A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan late Thursday night Kansas City time- prompting tsunami warnings for Hawaii- Alaska and the West coasts of the United States and Canada.
A tsunami is expected to hit areas around Crescent City California as early as 9:23 a.m. Kansas City time.
A live broadcast of KTVU-TV2 in the San Francisco-Oakland area can be found here (you can enter this URL directly into your Windows Media player).
So far- Japan's NHK TV Web site is reporting 375 dead with "more than 500 people missing."
American news media was reporting around 8 a.m. Kansas City time that "200-300 bodies were found in Sendai" which was the closest city to the quake's epicenter.
This report was also confirmed on the Web site THE JAPAN TIMES.
There is also a serious concern with a nuclear power plant in the quake area.
Employees at the plant have been unable to generate enough electricty to activate the reactor's cooling system- and residents have been evacuated from an area of 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) around that nuclear plant.
A release of pressure at the plant threatened to send radioactive particles into the air- and it has not yet been assured there would not be a reactor meltdown at that plant.
Fires are seen burning out of control in many areas hit by the quake- including at least one major fire in Tokyo- which is said to have escaped major damage.
Local tsunamis up to 30 feet high have washed cars and buildings away.
Hawaii is under a Tsunami Warning- and you can see a live Web broadcast of KITV-4 Honolulu HERE.
As of 7:45 a.m. Kansas City time and nearly 10 minutes after the tsunami was expected to hit the island chain- water levels have risen to just slightly above-normal in all points monitored by the news media and officials in Hawaii.
The quake is the strongest recorded in 140 years in Japan- and thus far it's the 5th-strongest earthquake ever recorded worldwide.
More information is posted on this blog as received as live Web broadcasts from the affected areas are being received here at CSW.
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4 comments:
Wondered when you was going to get up and see this I was still awake when it hit. Watched it all and followed it till just after 4 then got soem rest so as to be awake when the tsunami got closer to US ground.
Watched the refinery growing to a point at anytime I was expecting a huge huge flash and it all be gone along with a helicopter that was filming it.
Not sure this is all over yet. The earth still doing a lot of moving around.
I found out about the quake around 0230, when I got up to use the restroom. I went on Facebook just to see what was up, if any of my West Coast friends had posted anything, blah, blah. KMBZ posted updates on FB. I noted also the NY Times missive in my email box. (Love that smart phone!)
Earthquakes are scary and this is a big one. I think we'll be hearing about this for a while.
The Observer
You don't really realize the destruction this quake and the aftershocks have caused until you look at these place BEFORE all this happened on GOOGLE Maps.
Remember too- it's been 16 years since there's been a sizable quake on our West Coast...
Well I hate to say it but very good chance one very close to home here could effect us all clear up here.
Guess all we can do is wait and see what pans out.
Funny how we think we are always one step ahead of these events and then the one comes along that shows us we have no control or a clue what this ole earth can throw at us.
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