Japan Crisis Logistics and Management

Japan Crisis – Logistics and Management

Japan Crisis – Logistics and Management

-- Report Updated on 16 March 2011--

Intelligence Requests

· What is happening on the ground in the major cities?

· What is the status of transportation infrastructure, food distribution, evacuation or internal migration, supplies to those in evacuated zones, social stability, etc?

· What is the government doing at the national, prefecture and city level?

· How is their performance being perceived?

· How is the population responding? What are the rumors currently circulating, and how disruptive are they?

General OSINT

The US Navy said it was redirecting three ships to work in the Sea of Japan on the country's west coast rather than risk the hazards of radiation and the debris field in the waters off the east coast. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

A Russian Emergencies Ministry plane landed on Wednesday in Tokyo, carrying rescuers and nuclear specialists to assist Japan in relief efforts after a massive quake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Reconstruction will be extremely challenging because the damage is so widespread and has likely destroyed power lines and water treatment facilities, said Jun Yang, president of the Hong Kong branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers. "In my view it would take five to 10 years to rebuild or repair," said Yang, who as an associate professor at Hong Kong University carried out field research in Sichuan, China after the devastating earthquake there in 2008. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Aid workers and search teams from around the world joined 100,000 Japanese soldiers in a massive relief push in the shattered area, where the tsunami that followed the magnitude-9 earthquake swallowed entire towns. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: Two saved amid eerie wasteland RESCUE EFFORTS, The Australian)

Japan's consulgeneral in Vancouver, notes that, at the moment, Tokyo still doesn't have the logistical capacity to move more rescue personnel and supplies into the areas where help is needed. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Veralda Schmidt, a Nissan SA spokeswoman, said some damage had been caused to buildings and equipment at Nissan Motor's plants in Japan and production had been suspended for a few days. But Schmidt said plants in Oppama, Kyushu, Shatai and Yokohama would resume production today and its plants in Tochigi and Iwaki would reopen on Friday. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: Local car makers assess damage zz Imports may be affected, The Star)

Prefectures

Fukushima

A team from World Vision went to the evacuation area in Fukushima to tell local officials that they are available to help with supplies for families staying there. "There are special masks and suits the team would wear if they get close to the area," Blank said. And they wouldn't go into a situation that was too dangerous for staff, she added. But it's a balance: trying to help the people most in need and making sure staff members are safe. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Iodine tablets aimed at warding off radiation poisoning have been distributed to evacuation centres around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Confirmation an evacuation of the area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is complete, with no residents within 20km of its reactors. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

In Motomiya and the surrounding area, the earthquake broke up footpaths, cracked roads and caused localised flooding, while leaving most buildings intact. Twelve miles to the south, a factory owned by Hiyashi Seiki Sezo collapsed in the magnitude 9 quake and will be demolished. No one was injured, a local official said. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Motomiya - At the Idemitsu Kosan Co gas station, a steady stream of military trucks, uninterrupted for almost an hour, was clearly visible on the highway heading north. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Motomiya - While the expressway is reserved for rescue efforts, Motomiya is connected to the country s south by the Route 4 national highway. The cracked road is receiving patchwork repairs, while at least one bridge is being supported by hydraulic joists. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Hundreds queued outside a Fukushima supermarket when it opened at 7am. (March 16 – SOURCE: Cupboards are bare; JAPAN DISASTER, Sydney Morning Herald)

Many petrol stations are closed, and those that are open have long lines and often run out. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Tochigi

No pertinent information at this time.

Chiba

Radiation levels in Chiba prefecture - which neighbors Tokyo - were last night more than 10 times above normal. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: Fear hits Tokyo as radiation spreads, The Gold Coast Bulletin)

Ibaraki

In Kanto, Kashima Port in Ibaraki Prefecture and other large ports suffered damage such as cracked piers or cave-ins. Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. has a steel plant near the port and its own port facility to import iron ore, coal and other materials, and export products. However, cranes and other equipment at the port have been damaged and there is no estimate yet of when they might be repaired. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Miyagi

Japanese officials have said more than half of Minamisanriku's 17,000 residents are missing. Of all its buildings, only three have been left standing - the hospital, a wedding store and a school - despite the town's location several kilometers from the coast. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Minamisanriku - Soldiers worked to clear roadways into the village on Tuesday as a long line of fire trucks waited to enter. Closer to shore, teams of searchers rummaged through the crushed houses and collapsed shops. They peered into cars that had been swallowed by the mud, hoping to find survivors. Searched cars were marked with yellow tape. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: Across Japan, fear and disruption, IHT)

The coastal town of Tagajo, just north of Sendai – There is no running water here and there's a strong stench from the toilets. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: JAPAN IN CRISIS Hospital had 20 minutes warning HEALTHCARE, The Advertiser Australia)

Sendai-Shiogama Port in Miyagi Prefecture, which can accommodate container vessels, on Monday began using private firms' crane ships to remove earthquake debris floating on the sea. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

In Miyagi Prefecture, fuel at several crematoriums to cremate bodies will soon be exhausted. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Kesennuma – The wave completely leveled fishing villages and residential enclaves up and down the sound, ravaged the town's sewage treatment plant and destroyed more than 1.5 miles of shops and apartments on its outskirts. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Tokyo

