The Guardian (June 12)
“The problem with earthquakes is that they undermine the very things you do to prevent them. And with Tokyo now seeing millions of tourists a year, and expecting millions more for the Rugby World Cup this year and the Olympics in 2020, the city is ripe for panic in the event of a disaster.”
Tags: Disaster, Earthquakes, Olympics, Panic, Prevent, Problem, Rugby World Cup, Tokyo, Tourists, Undermine
Honolulu Star-Advertiser (May 6)
“Since a series of fissures opened up in Leilani Estates on Thursday, spitting lava and toxic sulfur dioxide, it seems that everyone in South Puna has become an amateur geologist and volcanologist, convinced they know which communities are safe and which ones are vulnerable to further outbreaks.” But two weeks ago, no one “predicted that lava from Kilauea would suddenly shoot from the ground in Leilani Estates, along with earthquakes and fears that all the shaking will trigger a tsunami.”
Tags: Earthquakes, Fissures, Hawaii, Kilauea, Lava, Leilani Estates, SO2, Tsunami, Vulnerable
Nikkei Asian Review (April 20)
“Transportation and logistics networks brought to a standstill by the recent earthquakes in Kyushu are starting to return to life, while utilities are striving to restore such crucial services as electricity and gas.” Kumamoto Airport has partially reopened and the shinkansen resumed service to Kagoshima, but nearly 100,000 households still lack running water and gas. In contrast, electricity has been restored to all but 6,500 households.
Tags: Airport, Earthquakes, Electricity, Gas, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Kyushu, Logistics, Service, Shinkansen, Transportation, Utilitie, Water
Bloomberg (April 18)
“The death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Japan rose to 42 and the economic impact began to reverberate Monday as companies surveyed damage and the potential effects on production from supply-chain disruptions.” Amidst the uncertainty, investors “are speculating that Japan’s government and central bank will need to consider more stimulus for an economy that is already struggling.”
Tags: BOJ, Damage, Deaths, Earthquakes, Economic impact, Government, Investors, Japan, Production, Stimulus, Supply-chain disruptions, Uncertainty
LA Times (July 24)
“Too many countries are playing Russian roulette when it comes to seismic risk.” It is “a human triumph of the first order” that so few buildings collapsed as a result of “Japan’s Sendai earthquake on March 11, which released 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.” But many governments have yet to adopt Japan’s stringent building standards. In many earthquake prone countries, a similar quake could kill a million people. Seismic risk mitigation is “the greatest urban policy challenge the world confronts today.”
Tags: Earthquakes, Japan, Seismic risk, Sendai
