14 ms·

8.9 earthquake hits Japan

678 points by flyt 16y ago

jarquesp 16y ago
Live stream: http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm Or direct 256k: mms://nhk-world.gekimedia.net/nhkw-highm They have revised the earthquake to 8.4 as of 11:08PM PST.
- flyt 16y ago
  other live stream: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ watching the 3-meter tsunami roll over land is surreal
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - jarin 16y ago
    For some reason I'm getting the audio but no video. Anyone else having that problem?
    - initself 16y ago
      Yes.
      - icco 16y ago
        Same. Was able to get video from http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al-jazeera-english-english http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al-jazeera-english-eng...
    - cookiecaper 16y ago
      Try the stream from YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish .
- btilly 16y ago
  The earthquake seems to be being revised upwards, not downwards. At least according to aljazeera.
  - jarquesp 16y ago
    Yeah, I think it now stands at 8.9.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
invisiblefunnel 16y ago
Patrick McKenzie tweet https://twitter.com/#!/patio11/status/46086466836762624 https://twitter.com/#!/patio11/status/46086466836762624
- patio11 16y ago
  So since most of y'all understand American geography better than Japanese geography: My friends in Osaka (San Fran) felt it. I live in Ogaki (Kansas). There was a mild panic in the mall, and our trains stopped for a few minutes. Folks in Tokyo are largely shaken but not terribly affected (Boston/DC ish). Miyagi/etc (Maine-ish) got a wee bit whacked by a tsunami. They had a few minutes of warning. Reports will come in for a few hours, but we're really good at dealing with this.
  - harisenbon 16y ago
    I found the way the news dealt with the Tsunamis amusing. Video: No Tsunamis. Clear water Announcer: 6 Meter Tsunami Warning American News: 10 METER TSUNAMIS!!!! BWAAAA!!!!
  - koenigdavidmj 16y ago
    Osaka is kind of cool but gets a bit...weird...at times, there isn't much to speak of in Ogaki, and Miyagi is a fishing town?
    - angus77 16y ago
      Miyagi is a prefecture. Like a state or province.
- mitko 16y ago
  I don't want to be disrespectful to anybody affected by the earthquake but your comment made me remember this: http://xkcd.com/723/ http://xkcd.com/723/
  - ugh 16y ago
jarin 16y ago
I just talked to my parents in Hawaii, there's a tsunami warning for 3 am HST. I reminded my dad to sandbag the doors of his restaurant in Waikiki (Vit's Hawaiian Steakhouse) before he closes for the night. It's just outside of the "tsunami zone" in Waikiki, so I know my dad will probably be working until the police make him evacuate. He did that on the last tsunami warning, and Vit's was pretty much the only restaurant open for several blocks. There was a line out of the door, haha.
- whalesalad 16y ago
  Howzit! I lived down there for a few years and miss it dearly. Remember seeing that place a lot but never went inside. Hope your family and the restaurant are safe. I have a lot of friends down there as well. I actually wish that I could be there for this, the last time there was a tsunami warning (almost a year ago exactly) I was out of town on the mainland =/
  - jarin 16y ago
    Yeah, my family will be fine, they live up on a hill (the only one concerned is my youngest brother, and he just wants to know if there will be school tomorrow). The restaurant should be ok even if a decent-sized tsunami hits. My dad, the Ultimate Businessman, has insurance for everything. I remember growing up on the beach at the North Shore though, there were a few times when we had to evacuate in a hurry because the early warning systems were not nearly as good as they are now.
  - epochwolf 16y ago
    > I actually wish that I could be there for this Wait, you want to be in the path of a tsunami? I'll admit being in Wisconsin can be a little boring weather-wise but the lack of natural diasasters is kind of nice. The one tornado warning I've lived through was quite enough for me.
- rottencupcakes 16y ago
  Do they shut off the warnings at some point, or do they have to listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZkdIVcfEA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZkdIVcfEA) for the next 5 hours?
harisenbon 16y ago
It was crazy scary, and I was all the way down in Nagoya. There doesn't seem to be too much damage in Miyagi (where the earthquake was) but some fires broke out apparently. Luckily, it seemed to be a long, hard earthquake rather than a short hard earthquake, which means that buildings are able to withstand the shaking better. The shaking went on for about 3 minutes here, and there were some after shocks that lasted for about a minute. The Great Hanshin Earthquake was only a 7.2, and it was much more destructive.
- wisty 16y ago
  It's probably also deep. Deep earthquakes do less damage. But still, 8.9, that's almost 100 times bigger than a 7.
  - 3pt14159 16y ago
    Closer to 80 times stronger than a hundred, but yeah definitely deep.
    - mrcharles 16y ago
      From Wikipedia: The energy release of an earthquake, which closely correlates to its destructive power, scales with the 3⁄2 power of the shaking amplitude. Thus, a difference in magnitude of 1.0 is equivalent to a factor of 31.6 ( = (101.0)(3 / 2)) in the energy released; a difference in magnitude of 2.0 is equivalent to a factor of 1000 ( = (102.0)(3 / 2) ) in the energy released.[2]
      - borism 16y ago
        so the correct answer is that this one was 1000 times more powerful than Kobe, and also very shallow (depth of 24 km), but fortunately offshore (but unfortunately that means powerful tsunami).
      - jules 16y ago
        How does energy scale with distance from epicenter?
harisenbon 16y ago
Also I found this interesting: > A massive 8.8 magnitude quake hit the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, shaking buildings in the capital Tokyo > Why would you talk about the earthquake in Tokyo, when it happened in Miyagi? Tokyo only got hit with a 3 or 4. [EDIT: updated to 5 JMS. Tokyo got hit pretty hard too] The actual earthquake was around 240 miles away. That's the same distance from New York to Boston.
- icco 16y ago
  Probably the same reason Californians talk about the entire state no matter where the quake hits the state. Also, Al Jazeera is reporting 4+ million homes are without power in Tokyo.
  - craigmccaskill 16y ago
    The nuclear power plants were automatically shut down, the power grid buckled at that point.
    - fungi 16y ago
      The plants are right on the coast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Japan#Nuclear_Power_Plants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Japan#Nuclear_...
- epynonymous 16y ago
  remember, earthquakes are caused by massive tectonic plates shifting around, each plate could be hundreds of miles themselves. also there were at least 4 - 5 aftershocks that hit tokyo with a magnitude of 7+. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/11/AR2011031100293_2.html?hpid=topnews http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03...
- oldstrangers 16y ago
  10 to 12 percent of Japan's entire population lives within Tokyo. 25% of Japan's entire population is within 30 miles of Tokyo. This is why.
Klonoar 16y ago
Was pretty crazy. myGengo office had a light break, but otherwise we weren't too badly affected. Hope goes out to those more affected, looks insane from what I'm seeing.
solipsist 16y ago
And there's already a growing Wikipedia article on the earthquake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake
- phlux 16y ago
  WTF - That article states 6,000,000 SIX MILLION deaths? Can this be accurate? It reiterated what I heard on the news regarding passenger trains missing due to the Tsunami - but 6MM??? EDIT: Looks like wiki-trolling... From CNN: The official death toll stood at 137, with 539 injured and 351 missing, according to Kyodo, citing police, but that death toll seemed almost certain to rise -- from 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the coastal city of Sendai alone, Kyodo reported. It said the death toll is likely to surpass 1,000.
  - wisty 16y ago
    Death toll from disasters is always low to start. Rescue workers on the ground are more worried about digging out the people who survived (at least for the first 48 hours or so).
apsurd 16y ago
Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??
- patio11 16y ago
  How are people notified to get the hell out of there?? Are you familiar with the term "air raid siren"? The coast is wall-to-wall peppered with squack boxes. About a minute prior to the earthquake there would have been a "Earthquake is imminent -- brace yourself." broadcast and within a minute there would have been a "A tsunami warning is in effect for (here). Go to shelter immediately. Repeat..." There are a couple levels of alerts they can pull, from "Be careful" to "MOVE NOW." Miyagi just got "MOVE NOW."
  - apsurd 16y ago
    Thanks Patrick, that's refreshing to hear.
    - patio11 16y ago
      Problems Japan does not have #1: insufficient spending on public works projects In Case Shit Happens, because shit happens so often that when people in several dozen countries say shit they're speaking Japanese. Can I tell you my favorite outsourcing story? Apologies for those who've heard it (and yes, this actually happened): India: We can't log into the test server. Patrick: Then you didn't set it up right. India: No, we did, but we get an error message. Patrick: What error message? India: We can't read it. Patrick: sigh Please take a screenshot then. India: Here you go. Patrick: Oh, that is just a weather report which correctly reflects the state of the test database. The system is operating normally. Please proceed with your testing of the function you were assigned. India: Are you sure it isn't an error? It is written in red. And why would you put a weather report on the login screen anyway? Patrick: Q1) That is because if you ignore it you'll die. Q2) See Q1.
samh 16y ago
Airport 2 km inland is flooded, amazing helicopter shots of the water sliding across the land.
- vijaydev 16y ago
  This is the Tokyo International Airport?
  - po 16y ago
    I think he is referring to the sendai airport.
