PUBLIC MARKS with tag tsunami

Japan’s Reconstruction Agency will be inaugurated Friday, almost 11 months after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country. The agency will streamline the process to help municipalities, set up special reconstruction zones and provide subsidies for disaster-hit local governments.

An evacuee relaxes in her makeshift dwelling on the floor of the Big Palette convention center. The crammed emergency quarters lack privacy, and disease can spread rapidly.

TOKYO (AP) -- Last Sunday was the six-month anniversary of the day the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's northeast coast. Some 20,000 people are dead or missing. More than 800,000 homes were completely or partially destroyed. The disaster crippled businesses, roads and infrastructure. The Japanese Red Cross Society estimates that 400,000 people were displaced. Half a year later, there are physical signs of progress. Much of the debris has been cleared away or at least organized into big piles. In the port city of Kesennuma, many of the boats carried inland by the tsunami have been removed. Most evacuees have moved out of high school gyms and into temporary shelters or apartments. Last week the Kyodo News agency distributed an amazing group of combination photographs showing three scenes. The first scene is right after the earthquake and tsunami hit, then three months later and finally, how the scene looks now. (44 images)

His is one of only 50 boats out of 1,000 that survived intact — and only because he remembered the advice of old-timers and took it out to sea immediately after the tsunami warning sirens wailed. From the bay, he watched the waves hit his town.

I think it’s time I checked in with another update from Tokyo to set the record straight. If you’ve been reading the foreign press about the “toxic cloud” hanging over Tokyo, you should know that I’m fine. Everyone in Tokyo is fine. The mask and the bathtub? I’m not so worried about those any more. The only exposure we’re worried about is exposure to sensationalist bullshit printed in the foreign press that is worrying our families and causing panic.

These GeoEye satellite photographs give an idea of the destruction in the wake of the tsunami along Japan's coastline.

Mounted in a 45 metre-long wave channel, the tsunami generator uses a pneumatic (i.e. air-driven) system comprising a fan and control valves to suck up water into a tank and then release it in a controlled way. This makes the facility fundamentally different from all other wave simulators worldwide, which generally use pistons to produce waves by pushing at the water.