Videos from Japan; Hawaii Won't Have a "Major Damaging Event"
Livestream news from Hawaii seem to show non-devastating waves and pullbacks as the tsunami spreads out from its source in Japan, but at "fairly significant numbers," according to the islands' tsunami guy. Japan is still reporting a shockingly low death toll from such a significant event; but that toll is expected to rise. In Hawaii, people seem nervous but assured: "I've cut my feet on this reef a few times but nothing like this," said the KHNL newscaster a few minutes ago, looking at the exposed Diamondhead reef, which is now getting some water again. So far they've seen surge of about six feet; it's now expected to top out at 8 or 9 feet. In the 1946 tsunami, waves lasted all day; this is not expected to be as severe, but you'll see "odd behavior" all day around Hawaii. After 7 a.m., foot-size waves are expected to reach California.
Egads, they are now reporting 200-300 bodies in Sendai alone.
Is that a birth certificate floating in the Hawaii live stream?
"clean up in aisle… um…"
But seriously this is terrible. I await Pat Robertson's weigh in on what the Japanese people have done to deserve this.
I'm yelling at the screen like an idiot, "Just get out of the store!"
I experienced the Loma Prieta quake in '89 on the roof of a 3 story house in Berkeley. That was a 6.9.
This just blows my mind.
And just a reminder: the Richter scale is logarithmic, meaning that each whole number increase in the scale is 10 times larger. Thus, the 8.9 earthquake in Japan today is 100 times stronger than Loma Prieta.
7th largest recorded earthquake of all time. It's weird seeing the whole pacific rim starting to light up again after so long with just mild activity.