PRINCETON: Good news from Japan for local people

By Stephanie Vaccaro, Staff Writer
   People in the Princeton area who have ties to relatives or students in Japan reported good news on Monday, four days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast coast of the country.
   Eight graduate students and two undergraduate students from Princeton University are currently in Japan, said Cass Cliatt, a spokesperson for the university, who said all of them are safe.
   ”In terms of faculty, we’ve been able to learn at this point that we have two faculty members in Japan, both in Tokyo, and they have let us know they are safe. The same is the case for two additional researchers in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences,” she said.
   ”As always, our highest priority was to know that members of our community are safe, so offices across campus were reaching out to faculty, staff and students in the affected area beginning very early Friday morning,” said Ms. Cliatt.
   ”While we had a group of graduate students scheduled to depart Friday for a faculty led trip to Japan for an architecture course, that trip has been canceled, and there is no information at this time about potentially rescheduling it,” she said.
   Princeton High School teacher Natsuko Buurstra’s entire family lives in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
   ”Definitely they felt the quake, they never experienced that strong of a shake in their lives,” she said.
   Her brother was outside and couldn’t keep standing when the quake hit, so he hugged a nearby tree, she said.
   ”He lives in a very old house, the house of my grandfather built,” she said. “Fortunately, the house was OK. Some of the concrete came off of the high school where he works,” she said.
   They had a power outage, which caused a large traffic jam and the trains were not running so he had to walk home, a walk that took four hours.
   Out of the destruction and chaos she said her brother witnessed a kindness that impressed him. He told Ms. Buurstra that people were very kind to each other, that they would help one another try to find the right way home as they walked.
   ”It was really a good thing that he saw,” she said.
   Ms. Buustra said that there were no concerns in terms of crime, but the power outage meant the people could not turn on their heat, leaving the houses to be very cold since temperatures are near freezing.
   She said all of her family and friends are OK and she has been able to communicate with them via e-mail and phone.
   ”The town is kind of quiet,” she said. “People are staying inside, glued to the television.”
   Many things inside their home fell from their shelves, but they felt very fortunate that the tsunami did not hit them in the Tokyo area.
   ”I think everybody is on edge,” she said. “Now there is the nuclear power plant concern.”
   Three units at the the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant complex in Soma, Japan, are raising challenges to prevent a meltdown at one or more of the units, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
   News reports said the uranium fuel rods had been temporarily completely exposed, which raised the threat of a meltdown, hours after a hydrogen explosion tore through the building housing a different reactor.
   ”It’s very grave today,” said Princeton Prof. Frank von Hippel in an e-mail response to The Packet on Monday. “The hydrogen explosion at Fukushima #3 resulted in a suspension of cooling and the core of Fukushima #2 temporarily uncovered. They now have three damaged cores in neighboring units with the radiation level at the plant making it more and more difficult to work there on trying to recover the situation.”
   ”The only good news is that the wind has been blowing over the Pacific,” said Prof. von Hippel, former assistant director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology. “In a few days, the problem will be the drying out of the spent-fuel pools, which contain much more fuel. But with the roofs being blown off by hydrogen explosions, perhaps they can drop hoses in by helicopter.”
   Sending relief
   ”At this point, as with any international disaster, the best thing is for people to contribute financially,” said Diane Concannon, spokesperson for the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey.
   Potential donors can go to www.redcross.org and donate to Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami, or they can text the words “redcross” to 90999, which is a $10 donation that is applied directly to your phone bill.
   The Japanese Red Cross is a highly experienced relief organization with more than two million volunteers, she said.
   ”There is not a need for people from New Jersey to go and assist with the Red Cross,” said Ms. Concannon. “If the Japanese Red Cross was in need of that, the volunteers who have been trained in international disaster response would be deployed first, but we appreciate their heartfelt concern and their willingness to travel and give up their time.”
   They are unable to accept collections of goods at this time, an explanation of their policies regarding this are on their website.
   ”Our area is phenomenal and always has been,” said Ms. Concannon of the generosity of the local population.
   Other organizations providing relief include the United Methodist Committee on Relief, which has set up a secure website for donations to help those in need in Japan.
   The Rotary International Foundation has established a Rotary Japan and Pacific Islands Disaster Recovery Fund, which will support recovery in the affected areas.