Breaking news: 8.8 earthquake hits Japan; tsunamis hit Japan, to hit Hawaii

[Jeramiahh]

I know it's late, but as of less than a couple hours ago, a massive earthquake hit Japan, followed by devastating waves. Hawaii is currently on alert, due to have tsunami strike within hours.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/japan.quake/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598

My prayers go out to those who've been hit, already.

[Caeli]

http://thedailywhat.tumblr.com/post/3788416928/2011-sendai-earthquake-how-to-help-president

2011 Sendai Earthquake / How To Help: President Obama released a statement earlier announcing that “[t]he United States stands ready to help the Japanese people in this time of great trial.” Below is a list of charities and relief organizations you can donate to in order to help bring aid to those affected by the worst earthquake in Japanese history.

• The American Red Cross has set up a special designation for disaster relief efforts in Japan. To donate, click here, or text REDCROSS to 90999 to instantly donate $10.


• International Medical Corps says it is putting together relief teams and supplies to aid Japan “and other affected countries.” Donate here.


• GlobalGiving's Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.


• World Vision's Disaster Response Fund.


• Click here to donate to AmeriCares’ emergency relief response.


• Save the Children's Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund.


• Reminder: Google’s Crisis Response Center / Person Finder.

A second earthquake of lesser magnitude hit Japan, also. The power of the earthquakes is just astonishing; I'm hoping that the number of injuries and deaths won't be too severe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/world/asia/12japan.html?_r=1

TOKYO — A devastating tsunami hit the coast of northeast Japan on Friday in the aftermath of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake about 80 miles offshore. Television images showed waves of more than 12 feet roaring inland. CNN reported that air and land transportation was severely disrupted.

At least 30 people were injured in the cities of Tokyo and Osaki, the Kyodo news service reported.

The wave drew a line of white fury across the ocean, heading toward the shoreline. Cars and trucks were still moving on highways as the water rushed toward them. The floodwaters, thick with floating debris shoved inland, pushed aside heavy trucks as if they were children’s toys, in some places carrying blazing buildings toward factories, fields, highways, bridges and homes. The spectacle was all the remarkable for being carried live on television, even as the waves engulfed flat farmland that offered no resistance.

The force of the waves washed away cars on coastal roads and crashed into buildings along the shore, The Associate Press reported. Television footage showed a tsunami wave bearing down on the Japanese coastline near the community of Sendai.

NHK television transmitted aerial images of huge billow of flame rising from an oil refinery and flood waters engulfing Sendai airport, where survivors clustered on the roof of the airport building. The runway was partially submerged. The refinery fire sent a plume of thick black smoke from blazing spherical storage tanks. A television commentator called the blaze an “inferno.”

Oil refineries were also burning in Tokyo, local television broadcasts showed.

The images showed survivors in a home surrounded by water, waving white sheets from the upper floors of buildings. News reports said the earthquake had forced the Tokyo subways to empty while airports were closed and many residents took to the streets, desperately trying to leave the city.

A second major earthquake of 7.4 magnitude was reported as aftershocks shook the region. Japanese media reported mobile phone networks were not working.

Cell phone service was severely affected as residents rushed to call friends and relatives as aftershocks struck.

[Oniya]

*hopes the people in our E-family that are out there are okay.*   :-\

[jouzinka]

I second Oniya on this one.

I'm specifically worried about Rob(guy). :-\

[Izu]

They are just showing it on the noon news over here. It's horrible. *sends good wishes to Japan*

[Caeli]

This is just scary. Videos from Associated Press:

Raw Video: Tsunami Slams Northeast Japan

Raw Video: Refinery Burns After Japan Quake

[Brandon]

*hopes the people in our E-family that are out there are okay.*   :-\

Thirded but I have many friends there as well. Ive alreay sent out the emails, hoping to hear that they're ok and safe. I can only pray they are

[Florence]

I have a really close friend living near Nagoya, so I'm hoping she's alright. I don't know how bad her area got hit, but I'm worried sick all the same.

EDIT: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/japan.quake/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

It seems the death toll is up to at least 200-300, in Sendai alone.

[haikuoftears]

The toll is going up as of right now, 11:38 pm Manila time. Prayers are asked for those in the areas that are affected...not just Japan, and not just this earthquake. Back here in the Philippines we got hit by a 5.1 quake and have a level 2 tsunami warning.

[Oniya]

Last I heard, Muninn was in Japan.  Haven't seen her online for weeks, though.

[Acid Lips]

It's moments like this when we find out how fragile humanity is. How the force of mother nature is much more than what we can ever get to. Mother nature is getting back at us for all that we did to her. Let's pray that everything stops and let's pray for the safety of our E-Japan member and all of their families and friends. God bless them all and know that we are behind you always

Acid

[Nico]

This is so terrible. It shows that we are nothing when it comes to natures force. It always makes me think.

All my good wishes and positive thoughts to the people of Japan and all of the Japanese Elliquiy members. My heart with with you in those troubled times.

[Observing Trifles]

A 6.2 quake just hit near Nagano, which is near Sendai. They say this one was less than a mile below the surface.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A new 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck near Nagano, Japan, at 10:59 a.m. Pacific time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake, which was originally reported as a 6.6 magnitude quake, was located less than 1 mile underground and was centered 29 miles north-northeast of Nagano and 122 miles northwest of Tokyo, and occured at 3:59 a.m. local time.

I know a lot of people in Japan, mostly in the Tokyo area. :( From what I understand, most of the flooding hit northern Japan, but the southern prefectures were still hit pretty hard by the quake. Still waiting to hear back from some of them...

My thoughts are with Japan today and other nearby countries affected by the quake and tsunami.

