Breaking News: Magnitude 8.9 Earthquake, Tsunami hit Japan

[Matthias Sieber]

I've seen it in a restaurant after class at hq... Headed back home and watched it online.

I hope the number of casualties won't increase any further and my friends and families in Japan are okay. I admire the calmness of the Japanese people.

[John Alighieri]

Tsunami Alert for New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and others. Waves expected over the next few hours, caused by 8.9 earthquake in Japan.

[Fraser Kirk]

I'm watching it on the news just now, It's crazy seeing huge boats and house floating along at 50mph! New says so far 20 people confirmed dead, I just hope it doesnt end up being far more. Also, I really hope the poorer nations like Indonesia and the Phillipines are able to get people away from the coast quickly. The video of the wave in Sendai is like something out of a computer game.

[John Alighieri]

The south island of NZ got hit by an earthquake few weeks ago and now we got that tsunami alert!

I'm starting to wonder if there's more and more natural disasters happening in the world or we are so connected nowadays that we know way more about what's going on in other countries than we would have few decades ago?
All I can see on Tv is tsunami here, earthquake there, hurricane here...

[Fraser Kirk]

Yeah, I saw that in Christchurch (and that was like the 2nd earthquake there with months!) I was just thinking the exact same thing, it seems like nature is throwing a shit-storm at us right now! I reckon its probably just that a disaster anywhere on earth will be on tv screens in every part of the world within hours. They just said that the earthquake off japan was 8,000 times more powerful than the one that devastated christchurch. Hooooooooly Jeeeeeebus!

[John Alighieri]

It's hard to compare apparently. The chch earthquake wasn't that violent in theory but what made it that catastrophic was the fact that the epicenter was shallow. 5km underground.
To rebuild Chch it's gonna cost NZ 16 billions $

[Fraser Kirk]

I completely agree, the Christchurch earthquake was exactly placed to cause the most damage. That is a crazy amount of money! Its just a shame that with each new disaster the previous ones get forgotten when there is still so much help needed.

[John Alighieri]

the worst is that the death toll following the quake remains at 166, and that is still expected to rise to around 200

[Fraser Kirk]

That sucks The news is saying that there is a danger of a nuclear meltdown in a reactor in japan because the water cooling pump for it wont work. I really hope it doesnt cause more problems. Also, apparently observation buoys in the pacific are showing the tsunami isnt as high as they had thought further out so you may not get much at all in NZ hopefully.

[John Alighieri]

yeah they mentioned a 6ft wave. Hopefully they got that one right!
Damn nuclear meltdown!