Japanese residents told to flee tsunami

[Flickered Flame]

TOKYO - Japan's Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings Saturday following a powerful 8.3 magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean and officials ordered coastal residents to flee to higher ground.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070113/...pan_earthquake

[Superflyer]

Well they are saying that the waves can reach as high as 3.3 feet. I do not think that is as bad as the last one. Lets hope it turns out to be nothing.

[Daradon]

Good to hear that the warning systems are in place and alerting people. Anyone know if the poorer regions got theirs set up, weren't some of the richer govts. supposed to help them out after that disaster a few years ago?

[OilersBaby]

Yup, and over here in Cali, it's a tsunami "watch"..which means if it turns into a "warning" (which they showed on the news would happen at 5 am PST if it happened), we have to evacuate. The same goes for BC Coastal areas.......I have no friggin clue where we'd be evacuating to. About 9 million people live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and that's not including all of the undocumented, illegal residents........

[TheCommodoreAfro]

The largest wave recorded was 50 cm at Chichi-jima - a small island a 24 hour boat ride away from Tokyo - there is a chance that it can pick up steam as it makes it's way across the ocean but it's remote. Most of the northern parts of Japan close to the quake only had levels about 20-30cm after all.
The warning system in the country is pretty good - the national network switched over to an emergency alert system, and all TV stations had the warning plastered across the screen. And populated coastal areas also have gates and a system to redivert huge masses of water. (In fact, one of these "water collection zones" in Tokyo also doubles as an underground concert hall, if you can believe it).
Being in Tokyo, I didn't feel a thing, but I'm sure glad the magnitude 8.3 quake didn't hit close to here. That type of quake would pretty much level a good chunk of the city....

[Muta]

Maybe they got Eccentric Young Boy to man the early warning systems? I mean, he does have 80 little mysterious bags he didn't know about...

(an obscure reference to those 'Useless Video' thread browsers)

=)