HOLY CRAP!!!

I was shocked to wake up this morning to hear they had a major earthquake in Japan ... they have been having some fairly large earthquakes as it was there (between 5.? and 7.?) over the last week or so ... so news of an earthquake wasn't that surprising ...

but an 8.9 was a total shock!

I've been watching the news on the three major world wide news ... fox, msnbc, and cnn (yes my tv does really get those other stations) ... and the images are amazing - and scary!

They are saying that the waves were about 10 meters (about 30foot) high ... they are showing shots of whirlpools that were created by the tsunami ... boats look like sticks circling a drain hole. 

poor japan.

They are reporting that there is a commuter train missing as well right now ... but its the middle of the night there right now so there are little/few images coming out and its making rescue efforts slow ....

so far they are reporting less than 100 people dead (but that could go up depending on what happens with the fires/after shocks/train) ... but therre have been hundreds hurt/injured.

the red cross says that it is standing by waiting for the word to move in across the world --- Japan, hawaii, california, and all those little islands inbetween that people don't know the names of.

Japan is asking for help from people now.
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Now the tsunami that has arrived in Hawaii have only been about 3ft, still very dangerous - it will knock the pins out from under you and it only takes 1inch of water to drown a person - and CA is thinking that they will be getting 7 ft waves ...

not sure if that is because there isn't really anything between the epicenter and the CA coast or if they are just being precautiious and over reacting the way the CAns do.

but the major damage won't be from the height but by the reach of the waves...

we've all seen the shots of waves coming in and drawing back - how it barely gets onto the beach (well from a landlubbers point of view, arially they come in quite a ways) .... but these waves could reach in 3, 4, maybe even 10 times that distance - so it could be enough to get into the major coastal cities.

It does not should though that cities like SF and LA will be effected - but still CA is so densly populated that there would be 10s of 1000s of people effected.