Defense War News Updates: Earthquake

Showing posts with label Earthquake. Show all posts

Saturday, August 20, 2011

DTN News - JAPAN NEWS: Honest Japanese Return $78 Million In Cash Found In Quake Rubble

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - JAPAN NEWS: Honest Japanese Return $78 Million In Cash Found In Quake Rubble

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources ABC News

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 19, 2011: The earthquake and tsunami that walloped Japan left much of its coastline ravaged, but left one thing intact: the Japanese reputation for honesty.

In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash.

More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along Japan's tsunami-ravaged coast have also been hauled to police centers by volunteers and search and rescue crews. Inside those safes officials found $30 million in cash. One safe alone, contained the equivalent of $1 million.

The National Police Agency says nearly all the valuables found in the three hardest hit prefectures, have been returned to their owners.

"In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Koetsu Saiki with the Miyagi Prefectural Police. "We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools."

Determining who the safes belonged to, proved to be the easy part. Saiki says most kept bankbooks or land rights documents inside the boxes, containing their names and address. Tracking the owners down, was much more challenging.

Total of $78 Million Was Returned to Owners in Wake of Japan Catastrophe

"The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too," he said. "We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to."

Saiki says Miyagi police fanned out across the region, searching for names of residents posted at evacuation centers, digging through missing person reports at town halls, sorting through change of address forms at the post office, to see if the owner had moved away. When they couldn't find the documents, police called listed cell phone numbers, met with mayors or village leaders to see if they recognized the names.

The number of safes continued to increase as the clearing of tsunami debris led to more discoveries. Police stations struggling to find space for them housed the valuables in parking garages and meeting rooms.

Saiki says 20 percent of the 2,450 safes found in Miyagi turned out to be empty. But, the remaining 250 boxes contained much more than cash. Some included bars of gold, antiques, even crafted boxes containing a child's umbilical cord, a common memento of child birth. Police had to delicately comb through the keepsakes, since many of the items were damaged, after being soaked in seawater and mud for days or weeks.

The stashing of cash in safes isn't a unique problem in Japan, where many people prefer to keep their money at home, but Saiki says the number of boxes is especially high in the coastal region where fishermen make up a large part of the population. Fisheries companies prefer cash transactions, and keep employee salaries in safes, he said.

The number of lost items recovered has declined with every month, but Saiki says his department continues to receive a handful of safes a week.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources ABC News

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
Contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

DTN News - ASIAN DEFENSE NEWS: Japan Quake Becomes World's Costliest Natural Disaster

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - ASIAN DEFENSE NEWS: Japan Quake Becomes World's Costliest Natural Disaster

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Asian Defense News

(NSI News Source Info) TOKYO, Japan - March 23, 2011: (By Leika Kihara and Kaori Kaneko | Reuters – 33 minutes ago) - The Japanese government on Wednesday estimated the direct damage from a deadly earthquake and tsunami that struck the country's northeast this month at as much as $310 billion, making it the world's costliest natural disaster.
The first official damage estimates will serve to map out disaster relief plans and emergency budgets to fund recovery costs.
Tokyo said the estimate covered damage to roads, homes, factories and other infrastructure, and eclipses the losses incurred by other natural disasters such as the 1995 Kobe quake and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The figure could go even higher, as the estimate does not include losses in economic activity from planned power outages or the broader impact of a crisis at a stricken nuclear power plant in Fukushima, which economists say pose the biggest risks to the economy.
"The impact from the planned power outages is likely to be significant," Fumihira Nishizaki, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Cabinet Office told reporters.
The upper end of the 16-25 trillion yen ($197-308 billion) estimate range would amount to about 6 percent of Japan's gross domestic product.
"This quake will cause the condition of Japan's economy and output to be severe," Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa told a parliamentary committee.
Speaking separately, central bank board member Ryuzo Miyao repeated the bank's pledge to take appropriate policy action if needed to support the world's third-largest economy.
"We need to be mindful that the quake's negative impact on the economy, at least on the supply side, may be bigger than the Kobe quake 16 years ago, and be prolonged," he added.
In its initial response to the disaster, the central bank doubled the funds earmarked for purchases of a range of assets and started pumping record amounts of cash into the money market to prevent it from seizing up.
It later followed up by joining forces with other G7 central banks in a rare coordinated move to keep a rallying yen from inflicting further damage to the economy.
SPENDING PLAN NEXT
With interest rates near zero and banks' cash balances at records above levels seen in 2001-2006 when the BOJ sought to flood the banking system with cash to spur lending, there is not much more the central bank can do to help the economy.
"The ball is in the government's court," said Yasunari Ueno, chief market economist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo. "Currency intervention was one thing. The next thing it needs to do is to come up with a credible fiscal spending plan."
Officials from the ruling coalition have said that at least two and perhaps more emergency budgets would be needed to pay for the reconstruction, with the first focused on immediate disaster relief, possible in April or May.
The government has yet to decide how it will finance those budgets, which some analysts say may exceed $100 billion and most certainly will require new borrowing.
Yet with its debt already twice the size of its $5 trillion economy -- the highest among industrialised nations -- Japan should not rush to borrow to pay for the reconstruction, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.
"With our public finances in a severe situation, we'll closely watch how it (the quake) could affect tax revenues," Noda was quoted by a government official as telling a cabinet meeting. "As for financial resources for reconstruction, we need to ensure market confidence and should not rely too readily on debt issuance," he said.
Economists and rating agencies say Tokyo should have little trouble raising extra funds, but some analysts say there is a risk that additional supply of government bonds could push up Tokyo's borrowing costs.
BLACKOUTS RISK
While economists expect Japan's biggest reconstruction push since the post-World War Two period to give the hard-hit economy a badly needed lift in the second half of the year, they warn that power shortages are the greatest risk to such a scenario.
The 9.0 magnitude quake that struck on March 11 unleashed a deadly tsunami that wiped out whole communities, leaving nearly 23,000 people dead or missing and 350,000 homeless, and crippling the biggest power utility in Japan and Asia.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, which serves Tokyo and the surrounding area that accounts for 40 percent of Japan's economic output, lost about 20 percent of its operating thermal and nuclear power generation and is unlikely to get enough back online to meet peak summer demand.
The utility is unable to get much surplus power from operators in the undamaged western part of the country because they operate with a different power frequency.
Toyota Motor Co, the world's top automaker, could be losing about $74 million of profit for every day its 12 assembly plants remain shut, Goldman Sachs estimated, and it is just one of dozens, if not hundreds, of Japanese manufacturers facing disruptions.
Many analysts see a ripple effect from the disaster with disruption to production, both inside Japan and abroad, and the impact of fears of radiation and food contamination hurting business and consumer sentiment worldwide. ($1 = 81.065 Japanese Yen)
(Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Kim Coghill and Jeremy Laurence)

