Wow!! Watching that tsunami roll in is almost as surreal as watching 9/11 happen!
I am speechless and that rarely happens. That shit is fucking scary!
CNN is showing live images of the tsunami waves crawling over the land.
Not to make this all about ME ME ME, but tsunamis are pretty much my number one fear, period. Watching this is completely freaking me out. God, I really hope everyone stays away from the sea.
I’m completely transfixed with the tsunami. I’ve never watched anything like this unfold before. I want to be able to shout at the people on the ground, and the news reporters aren’t talking about it, but it seems very clear to me that there were cars that did NOT make it out of the way. I am so sad for those people.
This is devastating.
I was in Aceh post the Boxing Day earthquake. In terms of invasion inland, this tsunami appears to be going much farther inland.
How very, very sad.
Wow. We’re watching this on CNN right now and the images are horrendous. Now they’re saying that more tsunami waves are hitting the shores of Sendai.
I hope all our Dopers and their friends and relatives in Japan are okay.
This is unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it - it looks like a disaster movie. Fuck.
Looks like the worst tsunami since 2004. 8.8, Jesus. (Mind you the range or even existence of a tsunami depends on the kind of quake. But still.)
I just said almost the same thing, word for word. I can’t believe we’re seeing these scenes live.
There are tsunamis on top of tsunamis. I’ve never seen anything like it.
My local news is talking about Japan and the Oregon coast historically “trading” earthquakes!
Watching that wave crawl across the beautiful and neatly arranged farmland is dreadful. Thinking of the heartbreak of cleaning it up, and making things right again, along with the loss of life, is depressing.
Sendai Airport is mostly underwater now. Incredible devastation. Wow.
Watching the images on CNN. I am speechless. They are showing burning buildings moving with the incoming wave. Now they are showing people stranded on rooftops at an airport.
I just hope that the majority of the people were able to avoid the tsunami and evacuate inland.
Tsunami warnings as far away as the Marianas. The damage to the smaller island nations is what terrifies me. Hoping this is not as bad as the Boxing Day quake, but my gut says this will be worse.
I hope all our Dopers in Japan are okay, and everyone else in those areas.
question: does any one know how long the earthquake lasted?
Also watching CNN here. There are people trapped by the flood trying to get the news helicopter to help them. I’m shaking.
Autolycus is in Aomori City. This is a Wikipedia link to an article about the area, with a map showing where it is. Aomori - Wikipedia
Does anyone know how close this is to the tsunami footage. It looks awfully close to the sea.
This is going to be worse than Katrina. I’ve never seen anything like this…
It felt like there were two. About 15 mins apart. Can’t say for sure how long they lasted. But for the first one our building was swaying for about two minutes, and maybe 3 minutes for the second one (not that the earthquake itself would have lasted that long).
I’m no…tsunami-ologist, but it looks like the curve of the land might protect it from tsunami waves coming from the east.
This is pretty amazing, scary and sad. The people of Japan are in my thoughts.