Japan basically implodes

[spoilsport]

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

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake

God

damn

my thoughts go out to those affected by this disaster, and those with family and friends affected. this shit is crazy. and 8.9 quake causing massive damage in Japan-nuclear power plants in peril, cars washed out to sea, over 300 dead already, fires ravaging the rice fields of Japan, roads split into two, ten metre high waves crashing over towns. A passenger train is missing and a ship carrying a hundred people has been washed out to sea. Oil refineries are blazing.

This is some scary stuff.

[Admin]

Yeah, devastating. They're evacuating around the power plants to be safe, but still, the videos look like something straight out of a cliche disaster movie. Unfortunately, California is due for a similar quake within the next...what was it? 30 years at most?

[Power NeXus]

8.9 quake?
Son of a b**ch.

[Phantom Stargrave]

Mar 11, 2011 11:56:24 GMT -5 Admin said:

Unfortunately, California is due for a similar quake within the next...what was it? 30 years at most?

I thought they were already overdue on it? Sucks to be Arnold...


On topic, I've seen footage from Japan on TV. A truly surreal amount of devastation. They say the quake was 8000 times stronger than the one in New Zealand last month.

[cm24]

That was one powerful earthquake. One of the most powerful ever recorded I heard.

[Supreme Marvel]

Glad it wasn't during the night. 500 people are still missing.

[yaujtapool]

Apparently the tsunami was reaching speeds approaching 600 mph.

This is horrible.

[spoilsport]

Latest figures say that there are over 300 dead, and over 500 unaccounted for. The death toll is expected to rise.

it really does seem like something out of your cliche disaster movie. man.

Calfornia is due for a big one, but it seems like it's been due for that "one big one" for ages now. When my parents were kids they were being told that they'd be hit by a big one soon. It's gonna be weird (and freaky) when it actually happens.

[cm24]

300 dead? Last I heard they were only 29. Man.

I saw footage of the tsunami. It washed everything away.

[Phantom Stargrave]

Mar 11, 2011 12:01:05 GMT -5 yaujtapool said:

Apparently the tsunami was reaching speeds approaching 600 mph.

Wait, so it was outrunning airplanes?

Jesus.

[Supreme Marvel]

Japan's most powerful earthquake since records began has struck the north-east coast, triggering a massive tsunami.

Cars, ships and buildings were swept away by a wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude quake, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

A state of emergency has been declared at a nuclear power plant but officials said there were no radiation leaks.

The death toll is unclear, but police say 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the port city of Sendai.

At least 90 other people are reported to have died, and many more are unaccounted for.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
image of Roland Buerk Roland Buerk BBC News, Tokyo

With train services suspended, there are millions of people on the streets of Tokyo tonight. The official advice is, if you're safe, to stay where you are. But after the shock of the quake many people just want to get home.

Here in Tokyo, even though it wasn't the epicentre, the quake was still felt very powerfully. The ground rolled and rumbled underfoot and you could hear the great skyscrapers creaking and cracking as they swayed.

Walking was like crossing the deck of a ship at sea. People poured down from their offices and stood in the street staring up.

Measured at 8.9 by the US Geological Survey, the tremor struck at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) at a depth of about 24km.

The first waves from the tsunami have reached the US mainland at Oregon, and people have been evacuated from coastal areas of that state and in California and Washington.

Some of the biggest waves of between 6-7ft (about 2m) would hit near California's Crescent City, predicted the US National Weather Service.

The waves earlier passed Hawaii, but there were no reports of major damage.

A tsunami warning was extended across the Pacific to North and South America, where many other coastal regions were evacuated, but the alert has since been lifted in most parts, including the Philippines, Australia, China and Indonesia.
'Train missing'

Strong waves hit Japan's Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, officials said, damaging dozens of coastal communities.

Kyodo news agency said a 10-metre wave struck Sendai, which is in Miyagi.

