earthquake & tsunami
 

is everyone ok? i hope so, it looks like quite a mess.. also on US coast :(

There were a lot of evacuations here and some real damage to marinas and such, but I think only one death.

I have friends and friends of friends in Japan, though, some of whom still haven't been able to get in touch. I am hoping it is just spotty communications...

yeah, i really REALLY hope coffee & his boat are ok :(

hope you hear from your friends soon!

Based on what I know of where his marina is (it's way up the Sacramento river), I don't think he had much to worry about from yesterday's event, if he was even at his boat yesterday.

Will try to contact him through other channels... stay tuned

Frieda said: "yeah, i really REALLY hope coffee & his boat are ok "

Hiya...i have been up at my folks for the entire last week. I and Mira are safe. Besides (as I told the several out of state friends who called) the layout of the S.F. Bay is such that a surge would have to make 2 90 degree+ turns after dissipating into wider water twice, in order to get all the way up to my neck of the bay...The surge would first pass through the 1 mile wide "golden gate" entrance then dissipate as it spread out into the MUCH wider main bay. It would break in half against Angel Island, and again against Alcatraz. Whatever 1/4 of the wave heads up into the north bay would then dissipate again because the entrance to the North Bay (San Pablo bay) is much narrower than the bay itself...it would spread out again, then have to take a hard right turn up the shipping channel into the straits where I live just before Suisun Bay....ie...A fat guy doing a cannonball off of the Marina fuel dock would probably rock my boat more than this tsunami could.

Thanks for your concern...we are just fine.

glad to hear that, and thanks for checking funkytuba :):):)

stay away, fat cannonballing guys! :p

I'm not volunteering

It's good to hear you're okay, coffee. :)

I heard from my dear friend in Japan. He is fine, and his family is actually out of the country, thank goodness. He says the US military bases are trying to coordinate whatever help they can, so I am glad to hear that as well. It's really starting to sound very bad indeed in some spots. :(

Really, *really* bad.

:(

I know, brightpearl, it sucks.

My husband spent some time in Japan a few years ago - luckily all his friends there appear to be OK. He is as appalled as everyone else about what's happening there, but he did point out that of all the nations on the planet, the Japanese are probably best equipped to deal with this kind of catastrophe. Without the earthquake and tsunami drills they've been doing for decades, possibly thousands more would have died.

it's :( :(

and while the japanese struggle with this, the german media hysteria had it's first meltdown already on saturday :mad: i heard they ran out of iodine tablets here in berlin this afternoon - totally nutty, right out of their minds because our media has gone nuclear :rolleyes: and my since lately ex-favourite online newsportal spiegel.de has japan now on #2 as they are featuring the HUUUUUUGE national politics fight on the back of the japanese catastrophe (there are three state elections the next days and "turning off our nuclear plants" is the shady election hype, i mean that's the thing to do, but just NOW there are really other problems, our politicians better stop wasting their breath and ask japan where they can assist, goddammit) instead.
all the other problems: quakes, tsunamis, volcano were just footnotes of the news coverage here. it's all about radioactivity and meltdowns - since DAYS :mad:

i've now resorted on british, american, australian and arabian (even on al-jazeera japan has meanwhile replaced libya, bahrain etc as #1 news) news channels... --> don'cha read german news, you may catch a serious radioactive contamination just from reading the headlines :rolleyes:

so sad :( :(

Thank you for starting this one, Frieda. The tragic loss is unimaginable and difficult to watch, making the reality of the scenes difficult, heart wrenching. As a viewer of this apocalypse I share your desire to bring comfort and hope to those in Japan.

Very relieved to hear you're okay, Coffee!
My folks in Capitola got their boat banged up but it's still seaworthy and it's just $$$, afterall.

One of my students has a husband and a daughter over there and she's very worried about the reactor situation. She's told that there are actually five of them that are in trouble.

I just heard from my friend that he's very, very busy helping at a military hospital. I feel almost like he is there on my behalf, and it helps a little.

I see that a baby was found alive in the rubble today, but of course there are toys and favorite books and teacups sticking out of all that mud as well. It's hard to take.

Then there's the whole nuclear thing.
*sheesh*
Y'all keep an eye on the news over on the west coast.

Nominated for "ZeBoard Understatement of the Year" award.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak.../2011_data.php

Just wondering why anyone would build a nuclear plant near any of the dots on that map ^ ... "what could possibly go wrong?"
(yes, i am looking at the dots in California too ).