Page 1 of 2

Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 2:34 am
by ken123
A massive 8.9 earthquake hit Japan Friday PM , Japanese time. CNN< MSNBC, and Fox News Channel, have live coverage at 1:30am CST Friday. Aljareera reports that tsunami warnings have been issued for 53 countries.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 5:48 am
by charliechaplinfan
I'm just watching the footage now, 32 dead so far, fingers crossed the death toll doesn't go much higher. It's let loose a tsunami, we can only pray that the tsunami calms before it reaches other shores.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 7:49 am
by Rita Hayworth
I mulit-task - do this and watching TV at the same time.

Incredible footage, Japan got hit by both Earthquake and Tsunami at the same time - charliechaplinfan reported 39 deaths, now its 50 confirmed 4:25 Pacific Standard Time. I saw whirlpools (not one, but several) ... water up to halfway to houses and among other things. I heard it was a 8.9 earthquake and catching the news right now - its was rumored they have one aftershock of 6.1 (unconfirmed) - its pretty grim in Japan - and Tsunami warning all over the place - including Hawaii.

One oil refinery erupted (unconfirmed) that released a massive fireball that can be seen for miles and miles.

Hawaii will be hit all over with waves (Tsunami) up to 20-30 feet high in course of the next 6-8 hours from now ... Hawaii will close all beaches - for tourism ... Baja California will be also be hit big time - another 20-30 feet of water coming there way 3-4 hours after Hawaii is hit. Luckily, they heard about this ... and bracing for the impact.

The whole PACIFIC RIM - especially the Northern Hemisphere will be hit by Tsunami - its will be most unusual natural disaster ever recorded in Human History.

I also learned that every countries - been warned - potentially all air traffic could be grounded for the next 1-2 days (unconfirmed) and most importantly ... all airports, subways, and main transportation in Japan is completely shutdown - BIG TIME ... LITERALLY BIG TIME ...

Toyota closes 3 factories - Sony closes 6 factories - One steel factory - so heavily damaged - molten steel is oozing out
saw pictures of it. Unreal ... totally unreal.

I could share more ... for what I saw in the past 30 minutes and heard - this massive Japanese Earthquake will go down as the most unique disaster ever hit in Human History ... potentially 30-50 countries could be hit with damaged in the billions and billions of dollars of damages. It could go a high as a Trillions or More.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 8:00 am
by Rita Hayworth
Update - Hawaii will be hit around 5:30 PST. Baja California - 6 to 8 hours later. Tsunami 20-30 feet waves potentially.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 8:11 am
by klondike
MSN reports that Japanese government fears "multiple nuclear emergencies", due to cooling generators failing, and/or not working as expected, at two major nuclear reactor facilities.
:shock: :| :shock: :| :shock: :| :shock:

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 11:00 am
by MissGoddess
I'm just seeing the stories now, I don't typically have the news on in the morning. I pray for the people being struck by this. Thank goodness Japan has many seismically sound structures or it could be much, much worse. I was in the Northridge quake in California and it just brings back the awful feeling. Talk about scary. And I was 41 floors up when a big aftershock hit the day after.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 11:07 am
by Lzcutter
MSN reports that Japanese government fears "multiple nuclear emergencies", due to cooling generators failing, and/or not working as expected, at two major nuclear reactor facilities.
Here in the City by the Bay, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the two nuclear plants are fine at the moment.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 11:38 am
by moira finnie
MSN reports that Japanese government fears "multiple nuclear emergencies", due to cooling generators failing, and/or not working as expected, at two major nuclear reactor facilities.
According to Reuters, The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced that Japanese authorities had evacuated an area around a nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, (near the epicenter of the earthquake, which felt the brunt of the initial shock and after tremors). A Japanese cabinet chief later said that no radiation leakage had occurred, though the cooling system "did not operate as planned." All the nuclear power plants in Japan, which supply 33% of the country's power, have each been shut down indefinitely.

U.S. officials pointed out that all U.S. nuclear reactors, including those built on the west coast faultlines and near the possible tsunami area, are built to withstand earthquakes and shut down automatically when an event warrants it.

I just hope that after all the seismic activity in the last two years, the immediate needs of the people whose lives have been upended by this event are addressed asap and that scientists try to figure out if this series of earthquakes may be inter-related.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 3:20 pm
by charliechaplinfan
Having switched back on after several hours the footage is staggering, Joe has watched it with me, he thought it was cool until we explained that they weren't toy cars, boats or houses. There are towns that have been swept away, the toll is 500 but I think it's evident that it's many more. I echo your thoughts Moira. The Pacific rim has taken a heck of a battering recently, lets hope this is the last. The experts are saying that the severity makes it unlikely that another one will occur soon.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 3:39 pm
by movieman1957
Except there are likely days, if not weeks, of aftershocks. There was a 6.6 aftershock reported about 2:00 ET. I wonder if the New Zealand quake and this are related.

It is hard to imagine the time and cost, in money and lives, this will take to repair.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 9:47 pm
by moira finnie
I'm praying that the Japanese nuclear plants in jeopardy are stabilized. I don't understand how all these quakes couldn't be interrelated, but Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Museum of Natural History pointed out there is no concrete evidence of any cause and effect.

Poor Japan! They have had so many terrible events in their country in the last hundred years. Frankly, I am amazed they allowed the development of nuclear energy in their country after WWII.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 12th, 2011, 8:09 am
by MichiganJ
My wife and I have finally been able to get in touch with some friends in Tokyo, via Facebook (she's chatting with them right now). The long walk home from work yesterday was described as "ordered chaos" and all of the aftershocks are leaving them frazzled. It took them some time to get in touch with family (he's French and his wife is Japanese), but again, via social media they were able to learn everyone is okay. They have a two-year old daughter so are trying to limit having the TV on and they have no more information than we do about the Power Plants, etc.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 12th, 2011, 4:03 pm
by charliechaplinfan
The two year old may not realise what she is seeing is real, to my son it looks computerised, like something they would see in a film. I've sat them down and shown them the pictures in today's paper, telling them both the reality, a town as big as our's swept away.

Heaven only knows what the toll will be, it will probably take weeks to know.

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 7:02 pm
by moira finnie
That's such good news about your friends, Mich. I wondered and hoped that most parents around the world have the good sense not to burden their children with the ghastly recurring images of the quake, tsunami and nuclear power plants replayed on television. I had friends whose four year old dreamt about Sept. 11th for about two years after the fact--and they had no idea where he saw the footage.

Btw, if anyone wishes to make a donation to help quake victims around the world and now in Japan, perhaps this link can help:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Re: Massive Japanese Earthquake

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 9:19 pm
by ken123
MSNBC has just reported that a 4th reactor has gone on fire. :(