*UPDATE 2:00pm EST - A New 7.9 scale earthquake has just hit the mountain region of Japan along with dozens of aftershocks larger than 6.0
At approximately 1am eastern time Friday, 3pm Tokyo time, a massive -massive- earthquake struck just off the coast of Japan approximately 150 kilometers off the coast at a geologic depth of approximately 28 kilometers. The size of the quake is incredible in its enormity, now estimated at 8.9 on the richter scale. Labeled a GREAT quake. Massive rapid moving tidal waves are impacting Islands and the main land of the Pacific coast. Emergency Tsunami warnings are dispatched throughout the Costal areas of Japan and Pacific islands including Guam. The first Tsunami waves hit the coast within 30 minutes of the quake. Some of the waves are 20 feet ( 6meters) and beyond.
The initial 
Tsunami is massive and has pushed through the Sendai harbor as a massive slow moving wall of water. The video images are absolutely incredible. Full size cargo vessels are being pushed into the harbor city as an incredible wall of water moves in. Warnings to Russia, Guam and beyond are being sent. The aftershocks are frequent and numerous beyond the 6.0 scale.
MY GOD THE TSUNAMI IS HUGE AND WASHING MILES INTO LAND. OMG, OMG…. Oh the humanity caught in these waves is unbelievable. Homes, cars, factories, people, the wave of water is crushing and swamping everything. The tidal wave now estimated at beyond 10+ meters, 40+ feet. OH MY GOD, I’m watching it live on CNN via a helicopter showing the wave inland swamping everyone. Oh my, UNBELIEVABLE. Japan asking for international help already. Warnings sent out throughout the pacific coastal globe warning Russia, Guam, and beyond. The Sendai area is totally devastated. OMG.
Inland Farm Area near Sekai Japan getting swamped
Water Rushing Inland for Miles
Carpark Near Fukushima Prefecture
Tsunami Waves Coming ashore near Sendai Japan
- Near the Harbor just as Tsunami began to swell ashore
- Near the Sekai Harbor – North Japan
- Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture
My Prayers are with all these people getting swallowed up with this wall of water. It has reached 100 kilometers inland and the water is still rising…. THATS ABOUT 60 miles inland of Sendai. OMG. This water is incredible. How many people have to be suffering….????
More video. Warning Not for Everyone…. Nothing specific, but easy to imagine.
OMG More waves are coming in behind them. ENTIRE factory complexes are being wiped out, entire towns are being swallowed whole miles and miles inland. This is like something from a Hollywood End Times movie. Anyone on the ground up to miles, and miles inland is at risk. I can only imagine how many people are killed at this moment. This is horrid. Praying. Praying. Praying.
Fires have broken out in many major metropolitan areas around the coast. Oil refineries etc. Sendai airport is swamped/engulfed in water. It moved so fast farmland, homes, cars, entire neighborhoods and cities are swamped and under water. One of the largest and longest lasting earthquakes ever to hit Japan.
Trains and central railway lines are being stopped. Some fires in Tokyo from the quake itself but the main issues are with the coastal areas being impacted by the Tsunami waves.
This is a bridge after the earthquake but before the Tsunami hit. Look at the bottom of the pylons holding up the bridge. See the road?
This is a screen grab of a video in the same area. See the row of trees in the picture above and the base of the bridge. Now look at this picture and see the water rushing through that EXACT area. The pylons in this picture below are the same as in the picture above.
Same area under the bridge. Entire shipping boats ended up going under this highway overpass. The cars are all swallowed up. Unreal.
The area is flooded by tsunami in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture:
Look at what happens around the 1:00 minute mark…. Unreal..
That video shows cars trying to outrun the water! Praying for all those people.
Here is a great video near the coastal harbor to show the magnitude of the water coming in. Incredible.
If the Tsunami reaches the Hawaiian islands it would arrive at 7:30 to 8:00am Eastern Standard Time. (2:30 – 3:00am Hawaii time).
The stuff that looks like goo is the Sea Water with all the Debris of houses, cars, people and just stuff…. anything.
Tsunami warnings for Oregon and Alaska included in latest update. Tsunami alarms being sounded in Honolulu and other Hawaiian Islands anticipated arrival 3am Honolulu time 8am Eastern.
South Pacific coastal areas being evacuated, indonesia etc. The entire Pacific Rim. The only question is how large will the waves be by the time they reach different areas.
Wow… just turned on the tv…
My prayers are with Japan.. awful.
This is beyond anything I can say. I am praying for japan.
OMG… Fox is saying there is a passenger train in Japan unaccounted for. It was in route when the tsunami hit.
I fear there are going to be thousands lost in that debris wave in the video. Inland Ships (ferrys) are missing too. I stand aghast at the shere magnitude of that wall of water… never, ever, have I seen anything like it. It’s like anything was just wiped away. Incredible power. (((prayers)))
They keep up’ing the death toll… over 200 on the coast.
I am sure it will be a lot higher.
My dad use to go to Japan all the time when he worked and those trains are always packed. They actually have professional pushers to cram people in.
