EARTH QUAKE in JAPAN off shore

Holy ****! I'm watching this live on TV right now. We're watching the tsunami flooding the countryside and literally chasing people down the street.

Very scary. Prayers out to everyone in Japan.

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Yes, I'm watching it live, too. My heart is breaking witnessing, albeit on tv, all of the death and destruction. Warnings for Hawaii, and tsunami watches for our west coast. Unbelievable. I'm not sure we can take much more.......Prayers. Constant prayers.
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Just upgraded the watch to a warning for California to Alaska. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

Watching as well and it is scary.

In 1986, we had a 5.6 hit off the coast of Lake Erie and the building I was in vibrated like being inside a cement mixer for about 20 seconds and it scared the hell out of everyone in the building that day. The Ricter scale is logrithmic meaning that every point is 10 times the magnitude in intensity. Thus, the earthquake that hit off the coast of Japan today was over 1,000 times stronger than the one I described above

Very sobering, it certainly brings things into perspective. We have so much to be thankful for! It makes one realize how trivial and insignificant some of our "problems" are...

I'm not real good on my Pacific geography but I hope Krak and his boys aren't in harms way.

And I'm thinking about the Louisville Cardinals as they play in So Cal today. Is it really possible that a dangerous tsunami could reach our shores?

HONOLULU --
A 4.5-magnitude earthquake has struck Hawaii as residents brace for a tsunami after a massive earthquake in Japan.

Quite an amazing picture on the home page of Fox News...

CNN with some real disturbing video as well.

What is being shown is terribly distressing, terribly.
We had a pretty sleepless night after our son called around 1am to alert us to the situation.
My wife's parents live about 1 hour, by train, South of Tokyo. She has not yet been able to reach them, but we are hopeful. They are both in their 80's so things like this and distance are not easy.
The people of Japan are amazing and wonderful. They will certainly need assistance perhaps as great as anything in recent history.
Our situation was compounded because our daughter is working and doing a number of presentations in schools throughout Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, some of the closest to Japan.
Visions of and information about the tsunami were nerve racking.
Through the miracles of email, Facebook and cell phones, our concern and anxiety for her safety were removed about 2:30am PDT.

infielddad,

So glad she is ok.I cant imagine the worry you went through. Praying for the safety of all the people affected by this.

I watched it live on TV in the early morning hours, just unbelievable, just heartbreaking.

Our earth is gonna just explode someday, it's giving signs.

Prayers to everyone everywhere.

infielddad, glad to hear all is well with your family.

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infielddad,

I'm relieved to hear that your daughter is safe, and I hope and pray that you get good news soon about your wife's parents.

The afternoon before this quake, there was a weird water event here in southern FL where my husband and I are watching some Spring Training games. We were near the beach at Captiva when the water suddenly rose several feet higher and knocked people standing on the beach into the water, fully clothed. At the time, someone from the area called it a "rogue wave" and said she hadn't seen anything like it in the ten years she had been working there. It made us think of earth quakes but we certainly wouldn't have foreseen this news.

Prayers for safety and recovery for all of the people affected. Scary, tragic images continue on TV as I write this.

Julie

My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to infielddad, his family, and all affected.

As an Engineer, and hearing some of the reports this morning, I grow deeply concerned. It seems as though they "correctly" planned on the contingency of power being lost at the nuclear facility and had back-up diesel generators in place for that contingency. If I am reading things correctly however, they did not plan for the effects of a tsunami to take out the back-up generators and hence now they are reliant on batteries to supply coolant. Unfortunately the batteries grow dangerously weak

Engineering is a wonderful profession but requires a profound sense of humility and extreme paranoia to worst-case scenarios. A fanatical sense to detail and yet, even the best engineers can sometimes miss or fail to plan correctly for potential outcomes. I pray they can prevent a meltdown

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As an engineer CD you can certainly realize the immensity of the destruction caused by the tsunami which, of course, was launched by the massive earthquake.

Here is a slide show which allows the viewer to understand the scale of this disaster. All of the videos shot from helicopters don't capture the scale as shown in these photos.

It is going to take a huge effort just to get a handle on the continuing crises before even thinking about rebuilding. Providing for basic human needs in the areas hit will be a real challenge.

