Earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

How terribly and just plain bloody awful. 1,200 deaths confirmed so far and thousands more missing. Entire towns destroyed, many while stunned residents watched from the safety of higher ground. People crowded into shelters, many of which lack heat and sufficient food and water for everyone, but at least provide some respite from the bitter cold.

Rescue efforts are going on, and will be for a long time. And nuclear meltdowns at two of the reactors at Fukushima's power plant are possible.

Googling "japan earthquake the latest" brings up a lot of good sources of information.

According to the USGS website, the latest estimated magnitude for the quake is 8.9, Japan's largest on record (since 1900) and the fifth largest in the world.

A tidbit of positive news from LJ, though: honorh, reported missing Friday, has been located and is safe. She's American and has been living and teaching in Kamaishi. wendymr and roxyk630 worked their butts off over the last few days, helping to locate her and to keep her friends and family updated.

wendymr has posted links to several ways to help Japan's relief effort: V-gift in aid of the disaster in Japan, fandom fic auction communities (in which wendymr is participating) , and, if you want to give honorh a nice welcome home, help fill her LJ profile with the aforementioned V-gifts. wendymr's posts are here, here, and here if you want to read them.

I hope that you and yours are safe as well.

ASSHATS

To the people who have posted to the internet in various places that the disasters in Japan are a well-deserved Act of God/karma for Pearl Harbor and WWII/a good thing for any other reason:

%#$& off, &%*#&#$#s. You should be ashamed of yourselves, every one of you. And keep an eye on your own karma.