Japanese Earthquake

[bibblebub]

The images of the tsunami sweeping boats, vehicles, houses and debris across the country are just so dramatic.

There's continuous converage here http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

[bibblebub]

The tsunami alert has now been extended to the whole of the Pacific basin, and there's a report of a 1m surge (or even more) in the deep sea.

[squarebear]

"Japan is well prepared for Tsunamis"

You didn't see the footage of the vehicles desparately trying to get out while the tsunami was closing in on them at a much quicker rate then?

[Dusty Bin]

It should be "What can we do to help?" I would like to think.

[Davethedog]

There is going to be a huge loss of life. As SB says you can see the newsfootage moving vehicles being swept away I don't see hoe thier occupants can survive.

How many Islands between Japan and Hawaii?

[Bobbisox]

I echo here what has been said, Hawaii has been evacuated, what a terrible lot of natural disasters are happening now

[redman41]

There are thousands of Islands in the Pacific, many of them directly in the path of these Tsunami's, so it's very worrying for the inhabitants even though many will have received warnings beforehand. For some there is no escape !

[squarebear]

Look at this video fom 2:10 and tell me how those poor car drivers could ever have a chance to escape. Horrifying

[squarebear]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...asia-pacific-12709850

[Bobbisox]

There are a lot of Japanese people in this country, to you all I say, we feel your pain and anguish

[bibblebub]

There may seem to be a lot of natural disasters but the internet (in particular) has meant that these days we get to see coverage of them, live or very soon after, whereas in the past we would have to wait for the news at 6 o'clock, and if it was on the other side of the world we might well not see anything about them at all.

[mightyWBA]

squarebear I said it could have been a lot worse.
Stop nit picking.

[squarebear]

Not much consolation for those who died/missing/lost all their possessions though is it?

Message from Japanese PM - "Ah well, it could have been worse..."

[squarebear]

I just found out my friends in Japan are ok. They are in Kobe which is a bit further south of Tokyo and were fortunately not affected.

[starone]

Natural disasters are sometimes much greater than man-made ones. I have always thought the power of the mind was vastly underrated. Perhaps if we all got together at once and thought or prayed or whatever you want to call it, we could make some difference to it. In the meantime we can only watch with horror and wait until it calms down so that we can send in as much practical help as possible.

[redman41]

Citys such as Kobe and Osaka are in the Inland Sea so should not be affected, lucky really !

[bibblebub]

Kobe is ok, the tv channel were in contact with someone there.

[squarebear]

Yes, I emailed my friends and they contacted me back to say that they were ok.

[jackthehat]

The Kobe earthquake was pretty devastating some years ago.

Seems like Gaia is flexing her muscles at the moment........

[squarebear]

Yes, my friends mentioned that 6000 people died there back in 1995.