Big earthquake in Niigata!!

[Brian]

1. House carried away in a landslide in Nigorisawa
2. Horinouchi stretch of the Kan-Etsu expressawy linking Niigata and Tokyo
3. Prefectural road and Bullet Train tracks running parallel to the Shinano river in Ojiya.

Photographs courtesy of the Yomiuri Shimbun

[kiky]

FLORIDA........CAYMAN ISLAND........and now........!


My prayer to all affected........

[Doug Ward]

Tim was sitting on a bus at 2 am waiting to leave for Nagaoka.
He'll be updating us as soon as possible. He has a wireless for email.
NI, and Koiphen have a few postings too.

[Dan Blatt]

Heard from my friend again this a.m.



I feel it is very serious up there. Hide was on the phone and talking to some of the breeders. They think that what didn't die in the earthquake will die in the grenhouses because they cant get power and they don't have generators.

[MikeM]

Thanks for the photos and updates, Brian. I do not want to think of the terraced ponds.

[luke frisbee]

Wait a minute. Those Breeders will find a way to keep most of those koi alive, remember they are an ingenious lot. I bet they are loading carp on bicycles and hauling them to the ditches as we type.

[Brian]

Good point Luke,

But when your home is gone and your loved ones hurt, the motivation might not be what it normally would be to save fish. There are koi suffocating in cracked ponds, and the roads are too damaged to bicycle down. Many ponds are filled with the mud from landslides, or have sheered off down the mountain sides.

Yes, it looks that bad.

[Graham]

Brian....these people are bascially farmers, with the koi being their crop..over here most farmers would have crop insurance for disasters like this. Would any of the breeders have that kind of insurance or is it even available?

[Brian]

Graham,

I doubt that they have insurance for losses to koi due to earthquake. This isn't traditionally a region that is susceptible to violent seismic activity.

They don't receive the some subsidies, nor are they entitled to the same discounts on commoditities that food farmers are.

So in a word, my guess would be "no".

[Graham]

That'll be a major ouch in the wallet, on top of all the personal injury. I know that some of the dealers pay cash for thier fish as thier going along and then the rest on credit......what happens if all these sold fish are dead....


G