Yokosuka's turning into a Ghost-town...

The last ship left in our dock, the GW, finally pulled out today leaving our base an even more ghost-town than it already is right now.  The military assisted evacuation has finally been approved and is under way moving a lot of the dependents and families back to the states.  A lot of the places and services on base are either limited hours or shut down due to decreased manning.  All the active duty members are still here though since we still have a job to do.  We will only be evacuated if it becomes mandatory.  Who knows if that will happen with the way things keep changing every hour of every day.

We were told a few days ago already to pack a bag and be ready to go in the case of a mandatory evacuation.  So, since then, I've had my suitcase in the car and pretty much living out of a book bag.  It was a really weird feeling walking through my house and trying to decide what to pack since we don't know where we're going and how long we're going for if we do.

I've been staying on base lately with some friends for a few reasons... a) we have daily musters every morning, b) Japan continues to have little aftershocks and since I live on the 7th floor of a tower, I feel it much more, c) rolling blackouts continue to happen to save up enough energy to cool down the reactors, d) locals are saving energy out in town which makes it a lot darker out there than normal, e) and last but not least... i just don't want to be alone, so I stay with my Navy family!

But, on the bright side, they just distributed our 5 day supply of Potassium Iodide pills today!  Now, don't worry, we don't have to take them yet.  I think it's funny how people back on the west coast have already been getting these pills earlier in the week when they're about 10,000 miles farther away than we are over here in Japan!  That's Americans for ya...  

hmmm, is there something they're not telling
us by passing these out today???