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Holy cow - NHK showing coastal camera shots of cars bobbing like corks and being washed through coastal areas and an elevated section of highway that must be 30 feet off the ground almost immersed.
Nice big aftershock just then too.
Large tsunami wave warning extended to essentially whole eastern coast of Honshu; looks like some people are evacuating buildings too. Elevators in my building shut down.
8.9 Earthquake 230 mile north of Tokyo - Tsunami warning
USGS just revised it to 8.9 Huge earthquake for 2:30pm Friday Japan. Major damage to northern Japan, Sendai airport wiped out by 30-foot tsunami. Some Tokyo buildings have major damage and fires break out. Cell phones and landlines down. Internet, facebook, twitter still work.
Seems (and hope) most people are ok in Tokyo and can best communicate via email, aside from the general scare and buildings damaged. But Sendai area and Miyagi prefecture major destruction and sadly human toll (many are also stranded on top floors and roof-tops of buildings surrounded by tsunami water, according to news). My prayers to them.
Last edited by npei; Mar 11, 11 at 1:04 am..
Reason: friends' update
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I'm in Tokyo, experienced it first hand. Unbelievable. Crowds screaming in the streets. Crying. Laughing. Fires burning. Overall not a lot of visible damage though. Most buildings evacuated and even now over an hour after, I cannot make cell phone calls. SMS's finally going through slowly..
I heard NRT is closed. Trains stopped. Elevators in most buildings are down.
Aftershock as I'm writing this. People at certain big companies (including mine) are being told that they can only go home if (a) they can walk all the way and (b) they wear a company-issued helmet to protect against potential falling glass.
Craziest Mother fxxking earthquake I have been in during my 21 years here. The aftershocks still occurring an hour and a half later are might jolty too. Everyone in my life is fine and Roppongi Hills is handling it very well. Mighty proud of my colleagues today.
8.X seems right. I have NEVER seen so many Japanese in an absolute panic at an earthquake.
On a lighter note if nature could possibly schedule these on day which are followed by work days I would not have to miss the Friday night festivities and the next day would be a free day off. Sheesh nature, thanks a lot.