po 16y ago
I'm still feeling shakes every few minutes. It's like living in a house on a block of jello. Long rolling waves. I'm in central Tokyo and our china cabinet was shaken pretty badly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/5516954100/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/5516954100/in/photostre... I know some people up in sendai that I'm a bit worried about.
- rooshdi 16y ago
  Be careful man; thought I should post this: What to Do During an Earthquake http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm What to Do After an Earthquake http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_after.shtm http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_after.shtm
- donw 16y ago
  My office is on the 7th floor of a building in Yoyogi. Monitors are scattered everywhere, and our breakroom is effectively destroyed. Nobody was hurt, fortunately, but I'm really glad this quake wasn't any stronger... I've been through a lot of quakes here, and this is the first time I thought I might be going home in a black bag.
  - donw 16y ago
    Death toll is now being reported at over 400, mostly from the tsunami. Words don't exist to express the sorrow of their families...
    - donw 16y ago
      I don't know if this is appropriate here, but the Red Cross donation site has been down for awhile (at least, for me). I took the liberty of setting up a WePay group for donations: https://www.wepay.com/donate/78062 https://www.wepay.com/donate/78062 Not sure how to get the word out, but you've gotta start somewhere. :)
      - melvinram 16y ago
suyash 16y ago
Is this post appropriate for HN?
- cosmok 16y ago
  Not according to the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." But, I don't mind it all as I get to read views and firsthand accounts from fellow hackers that is much different from what I see on TV.
  - rdl 16y ago
    I was particularly interested in "is patio11 ok?" (and, are there any transpac fiber cuts?) I think it's fair to post stories which are headlines in ~all news simultaneously, even if not "hacker news" -- nuclear explosions, assassinations of G7 leaders, major wars, etc.
    - patio11 16y ago
      I'm touched, but there are several dozen HNers in Japan who I've met personally (just an FYI) most were closer to it than I was.
- Sandman 16y ago
  No, it is not. From the HN guidelines: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. And unlike cosmok, I do mind it, because this type of news is slowly turning HN into something it shouldn't be. There's a reason for this particular guideline, and I think we should honor that. EDIT: I don't mind the downvoting, but please, if you do that, at least post a comment on why you think my comment deserved to be downvoted.
  - younata 16y ago
kia 16y ago
Here is a video of tsunami caused by this earthquake http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcaFBlH8tjM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcaFBlH8tjM
bradly 16y ago
Interesting to view of all 5+ quakes the past 3 days http://cl.ly/3G0f0t0d1C2Z381s3O31 http://cl.ly/3G0f0t0d1C2Z381s3O31 . Loads of activity in the area. Is that kind of activity common, or could that have been an indicator that there was a chance of a major quake?
- yena 16y ago
  It's not normal at all. Something was building up
  - ars 16y ago
    From http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/#summary http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0... "The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day."
  - mkramlich 16y ago
    I strongly suspect it's related to the strange stories we've been hearing about a so-called Monster Island.
  - wisty 16y ago
    I think it's the other way round. An 8.9 takes a long time to build up. When it's almost ready to pop, then a smaller earthquake can set it off.
- yread 16y ago
  You can see the swarm here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/140_40.php http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/1...
eekfuh 16y ago
Zynga in japan: http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/199150_899666149751_9031480_48400618_7787084_n.jpg http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/199150_899666... and they are still working apparently
- amitt 16y ago
  I'm in this picture (the blobby looking guy) and yeah we were working under the desks while all of the aftershocks were happening. It was pretty intense as we've been having earthquakes here the last few days and thought it was going to just be another small one. It kept intensifying, however, until we were forced to go under the desks. Definitely a very long 3 minutes.
oldstrangers 16y ago
Reddit has some useful threads going: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/g1qpy/massive_79_earthquake_in_northeastern_japan/ http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/g1qpy/massive_79_... http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/g1qrb/78_earthquake_just_happened_in_japan/ http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/g1qrb/78_earthqu...
junyaogura 16y ago
Japanese mobile network operators provides disaster message boards in English. Docomo(NTT) http://dengon.docomo.ne.jp/Etop.cgi http://dengon.docomo.ne.jp/Etop.cgi SoftBank http://dengon.softbank.ne.jp/pc-e1.jsp http://dengon.softbank.ne.jp/pc-e1.jsp au(KDDI) http://dengon.ezweb.ne.jp/E/service.do http://dengon.ezweb.ne.jp/E/service.do
geuis 16y ago
People outside of Tokyo Disneyland http://twitpic.com/48dy7s http://twitpic.com/48dy7s
- angus77 16y ago
  I was scheduled to go there tomorrow with my little girl. So now you know the full extent of the disaster.
veidr 16y ago
An interesting thing I noticed was that all cell phones were completely useless for a pretty long time following the quake. That's normal, but one difference this time, compared with several years ago, is that most people I know no longer have a landline phone at home. People were queuing up for like 20 minutes to use the one old green plastic coin-op pay phone accross the street. At first, I didn't think to use a phone, since I was sitting at my desk and email worked normally. I could email a colleague in a different building back and forth in neartime while the quakes were happening. About 15 minutes later it occurred to me to try my (naz)iPhone and see if it was useful. It was not--could not make or receive calls, and the test text message I sent did not arrive in a timely manner (took more than 30 minutes). Just as a data point.
- T-R 16y ago
  Is the cell network still down/overloaded?
  - veidr 16y ago
    Hmm wow, apparently yes. , I still cannot make a call. Press call and it goes directly to call failed. (SoftBank iPhone 4)
    - lancewiggs 16y ago
      stay with it. The telcos in New Zealand got COWS (mobile cell sites) and new cell sites/equipment down to Christchurch very quickly - importing some from China (Huawei gear I guess). Landlines take much longer to repair, and cells have redundancy - can link together with fibre or microwaves.
      - rue 16y ago
        Don't “stay with it” continuously, though, that'll just keep the system overloaded. If you can't get through, wait 20 minutes before trying again.
  - po 16y ago
jarquesp 16y ago
Some amazing images on Twitpic: http://t.co/szbTX4V http://t.co/szbTX4V http://t.co/nK0p50d http://t.co/nK0p50d http://t.co/5zfUh6b http://t.co/5zfUh6b Some tags to follow: http://twitpic.com/tag/tsunami http://twitpic.com/tag/tsunami http://twitpic.com/tag/earthquake http://twitpic.com/tag/earthquake http://twitpic.com/tag/japan http://twitpic.com/tag/japan
leot 16y ago
This is particularly ill-timed for the rebels in Libya.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- eru 16y ago
  Are you speaking about the attention economy, or something else?
  - leot 16y ago
    Attention economy.
    - InclinedPlane 16y ago
      On the other hand it could be good, the international community may have less patience for gaddafi's bullshit.
cloudwalking 16y ago
Here is a stream of images from Japan: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=twitpic+near%3Ajapan+within%3A500mi http://search.twitter.com/search?q=twitpic+near%3Ajapan+with...
- crowsfan85 16y ago
  From above stream, a shot of people waiting to be rescued: http://twitpic.com/48e4r4 http://twitpic.com/48e4r4
InfinityX0 16y ago
I hope Ray Grieselhuber of Ginzametrics (YC) is OK - along with everyone else. I am pretty sure he is based around Tokyo. http://ginzametrics.com/ginzametrics-is-hiring-in-tokyo.html http://ginzametrics.com/ginzametrics-is-hiring-in-tokyo.html
- mceachen 16y ago
  I emailed him as soon as I got the NOAA tsunami notification email -- he's fine -- he's in California.
  - rgrieselhuber 16y ago
    Thanks very much, InfinityX0. We are in California and are hiring for our Tokyo office. So far, everybody I know is in good health and nobody was hurt.
newtonapple 16y ago
Live Japanese feed: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight
zrgiu 16y ago
OMG! This feels like 2012 (the movie). Seeing that tsunami is breathtaking. I sincerely hope lives aren't lost.
- pixdamix 16y ago
  Except the wave was 8,85 kilometers high the movie...
NZ_Matt 16y ago
My thoughts are with those in Sendai and the other affected areas, the helicopter shot on tv is terrifying. The tsunami appears to have been more destuctive than the actual earthquake. The earthquake was a long way offshore (150km) so I imagine the shaking intensity was relatively low on the mainland and the buildings and other infrastructure will be alright.
jarin 16y ago
Text message from my parents in Hawaii just now: "At 11:01 pm we just had a 4.6 earthquake on the big island" There's also increased seismic activity on some of the volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest (far left link on each row shows latest activity): http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/VOLC/welcome.html http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/VOLC/welcome.html I'm not a seismologist so I have no idea if that's as gnarly as it looks.
- david2777 16y ago
  Small world. I live in East Hawaii and I felt that. It was from the Volcano, which after erupting for the past few days stopped last night and I guess it started again.
sovande 16y ago
All quake servers are down in Japan; http://www.quakelive.com/ http://www.quakelive.com/
