thread (much briefer, as Mefites were mostly checking in via the blue thread), and then as the crisis developed, the threads following the situation at the Fukushima power plant:
Fukushima reactor thread 1 (3000+ comments)
Fukushima reactor thread 2 (1700+ comments)
Fukushima reactor thread 3 (500 comments)
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:15 AM on March 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

I worked for a friend whose company had just signed a big earthquake preparedness campaign and to celebrate he'd arranged for a bunch of us to go to an earthquake simulator. we were very excited, several serious earthquake nerds in the group (including me) so I woke up that morning, checked in on the internet beforehand...and saw the news of what had happened in Japan while I'd been sleeping. needless to say the trip was a LOT more subdued than it would have been. We were all pretty stunned at the scale of the disaster(s) and the raw power of Mother Earth to mix things up.
posted by supermedusa at 9:59 AM on March 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

You know you are getting old when you're stunned by the fact that something that seems fairly recent was 10 years ago. It's even worse when it's been 20 years and you have the same feeling about it being a relatively current event.
posted by drstrangelove at 12:36 PM on March 11, 2021 [6 favorites]

Early September should be interesting this year.
posted by vrakatar at 8:24 PM on March 11, 2021

I reminded one of my daughters that she was in the Tokyo airport watching the runways ripple. She was surprised that it was already 10 years since she had to sleep on the floor in the airport.
posted by Cranberry at 12:14 AM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

I remember that day so well, and still can't get out of my mind a news clip of a man in a car being swept away. His passenger got out of the car and escaped with his life. Horrifying.
posted by essexjan at 6:46 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

my sister's house burned to the ground about a week later an entire ocean away. Her family lost everything. That really emphasized the earthquake's impact for me. Watching just one family go through that kind of loss. And theirs was only material. All they lost was stuff. In Japan, you had to multiply that shock by a factor of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, and then add the grief and mourning of 20,000 killed. It still feels beyond measure ...
posted by philip-random at 8:42 AM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

Big virtual hugs for the Ghidorah family.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 2:49 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yes there were many unspeakably sad news clips then.... I think about those children who died in the tsunami all the time. There were so many tragedies from it, but that particular news story was devastating to me, still is. My first child was a newborn when that happened and I remember watching news footage about it while holding her. A really terrible time. I’m glad to hear you found some measure of comfort during it, Ghidorah. 10 years. Wow.
posted by areaperson at 7:58 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]