Japan's NHK television showed a massive surge of debris-filled water sweeping away houses, cars and ships and reaching far inland.

Motorists could be seen trying to speed away from the wall of water.

Farmland around Sendai was submerged and the waves pushed cars across the runway of the city's airport. Fires broke out in the city's centre.

In other developments:

• A passenger train was missing in Miyagi prefecture, and a ship carrying 100 people was swept away, police told Japanese media
  
• Fire is engulfing swathes of coastland, including homes and buildings, at Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture
  
• A major explosion hit a petrochemical plant in Sendai; further south a huge blaze swept through an oil refinery in Ichihara city, Chiba prefecture
  
• A dam burst in north-eastern Fukushima prefecture, sweeping away homes, Kyodo news agency reports
  
• There were reports of about 20 people injured in Tokyo after the roof of a hall collapsed on to a graduation ceremony

Nearly 3,000 people have been ordered to evacuate from near the Fukushima power plant, where a state of emergency has been declared. The cooling system failed in one of its reactors when it shut down automatically because of the earthquake.
Continue reading the main story
Deadliest earthquakes

27 July 1976, Tangshan, China: est 655,000 killed, 7.5

12 Jan 2010, Haiti: 222,570 killed, 7.0

8 Oct 2005, Pakistan: 80,361 killed, 7.6

31 May 1970 Chimbote, Peru: 70,000 killed, 7.9

Source: USGS

• History of deadly earthquakes
  
• How to measure earthquakes
  
• Animated guide: Earthquakes
  
• Animated guide: Tsunamis
  

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said no radiation leaks at that power plant or any of the other reactors in the quake-hit zone had been detected.

In a televised address, he extended his sympathy to the victims of the disaster and said an emergency response headquarters had been set up.

The UN's nuclear agency said four nuclear power plants had shut down safely.

In Iwate prefecture, also near the epicentre, an official said it was difficult to gauge the extent of the destruction.

"Roads were badly damaged and cut off as the tsunami washed away debris, cars and many other things," said Hiroshi Sato, a disaster management official in Iwate.

Residents and workers in Tokyo rushed out of apartment buildings and office blocks and gathered in parks and open spaces as aftershocks continued to hit.

Many people in the Japanese capital said they had never felt such a powerful earthquake.

In central Tokyo, Jeffrey Balanag said he was stuck in his office in the Shiodome Sumitomo building because the elevators had stopped working.

"We're almost seasick from the constant rolling of the building," he told the BBC.

Bullet train services to northern Japan were halted and rapid transit in Tokyo was suspended, stranding many workers in the city centre.

About four million homes in and around Tokyo suffered power cuts.

They expect there will be over 1000 people dead.

[spoilsport]

Death toll is expected to exceed 1000.

@daystar: It was, but then they found 300 bodies in Sendai alone

[yaujtapool]

Mar 11, 2011 12:06:30 GMT -5 Phantom Stargrave said:

Mar 11, 2011 12:01:05 GMT -5 yaujtapool said:

Apparently the tsunami was reaching speeds approaching 600 mph.

Wait, so it was outrunning airplanes?

Jesus.

Im sure it slowed down once it met the land

[cm24]

@spoilsport: Damn

[spoilsport]

In addition to oil refinery blazes/explosions, massive fires are ravaging the countrysides and homes of Japan, as well as eating away their rice fields.

It's mind-boggling the scope and range of the disasters that an earthquake causes. it's like a crazy chain of destruction-earthquake, tsunami, explosions, fires.

[Supreme Marvel]

There was a giant whirlpool and a small boat was caught in it. Hope they are alright.

[spoilsport]

a second train has been reported to be missing.

@marvel: That footage was insane. I can only imagine what was going through the crews heads.

[yaujtapool]

An entire train has vanished and even a freaking whirlpool !!

[yaujtapool]

The sixth largest earthquake ever recorded .

[spoilsport]

I wonder if that means "In Japan" or just...."ever".

either way, crazy.