Don't Worry

I have been getting concerned emails today about the 7.0 earthquake that hit Okinawa early this morning.

All I can say is don't worry. According to the newspaper (which didn't even report on the incident until six hours later) there were only two injuries (one older woman fell and another older woman rolled out of bed) and one burst water pipe. And that was IN Okinawa. We are about 750 miles away - that's like Seattle to San Francisco. Its not close.

Of course, Japan is earthquake central, so I'm sure we will feel an earthquake - maybe several - at some point, but there is no concern from the one that happened today. Japan is probably one of the safest places for earthquakes because they build with earthquakes in mind - and they rebuild frequently.

And if you didn't see any news today about the earthquake, don't worry. I don't think most people in Japan did either.

UPDATE:

You probably know that there was a huge earthquake in Chile that caused a tsunami. There is a tsunami warning here, but the predicted wave size for Kobe is 50cm. Probably not safe to be strolling the beach today, but we are way up a hill, so we are still in absolutely no danger. They are calling for 3 meter waves around the north side of Honshu island, so there may be some damage in that area (very far from us). Okinawa may be getting more action from the tsunami as well - they are not anticipating big waves there, but the whole island is on middle level alert for some waves and raised sea levels.