Help for the People and Animals of Japan

The nation of Japan is in the midst of its worst crisis since World War II, and it began with a massive 9.0 earthquake which then spawned a deadly tsunami. The earthquake and tsunami have wrought almost unimaginable destruction, including an unfolding drama with the severely damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant now hemorrhaging radioactive elements into the atmosphere.

We feel for the human victims of this cataclysm. We of course also feel for the countless thousands of animal victims.

Humane Society International, our global arm, is in touch with Japanese animal protection organizations, helping to assess and to anticipate animal-related needs. In the days and weeks ahead, we’ll do all that we can to help them, with financial support, personnel, and technical assistance.

AP Photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun, Daisuke UragamiA family with their dog at a shelter in Japan.

Our disaster response team is in the Philippines, waiting to deploy, and coordinating our contact with Japanese groups. When we have properly assessed the risks and complications that increased radiation levels from the nuclear plants might pose for successful deployment, we’ll send field responders to the stricken zone.

One Japanese correspondent tells us, “The local media reported running into a man walking through the rubble. He said he was looking for his wife…and when the reporter looked again a small Chihuahua was peeking out from under his overcoat. ‘I ran as fast as I could with him and the cat, but the cat got lost in the turmoil...’ were his words.”

Japan has a growing humane movement, and some prior experience with pet evacuation and related challenges. Its government has understandably applied rather strict controls on who can or cannot enter the disaster area and as things are shaping up, a few key groups are working to set up a supply system to support shelters and people in the affected region. 

Both The HSUS and HSI plan to provide expertise and funding to support rescue and response efforts in the crisis, and to lay the groundwork for the restoration of animal care in the devastated communities in the longer term.

This is the approach we’ve taken in Haiti, since the January 2010 earthquake there, and in the Gulf States, afterHurricane Katrina struck in 2005. In both instances, our initial deployment represented just a first step toward long-term investments of money, expertise, and personnel, which continue to this day. As a donor to our international disaster fund, you’ll help to secure the same result in Japan. 

It is not lost upon any of us at HSUS that the government of Japan has been no ally of animal protection, launching commercial whaling boats throughout the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans, fighting wildlife protection proposals at international conventions, and generally not evincing much sympathy for the cause of animal protection. But today, more than ever, we are allies of the island nation, and we send our prayers to the suffering people and animals inhabiting the country. We will be sending help in days and weeks and months ahead. 

The animals associated with this organization aren't victims -- they are the heroes. Search dogs are an integral part of any rescue effort. According to theSearch Dog Foundation, "After a disaster, when buildings have crumbed to the ground, dogs can search much more quickly and safely than people can." 

These dogs are highly trained to find victims who would otherwise remain buried, as they are able to "crawl through tunnels, walk up and down ladders, and walk on wobbly surfaces and over debris and rubble." Currently 21 SDF canine disaster search teams have deployed in Japan to search for victims in the destruction. 

You can support them by sponsoring a search dog.

Source 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/help-japan-animals_n_836898.html#s254557&title=Search_Dog_Foundation

Source
http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2011/03/japan-disaster.html

Otsuchi Japan, walking out through the aftermath of the tsunami

On March 11th, 2011 Save Japan Dolphins volunteer Brian Barnes and his companions witnessed hell on Earth, but also experienced great kindness from strangers in the wake of Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Brian Barnes with http://www.StormTours.com was in Otsuchi, Japan as a volunteer for http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org and barely escaped with his life after the earthquake hit.

His companions who were with SSCS and himself barely made it to higher ground on a nearby hill that overlooked the town before Otsuchi was completely destroyed by the Tsunami. After the Tsunami, they had to spend the night on the hill as the city was on fire. The next morning they had to abandon their rental cars since the road below them was no longer there and spent the day walking through the burning remains of the city. Brian said that the walk through what can only be described as hell on earth just to find a way back to the main road and away from the coast.

He tried his best to document the events while fearing of another Tsunami as the area was being hit with strong aftershocks.

The following shows the aftermath after the water receded before finally getting to the mountain road leading to Tono.

