Superstorm in Tokyo: We Are At Level 5 Right Now

Japan Meteorological Agency declares rainfall emergency, saying people will see levels of rain they have never seen before. (And it rains a lot in Japan).

Update: the building is now swaying. We don’t know if it’s an earthquake or extreme gust of wind.

Update: it was an earthquake! On top of everything else! Wow!

Update: it’s a bright, sunny Sunday morning now. We are O.K. There are reports of widespread flood damage and some deaths. There are also questions about whether anything bad happened at the still-vulnerable nuclear power plant in Fukushima. That area was impacted hard. “Irregular readings” are the words being used to describe the situation at the plant. We have not heard any further reports, and TV is back to regular programming. Tokyo Electric Power is posting what it says are live images of the plant this morning. Because of widespread skepticism of the utility, TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting) has a fixed camera pointed at the plant non-stop. They look similar, with no discernible external damage at least. Though of course, most of what’s of concern you wouldn’t be able to see anyway. We are seeing spectacular videos of people being airlifted from roofs of their homes in areas where levees broke, as well…