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Japanese Tsunami's effect on Geocaches


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I keep hearing about Japan and the earthquake/tsunami. So, as a geocacher, I'm always wondering if natural disasters have an effect on geocaches. I looked at the Google Maps part of "Hide and Seek a Cache" part of the site and noticed that only a few caches were available on the northern part of Japan. So does that mean geocaches were destroyed by the flood of water? If so, approximatly how many were destroyed? If anyone can answer me, thanks!

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I keep hearing about Japan and the earthquake/tsunami. So, as a geocacher, I'm always wondering if natural disasters have an effect on geocaches. I looked at the Google Maps part of "Hide and Seek a Cache" part of the site and noticed that only a few caches were available on the northern part of Japan. So does that mean geocaches were destroyed by the flood of water? If so, approximatly how many were destroyed? If anyone can answer me, thanks!

 

Shouldn't we be more concerned about how many lives were lost and how many people have been displaced?

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That area is not very cache dense to begin with. Even Tokyo is not very cache dense when I visited more than 2 years ago.

 

One cache that is very likely damaged by the tsunami is GC2173Z. Thankfully the cache owner tmiya and his family is safe.

 

In case you're wondering, there were no caches in the evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant even before the disaster.

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No it doesn't but worrying about caches in Japan seems kind of insensitive given what is going on there at the moment.

I don't see the OP saying he doesn't care about the people there, or even that he's worrying about the caches there - he merely wonders about how the disaster affects the caches. Even if he is concerned about the caches, I don't see that as being insensitive.

 

Now, if someone had said "hey, I'll be visiting Sendai next week, can the geocachers there perform maintenance on your caches" - now, that would be insensitive. Actually, it would be beyond insensitive, but using the appropriate adjective would not be allowed here.

 

These type of threads happen almost every time there is a disaster. It is natural to wonder.

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No it doesn't but worrying about caches in Japan seems kind of insensitive given what is going on there at the moment.

I don't see the OP saying he doesn't care about the people there, or even that he's worrying about the caches there - he merely wonders about how the disaster affects the caches. Even if he is concerned about the caches, I don't see that as being insensitive.

 

Now, if someone had said "hey, I'll be visiting Sendai next week, can the geocachers there perform maintenance on your caches" - now, that would be insensitive. Actually, it would be beyond insensitive, but using the appropriate adjective would not be allowed here.

 

These type of threads happen almost every time there is a disaster. It is natural to wonder.

 

Well said.

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A Japanese cacher by the name of matz contacted me via pm to say thanks to the international geocaching community for their kind thoughts. Those cache owners in the stricken areas (who are able to) have temporarily disabled their caches. A lot of COs and their families are accounted for and safe, but not all have been heard from. "Underbelly of a Jet Plane" by tmiya was at the end of the runway at Sendai Airport, on the beach side and is obviously lost. As tmiya put it - "it was muggled by the Pacific Ocean, I will set the cache again."

Not sure of the percentage of caches disabled, but I'm sure it's possible to get a rough idea by checking Hide and Seek and then Sendai (plus other areas), Japan.

And if you read this, Matz - your cats are beautiful...thanks for sharing their photos with me.

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I don't see the OP saying he doesn't care about the people there, or even that he's worrying about the caches there - he merely wonders about how the disaster affects the caches.

Perhaps short-sided or selfish would have been more appropriate.

I assume you mean "short-sighted"?

 

I don't agree. You're entitled to your own views, of course. I'm merely speaking up for the OP, not attacking you.

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Life goes on in the midst of tragedy, it is not disrespectful that our every word not dote on it, in fact it's probably healthy.

 

I worked a fire yesterday for the American Red Cross Disaster Action Team (please volunteer for your local team!) involving three houses and eight victims, two of whom died. Utterly tragic and certainly stressful, but after a few hours stories about the deceased and humorous recollections of them helped them relieve the stress a bit.

 

I deploy with various disaster relief teams to national disaster zones here in the US.

 

I have had little opportunity to cache on such deployments but have found a few.

 

I was in the East Point community of Biloxi MS after Katrina and able to go out with fellow ham operator and geocacher Moonsilver to look for some along that part of the coast about two weeks after we got there on the second day after Katrina came ashore. We found none, in fact the buildings and infrastructure where the caches had been were mostly gone themselves. We did find one virtual left standing amongst the debris, though the historical site it referred to was gone down to bare ground and rubble. Those few hours caching turned out to be one of the very few opportunities we had to leave our relief station for the 42 days we were there and, while terribly depressing to see the destruction it was healthy to get away for a bit from our duties and do something normal.

 

I found several while on deployment to Iowa City IA to help the people after their major flood two years ago and my logs let people know that I was in the area. I was able to meet a couple of the owners this way and point some others to where they could get help.

 

I found a few in Texas City TX after Hurricane Ike when I took my Disaster Relief Chaplains team on an introductory cache hunt. We were inland from hard-hit Galveston so we found all that we looked for.

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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Following TAR's lead... I agree with that.

Another factor is for some of us that are also in that field, is that the state of caches, and the cache activity could be used as some measure of the return of normalcy following a disaster. People have remarked about caches being disabled, and contact with cachers there... there was a thread about cache pages being used for condolences etc. As time goes forward, caches will be reset or not, cachers will start finding again, and they will create new ones. The level of that will be an indicator. Not much will happen until the important things are dealt with of course, then it will happen again. I think the return of outside cachers will tell a lot. As TAR said, it might be relief / disaster workers on a break at first, but the one to watch for would be for residents of other areas to return to the disaster area. That will likely mean improved transportation links and a significant return to normal.

Otherwise they won't get in there. Personally I don't see a problem with being interested in the state of cachers and caches. I do agree with others that that does not include intrusion into the problem area and the people there. Go ask the Red Cross etc. and make a donation if you need to get involved physically. THEY can get it to where it's needed.

 

Doug 7rxc

Edited by 7rxc
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GC2RTF8 was just placed near Fukushima. The end of the cache description reads "Please come to Fukushima ,and cheer the people in Fukushima up." If you hurry, you can be FTF.

 

Even the multiple disasters as bad as these will not stop life from going on.

 

Life does go on and the world really doesn't skip a beat when one, or hundreds die. Grief is just grief and never really goes away. It just becomes more bearable with time. I wish I could be the FTF for GC2RTF8 and be there for the recovery of Japan. I think it is amazing that the Japanese people are so resilient. But, their nuclear disaster is an ongoing nightmare that I don't even want to hear about anymore because it is soo depressing.

 

As for the Tsunami's effects on Geocaches in Japan, all of the old ones placed before the 9.0 earthquake are 8 ft closer to the United States and I am sure that many are buried in the rubble.

 

 

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Actually it seems that the geocaches are one way Japan is linking with the rest of the world.

 

I am glad for this thread.

I took a look at a couple caches, and people from all over the world are using the cache pages to send notes of love and support and prayers to the people there. Geocachers sending prayers to geocachers.

That has only got to be a good thing.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=1edbf086-1794-413f-8403-bb5663bf9452

 

Take a look at some of the notes people have left.

It is very touching and heart-warming.

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