Left Coast Tsunami Watch
The earthquake destruction in Japan, especially from the tsunami, has been devastating. Now we wait for the waters to hit – CNN saying they’ll hit Vancouver and Seattle by 8 am PDT, and then sweep down the west coast. Meanwhile, in Japan, they’re digging through the damage and trying to get the nuke plants shut down before their cooling systems fail. Friend in Tokyo’s FB update said this was a more violent and longer earthquake than any she has been in (and she went through the Northridge quake in LA).
And yesterday I was planning to post a piece today making fun of the “Supermoon will Trigger Earthquakes” kook.
ADD: Updated to include some tsunami maps from NOAA after the jump.
Energy of the tsunami:
Shown differently:
Local teevee reminding surfers to not try to surf the tsunami. And showing video of morons driving to the coast and parking their cars along 1 to watch the water come in, while the residents are trying to evacuate over the hill.
And….Muni is shutting down subway lines because they all run out to the Sunset District of SF. BART says that if the wave that hits Crescent City (far NorCal, home of a terrible 1964 wave) is more than 10 feet, they will shut down BART because of concerns that the surge coming in to the SF Bay will affect the tunnel running under the Bay.
Boy, I had the best night’s sleep (10 hours) and… what the fuck happened?!???!?!?
/pinches self/
Shit. It’s not a bad dream.
@ManchuCandidate: The raw video of the tsunami hitting Sendai is a nightmare.
@SanFranLefty:
It was. All those lives and that work and effort wiped out in minutes. I want to go back to bed.
My girlfriend is in Okinawa visiting her mom, and she’s scheduled to head for Tokyo today. I have yet to hear from her …
@blogenfreude: Heard that Narita was open but all the trains were shut down. Unless she flies into Haneda from Okinawa. Hope she’s fine and gets in touch soon.
@SanFranLefty: I spent quite some time at work watching footage. Incredible. We only ever felt relatively minor tremors in the two years I lived there, but the buildings swayed impressively.
@blogenfreude: Hope she’s able to get a free line out to you. Like Nabisco said, don’t see how she’d be able to get to Tokyo. All trains still shut down per my friend who is bunking down for the night at her job. She couldn’t get out via phone either, she finally posted on FB asking if someone could call her dad to let him know she was okay. Poor guy probably got 100 calls early this morning.
@blogenfreude: Hope all is well. Keep us posted. I’m very glad right now that son of Mr Cyn & family live in the mountains above Kona. Schools on the Orygun coast are closed and a number of area are evacuating.
I’m not terribly confident that Japan has its nukes properly cooled down. And wondering WTF it will be like when one of these massive quakes strike land along the Ring of Fire.
Is it ever too early to ask “What about Maru?
Jesus Christ SFL, you weren’t kidding about the Chronic. They’ve got a fucking AP wire story about the earthquake. You know, because apparently an incoming 5 foot wave isn’t worth booting a local reporter out of bed for. News fail.
(Your local Seattle correspondent is currently bunking down in San Jose, thus suddenly more interested in events in the bay area.)
Atomic power emergency declared in Japan.
@redmanlaw:
Not surprised considering the issues the Japanese Nuclear industry has had in the past surrounding safety.
@redmanlaw: And with that, it is officially time for me to go to bed. Stay dry, Coasters.
@Nabisco: OMG, I’ll now be spending the day worrying about kitteh.
@Mistress Cynica: Maru’s supposed to jump, not the apartment.
It’s 9:45am PT, and no Left Coast Tsunami. Unless I missed a report.
OFFICIAL MARU UPDATE:
Maru is safe.
Thank you for worrying and praying.
Via — wait for it — Ana Marie Cox.
Hope everyone’s safe and dry. My basement flooded – I should think in sympathy.
Mild with blue skies aqui en Santa Fe. Didn’t even really need a jacket or fleece vest when I went out at 8:30 am. Bulbs are coming out. Looking forward to perfect spring skiing conditions tomorrow. Knocking out work like a crazy today. No meat Fridays through Easter for spouses of devout Catlicks, so it looks like fried tofu and veggies for lunch today. Just got off a six day road trip with one stop at home, so I really wanted to fire up a grill tonight and flop on a ribeye or one of our organic pork chops in the freezer, but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
@IanJ: The San Jose Mercury-News has better coverage of happenings in Ess Eff than the Chronic does. LAT and SacBee are generally my go-to California papers.
Inappropriate ad of the day: “Glucerna” features home interior rocking back and forth…
In Cali, Crescent City and Santa Cruz report some tsunami damage, but nothing here in So Cal.
6.6 in Nagano, site of 1992 Winter Olympics.
@Dodgerblue: Video of the Santa Cruz Harbor is gnarly – looks like the boats got banged up.
