Holy crap.
I’ve heard now of at least 3 TOWNS that are gone. Whole cities just wiped off the map.
Tsunami warnings have been issued for the west coast of the US; has anyone heard when it might reach us here or in Hawaii or Phillipines?
I read just after 3am local time in Hawaii. Not sure what you mean by Portugal, the only one I know is well away from the Pacific!
The four nuclear power plants have been shut down safely, apparently.
Here is a link to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center: U.S. Tsunami Warning Centers
Yeah I just found the 3am time, which is in about 12 minutes. And I meant “Phillippines”; it’s late and I’m tired but I can’t sleep and watch this all happen, so I’m still awake. Nice catch, eh.
Holy sh*t, looking on the videos online, this is horrible.
NHK is reporting that all trains are stopped in Tokyo, and won’t be running today.
I’m still on the bus, but am thinking about getting off and walking the remaining distance. We’re picking up more people as they get tired of walking. The sidewalks are getting less crowded this far out. The people fortunate enough to have motorcycles are the only ones making good time.
There have some “Support Stations” with water and rest rooms for people having to walk home.
It looks like things are picking up some, so I may just take the bus. With Grandma watching the kids, I don’t have to be back immediately.
People are boarding the bus with print out of Google maps, showing how to get home. Others have ipads or iphones with their current location.
This bus only goes out a certain distance, and then people will have to walk home from there, which could be hours for them.
We live in close enough that the bus goes to our place.
My stop next. Finally.
I still can’t get phone call though.
My God, this is horrifying. We’re glued to the footage here, and once again find ourselves thinking and hoping for the best for so many people who are living through a nightmare.
I’m OK. I’d like to hear from Autolycus, too.
I’m far away in Hokkaido but it was still a 4 here and the cars, trees, telegraph poles and the ground under my feet were swaying. I was outside greeting kids and mums as they arrived for class, and the little ones all were crying in terror. We went inside but then the aftershocks continued. We couldn’t get out fast enough for me to feel safe, (I have a small entryway and there were 15 of us with babies and mums plus six kids and me) so I cancelled classes for the day and sent everyone home.
I have friends and my husband has family in the afflicted area but right now cell phones and the regular network are highly unreliable/unusable, so I have no idea how they are doing. A friend’s husband was in the coastal area where the big tsunami waves struck, and we don’t know where he is now.
This is really a horrible disaster.
I came here as soon as I heard the news, to check on all the Dopers in Japan. Autolycus was one of the names I wanted to hear from the most. I’m hoping he’s just without power and will be here to tell us all about it soon.
Well, I tried watching the coverage on MSNBC, but Morning Joke was living up to its usual standards of having six people trying to find a way to use this to blame Obama. So it’s back to the Al Jazeera live stream.
On NPR, the reporter called this “the largest earthquake in Japanese history.” That sort of makes you gasp.
Autolycus was last here on the boards at 2.45pm today Japan time…does anybody know exactly what time the quake hit?
I’m so glad you’re ok. The videos of the wave moving in are chilling.
14.45 Japan time. 
Google itself has updated the tsunami alert for:
New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii and all the smaller islands in between.
Oh shit. 
Fuck.
Very glad to hear that - you were my first thought.
Jesús María :eek:
And more :eek:
I hereby propose that we stop trying to break the Pacific Basin. Oh. No, I don’t know how to do that, wish I did…
No, it’s only 1.50am now in Hawaii. The predicted time of arrival is 13:07UTC which is an hour and a quarter from now.
According to that, the first wave is due to strike Nauru shortly. However it seems the predicted wave passed the Marshall Islands without serious incident, so perhaps damage to islands will not be as severe as feared?
I hope Autloycus is safe. He was online when it struck. Presumably power is off now, but from what I have seen and heard, buildings have stood up to the quake pretty well - it’s the tsunami that is doing the damage.
I feel a little silly saying this, but the bit about Starbucks passing out coffee and cookie bits choked me up a bit. I dunno, people helping each other in hard times gets me I guess.
Anyhow, haven’t heard much about this from AFN or official channels here in Korea. My understanding is that we’re safe from Tsunamis because Japan was between us and the earthquake. Trying to touch base with friends in Japan and Hawaii, but I don’t talk to most of them on a regular basis. I didn’t even know anything had happened until I got home from work around 7PM here.
I know I’m an economic Luddite, but it’s still distressing when you try to google news of the devastation in Japan and the first stories that come up are about how the ‘markets’ are reeling. Fer’ fuck’s sake. :rolleyes: