CATDAT estimated loss after Japan tsunami : +100 billion US$

This is part 5 of our ongoing story on the massive 8.9 9.0 earthquake / tsunami which struck Japan on March 11 2011.
Click here for part one – Click here for part two -  Click here for part 3 – Click here for part 4

This story continues with Part 6 : Japan Tsunami – The death toll does not stop climbing (Part 6)

UPDATE 22:20 UTC : U.S. troops, helping the Japanese with the tsunami aftermath, have to stay away at least 70 km from of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

UPDATE 21:57 UTC : We just published a new version of our damaged Prefecture and Cities list. Click here to vist this page.

UPDATE 21:50 UTC : Japan’s Emperor Akihito appeared on National TV to express sympathy for people affected by the cruel Tsunami.

UPDATE 19:00 UTC : The number of fatalities have risen to 4,340 with 9,000 people missing, which brings the total of assumed killed people to 13,340.

UPDATE 08:53 UTC : The number of fatalities have risen to 3,771 with 8,181 people missing, which brings the total of assumed killed people to nearly 12,000.

UPDATE 08:50 UTC : The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident situation is still unclear, but at the positive side, we can report that the plant workers are again allowed in the power plant (they have been ordered to urgently evacuate on Tuesday).

UPDATE 08:46 UTC : 80,000 Japan Self-Defense Forces are working day and night in the continuing Search and Rescue operations. The chance of finding survivors diminishes by the hour due to dehydratation and winter  conditions (freezing cold and snowfall).

UPDATE 08:33 : What normally would be headline news in the Tokyo newspapers (Earthquake of M 6.0 close to Tokyo and on the coast (see below), becomes due to all other news almost a fait divers.

UPDATE 08:28 : At least 1.6 million families are still without water (320,000 families in Fukushima Prefecture, 290,000 families in Miyagi, 110,000 families in Iwate, and 670,000 families in Ibaraki).

UPDATE 07:50 :
M 6.0  2011/03/16 03:52  Depth 25.0 km NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
12:52:05 PM at epicenter
Very dangerous shallow earthquake almost on the Shoreline near Choshi.
The powerful aftershocks are closer and closer to Tokyo. At this depth they can be very dangerous.
69 km (42 miles) SSE of Mito, Honshu, Japan and 95 km (59 miles) E of TOKYO, Japan
Satellite map of the greater epicenter area

UPDATE 01:13 UTC : Japan Police gave new numbers of the victims of the earthquake : 3,676 people are confirmed killed and 7,558 are missing and believed to have drowned, which brings to total fatalities to more than 11,000.

UPDATE 16/12 – 01:11 UTC : Stocks in Japan opened higher Wednesday morning

UPDATE 18:43 UTC : The Fukishima reactor nr. 4 is currently cooled from the air out of a helicopter, but TEPCO, the owner of the plant has said that the operation will be very difficult as the volume of water which can be carried by a helicopter is very  limited. Reactor 4 at Fukishima power plant was undergoing an inspection when the quake occurred.

UPDATE 18:39 UTC : 2 elderly people have been rescued more than 90 hours after the tsunami hit the North-Eastern coast of Japan.

UPDATE 18:31 UTC : The explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has elevated the situation there to a “serious accident” on a level just below Chernobyl, a French nuclear official said

UPDATE 18:27 UTC : The radioactive clouds are probably a great problem for Japan itself as the clouds will not reach high altitudes. Nuclear specialists are stating that based on the current data, the radioactive clouds will have less impact in other continents than during the Tjernobyl tragedy.

UPDATE 18:10 UTC : The situation at the nuclear power plant at Fukishima is very unclear. Positive signs as the reactors were halted, are being downgraded by new explosions and huge amounts of emitted radioactive clouds.
Panic starts to take over the fear of new earthquakes or even tsunamis.

UPDATE 17:21 UTC : The death toll  has passed 3,300. More than 6,700 people remain missing.

UPDATE 08:22 UTC : Japanese stocks dropped almost 6% at the beginning of Tuesday trading.  That was on top of a 6.2% drop the day earlier, the first market day after the earthquake.

UPDATE 07:42 UTC : A new update from the National Police Agency :  fatalities : 2,475, Injured 1,889 and at least 3,118 people missing.

UPDATE 07:34 UTC : A simple formula to auto-detect a potential tsunami when close to the epicenter : If you experience a severe shaking (MMI VIII) for longer than 30 seconds : RUN TO HIGHER GROUNDS to be safe.

UPDATE 15/03 – 07:25 : The 4 reactors at the Fukushima No.2 nuclear power plant have been halted. TEPCO says the 4th reactor at the No.2 plant was safely stopped on Tuesday.

UPDATE 23:52 UTC : A blast has been heard at the site of the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

UPDATE 23:36 UTC : President Medvedev from Russia has proposed to Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan to increase the export of liquified natural gas out of the Sakhalin 2 gas field as Japan faces power shortages.