@SanFranLefty: Here’s a USGS map of the last day or so in Japan: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/140_40.php.
@Dodgerblue: Picture of tsunami rolling through the SF Bay.
Local Faux News reporting that four people were swept out to sea in Crescent City.
Four trains missing.
Four trains missing.
That’s not supposed to happen to trains.
@nojo: What? How can a train be missing?
@nojo: Here or there?
@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: There.
@Dodgerblue: That’s the point: How can a train be missing? Basically, they’ve lost communication. The trains might be fine, but nobody knows.
@nojo: This will frost your nuts — a Tweet from Washington Week: Japan says radiation levels surges outside nuclearplant, expands area subject to evacuation – AP
@Dodgerblue: The IAEA and Hillary say that “mobile electrical supplies” have been delivered to the plant to keep the cooling pumps going. Both were coy about how the supplies got there so quickly, I’m assuming U.S. Navy or A.F.
@SanFranLefty: I’m watching the NHK live stream in English. Evacuation area is now 10 km around the hot plant. Radiation readings 1000 times normal.
@Dodgerblue: Shite. And there’s this from Forbes:
Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe Escalates in Japan – ‘Worse than Chernobyl’
Fuckin’ A.
@Dodgerblue: Not frosted. Toasted.
@nojo: @Dodgerblue: You think some PG&E execs are looking at Diablo Canyon and San Onofre with a twinge of nervousness?
@SanFranLefty: Wow. I could make Godzilla jokes, but this isn’t funny.
@SanFranLefty: That article sure had a lot of “ifs” in it. Are these cooling pools open air or contained? Also, who the hell is going in to start repairs? Even Japan’s robots are probably not that capable.
@Dodgerblue: Apparently, See En En already went there as it was happening.
@SanFranLefty: CNN just had a nuke-industry flack saying Everything’s Fine. Mousy suited type. You had to see him to get the full effect.
@flippin eck: What are you implying? That I was about to make a bunch of Godzilla jokes? How could you possibly know that? I wasn’t gonna make Godzilla jokes, so I don’t feel guilty at all, not one bit.
Anyway, if I were gong to make Godzilla jokes, which I TOTALLY wasn’t even thinking about, they would have been funny jokes, so that is okay, so I don’t need to feel guilty about. But I wasn’t going to so it’s okay anyway. So I’m not at all guilty.
What’s Benedick up to, anyway? I bet he was going to make Godzilla jokes. He should feel guilty about that.
@nojo: “CNN just had a nuke-industry flack saying Everything’s Fine.”
Oh, phew! Well, then, I feel much better.
@redmanlaw: I saw a blog post from Scientific American saying that the cooling pools are outside the containment vessel. Seems kind of sketchy to me. The blog also said that the diesel backups weren’t working properly.
@flippin eck: What will you bet me that Fox counter-programs Godzilla v. Mothra?
@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: Yeah, Raymond Burr was in Godzilla (edited in, I believe), and he was gay, so there is a connection here somewhere.
@Dodgerblue: Godzilla jokes are inappropriate, Dodger. Ask any of us who aren’t feeling guilty about being about to make them.
@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: I saw a Japanese TV video showing a huge whirlpool in the ocean offshore, which is JUST LIKE THE FUCKING GODZILLA MOVIE.
@Dodgerblue: All I know is that it’s Benedick who is guilty, not me. For SHAME Benedick! SHAME on you!
@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: Yes, but it is an appropriate tribute–and not at all offensive–if I watch an episode of MST3K tonight that may or may not involve a Godzilla movie, right? Right?? Hmm, maybe I’ll just watch the Hobgoblins episode instead.
@flippin eck: Gojira, the original in Japanese, y’all.
Also the name of a French metal band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXn1wIsttpg&feature=related
@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: I was just about to remark that if this shite keeps up we should send in IanJ. He’ll fix it right up.
For the record, as long as we’re not hosting an international newscast for five-year-olds, we can say whatever the fuck we want.
@flippin eck: For SHAME, Filppin’! FOR SHAME!!!!!
Just skyped w/ the girlfriend, who is in a hotel in Okinawa – she’s fine and headed to tokyo … business as usual, per japanese custom. I reminded here there’s something called an ‘aftershock’, but she’s stubborn.
@nojo: OOOh, that’s a SHAME for you too Nojo! SHAME! SHAME!
This is fun for me.
@blogenfreude: That’s a relief, anyway.
@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: Shame is for weenie liberals.
@blogenfreude: Woot! Glad to hear she’s back in contact.
Today’s Darwin Winner:
Three people taking pictures of the surf near the mouth of the Klamath River, about 20 miles south of Crescent City, Calif., were surprised by large waves and swept into the water, said Cindy Henderson, emergency services officer for Del Norte County.