Wow.. this is incredibly sad.
200-300 bodies found in the coastal city of Sendai, Japan.
The Sunrise there is around 4:00pm East Coast US time. I think that is when the magnitude of loss will begin to be established. I cannot imagine the suffering realized in the horror of that sunrise.
It will be horrific….
This video is just unreal.
Sadly, the death toll will likely be in the tens of thousands. This was an 8.9 magnitude quake. The 9.1 magnitude quake & tsunami of December 2004 killed over 230,000 people in fourteen countries.
My eyes are sweating…again.
I fear you are right.
x2
Just turned on the news and had no idea…so so horrible. My family is very Japanese friendly these days (food, outfits and my son is really into the Tokyo Drifting thing with cars). My kids will be very concerned too!
Tacky Obama…. his statement said something like our relationship with Japan is “UNSHAKEABLE”
ugh.. next he will offer an ipod of his speeches as a token of comfort.
Unbelievable! Has Barry been taking lessons from Joe Biden?
or Kenneth Cole when he tweeted that the Egyptian people were rioting over his new spring line.
The “muck” (wet dirt/mud) depth from the receeding water is around 10′ deep in many places for miles and miles. It is going to take months to find anyone who might be under it. 10,000 bulldozers working 24/7 for months will never be able to dig through all that moved earth. ugh, ugh, ugh. I fear many will remain missing. Horrible devastation.
I am following some Japanese people in Japan… I have to put what they are saying into a translator…
They are pretty upset about a nuclear power plant, they are being warned of something.
They are also being warned about more tsunamis… but I cant understand if they are just freakin out or if its a Government warning.
But they are saying a 10 Meter wave could come….
They are reporting massive fires at refineries, they are having a hard time putting the fire out.
Latest tweet about the refinery fires and explosions.
Oil refining sales giant ＪＸ, ore Nippon energy, the Sendai city revealed that the fire with explosions near a tank company Sendai refinery located in miyagino-Ku, liquefied petroleum gas (ＬＰＧ).
Oh no…
陸上自衛隊などによると、宮城県気仙沼市の市街地で起きた大規模火災で、小学校などが全焼した。
translation:
Large fires in the city of Kesennuma city, Miyagi Prefecture, according to the Japan ground self-defense force, such as elementary schools are completely destroyed.
Fires are horrid after earthquakes. No infrastructure working to quell them, ya gotta let em’ burn… ugh, ugh, ugh.
I’m listening to live coverage from the BBC. The warnings have been expanded to include a much larger area, including the US.
Large waves (6ft) now hitting beaches in Hawaii. People have been evacuated.
Coastal residents in Oregan, California and Alasks may receive 2-3 metre waves.
Mexico and South America also in warning area.
Prayers.
I hope Ad rem is safe in South CA.
Looks like the US military is helping Japan with search and rescue.
Tohoku, revealed that about earthquakes, is a 折木 Ryoichi integrated Chief of the Ministry of Defense, evening Press Conference on made liaison coordination by self-defense forces and US military in Japan.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001yh1.php
Look at this..
Japan had another earthquake?! 5.8 magnatude.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001yib.php
Now they have had another….a 6.2.
Those may be identified as aftershocks. That being the case, 4-6 magnitude aftershocks will continue for some time. Everything that would come down already has, but it will terrorize them.
poor things.. it would be terrorizing to them.
You are right.. there have been 19 aftershocks..
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/03/earthquake-in-japan/100022/
Wow… awesome photos.
Unbelievable photographs. Just unreal. Wow is right. The pictures from the coast with the mass of water coming in are just frightening. I pray those people in those houses were able to evacuate prior to getting hit.
The devastation is incredible.
There have now been five afteshocks of 5.5.
It’s nighttime now and there are so many fires. There has a huge explosion at a petrochemical plant in Sendai. Sendai is where they have already found 300 bodies.
The defence ministry is ready to mobilise 300 planes and 40 ships to assist the rescue operation. Just terrible.
This map forecasts the potential spread of the tsunami effect. Incredible.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12715415
It so reminds me of the Scriptural prophecy
of the Last Days . . . earthquakes, famines, wars,
rumors of wars. Currently we pretty much have it
all—in spades. These accounts emphasize that
it will be as in the days of Noah: up until the moment
the Flood hit, people were engaging in trade, marrying
and giving in marriage. Even so, we remember that
God is in charge, and He gives His children earthly
protection now and the ultimate protection of eternal life!
Prayers ascend for the Japanese people who still
cling to life and are awaiting rescue . . . .
Mark 13:8 – “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.”
….and such advance information given in Scripture is not intended just “to scare people to death” but to demonstrate to those who will see these events that there is an all-knowing God in heaven who is sovereign over events and times; then when events unfold as they were described (a few thousand years ago “by illiterate people” according to critics) it should encourage those who have acknowledged the sovereign God that they are, in fact, in very good hands; and it should suggest to those who mock Him that they might want to reconsider their decisions.