serialx 16y ago
Chiba Steel Mill explosion: http://twitpic.com/48edb1 http://twitpic.com/48edb1 It's getting serious.
koski 16y ago
The Tsunamis caused by this that might hit Taiwan etc. can be huge (5 to 10 meters). Or then just 10 cm high. How ever it's moving now 800km an hour. The destruction is terrible (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhj2ge_violent-seisme-d-une-magnitude-de-8-9-au-japon_news#hp-sc-p-1 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhj2ge_violent-seisme-d-une...) I cannot explain in written how sorry I feel for the people living in the area.
- bhrgunatha 16y ago
  The tsunami has already arrived in Taiwan - very little effect - I heard a report of 10-20 cm swelling - much less than it could have been - probably due to local geology. Philippine and Indonesian islands are probably more at risk especially low lying islands.
  - koski 16y ago
    Auckland-based geologist Chris Buckley says the tsunami wave is on its way towards New Zealand at 500 or 600 miles an hour. I think soon it's hitting Hawaii. Let's hope it'll end as well as in Taiwan.
- koski 16y ago
  The tsunami is expected to reach Mexico's coastline within three to four hours, the BBC Mundo's Alberto Najar reports. Ports in the state of Guerrero are now closed. In Baja California Sur, civil protection authorities say they expect no major damage.
- koski 16y ago
  Good news! Waves did not cause any damage to persons or property in Philippines.
cdavid 16y ago
Hope everyone in Japan is doing ok - I guess I am lucky that I am out of the country precisely this day, but now starting to get worry about people I know. It is a bit scary to think that an earthquake felt in east of Japan (tokyo, sendai), and also in Osaka where I live, almost 500 km west from there.
miles 16y ago
Live streams from Japanese TV stations: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/garage-t-west http://www.ustream.tv/channel/garage-t-west http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fc2mh3 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fc2mh3 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight
mceachen 16y ago
If you're in Hawaii or California, we're in a Tsunami Warning (which is the run-for-the-hills, highest grade warning): http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/04/messagelhvpd9-04.htm http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/04/messagelhvpd... If you're on a coastline, here are the tsunami height predictions: http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/models/models.html http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/models/models.html
- mceachen 16y ago
  Looks like the NOAA website is having issues, but the email service isn't. Here's the latest report via email: Web message at http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/06/messagelhvpd9-06.htm http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/06/messagelhvpd... WEAK51 PAAQ 111037 TSUAK1 BULLETIN PUBLIC TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 6 NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK 237 AM PST FRI MAR 11 2011 THIS MESSAGE KEEPS THE WARNING AND ADVISORY REGIONS FIXED AND ADDS NEW TSUNAMI OBSERVATIONS. A LINK IS PROVIDED FOR TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE FORECASTS. ...THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA TO THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER... ...THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF ALASKA FROM AMCHITKA PASS ALASKA/125 MILES W OF ADAK/ TO ATTU ALASKA... ...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA FROM THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER TO POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA... ...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF WASHINGTON - BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA FROM THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER TO AMCHITKA PASS ALASKA/125 MILES W OF ADAK/... A TSUNAMI WARNING MEANS... ALL COASTAL RESIDENTS IN THE WARNING AREA WHO ARE NEAR THE BEACH OR IN LOW-LYING REGIONS SHOULD MOVE IMMEDIATELY INLAND TO HIGHER GROUND AND AWAY FROM ALL HARBORS AND INLETS INCLUDING THOSE SHELTERED DIRECTLY FROM THE SEA. THOSE FEELING THE EARTH SHAKE... SEEING UNUSUAL WAVE ACTION... OR THE WATER LEVEL RISING OR RECEDING MAY HAVE ONLY A FEW MINUTES BEFORE THE TSUNAMI ARRIVAL AND SHOULD MOVE IMMEDIATELY. HOMES AND SMALL BUILDINGS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND TSUNAMI IMPACTS. DO NOT STAY IN THESE STRUCTURES. ALL RESIDENTS WITHIN THE WARNED AREA SHOULD BE ALERT FOR INSTRUCTIONS BROADCAST FROM THEIR LOCAL CIVIL AUTHORITIES. A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN RECORDED. A TSUNAMI ADVISORY MEANS THAT A TSUNAMI CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG CURRENTS OR WAVES DANGEROUS TO PERSONS IN OR VERY NEAR THE WATER IS EXPECTED. SIGNIFICANT WIDESPREAD INUNDATION IS NOT EXPECTED FOR AREAS UNDER AN ADVISORY. CURRENTS MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO SWIMMERS... BOATS... AND COASTAL STRUCTURES AND MAY CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS AFTER THE INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL. AT 946 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME ON MARCH 10 AN EARTHQUAKE WITH PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 8.9 OCCURRED NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU JAPAN. THIS EARTHQUAKE HAS GENERATED A TSUNAMI WHICH COULD CAUSE DAMAGE TO REGIONS IN A WARNING OR ADVISORY. ESTIMATED TSUNAMI ARRIVAL TIMES AND MAPS ALONG WITH SAFETY RULES AND OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON THE WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV. MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI ACTIVITY LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL ------------------------ ----- ------ ------- ----------- TOSASHIMIZU JAPAN 32.8N 132.9E 0747UTC 00.9FT/00.27M TOKAI JAPAN 33.8N 137.6E 0645UTC 00.8FT/00.25M OFUNATO JAPAN 39.0N 141.8E 0605UTC 10.8FT/03.29M HANASAKI JAPAN 43.3N 145.6E 0643UTC 09.3FT/02.82M BOSO JAPAN 34.8N 140.8E 0609UTC 02.6FT/00.78M MINAMITORISHIMA JAPAN 24.3N 154.0E 0747UTC 01.5FT/00.45M NAHA JAPAN 26.2N 127.7E 0902UTC 00.7FT/00.20M SAIPAN USA 15.2N 145.7E 0901UTC 02.6FT/00.79M WAKE IS. USA 19.3N 166.6E 0918UTC 01.6FT/00.50M SHEMYA, ALASKA 52.7N 174.1E 1028UTC 01.3FT/00.43M TIME - TIME OF MEASUREMENT AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL. IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT. VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT). TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE EXPECTED TO PEAK TWO TO THREE HOURS AFTER INITIAL ARRIVAL ALONG THE NORTH AMERICAN COAST. FORECAST TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE AVAILABLE ON THE WCATWC WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV. TSUNAMIS CAN BE DANGEROUS WAVES THAT ARE NOT SURVIVABLE. WAVE HEIGHTS ARE AMPLIFIED BY IRREGULAR SHORELINE AND ARE DIFFICULT TO FORECAST. TSUNAMIS OFTEN APPEAR AS A STRONG SURGE AND MAY BE PRECEDED BY A RECEDING WATER LEVEL. MARINERS IN WATER DEEPER THAN 600 FEET SHOULD NOT BE AFFECTED BY A TSUNAMI. WAVE HEIGHTS WILL INCREASE RAPIDLY AS WATER SHALLOWS. TSUNAMIS ARE A SERIES OF OCEAN WAVES WHICH CAN BE DANGEROUS FOR SEVERAL HOURS AFTER THE INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL. DO NOT RETURN TO EVACUATED AREAS UNTIL AN ALL CLEAR IS GIVEN BY LOCAL CIVIL AUTHORITIES. PACIFIC COASTAL REGIONS OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA/ OREGON/ WASHINGTON/ BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA SHOULD REFER TO THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES FOR INFORMATION ON THIS EVENT AT WWW.WEATHER.GOV/PTWC. THIS MESSAGE WILL BE UPDATED IN 60 MINUTES OR SOONER IF THE SITUATION WARRANTS. THE TSUNAMI MESSAGE WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO... YOUR LOCAL TV OR RADIO STATIONS... OR SEE THE WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV. $$
atgm 16y ago
Maebashi, Gunma here. I was on the 10th floor of city hall when it happened and bookcases were falling all over; we were trying to hold them up and not really getting how serious it was. That was a few hours ago and we're still getting periodic aftershocks. No sea here, so we don't have to worry about tsunami, luckily. I was fine during the quake itself and now I'm having an attack of the nerves; it still feels like the ground is moving and I can't stop eating, heh. Malls and grocery stores are closed, so the local convenience stores are being stripped of absolutely everything.
- lee 16y ago
  I hope you don't try and hold up book-cases in the future (not sure how large they are). But during an earthquake, they could easily crush you.
  - atgm 16y ago
    Not big ones -- not even over my shoulders. Just full; we were trying to keep the contents from falling all over.
- atgm 16y ago
  I'm on au and getting mail on my cell phone in random batches; if I force a mail check, it'll give me a few messages, but they don't seem to be pushing e-mail notifications. I guess this is their way of dealing with the flood of mail. An interesting anecdote: the only provider that ISN'T forwarding/storing my messages properly is Softbank. It worried me until I noticed, but all e-mails I'm trying to send to friends with Softbank phones are just bouncing.
melvinram 16y ago
Red Cross and others will likely be jumping to the aide of those who have been affected by this disaster. If you have a website, please consider adding a message and link to the Red Cross donation website or the link to the donation page of any other website. To get it up ASAP, I've used the HelloBar (http://www.hellobar.com http://www.hellobar.com) on my site. You can see a working version of it at http://www.webdesigncompany.net http://www.webdesigncompany.net but really any way that grabs attention would be a good way. PS: I'm not associated with the HelloBar product but I've sent them an email requesting that they allow those who want to use their product to participate to get an invite to their beta. Hopefully they'll reply here soon. If you don't want to setup an account or don't have an invite yet, you could copy/paste the following code: <script type="text/javascript" src="//www.hellobar.com/hellobar.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> new HelloBar(3823,9104); </script> The text and link will never change.
