Tsunami

Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:12 am

Lots of us complain, bemoan, hate the weather we are dealt, but when one sees what happened in Japan, and even our own country today, a drought or flood seems like a gnat.

I've only experienced one earthquake (I was living in Kentucky at the time) but it terrified me. I ran out of the apartment so fast, in so much fear, that I didn't take time to turn the door knob, I yanked the door from the jamb.

Prayers and good wishes go out to all those affected.

Mike

Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:29 am

Mike,
I second your good wishes for those affected by the quake and/or the tsunami.
When we lived in upstate New York, we had a minor tremor--just enough to shake the cups in the cupboard and quiver the silverware. I grabbed the dog and got outside as fast as I could. I cannot imagine a quake that registers over 8 on the Richter scale.

Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:52 am

Prayers for all those affected by the disasters...earthquake, tsunami, flooding and now nuclear, with radiation leaking at some plants, causing evacuation.
May more have survived all of this than we think.

Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:13 pm

My prayers are with all those people too. I haven't yet seen people collecting donations for them. Hopefully that will start soon and I will do what I can to help.

I lived pretty much on top of the epicenter of the San Fernando Valley (Calif.) earthquake in 1971, magnitude 6.6 on Richter scale. That was huge, twisted highway overpasses, damaged buildings, broke water pipes (we didn't have clean water for a week). What I remember most about it was all the aftershocks, dozens and dozens of them for days, some of them magnitude 5 +, a good sized earthquake in itself. We are so used to the solid ground, being grounded, etc, when the ground isn't solid any more, but continually shaking, it is very disorienting.

But the Richter scale is logarithmic. That means the Japan earthquake was 100 times the strength of the one I went through. Unimaginable!!

Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:38 pm

Youtube video of tsunami in Japan. Incredible footage, especially near the end, showing the wave moving through a developed area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3AdFjkl ... r_embedded

Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:44 pm

My friends on Galapagos said that the Tsunami surge there (more than half the world away) was 2-3 meters above normal. They were all evacuated to higher ground.

Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:05 pm

It is a horrible thing that happened in Japan, the videos of the destruction are beyond believed.
I also see a nuclear reactor is on fire and leaked radiation; all I can say is oh sht.
My hart goes out to them. A friend of mine's fiancee lives in that region, I hope she is OK.

Sun Mar 13, 2011 4:45 am

We survived Hugo 25 miles north of Charleston with a 17 foot storm surge it seems trivial now. What happened in Japan frightens me beyond words. Our prayers go out for them. May those reactors hold.

Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:22 am

rainbowgardener wrote:My prayers are with all those people too. I haven't yet seen people collecting donations for them. Hopefully that will start soon and I will do what I can to help.

http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/ ... f0870aRCRD

Red Cross is taking up donations. They're ALWAYS taking donations from kind folks.

This group is also taking up donations, though this site looks kind of facebook-y, so I'd feel more comfortable giving to an established group that I've definitely heard of. I'm sure this group is legit, though. Just makes me a bit uncomfortable giving to a group I can't see whose collection website looks fairly unprofessional, IMO, but it's always nice to know what's out there.

http://www.causes.com/causes/590211-nor ... =130385734

Sun Mar 13, 2011 11:35 am

Actually, being Quaker, I will probably make an extra donation to American Friends Service Committee, earmarked for Japan:

http://afsc.org/project/responding-humanitarian-crises

they do wonderful work in disaster areas....

Sun Mar 13, 2011 4:18 pm

word, and everyone... earthquakes are normal. It is when the slip of the crust causes the most damage.

I was watching a bunch of the videos and you can actually see the p and s waves (seismic) and when they hit. I can not tell you how many earthquakes I have been through. The biggest I have ever felt was 7.9 in 2002. They call it a roller as it makes the formation (mantle) roll like waves on a sea as the formations becomes what geologists say... plastic. And since this was a under water seismic event, it just makes it worse.

I am glad that most of Japan is very much up on earthquake response and building code and they have been very good with technology to help them. But when it comes to tsunami's, that is just one force you can't stop.

Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:59 pm

rainbowgardener wrote:Actually, being Quaker, I will probably make an extra donation to American Friends Service Committee, earmarked for Japan:

http://afsc.org/project/responding-humanitarian-crises

they do wonderful work in disaster areas....

Thanks for linking that.

I've never heard of this group before.

I grew up in Illinois, the only thing we ever had to deal with was tornadoes, and even then I've never been in close proximity to a tornado touching down. One did touch down one neighborhood away from mine in high school here in Georgia, but, thank goodness, I was in Illinois when it happened.

Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:15 pm

That youtube video is insane! A whole city just wiped out like "whoosh". Mother nature is crazy and shocking.
It seems like more and more of these massive disasters are occuring. it's frightening.

Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:14 pm

hendi_alex wrote:Youtube video of tsunami in Japan. Incredible footage, especially near the end, showing the wave moving through a developed area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3AdFjkl ... r_embedded

Oh wow. I have seen the before and after photos but I haven't seen this. It's so sad.