A massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit just off the coast of Sendai in North-East Japan earlier today at about 2:46pm Japan time. The powerful temour was recorded by the US Geological Survey and is the 6th most powerful earthquake ever recorded anywhere in the world. The earthquake was unbelievably powerful but the bulk of the damage and death was caused by a tsunami triggered by the quake that sent a huge wall of water inland destroying everything in its path.
Disturbing images
Since waking up to the news I have been following the updates on the internet mainly via a like BBC feed and I must say the images have been hard to watch. It reminded me a similar disaster in India in 2004 and the Haiti disaster closer to home last year.
Japan prepared for earthquakes
Japan is no stranger to earthquakes as I have read and heard that 20% of earthquake of 6.0 or over in the world happen in Japan. Frequent earthquake drills take place in Japan in schools, apartment buildings, offices and even hospitals to educate persons on the steps to take before, during and after a major earthquake.
Country devastated
Hundreds are reported dead after this latest earthquake in Japan with thousands more missing. The power is down in large areas of the country as nuclear power plants are taken offline. Many trains have grind to a halt and communication channels are jammed. Dozens of aftershocks continue to shake parts of Japan many hours after the quake. I hope everyone in Japan can stay safe and Japan can recover from this disaster.
I would love to hear from you
Are you in Japan? Did you experience the earthquake? Are you ok? Even if you are outside Japan I’d love to get some feedback and thoughts via a comment below.
Japan earthquake in pictures – BBC
[sob]
If there’s one country in the world that could absorb a major disaster like this and get up stronger it’s Japan [japan]
My cousin is saying, there are still after shocks
Public Transoportation and Phone calls are almost impossible she says so the internet is the only option. [japan]
I caught this when the news broke and it was just sad to see the images last night as they were streamed live online.
Just hope the country will rebound from this.
[japan]
As soon as they publicize how Jamaicans can help, I am on it.
[japan] Isn’t it a coincedence that in 2009 there was an anime released called Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 that was about Japan having an 8.0 seismic earthquake and shows the aftermath of it and just a couple of days ago; Japan is hit with an even higher earthquake.
-crazy stuff
More recently Ore no Imouto(2010).
But the tokyo destroying earthqauke thing isn’t anything new.
[japan] [anime]
It was really sad to see all this but i want to help people as much i can in japan with sushi and you all do on ur own what you can do
Where did you get those pictures from?
hiya Sixmats, there is a link at the bottom of the post, pointing to picture source on BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709791
Wow, that’s the first time I’ve seen those. I took a picture from a hill as I was facing the coast because I could see there was a fire there. I took a few pictures, along with some others, and they are sitting in my camera which is back in Sendai.