Earthquake in Japan

So four weeks ago we had an earthquake here in japan. As I am sure you can guess I made it through with no problems. For the size of the earthquake, 7.2 or so, and how close it was to sendai it is surprising there was not more damage. For me because everyone asks I was filling up a container with liquid nitrogen. So nothing special. Of course The next room over to me there were gas bottles full of Arsenic, silane (a poisonous gas that bursts into flames when it comes in contact with air) and a variety of other flammable and poisons gases. So nothing new. When the earthquake hit I shut off the valve to the liquid nitrogen and then dived out the front door because I was on the ground floor close to a door.

The only damage that I had to deal with at the lab is one of the buildings a water line broke which in a room on the second floor there was an inch or two of standing water. Of course there were more than a few cardboard boxes on the floor so this caused some problems. Otherwise there was no damage to the lab.

I really felt sorry for people who used the train system here. After every major earthquake the tracks are checked for damage. The problem is that trains are a primary form of commuting here in Japan. So when the trains finally came back on line I guess there were very long lines for people to get back on to get where they needed to go.