Oh, and thank you, Sundance for your coverage
of this. It’s great to have all the major videos and
accounts in one spot, rather than have to search
on the internet, or sit glued to the TV.
Impossible to comprehend, both for us as we watch and for them as they endure. I am so sorry for their losses and the terror. By contrast, the folks in Fargo have known for at least 3 months what was coming, and have been focusing on preparation for over a month—for only 3-6 feet of water against their buildings and houses—rising gradually over a period of many hours. These poor people had a second or two, or a minute or two, to face the locomotive strength of a surge that cannot possibly be withstood.
This kind of reality is actually part of what drives the visceral anger we often feel against the left, who think they are so mistreated, they deserve more, they feel picked on. It is so infuriating to have to live with their endless, whining victimhood when human beings who are not union members or welfare babies are dealing with life and death. Within the leftist’s perspective, such visceral anger is useful only against us simply for not agreeing with their every breath. It will be very obvious today and over the weekend that the kind of energy, focus and fury that they reserved, literally, for Scott Walker and a handful of Wisconsin Republicans will be nowhere in evidence in the face of the grief and suffering of millions of Japanese people. They will, literally and figuratively, turn their backs and walk away. (after they have done their one-shot “we are the world” telethon)
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Sovereign God of the universe, You have shown Your mercy for the world and demonstrated Your knowledge of our need and extended Your compassion in providing for us a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. We ask in His name that the people of Japan and those rushing to their assistance will experience your great mercy today.
For those who are trying to help and who are equipped to help, and who are under great stress in spite of their training: help them to do very carefully everything their hearts desire to do. Grant them wisdom to know what to do immediately, and what to leave for later. Grant the leaders great wisdom today.
For those who do trust You and look to Your for help, strengthen their faith, Father. For those who have not trusted You and perhaps have despised those who do, we ask for mercy for them and the understanding that You are full of compassion and that even now, in the face of grief and terror, You will hear them if they call on You.
It is in the name of Jesus we pray, acknowledging that He Himself also intercedes for us and prays for us, and we thank You…….Amen
Amen
Sharon, you were moved to write those words exactly when I needed to read them. Thank You. Thank You so much. you have no idea…..
Amen.
You speak truth about the liberals/leftists.
Incredible Whirlpool Effect from Tsunami
As the waves came ashore…
Prayers for the Lost….
After the initial wave, you can see #2 and #3 coming ashore….
Aside from the destruction, what just occurred to me
is the consequence of sheer numbers of people killed.
Marc Steyn’s “America Alone” outlined how what’s
going to do in freedom-loving countries is demographics.
U.S. is just barely at the 2.6 replacement rate.
However, as I recall, Japan is a 1.0! Because most
young Japanese are choosing to not have children.
Can you imagine the numbers of young Japanese adults
and children who will not survive this earthquake
and tsunami? I would hope those that do will change
their mindset about having a family.
REPORT: 88,000 People Are Missing In Japan
http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-missing-people-2011-3
Oh dear God..
As you may or may not know, I’m pretty big into anime — my little bro runs the anime room at Balticon, and I’m friend with people who help out with Katsucon and AnimeUSA. We’ve already started discussions on what we can do to help out. For now, Kat has started http://otakuforjapan.blogspot.com. There is also a new group on facebook : otaku unite. We’ll be rounding up news and links, and would appreciate whatever insights or info you’d like to share. Thank you
Oh God. NHK is the English news in Japan…. I am following them on twitter..
This is awful. Whole towns wiped out. NOTHING is left.
latest tweet:
LIVE footage of minamisanriku, horrible. Submerge the entire town. Large reinforced concrete buildings in addition to see a building. As far as rubble. Nearly wiped out.
If you want to follow Japan … just go to Bing translator and you can copy and paste their words and it will translate to English.
My blessings to all the unfortunate in this disaster… I’ve always loved Japan even though I’ve never been there myself, so I’m very empathic about this situation.
I hope people can find their family and friends, and those who’ve died may rest in peace.
On another note though… how many more of these natural disasters must occur before humanity realizes the importance of global warming?
Sammi, thanks for stopping by. Earthquakes have nothing to do with climate change. Assuming that “Global Warming” is occurring, it has nothing to do with the inside of the planet.
Climate change has happened many times throughout the history of the earth, as have earthquakes and tsunamis. Climate change is part of the cycles of the earth, and man has very little to do with it, other than taking political and economic advantage of the situation.
Global warming=earthquakes?????
Please provide links which show conclusive evidence on such a claim.
”It basically pushed the sea floor up and down on opposite sides of the fault by 10 metres, causing the tsunami,” Dr McCue said. ”It is a sudden rupture that has occurred, but it has occurred because the two plates are converging at about eight centimetres a year and have been for about 100 years. That eight metres is released suddenly when the plate snaps and breaks and produces the earthquake.” . . .
Dr McCue dismissed suggestions that melting glaciers due to global warming could escalate the earthquake risk.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/monster-aftershock-could-strike-within-days-20110313-1bt2p.html
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