To license this footage for broadcast, contacthttp://www.StormChasingVideo.com

For interviews, contact http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org

Otsuchi Japan Dramatic Earthquake, Escape and Tsunami "Video "

New video in from Brian Barnes of StormTours http://www.stormtours.comwho was in Otsuchi Japan which was near the Epicenter of the 9.0 Earthquake and north of the city of Sendai Japan.

*** Please think before you post a comment because they were focused on trying to stay alive vs shooting video ***

He went to Otsuchi Japan as part of a volunteer group for Save Japan Dolphins (SJD) http://www.savejapandolphins.org that is operated by Earth Island Institute and lead by Ric O'Barry of the Oscar winning movie "The Cove" to document the largest slaughter of cetaceans in the world, the Dall's porpoise slaughter.

I met up with Scott West and Tarah Millen who were there with the Sea Sheppard Conservation Society (SSCS). We agreed to go to Otsuchi together because the area has had very little western activist in it in the past and the fishermen there have shown aggressive violent behavior to those who have previously monitored the Dall's porpoise hunt, we figured we would need to watch each others backs.

Brian said "We were scouting out the location and were filming the docks and the Porpoise fishermen in the harbor when the earthquake hit." He said that he jumped out of the car and tried to start filming the earthquake but it was so up/down, and back/forth that I could barely get the camera started.

In the video he shot you can see the earthquake was still shaking the area their rental car moving back and fourth. Brian said "I think my instincts with disasters from my years of Storm Chasing just sort of took over. I've never been in anything like that before and I knew it was major but I guess you still just see it as a natural disaster at the time and instinctively do the "chase" thing, if that makes sense. We really shouldn't be alive."

As soon as the ground stopped shacking we got in our rental car and were followed by another car with SSCS volunteers and headed to the top of a hill overlooking the town just before the 25 meter high Tsunami hit where we were just standing only minutes before. The time from the Earthquake to the Tsunami striking Otsuchi was about eight minutes.

The Tsunami reduced the city to ruins and the tsunami protection wall that was built to save the city was smashed and washed out to sea, everything was completely destroyed. Brian watched as the ocean recede and then rushed back in at least a dozen times where at one point the entire ocean floor was exposed. At one point we saw and heard a woman in the water screaming for help, but she was washed out to sea before they could do anything to rescue her.

"We saw cars and what was left of homes floating in the water and what was not destroyed in the Tsunami was burned up in the massive fire that started after the Tsunami.

We were stuck on this hill because the road at the bottom on either side was completely gone and had to take shelter in our rental cars for the night. The rental cars they had are still on the hill side where they had to abandon them since the road below was gone.

In the morning we got up and abandoned their rental cars on the road up on the hill and hiked back into town. They started seeing the dead bodies everywhere. A woman hanging from a tree where the wave left her, people dead in what was left of their cars, total devastation. It took us an entire day to walk out of the town, rubble doesn't even describe what we saw. To bring home the massive destruction, Hurricane Katrina and the Greensberg Kansas Tornado, those disasters are nothing compared to this. Every car we saw was smashed along with just about every wooden home was destroyed.

There wasn't one thing left standing, it looked like something out of a world war two film after the war ended.

We finally made it to safety after climbing over the ruins of houses and walking over burning rubble and back to our hotel in Tono before paying a kings ransom to take a taxi to Akita Japan where I'm waiting for a flight back to America.

To license this footage for broadcast, contacthttp://www.stormchasingvideo.com

Sea Shepherd's Cove Guardians witness the tsunami in Otsuchi, Japan on March 11, 2011

New footage of the tsunami from Otsuchi, Iwate, Japan as witnessed by Sea Shepherd's Cove Guardians.
For more about the eye witness account including more photos, please visit:http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-110312-2.html

Pray For Japan (Photos)

My heart goes out to the people of Japan 

God be with them and keep your hand upon the people suffering.

Dog protects his buddy after earthquake

A dog is trying to protect his friend after the catastrophe. Maybe they lost their owners. I pray that rescue will come to their way... Please don't forget that animals suffered as well as humans.