[Chelemar]

prayers and love go out to all in the wake of the quakes and tsunami's.  Wherever you are, may you be kept safe, whole and protected. 

[Acid Lips]

prayers and love go out to all in the wake of the quakes and tsunami's.  Wherever you are, may you be kept safe, whole and protected.

Amen

[crystaltears]

Thirded but I have many friends there as well. Ive alreay sent out the emails, hoping to hear that they're ok and safe. I can only pray they are

I have a really close friend living near Nagoya, so I'm hoping she's alright. I don't know how bad her area got hit, but I'm worried sick all the same.

EDIT: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/japan.quake/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

It seems the death toll is up to at least 200-300, in Sendai alone.

Perhaps some news for those who know people in Japan can be found at Google's crisis response. They've got a database up there that can be searched and lists reports based on the names and activities of individuals involved. I myself know no one living in that part of the world personally, but keep the whole of those feeling the effects of this crisis in my prayers.

[FOTEPX]

Do you know what the sad thing is? All the youtube partners making money off of these people dying. It makes me sick.

[Alysanthia]

I have a friend stationed near Sendai and he said when the earthquake hit his whole building was just shaking, after it passed he said he had never been so scared in his life and promptly threw up from nerves. Haven't heard from him and neither has his family so I'm hoping that all is well.

Thoughts and prayers for all those out there with family and friends that are suffering from this horrible disaster.

[Acid Lips]

I have a friend in Japan, he sent me a email telling me that he was alright. That when the earthquake hit he was  on his house and the entire building nearly collapsed on top of him. He went directly under a very solid wood table he had built and that saved his life. He said he was going to his grandmothers house on the other side of the island. He never actually told me where he lived but he told me that he was fine for now and that he was safe. Although the wave took out one of his houses and dragged it across he was glad he was alive.

[Caeli]

Apologies for the double post, but it seems that Japan's tsunami has triggered a whirlpool off of its coastline:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/11/japans-tsunami-triggered-enormous-whirlpool/



Tsunami swirls near a port in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture (state) after Japan was struck by a strong earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011.

The tsunami that hit northern Japan today created an enormous whirlpool in a harbor off the east coast of that country. According to researchers, whirlpools aren't unusual after waves of this size.

The tsunami was triggered by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan at 2:46 p.m. Tokyo time. Video footage shows a boat swirling in the massive eddy. It's not known whether anyone was on the vessel.

Based on eye-witness accounts and video in recent years, whirlpools probably occur with some regularity after large tsunamis, said Ruth Ludwin, a retired seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"Whirlpools have a big impact on the human imagination," Ludwin said. "They're very notable and very frightening. But from the perspective of the geological record, they don't leave any particular sign that has been recognized so far."

Whirlpools happen because of the interaction between rushing water and the geology of the coastline and seafloor, Ludwin said.

"Obviously there is a lot of water that is being pushed around, and it is interacting with the shape, the bathymetry, near the coastline," she said. [Album: Monster Waves]

The first images and videos of post-tsunami whirlpools came out of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Ludwin said. But eyewitness accounts from previous coastal quakes suggest that tsunami whirlpools are nothing new. One was reported in the great Lisbon earthquake of 1775, Ludwin said. The Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia have myths about a whirling wave of foam.

Apela Colorado, Ludwin's colleague with the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network in Hawaii, has identified a petroglyph in southeastern Alaska that seems to show a whirlpool in the body of a sea monster. In an abstract presented at the 2006 meeting of the Seismological Society of America, Colorado and Ludwin describe the native myths about that monster. According to ancient tales, they wrote, the creature "inundates canoes, makes the salt-water boil, swallows fishermen, pushes fish into a cave, and creates a canoe passage by flopping across a spit."

[HockeyGod]

My heart goes out to our Japanese friends.  :'(

[Saerrael]

I actually heard about this on WoW of all places (For those who play, on Trade >.>')
Now, I don't know anyone in Japan, personally, but this had me quite shocked... I just hope the members of Elli in Japan are alright. ( I know, egoistic, but I don't know any Japanese outside of Elli )

[Brandon]

There was a tsunami warning off the coast of oregon early this morning so I packed up my stuff along with some frends and we drove all the way to portland for a day. Luckily nothing hit the coast but I certainly wasnt going to take the chance. Still I spent hours in a Portland bar watching the reports and waiting for some word from the people I know in Japan. I found out that most of my friends over there are alright, emails abound and Im thankful that they werent hurt. However there were two that really effected me. A couple I knew in Sendai are missing and their daughter is all alone right now, luckily she had been out of town when it happened but Im worried about them. The other mail I got...it just stunned me to learn a long time friend's body had already been found

Disasters like this are horrific events that help humanity shine and overcome adversity but they're even more horrific when they effect you on some personal level.

[Acid Lips]

There was a tsunami warning off the coast of oregon early this morning so I packed up my stuff along with some frends and we drove all the way to portland for a day. Luckily nothing hit the coast but I certainly wasnt going to take the chance. Still I spent hours in a Portland bar watching the reports and waiting for some word from the people I know in Japan. I found out that most of my friends over there are alright, emails abound and Im thankful that they werent hurt. However there were two that really effected me. A couple I knew in Sendai are missing and their daughter is all alone right now, luckily she had been out of town when it happened but Im worried about them. The other mail I got...it just stunned me to learn a long time friend's body had already been found

Disasters like this are horrific events that help humanity shine and overcome adversity but they're even more horrific when they effect you on some personal level.

I am so sorry brandon, I hope God welcomes your friend to his glory. I also hope they find the parents of the child, there would be nothing I hate most than to see a child loose the parents over some disaster like that.

[Oniya]

Just got word from Muninn.  (Okay, I broke down and tapped her with a PM.  It's those 'mother' genes.)  She was well south of it.