We have been watching the coverage since just before 5AM Pacific time. Devastating.

We are expecting waves from the tsunami to hit the west coast of Vancouver Island any time now.

Ann

Yikes, Ann. Hang on tight! My son is in Ventura CA, but about a mile in from the beach. He and his GF have a trip to Hawaii planned for next week.

This is horrible. The devastation is hard to comprehend. Do we have anyone here from Japan or Hawaii? I remember Beth-in-Tokyo from years back, but she no longer posts. Hope she is safe.

Praying for all who are in Japan and any who are in the path of the tsunami.....

Alexa

There was Andy_in_Japan, who was my swap partner a few years ago, and she has not posted lately either. Beaches here have been evacuated, except for the beach where they are filming an episode of Biggest Loser. Water was receeding from the beach in Oregon as I was leaving for work. I now no longer live in a tsunami zone, but I did when I was in Venice.

The tsunami is northern Japan looked horribly devastating. I feel for everyone there.

Lars

I've also been watching the news, it's horrible.

Isn't Terri on some island off the coast or Washington or Oregon? I hope she's safe and dry too. And Carol (Readinglady) is in Oregon, but I think far enough away from the coast.

And Deanna, where is she?

Annie

Here's help if anybody is looking for somebody they know. Great google app. I hope nobody needs it. Please spread the word - post on your fb or twitter account!

Here is a link that might be useful: Google person finder - Japan

My friend's son works for Disney and has been in Japan. He sent the following note via Facebook:

"Hello all... Finally got back up to the hotel room....

We had the quake here at 2:45pm local time, it lasted about 5min... and then we had aftershocks all day. OLC (Oriental Land Co.) The company that owns Disneyland shut down all the rides and gathered us all and kept our interpreters with us, so we were all up to speed and knew what was going on at all times.

We all left the park about 5 hours after the quake hit, gathered in the bar and had some food, the hotel is packed with folks who couldn't leave Disney. They are thinking trains wont be back up for another 2 days and there are even reports that one of the trains might have gone into the bay as it was on the bridge when the quake hit. No Tsunami issue's for us, we are tucked in Chiba Prefecture which even though is on the water, its inland behind a 10m shore break.

OLC has closed both Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea tomorrow to allow the teams to do a full inspection of the park. We (the US Team) is meeting at 3pm to regroup and figure out what were gonna do next...

More info as I have it... cell service is completely intermittent at the moment, however, thanks to Facebook and Twitter we were all able to communicate with each other and stay connected... SO if something does happen, I'll be using FB & Twitter to get ahold of ya....

Off to bed...."

Back to me. Just heard there was a second quake, in Nagano.

They closed the beach here. No Tsunami damage here in So.Cal.
Ann

Terrible photos of that devastating tsunami, we were mesmerized by the images on TV. It brought back the horror and helplessness of 9/11 watching the WTC burn.
Pam, thanks for the inside update. My oldest friend's son works for a bank in Tokyo. I contacted him on FB and he replied that he was still working and in the office. I'll get more info from my friend tonight. What a disaster, the images of the flood swallowing up the homes, vehicles and buildings will never be forgotten!

There is damage in Northern California, particularly Crescent City, which is on a bay that funnels tsunami waves. I can see now why they evacuated the beaches here, and some people have been swept out to sea in Oregon.

I'll have to check back to see what is happening in Japan.

We're all fine, inland enough that even a large tsunami wouldn't do personal harm. Here the mountains present a barrier, unlike Japan. It was horrifying watching that water sweeping across the flat landscape carrying buildings and cars ahead of it.

There has been some damage, mainly to watercraft. Some sinkings and subsidiary flooding, but nothing too severe.

Four people were swept out to sea while watching the waves from some rocks. Two managed to make it back to shore; two others were rescued.

Personally I think they were luckier than they deserved, considering their stupidity. They had a choice; those poor souls in Japan didn't. I understand there was only 10-15 minutes warning before the tsunami hit.

Carol

Goes to show you:

1. Science is way behind in predicting earthquakes. You would think for such a major one there would be some signs.

2. Animals can't predict quakes.

3. Where were the psychics?

dcarch

More pictures. Unbelieveable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Atlantic online

Those photos are incredible. What devastation.

Japan does have one of the best earthquake/tsunami warning systems in the world. Warnings went out within 3 minutes of the earthquake. But ten minutes later the first waves hit the beaches in Japan. Sometimes it doesn't matter how good the technology is. You just don't have the time.

No surprise since a tsunami moves at 600+ mph. and even if the warning had reached Japan the moment the earthquake struck, that's still only an additional three minutes at best.

Carol

I am here and fine. Like Carol, I am inland and behind the safety of our coast range (1500-2000 feet of protection between me and the ocean, even though only 45 minutes away).
However, my son-in-law was ON HIS plane AT the Narita airport when the quake hit. He was on his final leg of his trip home from China.
He's OK.
They immediately closed the airport, but evidently reopened for some flights as he was delayed only about 6 hours and arrived safely in Portland at 12:40pm this afternoon.
Thank you Lord for a safe arrival!! Many have not been able to get flights out.

Yes.....I was watching the arrival board at work...so, fire me!

I haven't actually talked to him yet, but my daughter emailed this morning to let me know he was OK and on the plane home! Poor guy, he's gotta be whooped. It's already a 2 day ordeal to come home, he has an overnight layover in Shanghai. Add an extra 6 hours at the airport and a 9+ hour flight.................Ugh!!

Lynn_1965 hasn't posted in long time, but she is on the coast of Oregon. I believe I still have her personal email at work and will check in tomorrow.