Please join this facebook group http://www.facebook.com/pages/Japan-Earthquake-Animal-Rescue-and-Support/207835229228979?sk=info

Chip In
http://japanearthquakeanimalrelief.chipin.com/japan-earthquake-animal-rescue-and-support

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts with greater fury

HONOLULU (Reuters) – The frequently restive Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii spewed a plume of lava 160 feet tall on Wednesday, more than twice as high as molten rock shot into the sky when eruptions flared anew on Saturday.

As eruptions continued at two spots, seismic activity grew more vigorous and poisonous sulfur dioxide gas emissions peaked at 10,000 tons per day, over 30 times last weekend's levels, before dropping off again by more than half, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey.

The 2,000-degree Fahrenheit molten lava from Kilauea's summit and the newly ruptured Kamoamoa fissure have destroyed 78 acres of rain forest since Saturday and buried 162 acres of park land.

The ground around the eruptions has continued to collapse, and forests downwind of the fissure were choked with volcanic fumes that are toxic to the vegetation, said Mardie Lane, an official at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory.

"We've been fortunate that we've had showers and rain," Lane told Reuters. "One of the biggest unknown dangers is the spread of sulfur dioxide gas. It's invisible, noxious and toxic. When our rangers are in the field, they use respirators to filter out the harmful gases."

No injuries to people or damage to residential property has been reported since Kilauea roared back to life on Saturday. USGS scientists continued to monitor the activity.

Kilauea is one of five volcanoes that formed the Big Island, officially known as the island of Hawaii. Periodic eruptions of the volcano have destroyed 213 homes since the volcano emerged from a period of dormancy in 1983.

The latest episode began with the 370-foot collapse of the floor of the Pu'u O'o crater and opening of the 535-yard long Kamoamoa fissure on March 5.

10K dead in Japan amid fears of nuclear meltdowns

SENDAI, Japan – The estimated death toll from Japan's disasters climbed past 10,000 Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and hundreds of thousands of people struggled to find food and water. The prime minister said it was the nation's worst crisis since World War II.

Nuclear plant operators worked frantically to try to keep temperatures down in several reactors crippled by the earthquake and tsunami, wrecking at least two by dumping sea water into them in last-ditch efforts to avoid meltdowns. Officials warned of a second explosion but said it would not pose a health threat.

Near-freezing temperatures compounded the misery of survivors along hundreds of miles (kilometers) of the northeastern coast battered by the tsunami that smashed inland with breathtaking fury. Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines while survivors examined the ruined remains.

One rare bit of good news was the rescue of a 60-year-old man swept away by the tsunami who clung to the roof of his house for two days until a military vessel spotted him waving a red cloth about 10 miles (15 kilometers) offshore.

The death toll surged because of a report from Miyagi, one of the three hardest hit states. The police chief told disaster relief officials more than 10,000 people were killed, police spokesman Go Sugawara told The Associated Press. That was an estimate — only 400 people have been confirmed dead in Miyagi, which has a population of 2.3 million.

According to officials, more than 1,800 people were confirmed dead — including 200 people whose bodies were found Sunday along the coast — and more than 1,400 were missing in Friday's disasters. Another 1,900 were injured.

For Japan, one of the world's leading economies with ultramodern infrastructure, the disasters plunged ordinary life into nearly unimaginable deprivation.

Hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers that were cut off from rescuers, aid and electricity. At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households were without electricity.

While the government doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the aid effort to 100,000 and sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 29,000 gallons (110,000 liters) of gasoline plus food to the affected areas, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said electricity would take days to restore. In the meantime, he said, electricity would be rationed with rolling blackouts to several cities, including Tokyo.

"This is Japan's most severe crisis since the war ended 65 years ago," Kan told reporters, adding that Japan's future would be decided by its response.

Click image to see photos of quake, tsunami damage

AFP/Yomiuri Shimbun

In Rikuzentakata, a port city of over 20,000 virtually wiped out by the tsunami, Etsuko Koyama escaped the water rushing through the third floor of her home but lost her grip on her daughter's hand and has not found her.