With winds from the north expected overnight to sweep radioactive smoke and steam from the Fukushima plant towards the capital 250km away, thousands of Tokyo residents were leaving last night for cities further south. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: Fear hits Tokyo as radiation spreads, The Gold Coast Bulletin)

While daily necessities are in desperately short supply in the shattered northeastern region, many store shelves are also half-empty in Tokyo as people in the capital stock up, fearful of a possible disaster at the stricken nuclear power plant on the eastern coast, where a meltdown is feared. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: Two saved amid eerie wasteland RESCUE EFFORTS, The Australian)

Some of the expressways leading north from Tokyo were closed to regular traffic for the relief efforts. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE: Homes destroyed and power down;
JAPAN DISASTER, Sydney Morning Herald)

Kanagawa

No pertinent information at this time.

Iwate

In a bid to cope with fuel shortage, Iwate Prefecture asked the local oil industry to give priority to emergency vehicles, including those for police, firefighters and for transporting relief materials to the quake-hit areas. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

China's 15-member international search and rescue team continued its work in the city of Ofunato in Japan's northeastern Iwate prefecture, but no survivors have been found yet. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Aomori

In Hachinohe City residents of this town along the Pacific coast had done a remarkable job of cleaning up from the tsunami that struck only four days before. The town had been hit relatively lightly. Debris and wreckage were piled neatly along roadways for pickup, and the streets in even the hardest-hit areas were clean and passable. Most buildings had the doors and walls of their bottom floors smashed out. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Hachinohe City – By the harbor, huge ships were on their sides, propellers pointing like tails. Into the middle of one empty parking lot, the waves had carried an entire red-hulled ship. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

NEC Corp.'s three plants in the Tohoku region were rendered inoperable due to power outages, cuts in water supplies and damage sustained in the quake. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Key ports on Tohoku's Pacific coast, which handle a large volume of cargo, were seriously damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. There is no time frame yet for when these ports might be up and running again. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry is scrambling to find undamaged wharfs and piers where ships can unload desperately needed emergency supplies. So far, they have come up empty. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Nuclear Power Stations

(March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Fukushima No. 1 plant

· Reactor No. 1 - Suspended after quake, cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, building damaged Saturday by hydrogen explosion, seawater being pumped in.

· Reactor No. 2 - Suspended after quake, cooling failure, seawater being pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, vapor vented, building housing reactor damaged Monday by blast at reactor No. 3, damage to containment vessel on Tuesday, potential meltdown feared.

· Reactor No. 3 - Suspended after quake, cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented, seawater being pumped in, building housing reactor damaged Monday by hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation measured nearby on Tuesday, plume of smoke observed Wednesday, damage to containment vessel likely.

· Reactor No. 4 - Under maintenance when quake struck, fire Tuesday possibly caused by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, abnormal temperature rise in spent-fuel storage pool but water level not observed, fire observed Wednesday at building housing reactor, no water poured in to cool pool, spraying of boric acid being considered.

· Reactors No. 5, No. 6 - Under maintenance when quake struck, temperatures slightly rising in spent-fuel storage pools.

Fukushima No. 2 plant

· Reactors No. 1, No. 2, No. 4 - Suspended after quake, cooling failure, then cold shutdown.

· Reactor No. 3 - Suspended after quake, cold shutdown.

Ports

It seems that Tokyo and all ports south of Japan's capital were able to start operating again after shutting down for a short while following Friday's disaster, while the rest of the country's ports were being assessed for damage. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

A shortage of fuel is slowing down business and impacting shore facilities and handling equipment in the Kanto area, including Shimizu, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Tokyo, Chiba and Kisarazu (Kimitsu). (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Maersk Line says it has suspended services for both exports and imports at Sendai, Onahama, and Hachinohe until further notice. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Kashima

Hitachinaka

One of the worst hit was the Port of Hitachinaka, a major hub for both Hitachi and Komatsu's export operation. “It has been seriously damaged, we are concerned about the effects even after resuming our production,” said a Komatsu spokesman. (March 16. 2011 – SOURCE)

Hachinohe

Severely damaged and will likely be out of commission for months. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Hitachi

Harbor is destroyed. (March 15, 2011 – SOURCE)

Ishinomaki

Severely damaged and will likely be out of commission for months. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Onahama

Severely damaged and will likely be out of commission for months. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Sendai

The biggest port on the northeast coast, Sendai, has been destroyed. It handled mainly container shipments of exports including rubber and marine products, office machinery, paper goods and auto parts. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Airports

Narita International Airport

The international and domestic terminals at Narita International Airport were crammed with passengers leaving the capital after a small spike in radiation levels were detected in Tokyo following a reactor fire that has raged for two days at a troubled nuclear plant 150 miles north of the city. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

New Zealand - Consular staff are at Narita International Airport in Tokyo and Sendai in the northeast to assist New Zealanders. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)

Continental Airlines' daily flights continue to operate between Newark Liberty International Airport and Tokyo's Narita Airport as Japan struggles through the aftermath of its worst natural disaster. (March 16, 2011 – SOURCE)