- ascendant 16y ago
  I want to upvote this a million times over. Hacker-type people, do what you can and add the link,
- dtelepathy 16y ago
  Thanks Melvin. Great idea. We've set up the invite code "helpjapan" if you would like to use Hello Bar to encourage aid. Melvin's working version is a great example to duplicate. Just sign up at http://www.hellobar.com http://www.hellobar.com and enter the invite code on the next page. Pasting Melvin's code is a great alternative as well if you don't want to sign up for an account.
- melvinram 16y ago
  FYI: I'm getting about 5% click through rate on this... so if you assume that half of those donate and that each person donates $10 minimum, you can figure out how much money you can raise from simple copy/pasting a few lines of code.
- dtelepathy 16y ago
  Awesome to hear about the clickthrough rate. I just wrote this post: http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/telepathy/how-to-help-japan-with-aid-and-awareness/ http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/telepathy/how-to-help-japan-w... I am also going to ask some of the speakers at SXSW to share the "helpjapan" invite key at their talks. I updated the code to a Hello Bar we control in case there are scaling issues: <script type="text/javascript" src="//www.hellobar.com/hellobar.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> new HelloBar(1,9126); </script> <noscript>Help The Victims of the 8.9 Earthquake in Japan by Spreading Awareness and Aid. Visit http://goo.gl/wjZQz http://goo.gl/wjZQz to donate. </noscript>
T-R 16y ago
Tsunami warning for California: http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=usa&wwa=Tsunami%20Warning http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=usa&#38...
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
redial 16y ago
Last year I experienced the chilean earthquake. It was 8.8. There were tsunamis in various cities and a lot of friends lost their houses. The days after it the earth wouldn't stop shaking. A new major aftershock every 5 minutes, and a new tsunami alert every couple of hours. For about 3 months. We still feel the occasional 6.5 aftershock every couple of weeks, more than a year later. It's really sad to wake up and find that it has happened again.
1053r 16y ago
A small plug for my startup. We created a page partnering with the red cross where folks can donate to the relief effort. http://www.fundly.com/redcrossjapan http://www.fundly.com/redcrossjapan From there you can donate or get involved via facebook.
- sandipagr 16y ago
  the second column for payment details is completely blank on latest chrome in W7..works fine in firefox 4 RC
- idlewords 16y ago
  Dude, save the startup plugs for later
koski 16y ago
Japan has declared a state of emergency because of the failure of the cooling system at one nuclear plant, according to the Associated Press. Officials say there has been no leak of radiation. Let's hope this does not get any worse than it is right now.
- koski 16y ago
  Japanese authorities are urging some 2,000 residents living within a 2km radius of a nuclear plant in Fukushima to evacuate, the AFP reports. The plant has been shut down after its cooling system failed.
- koski 16y ago
  Fire out at Onagawa nuclear power plant. Oh dear ...
  - nazgulnarsil 16y ago
    that fire was put out. hope everything will be okay at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Another blow to the public's perception of nuclear energy. :(
    - Alex3917 16y ago
      If the power going out is enough to potentially cause a nuclear meltdown, I'm pretty sure that's indicative of flawed technology rather than some problem with public perception.
      - epochwolf 16y ago
        Most nuclear reactors will automatically scram if they lose power. The control rods are held up with electromagnets so they will drop if power is lost. Losing power isn't too dangerous. Loss of coolant is quite dangerous but there are backup systems that can flood the reactor with an alternative coolant source. For example a submarines can flood their reactors with seawater. You just don't want to do that except in an extreme emergency because it will destroy the reactor equipment. Edit: It looks like the reactor had a coolant pump failure. The loops are intact. There is time to do something about this. The water has to boil off before anything really bad starts happening. At this point they would be concerned with saving the reactor from damage. Declaring a nuclear emergency is still a good idea. This is dangerous but not anywhere near three mile island. They know what's happening inside the reactor and can handle things accordingly.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
samic 16y ago
Although I feel terribly sorry I think this shouldn't be here because it's not related to what this site is about! BUT I think we can have Hacker related news about this earthquake! for example isn't it nice that news channels are now talking about what WILL happen in next hours around the world?! Or have you seen Google's first page and the alert about tsunami?! So THERE ARE very interesting hacker-like news about quake out there
CWuestefeld 16y ago
This is what I like about HN. This isn't a particularly "hacker" story, but the perspective here is unique. On the main stream media, I'll get a couple of statistics and video, then an empty comment about "loved ones trying to make sense of this senseless tragedy". On HN, I get the facts, but both broader and deeper, from the geological nature of the quake to the effect on other locales. And I get real, unfiltered perspective from those involved -- without the bogus posturing for the human interest feel.
- Florin_Andrei 16y ago
  Now imagine a neurotypical person reading this comment. What do you think they'd say?
  - TimothyBurgess 16y ago
    You know, I'm really not sure what they'd say Florin. What do you think they'd say?
    - Florin_Andrei 16y ago
      Uh... are you asking me to... hm... exercise my... um... empathy?
      - bioh42_2 16y ago
        An individual neuro typical person might show a slightly higher curiosity about what I cynically call the "disaster/tragedy porn" of the coverage. On average however disaster porn is the lowest common denominator. Do not paint all individuals with the brush created by looking at the average. Just because the big networks seek the maximum number of viewers does not mean every viewer particularly strongly prefers that kind of coverage.
  - Semiapies 16y ago
    I'm neurotypical, and I thought that comment was just fine. I don't know why you brought that up, though.
ck2 16y ago
I am watching live and they just said all cooling hardware and backups for one of their atomic plants has FAILED and they are advising residents to evacuate. Ugh.
- ck2 16y ago
  update: The US Air Force delivered emergency coolant
- ck2 16y ago
  2nd update: Despite the emergency coolant, pressure in the nuclear plant is going to be released soon which will result in a radiation leak. 3000+ people who live within 3 km are being evacuated.
marcusEting 16y ago
If you want to see a visual of where the epicenter was: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=38.322%C2%B0N,+142.369%C2%B0E&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=42.987658,63.896484&ie=UTF8&ll=38.32442,142.382813&spn=10.681593,15.974121&z=6 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38...
malte 16y ago
I don't know if it's of use for anyone here, but Google has set up a Crisis Response page: http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html
ck2 16y ago
Diamondhead Reef in Hawaii just completely emptied, it's barren of water, nothing in sight.
aba_sababa 16y ago
http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?small=yes&lang=en http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?small=yes&lang=e... Google's response. Seriously cool.
- makmanalp 16y ago
  Come on folks, this should be on top of the page.
MikeCapone 16y ago
Video of the Tsunami: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4w27IczOTk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4w27IczOTk
golgo13 16y ago
As always, check out the national Bouy Center from our friend at NOAA: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ This is data geek heaven.
MikeCapone 16y ago
The Atlantic has good photos: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/03/earthquake-in-japan/100022/ http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/03/earthquake-in-jap... Al Jazeera has good video: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/2011311607470826.html http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/20113...
LiveTheDream 16y ago
CNN has a video of the tsunami: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/vo.japan.tidal.wave.NHK?hpt=C2 http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/vo.japan.t...
zopticity 16y ago
https://www.wepay.com/donate/sendai https://www.wepay.com/donate/sendai
old-gregg 16y ago
I never saw a photo of tsunami like this one: http://drugoi.livejournal.com/3507657.html#cutid1 http://drugoi.livejournal.com/3507657.html#cutid1
mrleinad 16y ago
@BBCBreaking: "Japanese authorities to release radioactive vapour to ease pressure at Fukushima nuclear reactor, from AP" And this is how Gojira was created..
hoag 16y ago
What's staggering to me is that the 1989 earthquake in SF was only a 6.8 -- and that made our home in Marin feel like we were floating on a swimming pool. I can't even begin to imagine what an 8.9 is like. Tragic, but apparently expected: Japan's strict building codes will go a long way towards minimizing human loss. If only there were a way to protect against the biblical devastation of tsumanis.
dkarl 16y ago
Who is responding to this catastrophe? Is it the defense forces, state police, or is it just international agencies? I imagine a comprehensive aerial survey happening _immediately_, helicopters showing up with emergency supplies and defense troops or police within hours, and so on, but the government has produced ridiculously inaccurate casualty numbers and has blamed lack of contact with the affected area for their ignorance. It makes me think nobody is actually there. Can somebody fill us in on what is being done to help the people who are there?