"I haven't given up hope yet," Koyama told public broadcaster NHK, wiping tears from her eyes. "I saved myself, but I couldn't save my daughter."

A young man described what ran through his mind before he escaped in a separate rescue. "I thought to myself, ah, this is how I will die," Tatsuro Ishikawa, his face bruised and cut, told NHK as he sat in striped hospital pajamas.

Japanese officials raised their estimate Sunday of the quake's magnitude to 9.0, a notch above the U.S. Geological Survey's reading of 8.9. Either way, it was the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan, which lies on a seismically active arc. A volcano on the southern island of Kyushu — hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the quake' epicenter — also resumed spewing ash and rock Sunday after a couple of quiet weeks, Japan's weather agency said.

Dozens of countries have offered assistance. Two U.S. aircraft carrier groups were off Japan's coast and ready to help. Helicopters were flying from one of the carriers, the USS Ronald Reagan, delivering food and water in Miyagi.

Two other U.S. rescue teams of 72 personnel each and rescue dogs arrived Sunday, as did a five-dog team from Singapore.

Still, large areas of the countryside remained surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed, though at some, cars waited in lines hundreds of vehicles long.

The United States and a several countries in Europe urged their citizens to avoid travel to Japan. France took the added step of suggesting people leave Tokyo in case radiation reached the city.

Community after community traced the vast extent of the devastation.

In the town of Minamisanrikucho, 10,000 people — nearly two-thirds of the population — have not been heard from since the tsunami wiped it out, a government spokesman said. NHK showed only a couple concrete structures still standing, and the bottom three floors of those buildings gutted. One of the few standing was a hospital, and a worker told NHK that hospital staff rescued about a third of the patients.

In the hard-hit port city of Sendai, firefighters with wooden picks dug through a devastated neighborhood. One of them yelled: "A corpse." Inside a house, he had found the body of a gray-haired woman under a blanket.

A few minutes later, the firefighters spotted another — that of a man in black fleece jacket and pants, crumpled in a partial fetal position at the bottom of a wooden stairwell. From outside, while the top of the house seemed almost untouched, the first floor where the body was had been inundated. A minivan lay embedded in one outer wall, which had been ripped away, pulverized beside a mangled bicycle.

The man's neighbor, 24-year-old Ayumi Osuga, dug through the remains of her own house, her white mittens covered by dark mud.

Osuga said she had been practicing origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into figures, with her three children when the quake stuck. She recalled her husband's shouted warning from outside: "'GET OUT OF THERE NOW!'"

She gathered her children — aged 2 to 6 — and fled in her car to higher ground with her husband. They spent the night in a hilltop home belonging to her husband's family about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away.

"My family, my children. We are lucky to be alive," she said.

"I have come to realize what is important in life," Osuga said, nervously flicking ashes from a cigarette onto the rubble at her feet as a giant column of black smoke billowed in the distance.

As night fell and temperatures dropped to freezing in Sendai, people who had slept in underpasses or offices the past two nights gathered for warmth in community centers, schools and City Hall.

At a large refinery on the outskirts of the city, 100-foot (30-meter) -high bright orange flames rose in the air, spitting out dark plumes of smoke. The facility has been burning since Friday. The fire's roar could be heard from afar. Smoke burned the eyes and throat, and a gaseous stench hung in the air.

In the small town of Tagajo, also near Sendai, dazed residents roamed streets cluttered with smashed cars, broken homes and twisted metal.

Residents said the water surged in and quickly rose higher than the first floor of buildings. At Sengen General Hospital, the staff worked feverishly to haul bedridden patients up the stairs one at a time. With the halls now dark, those who can leave have gone to the local community center.

"There is still no water or power, and we've got some very sick people in here," said hospital official Ikuro Matsumoto.

Police cars drove slowly through the town and warned residents through loudspeakers to seek higher ground, but most simply stood by and watched them pass.

In the town of Iwaki, there was no electricity, stores were closed and residents left as food and fuel supplies dwindled. Local police took in about 90 people and gave them blankets and rice balls, but there was no sign of government or military aid trucks.

