在日本大地震、大津波 | Huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan

So I refreshed the New York Times at 23:00 last night and learned that there has been a huge (magnitude 8.9) earthquake in Japan, the largest ever recorded in that country. After watching the NHK livestream here for two hours and frantically working my social networks, it appears that everyone I know in Japan is safe, though the earthquakes are strong and continuing in Tokyo and everywhere north and east of there even now--the largest so far was a 7.8, which is a major earthquake and and of itself.

Of course, I don't know anyone who's currently living in Sendai or the Tôhoku area or points north such as Miyagi-ken and Hokkaidô, all of which are a real mess right now. Casualty reports are mounting.

I will be offering something for help_japan or help_japan when the auctions go up. In the meantime, more information and links to charities may be found at both communities.

Finally, as horrible as this disaster is--and it's awful to sit here and watch, my kokoro are with all those affected and with those whose loved ones are still yukue fumei--it's also a demonstration of just how much comprehensive earthquake building codes and sufficient money to build to those codes can ameliorate much of the danger from earthquakes (tsunami, obviously, are something of a different matter). This earthquake dwarfs the one that struck Haiti in January 2010, or the one that struck Yunnan province in China last month, but the impact, while severe, will be nowhere near as devastating.