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So... a massive earthquake hit Japan last night. 8.9 on the scale. 7th largest earthquake ever recorded and just 3 spots behind the Sri Lanka earthquakes in 2004 (hitting 9.3/9.1 depending on the source) that caused one of the worst natural disasters mankind has ever seen. It was followed, shortly, by a Tsunami that saw a 5 foot wave make it as far as 60 miles inland. Sixty. Miles. There is a Tsunami warning for the entire Pacific ocean and the next area to get hit will be Hawaii in the next hour or so. They're preparing for the worst and have been actively attempting to evacuate the entire state (though that is close to impossible, I know). The last estimate I heard was the wave that hits Hawaii could be as high as ten feet. Coastal Oregon and California is also being evacuated with estimates of a 15-20 foot wave being possible. Washington and Alaska (plus the entire western seaboard of Canada and Mexico) are also under tsunami warnings and are preparing to be hit, but there is no large scale evacuations being undertaken. Last estimate I heard was 3 dozen dead in Japan from the Earthquake and many dozens more likely from the tsunami. If you know anyone affected by this and would like to see if they are ok or know of their situation and would like to report it for others, use Google's People Finder which they turned on early this morning. Let's hope this isn't as bad as the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, that's all I have to say.
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Update: Current estimates have 200-300 bodies floating in the flood in just one city in Japan.
Hawaii was hit but no major damage or fatalities are expected. Waves are hitting every 15 minutes and ranging from 6 to 9 feet high.
California will be next hit, likely in the next 4 hours. The live video on CNN of the beaches there is quite disturbing. Completely empty. No cars at all on the streets behind it. 6 foot cement barricades (like they use for highway dividers only bigger) creating a beach wall to try and stop as much of the water as possible.
It sounds like Japan is bracing for fatality numbers in the thousands and the Philipines are bracing for major flooding as well (their islands barely rise above sea level), though it sounds like they have gotten enough of the population away from the coast and as high up as possible to lessen any impact of the waves. (They may have already been hit, CNN isn't being very timely with their updates right now)
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...Japan just got hit by another earthquake. 6.6 this time and it is being deemed an earthquake and not an aftershock.
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Emergency experts are now estimating as many as 10,000 dead and while they have finally been able to cool down their main nuclear reactor, there is still concern that additional quakes (like the 6.6 that hit a little bit ago) could cause a significant environmental disaster.
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Damn. My parents are in Hawaii right now, but I haven't heard about the results of what went on there. I just know that they took people from the bottom 5 floors of the hotel they were staying at and moved them up. That's all.
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Looks like the 10,000 dead was a misprint. 1,000 is the official estimate at the moment.
Luci: Little to no damage was done to Hawaii. Mainly just uprooted trees and debris and the like. Few buildings saw any damage at all and no deaths are being reported right now.
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Yeah, that's pretty much what I heard, but apparently they were evacuating people all the same. A buddy of mine knew some people who also just went there on vacation and had to leave.
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...shit. An explosion occurred at the nuclear plant. Part of the building collapsed and there is a small radiation leak. They're evacuating a 5 mile radius.
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1,217 confirmed dead. 1,000+ more missing. The nuclear reactor is in serious trouble and they keep widening the safe zone as they become more and more afraid that it will meltdown. CNN last night said that a meltdown could cost Japan half of its main island.
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Last night I heard that 9500+ people were unaccounted for. Was that number wrong or did they find a bunch of those people?
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The numbers have been far less than 9k so far, it's estimated though that the death toll will rise to 2k-3k. Two confirmed deaths outside of Japan, one in Indonesia and another in California. Also a volcano in the southwest of Japan has become active
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The numbers have been far less than 9k so far, it's estimated though that the death toll will rise to 2k-3k. Two confirmed deaths outside of Japan, one in Indonesia and another in California. Also a volcano in the southwest of Japan has become active Yeah, I thought that was a bit high. I mean, how do you lose 10,000 people?
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The numbers have been far less than 9k so far, it's estimated though that the death toll will rise to 2k-3k. Two confirmed deaths outside of Japan, one in Indonesia and another in California. Also a volcano in the southwest of Japan has become active Yeah, I thought that was a bit high. I mean, how do you lose 10,000 people? I don't know. We lost a 3,000 lb subframe for the BAE Caiman at work this week. How do you lose that? There's only a few hiding spots the thing would even fit in. 
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Uh... they just found ~2,000 bodies.
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