Earthquake Diary 77

 This what used to be a little mom-and-pop store, but which is now just a bunch of vending machines. Notice the blue tarps on the tile roof, another group of tiles that thought the ground might be more interesting than the roof.

 This is the other side of the last building. More roof damage here. The big black object that looks like a storage container is actually a railroad freight car with the wheels removed.

I am showing this building, not because of any damage, but because I like the name of the store - Nice Figure Skate. In the shopping center next to my condo, there is a skating rink that is used by some of the top skates on the Japanese national team. One of the younger boys was practicing when the big quake occurred. Anyway, this store sells equipment for the young hopefuls who also practice in the rink.

This is the local junior high school. Most of the window are broken and a work crew was repairing some structural damage on the other side.

As they start to clean up, one of the first things people are doing is to bring all the broken stuff out side. This is a pile of such stuff, utterly worthless except as landfill.

This telephone pole almost came down during the quake. I have been surprised at how few have actually fallen down during the 1000+ quakes. Most of them have swayed and have spaces around them where they enlarged the whole that the rest in, but I have only seen one pole that actually fell.