Earthquake in Japan

I have been more or less obsessively refreshing the news from Japan since I learned that it was an 8.9 magnitude earthquake -- that's more powerful than the Great Kantou Earthquake of 1923, which killed over 100,000 people. This quake was offshore and not terribly close to Tokyo -- but Sendai is a big city, and the quake was felt from Hokkaido to Kyushu. (Imagine that an earthquake hit the east coast of the US and you could feel it from New York to Charleton, SC!)

A nuclear reactor in Fukushima prefecture was shut down, and the area was evacuated, after the cooling system failed. There's still a danger of a radiation leak or a reactor meltdown.

YA author Maureen Johnson is raising money for Shelterbox, an organization that

goes into areas of the world affected by disaster with large green boxes that contain shelters and the materials needed for people to restart their lives on some level. The boxes always include a top-quality tent, and they usually include stoves, blankets, water purification systems, and tools. This is true, life-saving stuff, hand-delivered by volunteers trained in survival techniques.

A bunch of authors have donated books to be given at random to those who donate today and tomorrow.