1 Chain of Disasters

2 January 11 Two days after the close of an unofficial winter holiday season, the greatest snow storm in nearly 100 years strikes the island. Many locale had as much as 80 cm. Road, air, and sea transport have been disrupted. January 14 Just as clean-up operations are beginning to take place another major snow storm hit the island with totals at places of nearly 30 cm.

3 January The second snow storm was followed by an extremely bitter cold front with temperatures plunging to -20 degrees and below and remaining at this level. –Power was down on nearly half the island –Roads were virtually impassable in many areas including cities –Inter-city rail traffic was operating at 30% of capacity and intra-city at 15% –Over 75 deaths –Livestock were freezing in the fields –Ports and fishing industry were at a standstill –Most public schools were closed –Hospitals were struggling to keep up with the emergency

4 January 23 The government announced a state of disaster. January 24, 04:57 A major earthquake (8.7 on the Richter scale) strikes southwest of Hokkaido. Initial estimates report massive damages and numerous deaths. First reports state that the earthquake struck 3 km from the shoreline creating a tsunami of 2 to 8 meters causing further carnage along the entire southeast coastline and particularly in port cities Communications and assistance to the affected areas are being hampered by the poor conditions of infrastructure resulting from the long cold spell. The picture at the moment is bleak, and information sparse.

5 METI’s nuclear industrial safety agency measures sends a note to emergency coordinators that potential damages to the Tomari I & II power reactors at the moment is uncertain. Communication difficulties at the site have temporarily interrupted efforts to gain a first hand report. The scale earthquake created relatively few problems for the Tomari I & II plants 95 km from the epicenter. Preliminary indicators show the epicenter to be only 20 miles from these plants in this latest quake. There is some uncertainty over the potential impact of this much greater-scale earthquake, but follow-up studies indicate that there might be more difficulties.