weekend update (Updated)

This is your weekend update:

Day 8 ends / Day 9 starts

As of just a little while ago, NHK has it that workers in Kesennuma got a live rescue out of the rubble. To give you an idea as to heartbreaking the rescue effort is (was)... that is only about the third live rescue from actually in the wreckage. There have been lots of people pulled off rubble and rooftops, and lots more gathered from hillsides where they fled... but traditional go-in-and-dig-them-out rescues... very very few. It was so disheartening the last couple of days that the official focus shifted to recovery and the search-dog-and-prybar teams that flew in to help have been being sent home.

The foreign media has truly fled. Between risks, panic, and other stories to cover, we've got a (relatively speaking) handful of reporters in Oosaka (Osaka) monitoring things. Only the hard core that were already in the Touhoku (Northeast region) before the panic are getting the actual reports out now. No slight to them; that's how their bosses decided to cover this story.

We've avoided rolling blackouts today, here in the north Kantou (East region; the big flat spot that surrounds Toukyou (Tokyo)).

The snow stopped up north late yesterday. Sunny and clear most of the day so far today (Saturday, local time).


As far as American efforts to help:

. The US Forces Japan (USFJ) and other assets sent to help have done a superb job. Only possible points of improvement would have been getting a release to help earlier (not their job; DeptState didn't get it done for a day or two) and a little less playing to fears regarding the nuclear power station... there is no need to evacuate dependents down at the bases, really.

.. Ambassador Roos has not embarrassed himself.


You can expect the mass media to be somewhat caught up in other things now:

. It's been more than a week. Getting the coverage we've gotten so far has been a boon, but the media's attention span is necessarily short.

.. There are other things really worthy of attention. The Civil War in Libya has gotten short shrift for a week and the regime used that diversion to kick the daylights out of the Rebellion. Now the UNSC has *finally* acted... expect to see lots about that in the news from here.

... There are other things that are really not worthy of attention, but will get it anyway. cf. American Presidential visit to a nice beach in Brazil.


So we go on, here.

We'll keep digging, and going out to help, and gathering relief aid, and sitting in the dark a few hours most days so others can have some power.

When things have reached a point of some stability, then I'll get my vacation.

Damn it.

***

Update:

re: the live 'rescue' in Kesennuma.

Some news is, in fact, too good to be true.