As is in the news, the northeastern part of Japan was hit by a M8.8 earthquake at 2:45pm on Thursday, and tsunami hit the coastal towns. This is the biggest earthquake in the history of the country.
First of all, our family and relatives in Tokyo are all ok. And I haven’t heard that anyone I know has been hurt, missing, or lost their home. Thanks for the prayers.
As many of you might have already seen in the news, there are several small towns on the coast that were almost completely swept away as a whole, and thousands of people are still stranded on rooftops. Rescue efforts are slow since the whole areas are still completely flooded up to the roof. Roads and bridges are broken, and millions of people are without electricity with freezing weather at night. There have been many aftershocks, landslides, and fires in many places and many people are still buried. There are about 680 confirmed dead so far and there are reports about hundreds of more bodies on the coast that they cannot get to because of the water and the possibility of more tsunami. They expect the death toll to keep rising.
In the cities, all the public transportations stopped and many people were stranded in their workplaces, schools, etc. My dad was among them and he walked 4 hours to a nearby church and spent the night there. He found a couple buses running the next morning and made it home safely.
There are also two nuclear power plants on the coast where the tsunami hit, and one of them started to melt and they have been trying to cool it down with sea water. There has been a minor explosion in the power plant as well and 3 people were exposed to radiation. Many are afraid of meltdown.
I haven’t heard much about how the churches in the area are doing. Phones and e-mails are still either down or crowded, but I was told that Facebook has been very reliable.
Please pray:
- That those who are buried or stranded will be rescued quickly.
- For warmth, food and shelter for those who lost their homes or evacuating.
- That there won’t be a serious damage at the nuclear power plant.
- For the churches and Christians to be able to help those who are suffering.
Thank you again for your prayers and let us keep praying.