Earthquake Diary 88

 This damage, the panels that have fallen from under the eaves and the growth of cracks in the wall in the lower right, is the results of the aftershocks. As you must realize, the pictures are not keeping up with the dates. These pictures were taken a week ago or so, but we have continued having aftershocks. Last night at 12:25, I was rudely awakened by a fairly strong aftershock, an M 5.5 that was shindo 3 here but centered off the coast of Fukushima. The aftershocks are now mostly centered around Fukushima, south of here, and to the west of Morioka city, north of here, with a few others scattered along the entire east coast. They are not to bad here, mostly shindo 3 or 4, but they are still causing additional damage to the already weakened areas.

 I walk by this building almost every day. It is at the point where the path along the levee connects with the regular road. This building is quite old and contains a couple of bars and a construction company. Every time I come by the damage to the corner just below the balcony seems to have gotten worse.

 This is the office building of a driving school in Yaotome. The windows on the right side of the second floor have been removed and are being replaced.

 This is also in Yaotome.There is so much stuff in this little shed that I am a bit surprised that the door did not burst without the help of the quakes.

 This is the place where the side of the levee collapsed. The work crew has cut down all the trees and bushes growing in the riverbed and they are now collecting it in preparation for beginning the actual construction.

This crew is checking the levels in he sewer. As I have said there is a fear that it will overflow because of destruction to the purification plant in Tagajo. Notice that they are working in front of our local Kentucky Fried Chicken shop. Civilization has reached the end of the subway. In addition to KFC, we have two Mr Donuts, three Macdonalds, one Baskin Robins, and one Starbucks.

Things are gradually getting back to normal. The pro soccer league is restarting its season today. Pro baseball has now played about a half dozen games. The bus lines have returned to their pre-quake schedules. The subway is supposed to be running all the way by the 29th; in time for Vegalts's first soccer game. The shinkansen, the Bullet Train will be running between Tokyo and Sendai again by the end of the month.

This morning's newspaper had an article about building codes for the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the tsunami. They are planning on moving everything further away from the sea. There will be new seawalls and then at least two raised roads before a commercial/industrial area. The train lines will be rerouted so that the stations will be on the inland side of this area. The tracks and stations will be raised. Finally on the inland side of all this will be the housing areas. All sorts of problems will obviously arise when attempting to carry this out. For example, the cost, the issues related to changing land ownership, the time required (What will people do while this work is being carried out?), and obtaining or constructing all the raw materials that will be needed.