[11th March 2011] 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan
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Massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan
TOKYO (Reuters) - A massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan on Friday, causing many injuries, fires and a four-metre (13-ft) tsunami along parts of the country's coastline, NHK television and witnesses reported.
There were several strong aftershocks and a warning of a 10-metre tsunami following the quake, which also caused buildings to shake violently in the capital Tokyo.
TV pictures showed a vast wall of water carrying buildings and debris across a large swathe of coastal farmland.
Public broadcaster NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.
Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks floating in water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed into the water.
Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in the city of Sendai in the northeast.
"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under
their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo.
"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."
Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.
Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.
Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.
Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds were watching and pointing to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, "They're still shaking!", "Are they going to fall?"
Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.
"The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn't believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo."
The U.S. Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.8.
A police car drove down Hitotsugi Street, lights flashing, announcing through a bullhorn that there was still a danger of shaking.
The Tokyo stock market extended its losses after the quake was announced. The central bank said it would do everything to ensure financial stability.
Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
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Scaryyyyyyyyy. May God bless them ~
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Count spore lucky not to have any.
We should be happy living in spore isnt it?
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Japan quake felt in Beijing: residents
BEIJING - THE powerful earthquake that struck Friday off Japan's Pacific coast was felt as far away as the Chinese capital of Beijing, 2,500km to the west, residents said.
Workers in some office towers reported via chat sites that they had clearly felt the tremor, although no injuries or damage was immediately reported.
The China Earthquake Administration said it had received reports from residents across the city who also claimed to have felt it.
The quake was not noticeable in AFP's Beijing bureau.
Japan issued its top tsunami warning after the quake hit.
-- AFP
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That is terrible...this yr 2011 is really a bad year for the world.
I have the feeliing that some country might get a bigger and powerful quarke that kill thousands of pple.
Mother earth very sick, she's throwing up and coughing........
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Kan: No radiation leak due to Japan quake
TOKYO - JAPAN'S prime minister Naoto Kan says nuclear power facilities in the northeastern area of the country were not damaged and there was no radiation leakage.
However, Mr Kan said that the 8.9-magnitude quake had caused 'major damage'.
'I ask the people to act calmly while listening carefully to information from radio and TV,' he said.
The offshore quake Friday triggered a tsunami that hit Japan's northeastern coast, sweeping away buildings and cars.
The government's top spokesman, Yukio Edano, said that the country was sending troops to the quake-hit area to join relief efforts.
-- AP, AFP
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大自然的力�...
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US widens tsunami warning to most of Pacific coast
WASHINGTON: The US tsunami monitoring center on Friday widened a warning to virtually the entire Pacific coast, including Australia and South America, after a massive earthquake in Japan.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center include the US state of Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, and the entire coast of Central and South America under a lower tsunami watch list which includes the territories of Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Micronesia.
The center had earlier said the tsunami would hit Hawaii at around 2:45 am (1245 GMT) and the US West Coast at 7:45 am (1545 GMT).
- AFP/fa
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just look at the comments from here >___>
http://news.youku.com/japanearthquake/index
seems like some ppl are celebrating -___-
damn them...
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Originally posted by ^Acid^ aka s|aO^eH~:
just look at the comments from here >___>
http://news.youku.com/japanearthquake/index
seems like some ppl are celebrating -___-
damn them...
Perhaps you would be one of them if you are living in the same country? place?
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looks like they forgot about their own earthquake few yrs back.
id imagine them to have more empathy sia.
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8.9 downgrade to 7.9 liao lor.........................very weak compared to 8.9................
10m tsunami ? no way lah....................most of those 2-storey houses still intact.............
max 2-4m only lah..................
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I hv a colleague who told me that it is better that those countries such as aust, china (beijing, shanghai), malaysia, hkg hit it hard and damage them hard.
I told him u siow man, u happy see pple die huh? Siow!
He told me, good wat! Foreign investors will still prefer spore over them. At least sporean got a jobs right? Rather than they shift operation out of spore. We died.
