Memories of the dark (literally) days in the aftermath of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami a decade ago came back to haunt Japan today as the announcement came that the country’s power grid was running at 100% of capacity and some rolling blackouts were unavoidable. It seems the scary earthquake experienced off the coast of Fukushima two days ago did some damage that utility companies are having trouble managing, causing power outages and other problems.
Households and Businesses Asked to Save Energy
TEPCO has asked people in the Kanto region (Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures) to do what they can to conserve power, turning off lights and TVs and keeping the heating set low. J-List is doing our part by turning the lights down to 50% and switching off computers and servers we’re not using. We hope there won’t be any unplanned blackouts but we’ve got to be ready.
What the Aftermath of the 3.11.11 Earthquake Was Like
I’ve lived in Japan for 30+ years, and seen a lot during that time. Euphoric economic optimism followed by painful declines. Sarin gas attacks in the subway, and a terrible pandemic. But by far the most challenging time was the huge magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures which sent a wall of water inland, creating more destruction than anyone thought possible and causing nearly 16,000 deaths.
The aftermath of the powerful quake — which was strong enough to shorten the Earth’s day by 1.8 microseconds — was terrible. All Japan’s nuclear plants executed emergency shutdowns, and the available fossil fuel supplies weren’t up to the task of supplying the country with power. As a result, every region around Tokyo including J-List’s home prefecture of Gunma had to endure rolling blackouts every 4 hours. We’d literally get four hours of work done on our computers, then turn everything off for four hours while we let the next blackout pass. All this while enduring aftershocks from the earthquake that never seemed to end completely.
J-List staffers visited the Fukushima Daiichi power plant! What did they find there? Read this post for details!
Of course as is often the case, I have fond memories of those stressful weeks, sitting in the dark talking about various subjects with my family while we wondered what would happen with the unfolding crisis with the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. All while bundling up as warmly as we could, as there was no electricity to run the kerosene or propane-powered heaters.
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