678 points by flyt 16y ago

Live stream: http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm Or direct 256k: mms://nhk-world.gekimedia.net/nhkw-highm They have revised the earthquake to 8.4 as of 11:08PM PST.

flyt 16y ago
other live stream: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ watching the 3-meter tsunami roll over land is surreal
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- jarin 16y ago
  For some reason I'm getting the audio but no video. Anyone else having that problem?
  - initself 16y ago
    Yes.
    - icco 16y ago
      Same. Was able to get video from http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al-jazeera-english-english http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al-jazeera-english-eng...
  - cookiecaper 16y ago
    Try the stream from YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish .
btilly 16y ago
The earthquake seems to be being revised upwards, not downwards. At least according to aljazeera.
- jarquesp 16y ago
  Yeah, I think it now stands at 8.9.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]

invisiblefunnel 16y ago

Patrick McKenzie tweet https://twitter.com/#!/patio11/status/46086466836762624 https://twitter.com/#!/patio11/status/46086466836762624

patio11 16y ago
So since most of y'all understand American geography better than Japanese geography: My friends in Osaka (San Fran) felt it. I live in Ogaki (Kansas). There was a mild panic in the mall, and our trains stopped for a few minutes. Folks in Tokyo are largely shaken but not terribly affected (Boston/DC ish). Miyagi/etc (Maine-ish) got a wee bit whacked by a tsunami. They had a few minutes of warning. Reports will come in for a few hours, but we're really good at dealing with this.
- harisenbon 16y ago
  I found the way the news dealt with the Tsunamis amusing. Video: No Tsunamis. Clear water Announcer: 6 Meter Tsunami Warning American News: 10 METER TSUNAMIS!!!! BWAAAA!!!!
- koenigdavidmj 16y ago
  Osaka is kind of cool but gets a bit...weird...at times, there isn't much to speak of in Ogaki, and Miyagi is a fishing town?
  - angus77 16y ago
    Miyagi is a prefecture. Like a state or province.
mitko 16y ago
I don't want to be disrespectful to anybody affected by the earthquake but your comment made me remember this: http://xkcd.com/723/ http://xkcd.com/723/
- ugh 16y ago

jarin 16y ago

I just talked to my parents in Hawaii, there's a tsunami warning for 3 am HST. I reminded my dad to sandbag the doors of his restaurant in Waikiki (Vit's Hawaiian Steakhouse) before he closes for the night. It's just outside of the "tsunami zone" in Waikiki, so I know my dad will probably be working until the police make him evacuate. He did that on the last tsunami warning, and Vit's was pretty much the only restaurant open for several blocks. There was a line out of the door, haha.

whalesalad 16y ago
Howzit! I lived down there for a few years and miss it dearly. Remember seeing that place a lot but never went inside. Hope your family and the restaurant are safe. I have a lot of friends down there as well. I actually wish that I could be there for this, the last time there was a tsunami warning (almost a year ago exactly) I was out of town on the mainland =/
- jarin 16y ago
  Yeah, my family will be fine, they live up on a hill (the only one concerned is my youngest brother, and he just wants to know if there will be school tomorrow). The restaurant should be ok even if a decent-sized tsunami hits. My dad, the Ultimate Businessman, has insurance for everything. I remember growing up on the beach at the North Shore though, there were a few times when we had to evacuate in a hurry because the early warning systems were not nearly as good as they are now.
- epochwolf 16y ago
  > I actually wish that I could be there for this Wait, you want to be in the path of a tsunami? I'll admit being in Wisconsin can be a little boring weather-wise but the lack of natural diasasters is kind of nice. The one tornado warning I've lived through was quite enough for me.
rottencupcakes 16y ago
Do they shut off the warnings at some point, or do they have to listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZkdIVcfEA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZkdIVcfEA) for the next 5 hours?

harisenbon 16y ago

It was crazy scary, and I was all the way down in Nagoya. There doesn't seem to be too much damage in Miyagi (where the earthquake was) but some fires broke out apparently. Luckily, it seemed to be a long, hard earthquake rather than a short hard earthquake, which means that buildings are able to withstand the shaking better. The shaking went on for about 3 minutes here, and there were some after shocks that lasted for about a minute. The Great Hanshin Earthquake was only a 7.2, and it was much more destructive.

wisty 16y ago
It's probably also deep. Deep earthquakes do less damage. But still, 8.9, that's almost 100 times bigger than a 7.
- 3pt14159 16y ago
  Closer to 80 times stronger than a hundred, but yeah definitely deep.
  - mrcharles 16y ago
    From Wikipedia: The energy release of an earthquake, which closely correlates to its destructive power, scales with the 3⁄2 power of the shaking amplitude. Thus, a difference in magnitude of 1.0 is equivalent to a factor of 31.6 ( = (101.0)(3 / 2)) in the energy released; a difference in magnitude of 2.0 is equivalent to a factor of 1000 ( = (102.0)(3 / 2) ) in the energy released.[2]
    - borism 16y ago
      so the correct answer is that this one was 1000 times more powerful than Kobe, and also very shallow (depth of 24 km), but fortunately offshore (but unfortunately that means powerful tsunami).
    - jules 16y ago
      How does energy scale with distance from epicenter?

harisenbon 16y ago

Also I found this interesting: > A massive 8.8 magnitude quake hit the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, shaking buildings in the capital Tokyo > Why would you talk about the earthquake in Tokyo, when it happened in Miyagi? Tokyo only got hit with a 3 or 4. [EDIT: updated to 5 JMS. Tokyo got hit pretty hard too] The actual earthquake was around 240 miles away. That's the same distance from New York to Boston.

icco 16y ago
Probably the same reason Californians talk about the entire state no matter where the quake hits the state. Also, Al Jazeera is reporting 4+ million homes are without power in Tokyo.
- craigmccaskill 16y ago
  The nuclear power plants were automatically shut down, the power grid buckled at that point.
  - fungi 16y ago
    The plants are right on the coast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Japan#Nuclear_Power_Plants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Japan#Nuclear_...
epynonymous 16y ago
remember, earthquakes are caused by massive tectonic plates shifting around, each plate could be hundreds of miles themselves. also there were at least 4 - 5 aftershocks that hit tokyo with a magnitude of 7+. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/11/AR2011031100293_2.html?hpid=topnews http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03...
oldstrangers 16y ago
10 to 12 percent of Japan's entire population lives within Tokyo. 25% of Japan's entire population is within 30 miles of Tokyo. This is why.

Klonoar 16y ago

Was pretty crazy. myGengo office had a light break, but otherwise we weren't too badly affected. Hope goes out to those more affected, looks insane from what I'm seeing.

solipsist 16y ago

And there's already a growing Wikipedia article on the earthquake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake

phlux 16y ago
WTF - That article states 6,000,000 SIX MILLION deaths? Can this be accurate? It reiterated what I heard on the news regarding passenger trains missing due to the Tsunami - but 6MM??? EDIT: Looks like wiki-trolling... From CNN: The official death toll stood at 137, with 539 injured and 351 missing, according to Kyodo, citing police, but that death toll seemed almost certain to rise -- from 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the coastal city of Sendai alone, Kyodo reported. It said the death toll is likely to surpass 1,000.
- wisty 16y ago
  Death toll from disasters is always low to start. Rescue workers on the ground are more worried about digging out the people who survived (at least for the first 48 hours or so).

apsurd 16y ago

Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??

patio11 16y ago
How are people notified to get the hell out of there?? Are you familiar with the term "air raid siren"? The coast is wall-to-wall peppered with squack boxes. About a minute prior to the earthquake there would have been a "Earthquake is imminent -- brace yourself." broadcast and within a minute there would have been a "A tsunami warning is in effect for (here). Go to shelter immediately. Repeat..." There are a couple levels of alerts they can pull, from "Be careful" to "MOVE NOW." Miyagi just got "MOVE NOW."
- apsurd 16y ago
  Thanks Patrick, that's refreshing to hear.
  - patio11 16y ago
    Problems Japan does not have #1: insufficient spending on public works projects In Case Shit Happens, because shit happens so often that when people in several dozen countries say shit they're speaking Japanese. Can I tell you my favorite outsourcing story? Apologies for those who've heard it (and yes, this actually happened): India: We can't log into the test server. Patrick: Then you didn't set it up right. India: No, we did, but we get an error message. Patrick: What error message? India: We can't read it. Patrick: sigh Please take a screenshot then. India: Here you go. Patrick: Oh, that is just a weather report which correctly reflects the state of the test database. The system is operating normally. Please proceed with your testing of the function you were assigned. India: Are you sure it isn't an error? It is written in red. And why would you put a weather report on the login screen anyway? Patrick: Q1) That is because if you ignore it you'll die. Q2) See Q1.

samh 16y ago

Airport 2 km inland is flooded, amazing helicopter shots of the water sliding across the land.