UPDATE 22:53 UTC : The north-eastern coast of Japans main island of Honshu, called Sanriku, has experienced four destructive tsunamis in the last 115 years, and with more loss of life than any tsunami-prone region in Japan or perhaps the world.

UPDATE 22:18 UTC : The US State Department ordered American to avoid unnecessary traveling to Japan. Continuing aftershocks, damaged roads, power outages and the nuclear power accidents are the main reasons.

UPDATE 22:07 UTC : The quake and its tectonic shift resulted from thrust faulting along the boundary of the Pacific and North America plates

UPDATE 21:50 UTC : Some press reports are predicting that a magnitude 7.0 aftershock is likely within 3 days. This kind of comment and rumors are very dangerous and are not based on scientific facts. The reality today is that the aftershocks are decreasing in magnitude and in frequency.

UPDATE 18:47 UTC : More than 1,000 bodies have been washed ashore after the March 11 tsunami. Several hundreds of bodies have been found on several beaches.

UPDATE 17:41 UTC : Huge numbers of people are still missing (much more than the official statistics). Various reports from rescuers are stating that a lot of bodies are being found on the beaches. The receding  waves did pull a lot of people in the ocean. Those drowned people are being gradually returned by the Ocean. Some unconfirmed reports are stating tens of thousands missing, hopefully an exaggerated number.

UPDATE 17:29 UTC : Japan Police has told the press on Monday that 1,647 people have been killed and that 1,720 are officially listed as missing.  Earthquake-Report fears that the death toll will be at least several thousand higher.

UPDATE 17:17 UTC : On top of all the existing misery, the weather forecast turns very bad with dropping temperatures, in some places even below zero.

UPDATE 17:09 UTC : More than 3 days after the tsunami and the  sometimes  massive aftershocks, the Japanese authorities failed to give accurate numbers of the fatalities and  missing people.
Local authorities are publishing reports of many fatalities  in their county or in some coastal villages. The centralized communication numbers are most of the time not reflecting these local reports. This kind of reporting creates uncertainty among news media.

UPDATE 16:48 UTC : The international press is focusing more and more on the Nuclear accident.

UPDATE 16:45 UTC : The nuclear accident in Japan did become worse. Operators of the Fukushima nuclear plant are fighting to prevent a meltdown.

UPDATE 09:21 UTC : Generally spoken, powerful destructive tsunamis need in average at least a magnitude of 7.5 to take precautions and to evacuate to higher grounds. Today’s strongest aftershock was recorded at a magnitude of 6.0, a lot less than the preceding days. The frequency and strength of the aftershocks is also decreasing.

UPDATE 09:16 UTC : As always after big earthquakes rumors are creating more misery on the already so hard hit population. Rumors of a new powerful tsunami circulated in the Kanto area. Authorities did counter the rumors immediately, but people tend to believe too much from non-scientific prediction gurus.

UPDATE  09:09 UTC : The Bank of Japan offers to pump a record $85 billion into the banking system to resist eventual speculation.

UPDATE  07:31 UTC : Since the massive 9.0 aftershock and tsunami, other Honshu faulting zones are very silent (Some of these faults are very close to the Tokyo metropolitan area) . The massive displacement during the 9.0 shock may have changed a lot in the geological layers along the Honshu coast. The next few weeks and months will be very important. We will put up a special page with scientific background articles soon.

UPDATE  06:48 UTC : Search and rescue personnel from at least 10 countries are beginning search and rescue operations in the affected zones. The Search and Rescue teams who arrived today are coming from USA, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, China, New Zealand, Britain, Australia and Mexico.

UPDATE  06:44 UTC : Tokyo shares have dropped on concerns that the massive earthquake could have a negative impact on Japan’s economy.
The key Nikkei index opened below 10,000 for the first time in 3 and a half months. Taking into account the vast devastation and the the time Japan will need to rebuild his economy, the decrease seems very reasonable and is certainly not a panic movement.
Stocks like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, NEC, Fujitsu and Toshiba were traded lower after the companies were forced to stop production at factories in northern Japan.
The planned blackouts and the troubles at nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture were an additional concern.

UPDATE  06:30 UTC : 3 new videos have been uploaded on the Sendai earthquake Video page

UPDATE 14/3 – 06:28 UTC : Some 2,000 bodies have been found on two shores in Miyagi prefecture. About 1,000 bodies were found coming ashore on Miyagi’s Ojika Peninsula and another 1,000 are in the town of Minamisanriku, where the prefectural government has been unable to contact about 9,500 people, about 60% of the local population.

The findings will significantly increase the death toll from the quake and ensuing tsunami, with police having so far confirmed 1,597 deaths and 1,481 people missing across the affected areas in north-eastern and eastern Japan. Other reports have the confirmed death toll around 4000 (TBS).

