Tsunamis and Car Wrecks

I saw this 26-minute video of the storm surge in Japan after the 2011 Tsunami, and this is a fitting week to share.  The guy shooting the video must have been pretty far inland, because the water came up over the course of four or five minutes.  I got anxious about how long the videographer waited to get to higher ground.  But he does get to higher ground!

The next one is unrelated, but I couldn't stop watching; a traffic accident in Russia.  A truck full of explosive gas tanks catches on fire.

Tanks explode, one at a time, for seven minutes.



The best part is how close people were at first.  How the cars kept going by on the other side of the road.  Then a few tanks blow, and *everyone* stays away, backs up.  Even the videographer.

Max Fire Update.

The house Max has been staying in caught fire today in one of the second story bedrooms.

It's that front room, with the multiple windows and the blue shutters.  Max was staying in a bedroom on the opposite side of the house, in the back.  Everyone is safe, but the house has a lot of smoke and water damage.  All of the upstairs windows are broken out from the fire response.

It's hard to see the damage from across the street.  The fire response had that side of the highway closed for hours.

This is from inside. There was a lot of damage to the attic.

Looking through a doorway into the room where the fire started.  That metal frame is from a bunk bed.  The charred wood on the ground is the door that had been between the two rooms.

We're glad everyone got out OK.  Life is fragile.

For now, Max is staying with us.  Washing his clothes, looking for somewhere he can stay while waiting for a space to become available for him in the residence program he applied to last week.  We are tired, but still able to have gratitude.