vijaydev 16y ago
This is the Tokyo International Airport?
- po 16y ago
  I think he is referring to the sendai airport.

po 16y ago

I'm still feeling shakes every few minutes. It's like living in a house on a block of jello. Long rolling waves. I'm in central Tokyo and our china cabinet was shaken pretty badly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/5516954100/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/5516954100/in/photostre... I know some people up in sendai that I'm a bit worried about.

rooshdi 16y ago
Be careful man; thought I should post this: What to Do During an Earthquake http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm What to Do After an Earthquake http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_after.shtm http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_after.shtm
donw 16y ago
My office is on the 7th floor of a building in Yoyogi. Monitors are scattered everywhere, and our breakroom is effectively destroyed. Nobody was hurt, fortunately, but I'm really glad this quake wasn't any stronger... I've been through a lot of quakes here, and this is the first time I thought I might be going home in a black bag.
- donw 16y ago
  Death toll is now being reported at over 400, mostly from the tsunami. Words don't exist to express the sorrow of their families...
  - donw 16y ago
    I don't know if this is appropriate here, but the Red Cross donation site has been down for awhile (at least, for me). I took the liberty of setting up a WePay group for donations: https://www.wepay.com/donate/78062 https://www.wepay.com/donate/78062 Not sure how to get the word out, but you've gotta start somewhere. :)
    - melvinram 16y ago

suyash 16y ago

Is this post appropriate for HN?

cosmok 16y ago
Not according to the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." But, I don't mind it all as I get to read views and firsthand accounts from fellow hackers that is much different from what I see on TV.
- rdl 16y ago
  I was particularly interested in "is patio11 ok?" (and, are there any transpac fiber cuts?) I think it's fair to post stories which are headlines in ~all news simultaneously, even if not "hacker news" -- nuclear explosions, assassinations of G7 leaders, major wars, etc.
  - patio11 16y ago
    I'm touched, but there are several dozen HNers in Japan who I've met personally (just an FYI) most were closer to it than I was.
Sandman 16y ago
No, it is not. From the HN guidelines: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. And unlike cosmok, I do mind it, because this type of news is slowly turning HN into something it shouldn't be. There's a reason for this particular guideline, and I think we should honor that. EDIT: I don't mind the downvoting, but please, if you do that, at least post a comment on why you think my comment deserved to be downvoted.
- younata 16y ago

kia 16y ago

Here is a video of tsunami caused by this earthquake http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcaFBlH8tjM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcaFBlH8tjM

bradly 16y ago

Interesting to view of all 5+ quakes the past 3 days http://cl.ly/3G0f0t0d1C2Z381s3O31 http://cl.ly/3G0f0t0d1C2Z381s3O31 . Loads of activity in the area. Is that kind of activity common, or could that have been an indicator that there was a chance of a major quake?

yena 16y ago
It's not normal at all. Something was building up
- ars 16y ago
  From http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/#summary http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0... "The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day."
- mkramlich 16y ago
  I strongly suspect it's related to the strange stories we've been hearing about a so-called Monster Island.
- wisty 16y ago
  I think it's the other way round. An 8.9 takes a long time to build up. When it's almost ready to pop, then a smaller earthquake can set it off.
yread 16y ago
You can see the swarm here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/140_40.php http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/1...

eekfuh 16y ago

Zynga in japan: http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/199150_899666149751_9031480_48400618_7787084_n.jpg http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/199150_899666... and they are still working apparently

amitt 16y ago
I'm in this picture (the blobby looking guy) and yeah we were working under the desks while all of the aftershocks were happening. It was pretty intense as we've been having earthquakes here the last few days and thought it was going to just be another small one. It kept intensifying, however, until we were forced to go under the desks. Definitely a very long 3 minutes.

oldstrangers 16y ago

Reddit has some useful threads going: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/g1qpy/massive_79_earthquake_in_northeastern_japan/ http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/g1qpy/massive_79_... http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/g1qrb/78_earthquake_just_happened_in_japan/ http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/g1qrb/78_earthqu...

junyaogura 16y ago

Japanese mobile network operators provides disaster message boards in English. Docomo(NTT) http://dengon.docomo.ne.jp/Etop.cgi http://dengon.docomo.ne.jp/Etop.cgi SoftBank http://dengon.softbank.ne.jp/pc-e1.jsp http://dengon.softbank.ne.jp/pc-e1.jsp au(KDDI) http://dengon.ezweb.ne.jp/E/service.do http://dengon.ezweb.ne.jp/E/service.do

geuis 16y ago

People outside of Tokyo Disneyland http://twitpic.com/48dy7s http://twitpic.com/48dy7s

angus77 16y ago
I was scheduled to go there tomorrow with my little girl. So now you know the full extent of the disaster.

veidr 16y ago

An interesting thing I noticed was that all cell phones were completely useless for a pretty long time following the quake. That's normal, but one difference this time, compared with several years ago, is that most people I know no longer have a landline phone at home. People were queuing up for like 20 minutes to use the one old green plastic coin-op pay phone accross the street. At first, I didn't think to use a phone, since I was sitting at my desk and email worked normally. I could email a colleague in a different building back and forth in neartime while the quakes were happening. About 15 minutes later it occurred to me to try my (naz)iPhone and see if it was useful. It was not--could not make or receive calls, and the test text message I sent did not arrive in a timely manner (took more than 30 minutes). Just as a data point.

T-R 16y ago
Is the cell network still down/overloaded?
- veidr 16y ago
  Hmm wow, apparently yes. , I still cannot make a call. Press call and it goes directly to call failed. (SoftBank iPhone 4)
  - lancewiggs 16y ago
    stay with it. The telcos in New Zealand got COWS (mobile cell sites) and new cell sites/equipment down to Christchurch very quickly - importing some from China (Huawei gear I guess). Landlines take much longer to repair, and cells have redundancy - can link together with fibre or microwaves.
    - rue 16y ago
      Don't “stay with it” continuously, though, that'll just keep the system overloaded. If you can't get through, wait 20 minutes before trying again.
- po 16y ago

jarquesp 16y ago

Some amazing images on Twitpic: http://t.co/szbTX4V http://t.co/szbTX4V http://t.co/nK0p50d http://t.co/nK0p50d http://t.co/5zfUh6b http://t.co/5zfUh6b Some tags to follow: http://twitpic.com/tag/tsunami http://twitpic.com/tag/tsunami http://twitpic.com/tag/earthquake http://twitpic.com/tag/earthquake http://twitpic.com/tag/japan http://twitpic.com/tag/japan

leot 16y ago

This is particularly ill-timed for the rebels in Libya.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
eru 16y ago
Are you speaking about the attention economy, or something else?
- leot 16y ago
  Attention economy.
  - InclinedPlane 16y ago
    On the other hand it could be good, the international community may have less patience for gaddafi's bullshit.

cloudwalking 16y ago

Here is a stream of images from Japan: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=twitpic+near%3Ajapan+within%3A500mi http://search.twitter.com/search?q=twitpic+near%3Ajapan+with...

crowsfan85 16y ago
From above stream, a shot of people waiting to be rescued: http://twitpic.com/48e4r4 http://twitpic.com/48e4r4

InfinityX0 16y ago

I hope Ray Grieselhuber of Ginzametrics (YC) is OK - along with everyone else. I am pretty sure he is based around Tokyo. http://ginzametrics.com/ginzametrics-is-hiring-in-tokyo.html http://ginzametrics.com/ginzametrics-is-hiring-in-tokyo.html

mceachen 16y ago
I emailed him as soon as I got the NOAA tsunami notification email -- he's fine -- he's in California.
- rgrieselhuber 16y ago
  Thanks very much, InfinityX0. We are in California and are hiring for our Tokyo office. So far, everybody I know is in good health and nobody was hurt.

newtonapple 16y ago

Live Japanese feed: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight

zrgiu 16y ago

OMG! This feels like 2012 (the movie). Seeing that tsunami is breathtaking. I sincerely hope lives aren't lost.

pixdamix 16y ago
Except the wave was 8,85 kilometers high the movie...