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Asian Defense News

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
Contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS / JAPAN EARTHQUAKE: Factbox ~ Airlines' Response To Japan Quake, Radiation Fears

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS / JAPAN EARTHQUAKE: Factbox ~ Airlines' Response To Japan Quake, Radiation Fears

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters

(NSI News Source Info) TOKYO, Japan - March 16, 2011: Following are responses from airlines from several countries followingJapan's earthquake and tsunami and subsequent crisis at a nuclear power complex.

Workers were briefly ordered to withdraw from a stricken nuclear power plant on Wednesday after radiation levels surged.
AUSTRALIA
-- Qantas said it was flying to Japan as normal.
CHINA
-- Air China said it had canceled some flights to Tokyo from Beijing and Shanghai, mainly due to lack of operational capacity at some airports(www.airchina.com.cn).
-- China Eastern Airlines suspended flights from Shanghai to Fukushima, but other flights between China and Japan were still operating and it was adding an extra flight to Tokyo on Thursday to help Chinese citizens get home.
-- China South Airlines said it had canceled one flight from Changchun to Sendai, which was badly hit by the tsunami, between March 14 and March 26. It added one more flight to Tokyo on Wednesday to get Chinese citizens back.
EUROPE
-- Deutsche Lufthansa said it was continuing to fly to Japan but was diverting flights away from Tokyo to Osaka and Nagoya via Seoul until at least the weekend.
-- Air France-KLM moved all its crew out of Tokyo to Osaka on Monday but a statement on its website on Wednesday said flights were continuing as normal.
-- British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Finnair said they were still flying to Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports.
HONG KONG
-- A Cathay Pacific spokesperson said in a statement: "We are monitoring the situation very carefully and so far there has been no authoritative suggestion that flight operations to Japan are likely to be affected."
MALAYSIA
-- Malaysia's AirAsia, Asia's largest budget carrier by fleet size, and Malaysian Airline System, the country's national carrier, said they were flying to Tokyo without any disruptions to schedule yet. But they say they were monitoring the situation.
NEW ZEALAND
-- Air New Zealand flights to Tokyo were continuing as per schedule for the time being but were being reviewed in the light of new information.
PHILIPPINES
-- Cebu Air, operator of budget carrier Cebu Pacific, said it had no plans for now to cancel its three times weekly flights to Osaka.
-- Philippine Airlines said it was closely monitoring the situation in Japan, but at the moment its operations center had determined no threat to its operations. The airline flies to Narita, Kansai, Nagoya and Fukuoka 32 times weekly.
SINGAPORE
-- Singapore Airlines said on its website that it was closely monitoring developments in Japan but that at this point, all its flights to and from Japan are operating as scheduled.
TAIWAN
-- EVA Airways said it would cancel flights to Tokyo and Sapporo until the end of March.
THAILAND
-- Thai Airways International was still flying to Japan as normal.
TURKEY
Turkish airlines said on its website it was flying as normal to Japan.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
- Emirates said on its website it was flying as normal to Japan.
UNITED STATES
Factbox
FACTBOX-Travel warnings after Japan's earthquake
Tue, Mar 15 2011
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UPDATE 3-Airlines, travelers avoid Tokyo, fearing radiation
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Radiation fears spark panic, evacuations in Tokyo
Tue, Mar 15 2011

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
Contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Asian Defense News: Strong Quake Hits Northern Indonesia

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Asian Defense News: Strong Quake Hits Northern Indonesia

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Asian Defense News

(NSI News Source Info) JAKARTA, Indonesia - December 21, 2010: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck off northern Indonesia's Sumatra island Tuesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, placing its epicentre near the site of the devastating December 2004 quake.

There was no immediate tsunami warning.

The 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Simeulue island at a depth of 27 kilometres (16 miles)

The moderate quake struck Simeulue island at a depth of 18 kilometres (11 miles miles) at 9.07 pm local time (1407 GMT), with its epicentre 312 kilometres west of Medan on the Sumatra mainland and 315 kilometres southeast of Bandah Aceh, the USGS said.

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake of December 26, 2004, one of the most powerful ever measured, struck in the strait between Simeulue and Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high seismic activity.