After yesterday’s 7.1 magnitude aftershock in Japan I thought it might be good to check in and see how U.S. aid efforts were progressing. According to this report in the Washington Post, the U.S. continues to assist Japan with the search for victims of the earthquakes and tsunami:
About 22,000 Japanese troops, along with 110 from the U.S., searched by land, air and sea. Television news footage showed them using heavy equipment to lift a boat washed inland by the tsunami so they could search a crushed car underneath. No one was inside the car. The troops also used shovels to dig through mud.
This video report from NBC News shows the U.S. Navy helping to search inland areas cutoff from the rest of the island:
And lest we forget about the nuclear crisis, the Voice of America reports that heavy equipment is being shipped to Japan:
Two giant pumps normally used for concrete in construction projects will soon be used to help cool nuclear reactors in Japan. In a few days, they will be loaded onto planes originally designed to carry the Russian Space Shuttle and flown from the U.S. to Japan to be deployed at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. The world’s largest boom pumps are normally used to carry concrete in large construction projects. But two of these giant pumps, made by the German firm Putzmeister, will soon travel from the U.S. to Japan, for a very different purpose.
It’s nice to see the U.S. standing by an ally, especially since we seem to be developing a rather different reputation. That however, is a blog post for another day.
