Reply With QuoteWave prediction for the Pacific.
I was watching some of that video this morning. It is really hard to believe the force in a Tsunami that carries so far inland. Ripping up obstacles, taking boats, cars, houses and fires. And there is nothing you can do. Does anyone now how long after the earthquake that video was shot? How far ahead was the warning? I can't believe the residents had too long. So sad.
I really do not know the geography of Japan. Like, how much is rural like those shots and what their evacuation routes would be into the center of the island.
EDIT: At the end, is that the coastline on the horizon, so the Tsunami was running parallel?
Wave prediction for the Pacific.
The quake was right off the coast, so they probably had little warning, if any.
I'm seeing videos of multiple different whirlpools. Here's another one.
Edit: And this series of videos is probably the best compilation of footage I've seen, with extended coverage of the chopper cam, and more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri1UuTx9tPc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtOWaNbZySY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrAl2dIKvPw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRPcWXoltfs
Last edited by Ben Sones; 03-11-2011 at 07:10 AM.
I know I have an overly developed empathy organ, but man, this sort of thing makes me feel ill. Horrifying to look at.
It's hard to not feel empathy here, Erik. I just hope the loss of life stays low.
Yes, I agree, but a whole different set of emotions are brought out here than say watching the developments in the Middle East. Just wild. Thanks to everyone posting links and keeping the thread up to date.Originally Posted by Skipper
It's horrific. You see cars moving slowly on the roads running parallel to the wave, and you know the drivers are looking at it and may not entirely understand what's happening without the benefit of the helicopter's aerial perspective, and you just want to scream at them "Drive, you fools! NOW!"
I can't even imagine what the death toll from this thing is going to look like. "Hundreds" seems wildly optimistic.
Look how the Tsunami effect dwarfs the continent of the U.S. I know it does dissipate somewhat, but the fact that one event can affect so much of the world in a matter of hours is completely awesome (not "cool" awesome).
Waves have started to hit Hawaii. The largest ones seen so far are apparently 7 feet, in Maui.
Not during the quake though. Amazing sight all the same.
This is very tragic. The people of Japan must have had virtually no warning this was happening or how bad it would be given the scenes of devastation in these handful of news videos being shown so far. Those videos of the rural farmland are especially horrifying, as you can see not only the people in cars trying to drive away, but people ON FOOT literally running for their lives as the water and debris close in from seemingly all sides.
The people standing on the bridge watching as cars, boats and even buildings were swept by astounded me. I realize it's a high place out of the water, but if enough of that debris or a really big boat comes along and hits one of those supports hard enough that bridge is not going to be a good place to be standing.
So far I'm not seeing a lot of video or news out of Hawaii or the West Coast. Was it simply not a factor there?
the waves are just hitting Hawaii now, and won't reach the west coast of the US until noon or 1pm (EST). Hawaii is apparently getting some large waves, but they got the warning out hours ago, so it's not likely that there will be casualties there.
Looks like the biggest threat now is the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The cooling system depends on battery power as the emergency generators donīt work at this moment. The japanese government evacuates all people in the vicinity of the power plant.
That is horrific.
A client of ours has a daughter inland in Honolulu. She said the waves are not as bad as expected, but they are still evaluating the damage. She was pretty much out of the danger zone, however.
All the news in the US is about how Hawaii is not being devastated.
I presume there must be something on TV news about Japan and other areas that are actually being affected, but from commercial newsradio and from the top stories on Google News, you'd get the idea that the whole event was some kind of fizzled false alarm tsunami, not that there was this gigantic earthquake in Japan that killed all these people and caused all this destruction.
Cooling has failed at a nuclear power plant. Oh my god.
I hate the news. They are probably trying to get Charlie Sheen's take. I can't believe they are not all about estimating huge death tolls. They love the high death tolls.
That should in theory not mean anything very dire except for the investors in the reactor. No radiation will leak unless something much worse than that takes place. Presumably all the control rods are in place, and even if they weren't, any kind of modern design will contain the problem. Of course, it might be an old reactor....
High quality pictures of the devastation:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2...-japan/100022/
Even if the control rods are in place, you have to cool the residual heat they generate. Otherwise they can melt and you get another Three Mile Island scenario...
At this moment the cooling system operates with battery power. Letīs hope they can fix the emergency generators.
The plants all are secure and safely shut down now, according to the Washington Post:
The four Japanese nuclear power plants closest to the earthquake have been safely shut down, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters.
The government had earlier decided to declare a nuclear-power emergency situation, which happens if there is confirmation of radioactivity leaks from a nuclear power plant or a reactor cooling system breaks down. A cooling system reported malfunctioning at one plant is now working.
The IAEA, the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog group, said it was looking for more information on which countries and nuclear facilities might be at risk from the tsunami.
The United States has transported coolant to a Japanese nuclear plant affected by the massive quake and will continue to assist Japan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.
"We just had our Air Force assets in Japan transport some really important coolant to one of the nuclear plants. You know Japan is very reliant on nuclear power and they have very high engineering standards, but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," Clinton said at a meeting of the President's Export Council.
Jesus. I guess it could be worse, the epicenter could have been at Tokyo.
Last edited by Jason McCullough; 03-11-2011 at 09:34 AM.
I saw one footage where cars and trucks were driving along a road perpendicular to the incoming tsunami wave. Some drivers managed to turn to another road to out run the water...others weren't so lucky. I can't imagine being a driver seeing an incoming wave three to six meters high and you can't do anything about it.
The only warning some might have had was the earthquake itself. 35 minutes after the quake itself, I was watching tsunamis coming in live on a camera that was apparently locked down, so a news agency had enough time to set up a camera and probably flee at that particular location. I think the horrific farmland scene was more than an hour after the quake, and clearly many people didn't realize they were at risk or didn't drop everything and immediately flee. Closer in, it would have been less time.
The Tsunamis are hitting SoCal right now, at low tide, but with minor effect though there are warnings of dangerous turbulence more than high water.
Has anyone heard from Copet? I don't know where in Japan he is but I hope he is okay.
A former coworker of mine is over there too and based on Facebook updates he seems to be okay, but my god this shit is scary.
I live about a half mile outside of the tsunami evacuation zone for Los Angeles so any time a tsunami hits somewhere else I get a little scared.
WTF?!
the coolant of the reactor is water...
Would that have been worse? I suppose, but the tsunami is causing MASSIVE damage, in addition to the earthquake damage. What will this do to Japan's economy? The damage numbers are going to be astronomical.
That powerful of a quake was going to be at a major subduction zone, so it would be off the coast rather than in an actual city. And the quake is being dwarfed in damage by the resulting tsunami. Honestly, it couldn't be much worse than it was.
The SoCal media tradition is in effect - the press stampedes to Cal Tech after a major earthquake and doctors Kate Hutton and Lucy Jones are constantly being interviewed (they got Lucy Jones on the phone at 11-11:30 last night).
Of a purity that the tsunami probably isn't helping to provide, if that's your point.
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