At 10:17 12/03/2011, you wrote:

>Friends there. A GP and young family,  No contact. We are very very
>concerned
>Nuclear issues worry me...
>At one point, during the night, the news said that NSW could get splashed by
>the Tsunami,
>Chris was going to get us up and drive inland. (we are only a few feet from
>the beach)
>Fortunately we were given the all clear, no risk.
>Hope you are all OK
>JEn

England not affected except by blanket new coverage, but puzzled.

Obviously hope your friends are OK and the death toll is as low as 
the numbers the J govt and eg. the BBC are spouting but...

Is anyone else absolutely amazed?

The devastation, with minimal warning, looks as though the death toll 
should be many tens of thousands, and given the impact on Sendai, a 
city of a million people, a death toll of hundreds of thousands 
doesn't look impossible.

Some of the comments on TV appear bizarre.  We are told that everyone 
got out of a wrecked train... yet the station and the whole town have 
quite obviously been destroyed, so if the people got out were they 
really any better off or are they all drowned anyway?

Yet the numbers being used are of <2000 confirmed deaths and 9,500 
missing when this is a developed country and it is nearly 2 days 
since the earthquake struck.

I am amazed, but perhaps I'm alone....

Julian