A sobering Google Streetview journey

[Oberon]

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=37.461898,141.034606&spn=0.000034,0.026157&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=37.461897,141.030497&panoid=qvzBzOcmAt6ejFV7thkfOg&cbp=12,0,,0,0

Start here, and then follow the road wherever you want, this is inside the 'Restricted Zone' of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on the road you will pass wrecked cars, silent reminders of the tsunami that swept across the road you're on, two years ago. If you travel a bit to the west, you will find the town of Namie, once home to over twenty two thousand people, now grass grows high through the pavement, no children play in the grounds of the elementary school and rubble lies where it fell. There are still people who live in Namie, no-one really knows how many, nor how much radiation they've taken in.

[Stealhead]

Notice that an area right at the start point on the bridge is blurred out?

Between the 10th and 11th pole for the railing on the right side.
Curious looks like it just fuzzes there for some reason moving away a bit and looking at the same spot its more clear.

[Oberon]

It could be Googles 'face/numberplate recognition software' being a bit overzealous, I have noticed in other places where it's blurred something completely randomly.

[Herr-Berbunch]

The sobering thought is that they still have better roads than in the UK. :-?

[Jimbuna]

Struggling to find Namie tbh :hmmm:

[Oberon]

Struggling to find Namie tbh :hmmm:

Zoom out into Google maps and go to the north-west, you should be able to see it there.

[Jimbuna]

Rgr that...looks a tad spooky, bit like a ghost town.

[Oberon]

Rgr that...looks a tad spooky, bit like a ghost town.

Aye, that's what gets me the most, everything just left like it was that day two years ago, passing the elementary school and seeing the grass growing out in the playground, it's pretty sad to think of the children suddenly plucked away from their homes and scattered throughout Japan. I wonder if they will face the same sort of discrimination that the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki faced, the Hibakusha. One can hope that the campaigns that the original Hibakusha launched, and the fact that they survived this long will help remove the discrimination for the next generation of Hibakusha.
Certainly though, through studies of families evacuated from the exclusion zone, the major health problems have been mental rather than physical.

[mookiemookie]

Looks like the setting for the next Stalker game.

[Stealhead]

Looks like the setting for the next Stalker game.


Get out of here Stalker!:D

[WernherVonTrapp]

I actually saw a recent photo of my uncle who lives in Florida. Haven't seen him in over 20 years otherwise.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Google-street-view-car-via-AFP-615x345.jpg

[Mork_417]

The scale of destruction is unbelievable. :o

[Onkel Neal]

The sobering thought is that they still have better roads than in the UK. :-?

And Houston. We need a new mayor. Streets here are like 3rd world country.

[Jimbuna]

And Houston. We need a new mayor. Streets here are like 3rd world country.

I did notice back in 2008 :O:

[Oberon]

Some epic thread necromancy, just to point out that since I last checked the area, quite a bit more of the exclusion zone has been mapped, including the approach roads to the power station itself.

[Catfish]

Hm don't get me wrong, but moving along that road looks like in Greece, lots of litter beside the streets and very dry.
Or outside of Houston - all flat, and dry, and litter ..

[TarJak]

I did notice back in 2008 :O:
I thought it was hurricane damage.

[Oberon]

Hm don't get me wrong, but moving along that road looks like in Greece, lots of litter beside the streets and very dry.
Or outside of Houston - all flat, and dry, and litter ..

Less radiation though...in theory...

[Jimbuna]

I'm comfortable I'm not testing the theory.

[Onkel Neal]

The sobering thought is that they still have better roads than in the UK. :-?

And Texas!

[Tango589]

Why can't I find a streetview of Chernobyl?:hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

Why can't I find a streetview of Chernobyl?:hmmm:

Who'd drive around their? :o

[Oberon]

Who'd drive around their? :o

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/files/2013/12/tumblr_mx401vbp5D1qfjej5o1_1280-e1386205296482.jpg

[Jimbuna]

I've seen many pictures on websites of the immediate vicinity but I'll always struggle to understand why it is so.....an absolute wasteland.

[Schroeder]

I believe it only looks like that when the pictures were taken in autumn. On summer pictures you can see green trees and that nature is reclaiming Prypjat.

http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/54/1012554/3130623338373366.jpg