NZ_Matt 16y ago

My thoughts are with those in Sendai and the other affected areas, the helicopter shot on tv is terrifying. The tsunami appears to have been more destuctive than the actual earthquake. The earthquake was a long way offshore (150km) so I imagine the shaking intensity was relatively low on the mainland and the buildings and other infrastructure will be alright.

jarin 16y ago

Text message from my parents in Hawaii just now: "At 11:01 pm we just had a 4.6 earthquake on the big island" There's also increased seismic activity on some of the volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest (far left link on each row shows latest activity): http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/VOLC/welcome.html http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/VOLC/welcome.html I'm not a seismologist so I have no idea if that's as gnarly as it looks.

david2777 16y ago
Small world. I live in East Hawaii and I felt that. It was from the Volcano, which after erupting for the past few days stopped last night and I guess it started again.

sovande 16y ago

All quake servers are down in Japan; http://www.quakelive.com/ http://www.quakelive.com/

serialx 16y ago

Chiba Steel Mill explosion: http://twitpic.com/48edb1 http://twitpic.com/48edb1 It's getting serious.

koski 16y ago

The Tsunamis caused by this that might hit Taiwan etc. can be huge (5 to 10 meters). Or then just 10 cm high. How ever it's moving now 800km an hour. The destruction is terrible (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhj2ge_violent-seisme-d-une-magnitude-de-8-9-au-japon_news#hp-sc-p-1 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhj2ge_violent-seisme-d-une...) I cannot explain in written how sorry I feel for the people living in the area.

bhrgunatha 16y ago
The tsunami has already arrived in Taiwan - very little effect - I heard a report of 10-20 cm swelling - much less than it could have been - probably due to local geology. Philippine and Indonesian islands are probably more at risk especially low lying islands.
- koski 16y ago
  Auckland-based geologist Chris Buckley says the tsunami wave is on its way towards New Zealand at 500 or 600 miles an hour. I think soon it's hitting Hawaii. Let's hope it'll end as well as in Taiwan.
koski 16y ago
The tsunami is expected to reach Mexico's coastline within three to four hours, the BBC Mundo's Alberto Najar reports. Ports in the state of Guerrero are now closed. In Baja California Sur, civil protection authorities say they expect no major damage.
koski 16y ago
Good news! Waves did not cause any damage to persons or property in Philippines.

cdavid 16y ago

Hope everyone in Japan is doing ok - I guess I am lucky that I am out of the country precisely this day, but now starting to get worry about people I know. It is a bit scary to think that an earthquake felt in east of Japan (tokyo, sendai), and also in Osaka where I live, almost 500 km west from there.

miles 16y ago

Live streams from Japanese TV stations: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/garage-t-west http://www.ustream.tv/channel/garage-t-west http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fc2mh3 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fc2mh3 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tbstv http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight

mceachen 16y ago

If you're in Hawaii or California, we're in a Tsunami Warning (which is the run-for-the-hills, highest grade warning): http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/04/messagelhvpd9-04.htm http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/04/messagelhvpd... If you're on a coastline, here are the tsunami height predictions: http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/models/models.html http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/models/models.html

mceachen 16y ago
Looks like the NOAA website is having issues, but the email service isn't. Here's the latest report via email: Web message at http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/06/messagelhvpd9-06.htm http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/06/messagelhvpd... WEAK51 PAAQ 111037 TSUAK1 BULLETIN PUBLIC TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 6 NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK 237 AM PST FRI MAR 11 2011 THIS MESSAGE KEEPS THE WARNING AND ADVISORY REGIONS FIXED AND ADDS NEW TSUNAMI OBSERVATIONS. A LINK IS PROVIDED FOR TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE FORECASTS. ...THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA TO THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER... ...THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF ALASKA FROM AMCHITKA PASS ALASKA/125 MILES W OF ADAK/ TO ATTU ALASKA... ...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA FROM THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER TO POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA... ...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF WASHINGTON - BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA FROM THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER TO AMCHITKA PASS ALASKA/125 MILES W OF ADAK/... A TSUNAMI WARNING MEANS... ALL COASTAL RESIDENTS IN THE WARNING AREA WHO ARE NEAR THE BEACH OR IN LOW-LYING REGIONS SHOULD MOVE IMMEDIATELY INLAND TO HIGHER GROUND AND AWAY FROM ALL HARBORS AND INLETS INCLUDING THOSE SHELTERED DIRECTLY FROM THE SEA. THOSE FEELING THE EARTH SHAKE... SEEING UNUSUAL WAVE ACTION... OR THE WATER LEVEL RISING OR RECEDING MAY HAVE ONLY A FEW MINUTES BEFORE THE TSUNAMI ARRIVAL AND SHOULD MOVE IMMEDIATELY. HOMES AND SMALL BUILDINGS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND TSUNAMI IMPACTS. DO NOT STAY IN THESE STRUCTURES. ALL RESIDENTS WITHIN THE WARNED AREA SHOULD BE ALERT FOR INSTRUCTIONS BROADCAST FROM THEIR LOCAL CIVIL AUTHORITIES. A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN RECORDED. A TSUNAMI ADVISORY MEANS THAT A TSUNAMI CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG CURRENTS OR WAVES DANGEROUS TO PERSONS IN OR VERY NEAR THE WATER IS EXPECTED. SIGNIFICANT WIDESPREAD INUNDATION IS NOT EXPECTED FOR AREAS UNDER AN ADVISORY. CURRENTS MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO SWIMMERS... BOATS... AND COASTAL STRUCTURES AND MAY CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS AFTER THE INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL. AT 946 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME ON MARCH 10 AN EARTHQUAKE WITH PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 8.9 OCCURRED NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU JAPAN. THIS EARTHQUAKE HAS GENERATED A TSUNAMI WHICH COULD CAUSE DAMAGE TO REGIONS IN A WARNING OR ADVISORY. ESTIMATED TSUNAMI ARRIVAL TIMES AND MAPS ALONG WITH SAFETY RULES AND OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON THE WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV. MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI ACTIVITY LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL ------------------------ ----- ------ ------- ----------- TOSASHIMIZU JAPAN 32.8N 132.9E 0747UTC 00.9FT/00.27M TOKAI JAPAN 33.8N 137.6E 0645UTC 00.8FT/00.25M OFUNATO JAPAN 39.0N 141.8E 0605UTC 10.8FT/03.29M HANASAKI JAPAN 43.3N 145.6E 0643UTC 09.3FT/02.82M BOSO JAPAN 34.8N 140.8E 0609UTC 02.6FT/00.78M MINAMITORISHIMA JAPAN 24.3N 154.0E 0747UTC 01.5FT/00.45M NAHA JAPAN 26.2N 127.7E 0902UTC 00.7FT/00.20M SAIPAN USA 15.2N 145.7E 0901UTC 02.6FT/00.79M WAKE IS. USA 19.3N 166.6E 0918UTC 01.6FT/00.50M SHEMYA, ALASKA 52.7N 174.1E 1028UTC 01.3FT/00.43M TIME - TIME OF MEASUREMENT AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL. IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT. VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT). TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE EXPECTED TO PEAK TWO TO THREE HOURS AFTER INITIAL ARRIVAL ALONG THE NORTH AMERICAN COAST. FORECAST TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE AVAILABLE ON THE WCATWC WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV. TSUNAMIS CAN BE DANGEROUS WAVES THAT ARE NOT SURVIVABLE. WAVE HEIGHTS ARE AMPLIFIED BY IRREGULAR SHORELINE AND ARE DIFFICULT TO FORECAST. TSUNAMIS OFTEN APPEAR AS A STRONG SURGE AND MAY BE PRECEDED BY A RECEDING WATER LEVEL. MARINERS IN WATER DEEPER THAN 600 FEET SHOULD NOT BE AFFECTED BY A TSUNAMI. WAVE HEIGHTS WILL INCREASE RAPIDLY AS WATER SHALLOWS. TSUNAMIS ARE A SERIES OF OCEAN WAVES WHICH CAN BE DANGEROUS FOR SEVERAL HOURS AFTER THE INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL. DO NOT RETURN TO EVACUATED AREAS UNTIL AN ALL CLEAR IS GIVEN BY LOCAL CIVIL AUTHORITIES. PACIFIC COASTAL REGIONS OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA/ OREGON/ WASHINGTON/ BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA SHOULD REFER TO THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES FOR INFORMATION ON THIS EVENT AT WWW.WEATHER.GOV/PTWC. THIS MESSAGE WILL BE UPDATED IN 60 MINUTES OR SOONER IF THE SITUATION WARRANTS. THE TSUNAMI MESSAGE WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO... YOUR LOCAL TV OR RADIO STATIONS... OR SEE THE WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV. $$

atgm 16y ago

Maebashi, Gunma here. I was on the 10th floor of city hall when it happened and bookcases were falling all over; we were trying to hold them up and not really getting how serious it was. That was a few hours ago and we're still getting periodic aftershocks. No sea here, so we don't have to worry about tsunami, luckily. I was fine during the quake itself and now I'm having an attack of the nerves; it still feels like the ground is moving and I can't stop eating, heh. Malls and grocery stores are closed, so the local convenience stores are being stripped of absolutely everything.

lee 16y ago
I hope you don't try and hold up book-cases in the future (not sure how large they are). But during an earthquake, they could easily crush you.
- atgm 16y ago
  Not big ones -- not even over my shoulders. Just full; we were trying to keep the contents from falling all over.
atgm 16y ago
I'm on au and getting mail on my cell phone in random batches; if I force a mail check, it'll give me a few messages, but they don't seem to be pushing e-mail notifications. I guess this is their way of dealing with the flood of mail. An interesting anecdote: the only provider that ISN'T forwarding/storing my messages properly is Softbank. It worried me until I noticed, but all e-mails I'm trying to send to friends with Softbank phones are just bouncing.

