JAPAN EARTHQUAKE.
Japan was hit with a 8.9 earthquake yesterday, its largest in its recorded history. My mom was up all night watching the news and checking on relatives. Luckily, all my relatives are safe.
Though Tokyo wasn't the center of it and hundreds of miles from the epicenter, power is out and trains aren't running. My aunt in Tokyo was able to walk home and her sons are seeking refuge in their offices. My great grandmother lives farther south in Japan so she was furthest from the epicenter, she's fine but worried for my aunt. I don't think anyone in Japan slept last night.
I've been watching the Japanese news channel and the images are worse than what some of the American television channels have been able to cover. Massive, massive fires and devastation.
News & Images
+ The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot tsunami and was followed by at least 80 aftershocks above magnitude 5.0 -- and some as large as 7.1. The tsunami went through north-east parts of the country sweeping away buildings, cars, and ships fair inland. The quake hit at 2:46 p.m. local time in Japan. The earthquake lasted for five minutes. The quake ruptured a patch of the earth's crust 240km (150 miles) long and 80km (50 miles) across.
+ Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii and warnings blanketed the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast.
+ Japan's Sendai Airport (elevation 2 meters above sea level, partly up to 7 meters above sea level) is currently under water.
+ One ship carrying 100 passengers was swept away by the tsunami. 4 passenger trains are reported missing while 1 has derailed.
+ A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of the flames being extinguished, public broadcaster NHK said. A witness told the broadcaster that the fire began after the tsunami knocked over several cars, causing them to leak oil and gas. The fire started hours later and rescuers have yet to arrive, according to NHK. Video HERE.
+ Japanese defence ministry officials tell the Kyodo news agency that 1,800 homes in Fukushima prefecture have been destroyed.
+ Scientists have said the earthquake ranked as the fifth-largest in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that devastated the city of Christchurch in New Zealand last month. "The energy radiated by this quake is nearly equal to one month's worth of energy consumption" in the United States, Brian Atwater of the US Geological Survey told the Associated Press.
+ A magnitude 6.7 quake struck Japan's mountainous Niigata prefecture in the west of the main Honshu island at about 4:00 in the morning in Japan (1900 GMT Friday), caused landslides and avalanches. No tsunami alerts have been issued for the latest quake. This is believed to NOT be an aftershock, but a separate earthquake.
UPDATE March 13th
+ Japanese officials raised their estimate Sunday of the quake's magnitude to 9.0, a notch above the U.S. Geological Survey's reading of 8.9.
+ The estimated death toll from Japan's disasters climbed past 10,000 Sunday. The prime minister said it was the nation's worst crisis since World War II.
+ Japanese broadcaster NHK says the total number of confirmed deaths caused by the disaster now stands at 1,596. But police warn that the death toll in Miyagi region alone could top 10,000. Only 400 people have been confirmed dead in Miyagi, which has a population of 2.3 million.
+ The number of people whose whereabouts are unknown exceeds 10,000.
+ At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households were without electricity. About 310,000 people have been evacuated to emergency shelters
+ Near-freezing temperatures compounded the misery of survivors along hundreds of miles (kilometers) of the northeastern coast battered by the tsunami that smashed inland with breathtaking fury. Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines while survivors examined the ruined remains.
+++ Fukushima Nuclear Plant +++
+The cooling systems of two reactors at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant failed after the 8.9-magnitude quake struck off the north-east coast. Both in danger of melting down with potentially serious environmental consequences.
+ On Saturday, a hydrogen explosion blew apart the building housing reactor 1, where technicians had been venting steam as part of their attempts to cool the reactor.
+ The authorities have said that radiation levels around the damaged plant at one point exceeded legal safety limits, but that these are now falling.
+ More than 180,000 people have evacuated from within a 20km (12.4-mile) radius, and up to 160 may have been exposed to radiation.
+ At least 19 people are being treated for the effects of exposure to radiation. Workers in protective clothing have been checking residents as they leave the evacuation zone.
+ About a third of Japan's energy is from nuclear power, and with a big proportion of capacity hit by Friday's quake it will make outages necessary.
+++ Rescue & Aid +++
+ Dozens of countries have offered assistance. Two U.S. aircraft carrier groups were off Japan's coast and ready to help. Helicopters were flying from one of the carriers, the USS Ronald Reagan, delivering food and water in Miyagi.
+ Two other U.S. rescue teams of 72 personnel each and rescue dogs arrived Sunday, as did a five-dog team from Singapore.
+ Rescuers are struggling to get to thousands of people who remain stranded in the north-eastern Japanese region of Tohoku. NHK television reports that in Miyagi prefecture, there are more than 3,400 people waiting for help in the city of Kesennuma, 2,300 in Minamisanriku, and 3,800 in Ishinomaki. In Souma city, Fukushima prefecture, rescuers have still not been able to reach residents trapped in their homes because of flooded roads.
+ Meanwhile, offers of help to the Japanese government have been pouring in from across the world. Even the poor southern Afghan city of Kandahar is chipping in - its mayor has said it is donating $50,000 to the "brothers and sisters" of Japan. "I know $50,000 is not a lot of money for a country like Japan, but it is a show of appreciation from the Kandahar people," Ghulam Haidar Hamidi told the Reuters news agency.
+ In a remarkable tale of survival, the Japanese defence ministry has said a 60-year old man has been rescued, clinging to the roof of his house. It had been carried 15km out to sea by Friday's tsunami, which swept away the man's wife.
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+ Live video news from BBC HERE.
+ Google's Person Finger for those looking for loved ones in Japan.
+ An extensive map of the quake with videos of the devastation in various areas of the country.
More images HERE
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Live footage of the tsunami hitting Japan.
More raw footage of the earthquake/tsunami HERE
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**This post is public and will be updated with images and news as I find and hear it. Feel free to share the post with others who have not heard the news.