Most news services are following the nuclear emergencies: A hydrogen explosion rocked the number three reactor of the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant today, injuring 11 people. Chief Cabinet Secretary says the core container at the reactor remains intact after the explosion, and it is unlikely to have led to a large escape of radioactivity. Prime Minister believes the situation at the nuclear power plant remains worrisome and authorities are doing their utmost to prevent damage from spreading. Authorities have set up a 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10km zone around another nuclear facility close by.

UPDATE 23:17 UTC : Japans Nuclear react accidents : United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation states : “This is not a serious public health issue at the moment. It won’t be anything like Chernobyl. There the reactor was operating at full power when it exploded and it had no containment.

UPDATE 23:07 UTC : Tokyo Stock Exchange, other financial markets to operate as normal today.

The most recent posts of part 4
UPDATE 22:07 UTC : Nearly 600,000 people have been temporarily  relocated in 2,000 shelters

UPDATE 21:51 UTC : Total insured loss could be up to $15 billion, equity analysts covering the industry say. Disaster-modeling company AIR Worldwide estimates the insured losses from the Japan earthquake at between $14.5 billion and $34.6 billion.
The estimate from AIR Worldwide of insured losses points to the CATDAT estimate of over $100 billion USD total loss being reasonable. With likely more indirect losses.

UPDATE 21:49 UTC : Toyota Motor Co to suspend operations at all 12 factories today.

UPDATE 21:22 UTC : The Bank of Japan will hold a policy meeting today. It has vowed to provide ample liquidity to financial system. It has extended a total of 55 billion yen to 13 financial institutions in the quake-struck north-east of Japan since Saturday.

UPDATE 21:20 UTC : The earthquake triggered a tsunami up to 10 meters. Waves swept away homes, crops, vehicles and submerged farmland.

UPDATE 21:16 UTC : Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have risen above the safety limit but says this posed no “immediate threat” to human health. An explosion blew the roof off at reactor No. 1.
Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano says there is the risk of an explosion at another building housing the No. 3 reactor, although this is unlikely to affect the reactor’s core container.
Authorities have set up a 20km exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10km zone around another nuclear facility close by.
About 350,000 people evacuated nationwide and almost 2 million households are still without power – with possibly more.
The Nuclear safety agency rates the incident a 4 on the 1 to 7 International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, less serious than Three Mile Island, which was a 5, and Chernobyl at 7.

UPDATE 21:13 UTC : France recommends its citizens leave the Kanto region that includes Tokyo and six other prefectures in its vicinity, citing the risk of further earthquakes and uncertainty about the situation at its damaged nuclear plants.

UPDATE 21:11 UTC : Death toll expected to exceed 10,000 from the quake and tsunami.
TBS has given the total of 2000 killed, with 1900 additional missing at least.
Strong aftershocks persisting in the stricken area.

UPDATE 18:28 UTC : 2500 tourists visiting the hardest hit tsunami and earthquakes areas are still unaccounted for.  1600 tourists have been confirmed as safe. Among the missing, mainly Japanese tourists but also people from many other countries.

UPDATE 18:16 UTC : The official death toll continues to rise.  The number of fatalities has been increased from 1,300 to 1,500.

UPDATE 18:11 UTC : Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called  to prepare for sacrifice and to work together in overcoming the effects of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. It will take a long time before the Japanese society will be back to normal.

UPDATE 17:45 UTC : Due to the accidents in a number of nuclear power plants, the government of Japan has allowed the power operator to organize wide scale power cuts.
The phased suspensions will cover the region served by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) which includes Tokyo, excluding the central area, and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Tochigi, Saitama, Yamanashi and part of Shizuoka. TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima No 1 plant, says the outages will last until the end of April, Kyodo News reported.

UPDATE 17:24 UTC : Very high levels of radiation have been recorded at a second Japanese nuclear plant at Onagawa. Local authorities have declared the state of emergency.

UPDATE 16:49 UTC : 80,000 people living near the Fukushima Nuclear Plants will be told to evacuate.
The vacation plans cover 10 cities and towns near the nuclear plants including Minamisouma-city.  62,000 people have already evacuated.

UPDATE 16:38 UTC : A Japanese naval vessel rescued a man swept away by tsunami waves off Fukushima Prefecture.
He was rescued 45 hours after the tsunami. The ships where searching for survivors about 15 kilometers off Futaba Town. He was waving his hands and drifting on a broken roof.
The 60-year-old survivor is Hiromitsu Shinkawa, of Minami Soma city, Fukushima. He has been temporarily hospitalized but has no major injuries.
Shinkawa told officials he was swept away along with his house when he returned home briefly to collect personal items. He says he does not know the whereabouts of his wife, with whom he evacuated earlier.