HOLY CRAP: Aerial shot of explosion that obliterated two houses in an Indianapolis suburb

An explosion last night ripped through a south-side Indianapolis neighborhood, killing two and "displacing scores of residents".

Via Matt Dawson:

More than 100 firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire, the cause of which is still unknown.

President Photo-Op Goes AWOL as Lower Manhattan and Staten Island Descend Into Chaos

Through Gothamist, via Ace and Hot Air, we get a picture of a Manhattan below 38th Street that is nearing the onset of a humanitarian disaster. Jonathan Maimon made a 5-hour, 12-mile run through some of the devastated areas and what he saw is... well, unbelievable.

1) Virtually every retailer, restaurant and grocery store south of 38th street is CLOSED. This is in an area covering 8 square miles. I only observed a handful of bodegas in Soho and the East Village, along with Ben’s Pizza on W3rd and MacDougal serving customers. Whole Foods Union Square had a sign reading “because there is no electricity, we cannot open.” There is no food, other than what you have in your refrigerator.

2) To that point, there are close to 400,000 people living below 38th street without power. The mayor earlier said it could be 3 days without power; some Con Ed guys I spoke with in the East Village think it could be longer. Nobody knows.

3) No working traffic lights in this region (drivers are generally being cautious and appropriately yielding to pedestrians). Apartment stairwells are pitch black. High rises have no elevator access...

5) There is no running water or flushing toilets for people living in the Jacob Riis Houses and surrounding NYCHA buildings on the Lower East Side. In my estimate, this is roughly 20,000 people. One family I spoke with is packing their bags and moving to Brooklyn until services are restored. But it did not appear that all residents were evacuating, even as their toilets did not flush.

6) I did not witness a single Red Cross Truck or FEMA Vehicle or in lower Manhattan. Recall the assistance these agencies provided after 9/11 - this is NOT HAPPENING. There are bound to be hundreds of elderly people, rich and poor, who live on the upper floors of buildings with elevators that are now disabled. IF POWER IS NOT RESTORED, THIS WILL MOVE FROM BEING AN ECONOMIC DISASTER TO A HUMANITARIAN DISASTER.

Where's President Photo-Op and his Bomber Jacket, I mean, besides jetting to his usual Vegas fundraisers and speechifying at campaign stops while hawking a Republican "War on Women"?

Where's Mayor Bloomturd, aside from moving giant generators into Central Park to power the NYC Marathon, hosting the Brooklyn Nets NBA game, and banning 16-oz. colas, that is?

The real "War on Women" (and children, and the elderly, and the infirm) is occurring in the Northeast, as President Training Wheels parties on, oblivious to the unfolding catastrophe--just as he was to the disaster in Benghazi.

Webcam captures photos of airplane crash at Superstition Mountain, AZ

KKTV reports that a plane crash occurred minutes ago in the area of Superstition Mountain. A webcam recorded the crash from afar:







Our thoughts and prayers go out to the crew, passengers and their families.

Tokyo in danger? Animated radiation tracker depicts a troubling change in weather predicted for tomorrow

Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge is doing some of the best news aggregation related to the tragic aftermath of the Japanese quake, tsunami and nuclear disasters.

An animated fallout tracker illustrates a possible shift in the winds that could send plumes of radioactive material -- the actual amount is debatable -- into Tokyo itself*.


Well, you say, it can't be that bad, can it?

Hmm. Do you know who this man is?

This picture comes to us courtesy of The London Daily Mail, which captions it "The moment nuclear plant chief WEPT as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people."

The boss of the company behind the devastated Japanese nuclear reactor today broke down in tears - as his country finally acknowledged the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens... Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency admitted that the disaster was a level 5, which is classified as a crisis causing 'several radiation deaths' by the UN International Atomic Energy.

Officials said the rating was raised after they realised the full extent of the radiation leaking from the plant. They also said that 3 per cent of the fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima plant had been severely damaged, suggesting those reactor cores have partially melted down.

After Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Akio Komiri cried as he left a conference to brief journalists on the situation at Fukushima, a senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis... Deputy director general of the NISA, Hideohiko Nishiyama, also admitted that they do not know if the reactors are coming under control.

Pray for the people of Japan.


* Map source: Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), Austria


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!.

Maps and Satellite Imagery: the Nuclear Crisis in Japan

This map depicts the relatively tiny distances between the epicenter of the monstrous quake, the twin Fukushima nuclear plants and the city of Tokyo.

This is the northern (Daiichi) plant of the two in a satellite photo dated 2004.

This is the same plant moments after yesterday's explosion that blew the Unit 3 reactor building apart.

The human toll of the catastrophe is only partially represented here.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Japanese people. If you have a few pfennigs to spare, the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Fund can use a hand.


Satellite Imagery: Digital Globe via Zero Hedge.
Maps: London Daily Mail.

"I never want to hear about 'The Pet Goat' again"

Fritzworth at AoS wins the headline o' the day in a landslide: "The world is going to hell in a handbasket, and Obama tapes himself picking his NCAA bracket..."

Wow:

Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned ... by Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that is believed to have killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world’s third-largest economy.

Via Mike Allen’s newsletter, we see in the first line how the leader of the free world will spend his day during this awful crisis:

President Obama is taping his NCAA picks today, and they’ll be revealed tomorrow on ESPN.

[And of] course he’s taking an easy schedule today; he was working hard last night:

President Obama makes his first major fund-raising pitch for his 2012 re-election on Monday night when he meets with about 50 backers—some involved in his 2008 campaign and others who are considered potential major supporters.

After this, any liberal nutjob who mentions The Pet Goat is going to deserve the metaphorical beat-down they receive.


Image adapted from The London Daily Mail.

Stop-action Photos: a Disaster of Biblical Proportions

Dan from New York:

The AP describes this as an amateur video "that captures the force of the tsunami's arrival in Japan. The waves devastate entire blocks in Miyagi Prefecture, with some residents narrowly escaping..."

It’s astonishing the rate at which powerful political and physical upheavals have been coming at us. Makes me wonder whether there’s more going on here than meets the human eye.

Gizmodo calls this video "the scariest first-person video of the tsunami yet."

The only adjective I can come up with is remorseless.














Click here to donate to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fund.

Horror: Before and After Pictures of Quake Zone

From CNN, via Ace.








If you have a couple of bucks to spare, you can donate to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

Photos: As Day Breaks in Japan, Full Extent of Devastation Becomes Clear

As day breaks in Japan, Reuters reports on the shocking scene in northeastern Japan.

...Daybreak revealed the full extent of damage from Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake -- the strongest in Japan since records began -- and the 10-metre high tsunami it sent surging into cities and villages, sweeping away everything in its path.

...The government warned there could be a radiation leak from nuclear reactors in Fukushima whose cooling system was knocked out by the quake. Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered an evacuation zone expanded to 10 km (6 miles) from 3 km. Some 3,000 people had earlier been evacuated.

...In one of the worst-hit residential areas, people buried under rubble could be heard calling out for rescue, Kyodo news agency reported. TV footage showed staff at one hospital waving banners with the words "FOOD" and "HELP" from a rooftop.

In Tokyo, office workers who were stranded in the city after the quake forced the subway system to close early slept alongside the homeless at one station. Scores of men in suits lay on newspapers, using their briefcases as pillows.

Kyodo said at least 116,000 people in Tokyo had been unable to return home on Friday evening due to transport disruption.

The northeastern Japanese city of Kesennuma, with a population of 74,000, was hit by widespread fires and one-third of the city was under water, Jiji news agency said on Saturday... The airport in the city of Sendai, home to one million people, was on fire, it added... TV footage from Friday showed a muddy torrent of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near Sendai, 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbour wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.

... The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

Please donate to the Red Cross relief efforts here.