Tsunami warning, injuries in Japan quake

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

Tokyo - A massive 8.8-magnitude quake hit the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, shaking buildings in the capital Tokyo, causing "many injuries", at least one fire and triggering a 4m tsunami, NHK television and witnesses reported.

There was also a warning of a 10m tsunami following the quake, Japan's biggest in 7 years.

The public broadcaster showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.

Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area.

TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks floating in water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan.

"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said.

"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."

Quake upgraded

Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.

The US Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.8.

The Tokyo stock market extended its losses after the quake was announced. The central bank said it would do everything to ensure financial stability.

Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3 000 people.
Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20% of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

[Bertie Horak]

Just saw a video of the tsunami, washing away the buildings. Terrible! I feel for those people.

[Henk Coetzee]

Just saw a video of the tsunami, washing away the buildings. Terrible! I feel for those people.

Link to the video please Bertie.

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

Just saw a video of the tsunami, washing away the buildings. Terrible! I feel for those people.

Link to the video please Bertie.

Henk, go to News24.com. Video and images are available there.

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

Tsunami warning sirens go off in Hawaii

Honolulu - Hawaii scrambled to evacuate locals and tourists from the coastline late on Thursday after a massive earthquake off Japan triggered a tsunami alert, officials on the Pacific island state said.

"We have about four hours to clear the shorelines," said John Cummings of the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management. "This looks like this will be a very serious event."

Warning sirens went off at 21:59 (local time) and were to go off every hour on the hour afterwards. The first waves were expected to hit Hawaii around 02:55.

Authorities were arranging buses to evacuate residents and trying to open evacuation centres.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, based in Ewa Beach, west of Honolulu, issued a widespread warning extending across virtually the entire Pacific Ocean, including Australia, Antarctica and South America.

Hawaii is about 4 000 miles east of the epicentre of Friday's earthquake.

[Henk Coetzee]

News24.com crashed :)

CNN has the most up to date videos now, thanks Paul.

[toonfandangl]

Here in Oz its the BBC coverage we are receiving! going to hurt a lot of people! feel for them all.

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

Tokyo - Belly-up ships, twisted cars and debris from shattered buildings on Friday crashed through the streets of Japanese port towns that were turned into black rivers by a monster tsunami.

A muddy river filled with rubble - some of it on fire and belching smoke - raced across rice fields and through towns, aerial television footage showed in one of the worst-hit areas, Miyagi prefecture.

A schoolboy was swept away there by the deadly waters and there were grave fears the toll would keep climbing sharply from the more than two dozen reported dead as a cold night settled over Japan.

The huge wall of sea water unleashed by Japan's worst quake on record hit the Pacific coast of Honshu island, sweeping away whole houses and turning harbour areas into scenes of utter devastation.

Water travelled hundreds of metres

The masses of water overwhelmed coastal defences and swallowed up many square kilometres of land in the region in scenes reminiscent of the devastation triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Ken Hoshi, a local government official in Ishinomaki, a port city in Miyagi prefecture.

"The water came as far as to the train station," hundreds of metres (yards) away from the coast, the 41-year-old official said as his city turned into a flood zone.

"I'm worried because I can't contact my family. But because it's my duty, I'm braced to spend the night here," he said from his fourth-floor office.

In nearby farming areas, the flood swept away houses like toys and devoured dusty fields still barren in early spring, before the deadly tide was stopped inland by the embankments of raised highways.

In far-northern Aomori, at least five ocean-going ships, some flipped belly-up to expose their red hulls, raced inland over shattered sea defences, rows of trees and harbour-side shopping streets.

Army deployed

In Ibaraki large houses were seen floating through the town, and elsewhere dozens of cars bobbed in the waters like corks.

The quake that triggered the tsunami tore cracks into roads, pushed manhole covers and their attached pipes out of the ground like small towers and dumped the contents of supermarket shelves on the ground.

Completing the apocalyptic scenes, elsewhere in Japan scores of fires broke out as gas mains were severed. An oil refinery was ablaze in Chiba prefecture outside Tokyo, belching acrid smoke into the skies.

As aftershocks kept rocking the country, the army deployed troops to help those in need, a rescue effort that became more complex as darkness fell.

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

News24.com crashed :)

CNN has the most up to date videos now, thanks Paul.

You welcome Henk

[Michael Alexander]

Only 44 dead so far.... there has to be more after seeing that wave rip through the countryside...all those cars bobbing like corks......

[Michael Alexander]

Here are some incredible pics....

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365229/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Fears-massive-death-toll.html

[SandyB]

Indeed awful to watch .. 

[Michael Alexander]

More dramatic pics.....

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365546/Japan-earthquake-pictures-Devastation-rescue-workers-fight-fires-search-survivors.html

[toonfandangl]

Indeed awful to watch ..

Yes Sandy!........ have stopped watching its depressing this is going into the thousands of people dead I know its the media's job to cove these disasters but they seem to be coming too frequent.

[SandyB]

Too right  Frank  , its a bit  of  overload  on the psyche , one has to create a bit of distance or we would all be suffering from terminal depression ... the other side of the coin ... read on... Sad  fact  is  there are folk out  there who actually relish in the misery of the situation ... My friend David stumbled upon a blog page with  folk declaring  that  those  yellow slant eyed chinks deserve  what  has happened etc etc ... hiding behind  saying  such as its " karma' etc ... I  do believe in natural order karma etc ..  the disasters we watch on the screen  as observers may one day  be us  in the middle of a disaster being watched  by the rest of the world , but yes .. for those on that offensive  blog site  have a heart and at least feel for those who  has lost so much ,,,  and remember that the  wheel is round and what goes around comes around ,,,