Japan

I've been meaning to update my blog for a week now, but I never got around to it. Anyway, for now, I can forget all the stuff about my family - there's a far more serious event going on right now in Japan. On Friday, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck, swiftly followed by a devastating tsunami. As I write there are more than 4,000 people confirmed dead and over 8,000 people still missing. In addition to the earthquake and tsunami, and mostly as a result of the latter, there are very serious problems with one of their nuclear power plants, Fukushima. There have been numerous fires and explosions in various reactors (4 of the 6 reactors they have on site, I believe) and the immediate vicinity has been evacuated due to the hugely increased levels of radiation present. This is now day 6 of the crisis, and it seems that every single day there are multiple worrying developments occurring. As if the Japanese people didn't have enough to worry about with the damage from the earthquake and tsunami, now they have one of the worst nuclear disasters in the history of nuclear power unfolding at the very same time as they are trying to locate survivors and get much-needed supplies to those who are without food, water and electricity. The last I read there were 50 workers battling to stabilize the situation at Fukushima, pumping in sea water in an attempt to cool the reactors. These people, nameless and faceless to the world's population as their details have not been released, are true heroes. They're literally risking their lives for the greater good of their country and the world. There's been much speculation about the possibility of radioactive fallout reaching the west coast of the US, of which a good amount I'm sure is irresponsible reporting and nothing more than scaremongering... However if the situation deteriorates further it is possible that we could see that happen. We're in Arizona so not exactly far from the west coast, and I must admit, I'm pretty concerned about that possibility. I mean, if the radioactive material can make it from Japan to California (about 5,000 miles I believe) then it's not beyond reason that it could reach us in Arizona, it's only another 300 miles or so. Phoenix to San Diego is 355 miles, so a drop in the ocean really. I don't want to be one of those hysterical people, but I also want my family and I to be safe. Hubby and I have obviously been talking about this and I'm really not sure what we'd do if it transpired that it was going to happen. I mean, yeah, we could load up the car and head east, but where to? And how long before we could return home? We have the two pugs to consider, we'd obviously take them with us as there's no way we would ever abandon them, but where would we go? Also, how would we even know how far the radiation was going to reach? We could head east only to encounter the exact same problem. So I think we'd probably stick it out here, although that would be very scary. I guess we'd just be some of the unlucky ones. It does worry me though, because we're planning to start trying for a baby soon, in the next 4-6 months, and something like this could really prevent that from happening. I know I must sound selfish right now, and I must stress that my primary concern is for those in the disaster zone - and the rest of Japan of course. I honestly don't know how they're going to get through this awful time. I hope they manage to, it's so devastating to see what they're going through. This disaster truly has been a triple whammy, first a huge earthquake which the reactors actually survived, then the tsunami which, apart from obviously killing and injuring a lot of people and destroying their infrastructure, has flooded the reactors' cooling systems causing at least partial melt downs in a number of nuclear reactors. I don't want to ask the question "How much worse can things get?" because I suspect they can indeed get much worse. The whole world really has to hope and pray that it doesn't become a full-blown nuclear disaster. I'm not religious by any means but I'm hoping beyond hope that things will improve, which right now doesn't seem too likely.