My prayers go out to all of the people affected by this disaster. And, after viewing these photos, it reminds me to pray for the folks in Haiti, Chile, and New Zealand as well. They are further along in their reconstruction, but I am sure their struggles are no less than what our Japanese friends are faced with.

If you think about it we are all in this together. When you can, please roll up your sleeves and somehow contribute towards getting everyone put back on their feet. The tenets of the Golden Rule are powerful.

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An update for you CD.

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Fascinating and revealing imagery.

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My heart goes out to those folks. Prayers for all affected by this huge disaster.

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More amazing video.

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quote:

We were near the beach at Captiva

My stomping grounds Julie. Grew up In Lee County and went through Hurricane Donna in 1960 with 30' tidal wave that leveled Bonita and Ft. Myers beach (although not much there in those days). I have heard of Rogue waves in the Atlantic but not the Gulf, guess anything is possible. Hope your enjoying those Twins and perhaps Boston spring games!

The big concern in Japan, once they get past this recovery stage, will be how to get power to the 100,000 or more without it and how do you provide food, water and shelter to that many in areas you can hardly travel through?

Just an awful, catastrophic tragedy!

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Concern about providing food is valid. Just from the scenes in the news videos it appears that most of the fishing vessels along the Northeastern Coast are either damaged or lost.

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infielddad - please let us know whether or not you have been able to contact your in-laws...

CD,
Thank you for thinking of them. My wife finally made contact and they are fine, as is their home.
The phone call was a bit funny, in this tragedy.
My wife was frantically calling nearly every 30 minutes trying to get through.
When the phone finally rang, she was ecstatic.
The conversation with her Dad went something like this:
GP: "Hello"
Wife(W):"Dad, I am so glad you answered. Are you guys okay?"
GP: "Yes, we are fine. Did you know there was an earthquake?"
(W)"Yes, that is why I am calling. I have been so worried and could not get through."
GP:"We need to get off the phone. There are so many people trying to check on relatives and friends. The phone lines are jammed so we need to get off..."
(W): "Dad, don't hang up,Let me talk with Mom right now..."

quote:

Originally posted by infielddad:
GP:"We need to get off the phone. There are so many people trying to check on relatives and friends. The phone lines are jammed so we need to get off..."
(W): "Dad, don't hang up,Let me talk with Mom right now..."

GP is obviously a thoughtful man but somewhat naive. If he thought your wife was going to let him off the phone without speaking to her mother, well...

Seriously, outstanding news!

infield, very glad your family is ok. what a thing to live through. beyond comprehension for me.

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Good news!



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A picture is worth 1000 words...

Yes, very good news to hear that your relatives are okay, infielddad. Most of the other news and images from Japan are so shocking, overwhelming. It's hard to comprehend how a country would deal with all of that destruction. What must a parent feel when caught in the middle of all of that, struggling to help their family survive?

Julie

before-n-after

This link provides some interesting technology using Google Earth. Mouse over the right edge of each photo and move to the left to see the before and after satellite views. There are 2 parts to the presentation

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Because of the trouble at their nuclear power plant we have not been getting any reports like this. Hopefully this will be the start of reporting on the rest of this heartwrenching story.

Please keep all of the folks in Japan in your prayers, especially those who were lost and those who survived on the ravaged Northeast Coast.

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And here's another.

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I've heard it stated that Japan, the size of Montana, has 125 million citizens, but they only inhabit 20% of their land, that which is relatively flat and mostly hugging their coastline. Much of the country is rugged and mountainous.

Their dilemma now is where to rebuild? Do they rebuild all of their port facilities and manufacturing plants back in the ravaged area? Necessarily the fishing industry will need to be near the water, but what about the residences and commercial development? Time to head for the (nearby) hills?

The landscape of their Northeastern Coast reminds me greatly of our Pacific Northwest coast where I was born and raised and this similarity has created with me a bond or kinship with the Japanese people from that region. I can only imagine if that quake had occurred off our coastline.

May God provide all of their leaders the strength and wisdom to wrestle with their short term and long term challenges. It won't be easy and it will be fascinating to follow. My prayers are with all of them.


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