March Current Event

Mckenna Brownell Period 5 March 30, 2011 1. On March 11, 2011 BBC NEWS published an online article titled Japan earthquake: Tsunami hits north-east. 2. Obviously this event takes place in the country of Japan. More specifically, however, the epicenter of the earthquake happened north-east of the capital Toyko. 3. Tragically, an 8.9 earthquake hit the country of Japan on March 10, 2011. According to sources, only one day after the quake 350 people already had been reported dead, and almost 500 people missing. People near several power plants have been asked to evacuate, for the pressure level has gone above normal. Likewise, thousands of people have been asked to evacuate coastal regions in California, Oregon, and Washington, for a major tsunami at 500 mph had hit Hawaii and the US West Coast, however did no major damage. Several other major tsunami spots include dozens of Japans coastal communities; as well as a warning to most North and South America coastal regions. In the first 24 hours, four trains were reported missing, a ship carrying 100 people was swept again, fires broke out everywhere, a dam burst, sweeping away a ton of homes, and approximately 4 million homes suffered power cuts. Scientists recorded this as the fifth largest in the world since 1900; and say its nearly 8000 times stronger than the New Zealand quake. 4. Without a doubt, this earthquake results in a ton of negative effects. For one, Japan has already lost millions of dollars in damage because of these natural disasters. Similarly, hundreds of lives have been lost and even more injured. This earthquake also changes the status quo in several other countries, for now they have to prepare for possible tsunamis and/or earthquakes if they lie on a fault line. 5. This article relates to what we recently studied in Social Studies, which was life in Japan. Also, it relates to region because the tsunami mainly effected coastal regions, not central cities.