TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI (東北地方太平洋沖地震)

14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday 11 March 2011 is one moment that I will never forget in my whole life. 9.0-magnitude mega thrust earthquake occurred in "Tōhoku region Pacific Ocean offshore. The epicenter was 130 kilometers (81 mi) off the east coast of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku near Sendai, with the hypocenter at a depth of 32 km (19.9 mi). The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 10 meters that destroy almost all cities near ocean offshore.

I live in Yamagata Prefecture Yonezawa City. My area also have been hit by more than 5 almost 6.0 magnitude earthquake. It was not my first experience, I had experienced a 7.0-magnitude earthquake when Niigata Chuetsu earthquake occurred on 23 October 2004. During that time I slept in my car for 5 days and it take months to recover from all the damages. I was really scared and focus to survive. After 7 years I was shocked again with giant earthquake. This time I even felt more than 5.0 magnitude, the scale of this earthquake are far bigger than I or anyone could imagine. It was the biggest disaster I ever can imagine. The duration of the earthquake is only 6 minutes but during this 6 minutes, it was the scariest moment in Japan. In these 6 minutes almost 8,450 people were killed, including missing people is about 21,000 people and the numbers increasing from time to time. 19,000 buildings have been destroyed by the tsunami. I was very near to the area at that moment, the most sad moment in Japan, seeing most of the cities were destroyed by the tsunami.

Now almost 340,000 people living in evacuation shelters. Some of them still searching for their families and relatives. Can you imagine how they feel searching for their families in the worst environment, no one wanted to go to visit the mortuary because they still cannot accept losing their loving family members. I cannot stand watching people suffering for their lost, it makes my tears drop again and again. Although this is the worst disaster in the history, we will try to rise back with whole strength and spirit to keep living. My sincere condolences to everyone who are affected with earthquake and tsunami. I pray to God for the safety and well-being of the people in Japan.

We in Japan now working hard to fix the situation to be back to normal. However the situation does not allow premature conclusions because Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant still in critical situation. I will explain in future post regarding this matter. I also will explain the detail situation in my future post.

I call upon people who wanted to support and help the victims of this disaster, please donate because they need a lot of support and also prayers. My area Yonezawa city is situated near Fukushima and Sendai. I also send some money and foods for some people. If anyone of you wanted to help the victims of this disaster in Japan you can donate from google site http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html 
or other organizations which are collecting donation for the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. Please be very careful about nominal donation scam for earthquake victims.