There is millions in damage on the southern Oregon and northern California coast to marinas and personal boats, but still so minimal compared to Japan.
My prayers go out to all who are suffering.
Thanks for thinking of me.

Deanna

Deanna, I'm so very glad to hear your son-in-law is OK. If it's the flight I was hearing about on the news, he was very fortunate to be on that plane when the earthquake struck. I understand those still in the terminal will have a long wait before getting out. (Though I'm sure there're mainly grateful to be alive.)

I keep hearing of additional damage on the Pacific coast, especially to the harbors here, but as you said, compared to Japan (and New Zealand) it's nothing.

Carol

Here are some before and after pictures of the tsunami effect.

Lars

Lars,

Shocking pictures! Thanks for posting.

It occurred to me that all those millions of acres of farm land will take many years to heal from having been soaked in salt water, petroleum, dirt, ------.

For Japan, a land-poor country, it is not going to be good.

dcarch

The tsunami effect really depends on the coastline around here. There was a lot of damage in the upper harbor at Santa Cruz when a pier broke apart and set lose a number of boats. But 20 miles south, at Moss Landing, there was far less of an effect. Moss Landing is right off the very deep ocean canyon, while Santa Cruz is on more of a shelf. But Crescent City's harbor, mainly fishing boats, was destroyed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Damage in Santa Cruz

Now I see the news is warning that Japan may have another tsunami. Those poor people, I hope they find safety somewhere.

How fortunate we are compared to those thousands of lives lost.

Annie

Also, although it's getting less play in the news currently, in the south of Japan on Kyushu Shinmoedake volcano has begun erupting. Those poor people.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Shinmoedake Eruption

DH found this six minute video of a slow wave coming in, over six minutes long. It doesn't cover the water receding.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gizmodo link

Here's one of those before and after comparison, similar to what was done after Katrina.

Move your curser to the far right of the before picture. A vertical black line will appear, if it's not already there. Then move your curser to the left, as if turning a page. The reveal will be the after picture.

Unfortunately, the devastation is not over. My thoughts are with everyone affected by the quake and tsunami and all its aftermath.

Here is a link that might be useful: Before and After

Don't focus just on the tsunami and the earthquake. Those people are already dead.

Focus on the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power site. It sounds bad and seems to be getting worse. Flooding primary containment with seawater is a last-ditch effort, it means all their cooling systems/effort have failed. The explosions that destroyed the buildings/secondary containment presumably didn't helped efforts.

The Japanese nuclear agency has acknowledged a ''partial meltdown'' in at least one reactor. I would assume things are significantly worse than what they are officially saying.

Consider - after an explosion big enough to destroy the building in a fireball visible many miles away, how does Toyko Electric Power actually know what the situation is in the reactor? If the people on site are killed or wounded, their measuring/monitor equipment destroyed or damaged, pumps and piping perhaps also damaged - how good is TEPCo's information?

Should the primary containment fail in a big way, the jet stream apparently goes from Japan to the Pacific Northwest. Great.

Should the primary containment fail in a big way, the jet stream apparently goes from Japan to the Pacific Northwest. Great.

Yup, I just told hubs yesterday we may have to move.

It seems the news just gets worse and worse. Property damage can all be rebuilt and repaired eventually, but long term health concerns cannot and lives can never be replaced.

If the ground is ruined or contaminated by the seawater and salt, the air is ruined or contaminated by the radiation and the fresh water supply is ostensibly similarly impacted, how could the area possibly even be habitable for decades to come? And how long will the radiation on the jetstream linger before it dissipates into the atmosphere? If a country as technologically astute as Japan cannot contain such a nuclear disaster, can any country ever make it safe? Sigh. and no, I don't expect answers to any of those questions, they were completely rhetorical.

Annie

Yet anoether horrible event for our planet. My heart and prayers go out to all of those in Japan and those who have family and friends in the worst of it. The Nuclear plant(s) failure is a scary thing for sure.

Not sure how to take it all in....I guess Mother Earth and Mother Nature are in control of our destiny to some point. Not much we can do about it though IMHO. Makes one think and be thankful for what we have now....

Interesting to me is the volcanic activity in Hawaii just a couple of weeks ago. The Pacific rim of fire and all....very, very, interesting that's for sure.

David

Here's a list of recent earthquakes that shows the massive number of 5+ aftershocks, including many at 6+ and a 7.9 just 45 minutes after the 9.0. It's quite common for an aftershock with one degree of magnitude less to happen 45 to 60 minutes after a very large quake (from my experience). This quake, however, had many foreshocks, seven of them in the 5.0 to 6.1 range, and I think this should have been a warning that something big was about to happen. It's very unusual to have that many 5+ quakes so close together without a huge quake being imminent. It started with a 6.1 that had a 5.7 half a day later. The 5.7 was too big to be just an aftershock of a 6.1 and should have sent a message that the activity was going to get worse before it was going to get better. A 5.0 quake can do damage, and a 5.7 almost always does.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: map of aftershocks

Actually Hawaii is not on the "ring of fire." The instability of the ring around the Pacific is because of plate boundaries. The Hawaiian Islands sit in the middle of the Pacific plate, but they are over a "hot spot" where magma boils up to the surface. The chain of islands was formed as the plate moved over the hot spot.

News coverage of the situation at the nuclear plant has been hysterical and/or useless. It's been hard to get a clear picture of what's going on. The best explanation I've read so far is from the Economist.

Here is a link that might be useful: Economist 3/15 on Fukushima plant

Cloudy, my BIL loves newscientist.com for the nuke info

I get distracted by all the cool links on that site - one video put 'Pi' to music and I couldn't stop watching it.

Here is a link that might be useful: linky