Two of the people struggled out of the surf and a male in his 20s is still missing, and is now the focus of a search and rescue operation, said a Coast Guard spokesman.
I hope:
(a) He’s rescued; and
(b) His rescuers slap him in the face.
@blogenfreude: The very best news.
@nojo: Or at least do what the teabaggers want, and charge him for the rescue.
ADD: I added some groovy NOAA maps and somehow along the way lost the video clip in the post. Hope to have it fixed shortly.
/scurries off to find her hamster
ADD2: Should be fixed.
@nojo: and (c) Bill him for the rescue effort.
@blogenfreude: Great news. How much longer is she in Japan?
@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: Don’t you know I was raised Calvinist? You’re going to traumatize me, man!
Did the quake just get upgraded to a 9.1?
@SanFranLefty: Glad you added them. I’ve been enjoying those maps all day. So to speak.
@nojo: The third doofus died, per CNN. When will his family file suit?
Trending Twitter topics:
· #prayforjapan
· #dulcemariaquotes
· #tsunami
· Fukushima
· Text REDCROSS
· Marcelo Lagos
· Hurricane Katrina
· Ninel Conde
· Alex Cabrera
· Chernobyl
Yes. Chernobyl.
And for the record, Fukushima is an actual place, not a very dark gag.
@nojo: You could always check with their German sister city, Weirbloeinup.
Oh for shame shizzle, was that me?
@blogenfreude: So glad she’s safe, bloggy.
My mom called me at 12 noon to ask how the tsunami was in Seattle, so I’m all, “OK mom, first of all, it’s a terrible Pacific tidal wave not a steak, and now it’s time for a Washington State geography lesson.” Not to mention the fact that she waited to call until three hours after it was supposed to have hit, in which case I would’ve been conducting my side of our little convo from Gilligan’s Island.
That didn’t stop the local nooz from sending their breathless “reporters” out to film Puget Sound rising one foot though.
@nojo: A FB friend was posting the Yahoo trending topics of the day. The earthquake was #8. #1 was Lea Michelle and #5 was Cap’n Crunch. The very essence of zeitgeist, no?
In other disaster-related news, Oklahoma is on fire. Friends in Norman and OKC can see the smoke and it’s already causing breathing problems in the sensitive.
CNN chyron:
“MONSTER QUAKE DEVASTATES JAPAN”
Well, that settles it. Godzilla it is.
@flippin eck: Cap’n Crunch? Is that still legal? They haven’t invented floss strong enough to get the remnants of the last bowl I ate in, oh, 1974.
@¡Andrew!: OK mom, first of all, it’s a terrible Pacific tidal wave not a steak = priceless
You want to go on the record saying that nothing bigger than an 8.0 will hit California? Why do you spite Mother Earth?
@SanFranLefty: Damn. Is Mr. SFL on round-the-clock duty now?
@Dodgerblue: If you call making me chicken in mushroom wine sauce round-the-clock duty, then yes.
There has been a big explosion at one of the Fukushima nuke plants. CNN reports that the explosion breached the reactor building and that the evacuation zone has been expanded to 25 kilometers.
@SanFranLefty:
REALLY, like our mommy earth isn’t pissed off enough already.
i’m a news junkie, but you know who’s worse? the rat. this was blaring from every tv in the house ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT. ask bloggy…we were skyping and i had to keep screaming at him to turn the fucking thing down. i woke up in scurry mode thinking i was in japan.
but he made me a fabulous lobster dinner, so.
all i want to comment on was the industry flack. WHAT an asshole!! i see noge commented on him. the rat and i wanted to punch his stupid face.
off to light more candles at the shrine and play my scrabble turn.
@Dodgerblue:
fuck…was waiting for this, knew it would happen. fuck.
see, i also knew that flack needed a punch in the face….
@Dodgerblue: This is going yo be another “the cover up was worse than the event.” Or “as bad as…” on the one hand they are saying “just an outer building blew up, no worries!” on the other, heavy speculation that all of the supposedly redundant power systems needed for a gradual cooling may have failed.
Oh, and a 1970 GE design. They bring good things to life…
@Nabisco: Oh, shit — Godzilla?
@baked: Glad you saw the flack. All I could think of was Kevin Spacey, but that doesn’t do him justice. I hear Satan turned down his soul because it wasn’t worth anything.
Everything is OK, right? From CNN:
“Authorities have begun radiation exposure testing around Fukushima prefecture where three people – randomly selected out of a group of 90 – have tested positive for radiation poisoning, according to Japan’s government broadcaster, NHK.”
@Dodgerblue: Time to socialize the losses.
@nojo: Better print a lot of yen — that’s not 3 of 90 with radiation poisoning, it’s 3 of 3.
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