melvinram 16y ago

Red Cross and others will likely be jumping to the aide of those who have been affected by this disaster. If you have a website, please consider adding a message and link to the Red Cross donation website or the link to the donation page of any other website. To get it up ASAP, I've used the HelloBar (http://www.hellobar.com http://www.hellobar.com) on my site. You can see a working version of it at http://www.webdesigncompany.net http://www.webdesigncompany.net but really any way that grabs attention would be a good way. PS: I'm not associated with the HelloBar product but I've sent them an email requesting that they allow those who want to use their product to participate to get an invite to their beta. Hopefully they'll reply here soon. If you don't want to setup an account or don't have an invite yet, you could copy/paste the following code: <script type="text/javascript" src="//www.hellobar.com/hellobar.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> new HelloBar(3823,9104); </script> The text and link will never change.

ascendant 16y ago
I want to upvote this a million times over. Hacker-type people, do what you can and add the link,
dtelepathy 16y ago
Thanks Melvin. Great idea. We've set up the invite code "helpjapan" if you would like to use Hello Bar to encourage aid. Melvin's working version is a great example to duplicate. Just sign up at http://www.hellobar.com http://www.hellobar.com and enter the invite code on the next page. Pasting Melvin's code is a great alternative as well if you don't want to sign up for an account.
melvinram 16y ago
FYI: I'm getting about 5% click through rate on this... so if you assume that half of those donate and that each person donates $10 minimum, you can figure out how much money you can raise from simple copy/pasting a few lines of code.
dtelepathy 16y ago
Awesome to hear about the clickthrough rate. I just wrote this post: http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/telepathy/how-to-help-japan-with-aid-and-awareness/ http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/telepathy/how-to-help-japan-w... I am also going to ask some of the speakers at SXSW to share the "helpjapan" invite key at their talks. I updated the code to a Hello Bar we control in case there are scaling issues: <script type="text/javascript" src="//www.hellobar.com/hellobar.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> new HelloBar(1,9126); </script> <noscript>Help The Victims of the 8.9 Earthquake in Japan by Spreading Awareness and Aid. Visit http://goo.gl/wjZQz http://goo.gl/wjZQz to donate. </noscript>

T-R 16y ago

Tsunami warning for California: http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=usa&wwa=Tsunami%20Warning http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=usa&#38...

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

redial 16y ago

Last year I experienced the chilean earthquake. It was 8.8. There were tsunamis in various cities and a lot of friends lost their houses. The days after it the earth wouldn't stop shaking. A new major aftershock every 5 minutes, and a new tsunami alert every couple of hours. For about 3 months. We still feel the occasional 6.5 aftershock every couple of weeks, more than a year later. It's really sad to wake up and find that it has happened again.

1053r 16y ago

A small plug for my startup. We created a page partnering with the red cross where folks can donate to the relief effort. http://www.fundly.com/redcrossjapan http://www.fundly.com/redcrossjapan From there you can donate or get involved via facebook.

sandipagr 16y ago
the second column for payment details is completely blank on latest chrome in W7..works fine in firefox 4 RC
idlewords 16y ago
Dude, save the startup plugs for later

koski 16y ago

Japan has declared a state of emergency because of the failure of the cooling system at one nuclear plant, according to the Associated Press. Officials say there has been no leak of radiation. Let's hope this does not get any worse than it is right now.

koski 16y ago
Japanese authorities are urging some 2,000 residents living within a 2km radius of a nuclear plant in Fukushima to evacuate, the AFP reports. The plant has been shut down after its cooling system failed.
koski 16y ago
Fire out at Onagawa nuclear power plant. Oh dear ...
- nazgulnarsil 16y ago
  that fire was put out. hope everything will be okay at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Another blow to the public's perception of nuclear energy. :(
  - Alex3917 16y ago
    If the power going out is enough to potentially cause a nuclear meltdown, I'm pretty sure that's indicative of flawed technology rather than some problem with public perception.
    - epochwolf 16y ago
      Most nuclear reactors will automatically scram if they lose power. The control rods are held up with electromagnets so they will drop if power is lost. Losing power isn't too dangerous. Loss of coolant is quite dangerous but there are backup systems that can flood the reactor with an alternative coolant source. For example a submarines can flood their reactors with seawater. You just don't want to do that except in an extreme emergency because it will destroy the reactor equipment. Edit: It looks like the reactor had a coolant pump failure. The loops are intact. There is time to do something about this. The water has to boil off before anything really bad starts happening. At this point they would be concerned with saving the reactor from damage. Declaring a nuclear emergency is still a good idea. This is dangerous but not anywhere near three mile island. They know what's happening inside the reactor and can handle things accordingly.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

samic 16y ago

Although I feel terribly sorry I think this shouldn't be here because it's not related to what this site is about! BUT I think we can have Hacker related news about this earthquake! for example isn't it nice that news channels are now talking about what WILL happen in next hours around the world?! Or have you seen Google's first page and the alert about tsunami?! So THERE ARE very interesting hacker-like news about quake out there

CWuestefeld 16y ago

This is what I like about HN. This isn't a particularly "hacker" story, but the perspective here is unique. On the main stream media, I'll get a couple of statistics and video, then an empty comment about "loved ones trying to make sense of this senseless tragedy". On HN, I get the facts, but both broader and deeper, from the geological nature of the quake to the effect on other locales. And I get real, unfiltered perspective from those involved -- without the bogus posturing for the human interest feel.

Florin_Andrei 16y ago
Now imagine a neurotypical person reading this comment. What do you think they'd say?
- TimothyBurgess 16y ago
  You know, I'm really not sure what they'd say Florin. What do you think they'd say?
  - Florin_Andrei 16y ago
    Uh... are you asking me to... hm... exercise my... um... empathy?
    - bioh42_2 16y ago
      An individual neuro typical person might show a slightly higher curiosity about what I cynically call the "disaster/tragedy porn" of the coverage. On average however disaster porn is the lowest common denominator. Do not paint all individuals with the brush created by looking at the average. Just because the big networks seek the maximum number of viewers does not mean every viewer particularly strongly prefers that kind of coverage.
- Semiapies 16y ago
  I'm neurotypical, and I thought that comment was just fine. I don't know why you brought that up, though.

ck2 16y ago

I am watching live and they just said all cooling hardware and backups for one of their atomic plants has FAILED and they are advising residents to evacuate. Ugh.

ck2 16y ago
update: The US Air Force delivered emergency coolant
ck2 16y ago
2nd update: Despite the emergency coolant, pressure in the nuclear plant is going to be released soon which will result in a radiation leak. 3000+ people who live within 3 km are being evacuated.

marcusEting 16y ago

If you want to see a visual of where the epicenter was: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=38.322%C2%B0N,+142.369%C2%B0E&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=42.987658,63.896484&ie=UTF8&ll=38.32442,142.382813&spn=10.681593,15.974121&z=6 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38...

malte 16y ago

I don't know if it's of use for anyone here, but Google has set up a Crisis Response page: http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

ck2 16y ago

Diamondhead Reef in Hawaii just completely emptied, it's barren of water, nothing in sight.

aba_sababa 16y ago

http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?small=yes&lang=en http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?small=yes&lang=e... Google's response. Seriously cool.

makmanalp 16y ago
Come on folks, this should be on top of the page.

MikeCapone 16y ago

Video of the Tsunami: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4w27IczOTk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4w27IczOTk

golgo13 16y ago

As always, check out the national Bouy Center from our friend at NOAA: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ This is data geek heaven.

MikeCapone 16y ago

The Atlantic has good photos: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/03/earthquake-in-japan/100022/ http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/03/earthquake-in-jap... Al Jazeera has good video: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/2011311607470826.html http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/20113...

LiveTheDream 16y ago

CNN has a video of the tsunami: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/vo.japan.tidal.wave.NHK?hpt=C2 http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/vo.japan.t...

zopticity 16y ago

https://www.wepay.com/donate/sendai https://www.wepay.com/donate/sendai

old-gregg 16y ago

I never saw a photo of tsunami like this one: http://drugoi.livejournal.com/3507657.html#cutid1 http://drugoi.livejournal.com/3507657.html#cutid1

mrleinad 16y ago

@BBCBreaking: "Japanese authorities to release radioactive vapour to ease pressure at Fukushima nuclear reactor, from AP" And this is how Gojira was created..

hoag 16y ago

What's staggering to me is that the 1989 earthquake in SF was only a 6.8 -- and that made our home in Marin feel like we were floating on a swimming pool. I can't even begin to imagine what an 8.9 is like. Tragic, but apparently expected: Japan's strict building codes will go a long way towards minimizing human loss. If only there were a way to protect against the biblical devastation of tsumanis.

dkarl 16y ago

Who is responding to this catastrophe? Is it the defense forces, state police, or is it just international agencies? I imagine a comprehensive aerial survey happening _immediately_, helicopters showing up with emergency supplies and defense troops or police within hours, and so on, but the government has produced ridiculously inaccurate casualty numbers and has blamed lack of contact with the affected area for their ignorance. It makes me think nobody is actually there. Can somebody fill us in on what is being done to help the people who are there?