Sound logic.
Hey! Dont say I got evil hearted ya.
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your colleague really very very smart.........................
he is definitely smarter than my hamster....................
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Survival.....either we local jobless or they jobless.
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Widespread tsunami warning after Japan quake
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A tsunami warning has been issued for the entire Pacific basin, except for the mainland United States and Canada, following a huge earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
It said that among the countries for which a tsunami warning is in effect are: Russia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.
The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-meter tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses and cars.
By 8:00 a.m. GMT there had been no reports of a serious tsunami hitting anywhere beyond Japan.
"A tsunami is a series of waves and the first wave may not be the largest," the center said. "The threat can continue for many hours as multiple waves arrive."
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Originally posted by Asromanista2001:
your colleague really very very smart.........................
he is definitely smarter than my hamster....................
Haha..
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Ishihara's fault.
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Originally posted by likeyou:
Survival.....either we local jobless or they jobless.
there are many other places foreign companies can go to lah...................if and when they decide no point staying here...............
unless LKY waive all corporate tax..................no more CPF from employers..........
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MFA seeking info on S’poreans affected by Japan quake
Yahoo! Singapore understands that Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is desperately trying to get in touch with its Japanese consulates to see if any Singaporeans have been affected by the monster 8.9 quake that hit northeast Japan on Friday.
The quake off the coast of Sendai triggered a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars, farm buildings on fire and boats, media and witnesses said.
Numbers of casualties are still patchy but Japanese media have warned the strength of the quake was “unprecedented”. Japan’s Prime Minister has also warned of “extensive damage” in Sendai, which was the major city closest to the epicentre of the quake, which was felt as far away as Beijing.
Singaporean Acra Koh, 25, a student studying in Tokyo, is back in Singapore for a holiday and she told Yahoo! Singapore she’s been trying desperately to get in touch with her Japanese friends.
At least one person was killed in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo where four million homes were without power. There were several strong aftershocks. In the capital Tokyo, some 370km away from Sendai, buildings shook violently.
Mr Ronnie Livni, a 42-year-old American living in Tokyo, said, “I felt the aftershocks. I’ve been living in Japan for 20 years and used to having quakes but this one just kept going and going. The fridge moved two metres. Laptop jumped off the desk and everything’s on the floor.”
It’s expected that with extensive damage in the northeast of Japan, mobile and phone lines could be jammed or out of service.
Secretary-general of The Japanese Association of Singapore Mr Sugino Kazuo told Yahoo! Singapore that he has not been able to contact his parents who live in the Chiba prefecture, an area affected by the aftershocks of the earthquake.
It was also reported that the Cosmo oil refinery in Chiba prefecture outside Tokyo has exploded, sending flames dozens of metres into the air, with firefighters unable to contain the inferno.
Meanwhile local travel agents are also bracing for a wave of cancellations to the north-east of Japan in the coming days.
Ms Eva from SA Tours told Yahoo!, “For now no cancellations and we are keeping a lookout for the next two days. But if there are cancellations, I won’t be surprised.”
-- Yahoo!
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2 O 1 2 is coming.
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The north-eastern city of Sendai has been hardest hit by the 8.9 quake.
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becoz the magnetic poles are drifting more and more..............
earthquakes are caused by eletromagnetic forces................even solar flares can affect...............
not just tectonics.................
I SINCERELY HOPE ALL THE JAP AV ACTRESSES ARE OKAY.................
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Originally posted by Asromanista2001:
becoz the magnetic poles are drifting more and more..............
earthquakes are caused by eletromagnetic forces................even solar flares can affect...............
not just tectonics.................
I SINCERELY HOPE ALL THE JAP AV ACTRESSES ARE OKAY.................
I hope the Japan AV actresses all die.AV industry pollutes mind.
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This is real bad. I really hope that they will be okay.... and I hope that one of my classmate over there will be okay.... go to http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish?feature=ticker to see the live report on youtube....