___

Earthquake/Tsunami hits Japan 2011 (Pictures/Video)

My heart and thoughts are with all those people in Japan today, and to all the people who have Family and Friends in Japan as well, it is devastating watching the News on TV and seeing all of the destruction, and as the day goes on we are seeing just how bad this Earthquake and Tsunami was, and how destructive it was not only to the buildings, but the lives that have been lost as well.

A total of 45,000 people living within a 10km radius of the Fukushima nuclear power plant have now been told to evacuate their homes – a steep rise on the 3,000 who were told to leave yesterday evening. Aljazeera.

New York Times  also has a good article on the Nuclear Plants.

Houses erupt in flame while the Natori river surges over the surrounding area in Natori city, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan. AP Photo/Yasushi Kanno, The Yomiuri Shimbun

The tsunami triggered by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hits Natori, Miyagi prefecture. AP Photo/Kyodo News

Pedestrians clamber over a piece of collapsed road in Urayasu city, Chiba. Picture: AFP

A house sinks into the ground at Sukagawa city, Fukushima. Picture: AFP

People watch the aftermath of tsunami tidal waves covering a port at Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan. AP Photo/Keichi Nakane, The Yomiuri Shimbun

BBC News has a stack of fantastic video’s on the Tsunami and the Earthquake.

Amazing video of buildings swaying.

Japan 2011 Update (Pictures/video’s)

Unfortunately as the days pass after the terrible earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, the news just seems to get worse. There are now grave fears for the Nuclear Power Plants that were in the path of the earthquake, 1,000′s of people now found dead, and they are saying that they fear there will be a lot more.

Like millions of people I have been watching the TV news and footage, as well as listening to news reports on the radio in total disbelief, it must be absolutely terrifying for all those people in Japan, and my heart and thoughts go out to all. I hope those people looking for Family, Friends, Loved ones, will find them safe and sound.

AN explosion and feared meltdown at one of Japan’s nuclear plants yesterday exposed the scale of the disaster facing the country after a massive quake and tsunami left 1000 feared dead. 
TV channels warned nearby residents to stay indoors, turn off airconditioners and not to drink tap water. People going outside were also told to avoid exposing their skin and to cover their faces with masks and wet towels. News.com.au.

JAPAN’S nuclear safety agency was unable to explain tonight an explosion at the earthquake-damaged Fukushima No1 power plant. 
Emergency teams were worked to release dangerous pressure on a reactor at risk of melting down.
The Fukushima No1 and No2 power plants, 10 reactors in total, have been declared nuclear emergency sites, as the count of dead and missing people from Friday’s northern Honshu disaster exceeded 1,200. The Australian.

A screen grab taken from news footage by Japanese public broadcaster NHK on March 11, 2011 shows people standing on the roof of the flooded airport and its tower control in Sendai. AFP PHOTO / HO / NHK

Light planes and vehicles sit among the debris after they were swept by a tsumani that struck Sendai airport in northern Japan (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
See more amazing photo’s in News.com.au picture gallery.

A photo sent out via Twitter showing the destruction in northeast Japan. The accompanying message read: “This is my house on the left. It washed away by the tsunami. I don’t think I can attend school from this spring.”

Giant fireballs rise from a burning oil refinery in Ichihara, Chiba. Picture: AP
See more amazing photo’s in The Australian picture gallery.

Eyewitness videos of the earthquake:-
A special YouTube channel has been set up for people to post there video’s on it’s calledCitezentube. The first video below is a video from there.

THE world has rushed to Japan’s aid in its greatest hour of need after the killer quake and terrifying tsunami ploughed a trail of death, destruction and devastation through the Asian nation. News.com.au.
AUTHORITIES are trying to locate thousands of Australians known to be living or staying in Japan. 
There are no immediate reports of Australian casualties but The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says only 703 of the 2129 Australians registered in Japan are confirmed to be safe.
DFAT estimates that as many as 11,000 Australian residents are living in Japan.News.com.au.