Our World Rocked

So I guess it has been awhile since I've been on my blog, but as I told my sister, my life is actually a bit boring. Work, sleep, exercise, church - not much to write home about. That, however, has changed. As the world continues to watch the news intently, Japan is attempting to recover from a 9.0 earthquake off the northern coast of Honshu (main island). This has caused a devasting tsunami killing tens of thousands of people and has damaged 3 reactors at Fukushima nuclear facility. Oh and let me not forget the erupting volcano and dust storm.

Yesterday morning I was quite grumpy about all the widespread panic. We received a call from a mother asking us to send the ambulance for her child who was vomiting from what she thought might be radiation poisoning. She didn't want to bring the child herself because she didn't want to go outside. We have not (and likely will not) started the evacuation of military dependents, but people are leaving in droves. I'm waiting for more panicked calls, urgent visits and radiation questions, but surprisingly none have come tonight. (I think everyone is still scared to go outside). I have to admit though, after falling asleep for two hours after my night shift and then feeling another quake, hearing all my patio furniture being blown over and across my flat roof, then looking out to see a brown horizon from the dust storm all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and go home. I actually ended up asking a friend to watch my dogs as I was afraid the 14lb puppy might get blown off my roof or at least across roof and hurt.

Nonetheless, we just had a commander's call in the med group to explain our current situation and what our role is. First of all, we are SAFE at the moment. The steam vented from the nucleaer reactors carries no more radiation than you would receive from a panoramic dental xray. Our radiologist stated we could go up to Fukushima, give the reactors a nice big hug and receive the amount of radiation comparable to a CT. Regarding the nuclear reactors, WE ARE FINE. Our commander compared Chernobyl to this event and reminded us that the Russians built Chernobyl. The Russians also make Yugos. The Japanese, on the other hand, make Lexus. These are well-built small nuclear reactors. I repeat, WE ARE SAFE (and the Navy is over-reacting).

The relief effort is our main focus. I, personally, have very little to do with this effort as much as I would like to help. Yokota, however, has become the hubb for the relief effort. We are receiving and transporting all relief effort personnel from the US as well as many other countries (I've seen Britsh, Australian and Korean uniforms on base thus far). Our flightline is extremely busy. We also keep getting threated with blackouts to shift energy up north, but these continue to be cancelled, at least on base. I've heard the Japanese consider us mission essential and decided not to black us out. We are trying to conserve energy as much as we can though. I'm quite glad for the cancelling of the blackout with regards to work as it is extremely difficult to be efficient with only one computer working off the generator. I was prepared, however, with my camping headlamp when I came to work last night.

That's it for my update at the moment. I'm just hoping I don't hear that my puppy had an accident in my friend's house last night when I pick her up in about 2 hours.