SPIE leaders express condolences to people of Japan following earthquake and tsunami

Date Announced: 14 Mar 2011

BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA -- 14 March 2011 -- SPIE Members in Japan are among those assessing damage and looking for the way forward after Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake northeast of Tokyo that triggered a massive tsunami. The events have left an estimated several hundred people dead and widespread damage to farmland and property including several nuclear-powered electrical plants.

SPIE Fellow Mitsuo Takeda, a professor at the Univ. of Electro-Communications in Chofu, northwest of Tokyo, said yesterday that buildings were damaged but no human injury was reported at UEC. He said that streets into Tokyo were beginning to be cleared of debris and passable, but cell phone coverage was still down as he continued to attempt to contact colleagues in other areas including SPIE Director Toyohiko Yatagai (Utsunomiya Univ.) in Tochigi, and SPIE Fellow Ichirou Yamaguchi (Scientist Emeritus, RIKEN), in Kiryu. Both areas are north of Tokyo and farther inland.

"SPIE extends heartfelt sympathy to all the people of Japan during these horrific events," said SPIE President Katarina Svanberg (Lund Univ. Hospital). "We are saddened by the tragic loss of life, and deeply concerned for the great difficulties facing those who survive. Our thoughts are with you in these days of grief and sorrow."

Svanberg and SPIE Executive Director Eugene Arthurs encouraged support for relief efforts underway to meet needs that have been assessed as much more extensive than in-country resources can manage. Among international aid organizations assisting in Japan are:

•AmeriCares www.americares.org/
•Global Giving www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-relief
•International Medical Corps www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/
•Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders www.msf.org/
•Oxfam International www.oxfam.org.uk/
•Red Cross www.redcross.org/
•Salvation Army International www.salvationarmy.org
•Save the Children www.savethechildren.org
•Shelterbox www.shelterbox.org/
•United Nations World Food Programme www.wfp.org/
•World Vision International www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf.

Source: SPIE

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