Currently rather removed from the unfortunate events in NE Honshu.
Sorry for the silence in replying as I've been preoccupied.
Some observations:
Most of the damage and tragic loss of life has been due to the earthquake generated tsunami rather then the 9.0 earthquake itself
and confined to cities, towns and villages along the shorelines of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures in NE Honshu.
The epicentre of the earthquake was quite close to shore, only 130km from Sendai
As a tsunami can travel at 800km/hr people in places such as Sendai and Minami Sanriku had well less than 10min, taking delays into account, to seek shelter in higher ground.
was of the fortunately rare type and is guesstimated to be the largest to have struck Japan in 1,200 years.
Hundreds of ongoing 5.0 to 6.0 aftershocks with a few above 6.0
The MSM is covering the ongoing rescue and relief efforts in detail, so I won't comment.
On the other hand, lots of misinformation in the MSM regarding the damaged reactors.
A good analysis of the situation:
The explosion was most probably due to hydrogen gas buildup from the thermal splitting of water.
Seawater [readily available for cooling] and boric acid [boron is a good neutron absorber] are being pumped in to stabilize the damaged reactors.
