Message for Everypony: Pray for Japan!

[DoodleDev]

Donations to Red Cross!

The Red Cross is accepting donations to help with rescue efforts in Japan and other countries!

By texting the word REDCROSS to the number 90999, a confirmation text will be sent back, asking if you would like to donate $10 to the Red Cross. All the proceeds to this number will be helping efforts in Japan. The $10 will be added to your next cell phone bill. It's super easy, and takes only a few minutes! If you don't have the money (Or liberty) to donate, please help to spread the word!

I was just about to head off to bed when I got a ton of Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds about a massive new earthquake that just took place right off the coast of Japan!

It's looking like they're measuring the new quake at 8.9 (Which is incredibly powerful and dangerous for those who don't know how earthquakes are measured. This rating is beyond the damage counter of an F-5 tornado, mostly due to the much wider range that can be affected. This is also a very shallow quake, with the epicenter at hardly 25 kilometers deep! The shallower the earthquake, the higher the damage totals will be...)

If you're interested in seeing the live coverage, Al Jazeera is hosting a live feed in English of what's going on.

http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-a ... sh-english

Or if the main site is getting bogged down with viewers:

http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish

(Scroll down to the middle of the page for the live coverage)

If you know someone that lives there, contact is going to be very troublesome, but it sounds like some places still have internet access.

Please, keep Japan in your prayers tonight folks!

UPDATE: 2:15am (USA Eastern Standard Time)

Waves are now smashing into the coast and many buildings in downtown Tokyo are on fire. People are trapped in high rises and the entire train transport system has been grounded to a halt.

UPDATE: 2:41am (USA Eastern Standard Time)

Now getting reports in about one death so far as a result from this earthquake. A woman in Ibaraki(?) was killed under a house collapse. No news on her name or family, but please keep whatever family she may have had in your prayers. Also just heard about a graduation ceremony where ~200 students were caught under another roof collapse. Lot's of injuries, please pray for these grads!

UPDATE: 2:52am (USA Eastern Standard Time)

Tsunami watches and warnings are springing up all over the Pacific. 53 countries and territories in all so far! If you know anyone asleep on the west coast, or maybe in Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines, please make sure they are safe and well aware of the warnings!

UPDATE: 3:34am (USA Eastern Standard Time)

8 deaths are confirmed, and this number is certain to rise... This is the single largest earthquake in Japan's history over the past 300 years! This is far beyond the size of the Kobe earthquake back in '95. Reports in Kamaishi are saying the tsunami smashed boats and cars into buildings and bridges. Even folks in Bejing, China could feel the quake, and they're over 2000 miles away from the earthquakes epicenter! People on the west coast of the USA are expected to feel the effects of the tsunami from this earthquake between 7-8am (USA Pacific Time) An oil refinery in Ichihara has been on fire for several hours now and completely out of control. Lots of footage coming in of sludge, debris and even flaming debris floating on the waves farther inland. All coastline communities in Hawaii are being evacuated to light of the tsunami alerts.

UPDATE: 3:39am (USA Eastern Standard Time)

Alright everypony, I really need to get to bed. If anyone gets any other updates on the situation, please post them here! World news is an incredibly important part of our lives, and history is made every day! Do your part to keep as many people updated! Goodnight, and I'll be back on this in the morning! Please pray for Japan, Russia, and all of the other surrounding areas!

UPDATE: 3:22pm March 11 (USA Eastern Standard Time)

Whoo, looks like I slept in a little later than usual! I've got news spilling from my ears, my RSS news feeds, TweetDeck and Facebook are overloaded with lots of new reports from Japan, and all the other coastal areas in the pacific. It looks like Al-Jazeera has looped back to the riots in the middle-east alongside showing tsunami images and news. US President Barack Obama has offered his condolences to Japan and the victims, and is going to send as much help as the USA can spare. Lots of footage of massive walls of water simply devouring small villages and towns. 200-300 unidentified bodies have been found in the Northeast provinces of Japan. 30 International search and rescue squads have been sent to Japan to help with person recovery and first aid. Naoto Kan (Japanese Prime Minister) has set up a massive service center for immediate emergency response. He asks the people of Japan to remain calm. According to both the news and a few friends of mine in Japan, the transport system in Tokyo is still at a standstill. Tokyo is a city where nearly 80% of the transport system relies on trains both above and underground. Pressure in the reaction chambers of a nuclear power plant in the Fukoshima are continuing to rise in the wake of this disaster. Hillary Clinton revealed that the US has flown in reactor coolant to help prevent a nuclear fallout.

Al-Jazeera has put up images of the tsunami and the damages, including some incredible shots of the wave itself and the whirlpools it left behind.

http://english.aljazeera.net/photo_gall ... 96179.html

As of 5:00am (Japan) - The death toll from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami is expected to reach at least 1,000.

The Red Cross has opened text lines and donation pools to help send aid to Japan.

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageS ... _text2help

By texting REDCROSS to 90999, you can donate $10 to the Red Cross and the money will show up on your next cell phone bill.

UPDATE: 5:18pm March 11 (USA Eastern Standard Time)

News coming out of Japan is starting to slow down, but the headlines are getting more serious. The area around the Fukoshima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been evacuated after a confirmed radiation leak. Radiation levels in the control core are now at 1000 times higher than normal! Even with the coolant shipment from the US and other allies of Japan, the reactor is reaching incredibly dangerous radiation levels, and there is a moderate threat for a nuclear fallout due to this event.

And yet despite the massive event that has struck the region, many workers are still going about their normal lives to the best of their abilities. Here's an interesting Livejournal post from someone I follow: http://denkimouse.livejournal.com/1222512.html

Even the Japanese Yakuza (Basically, the Japanese mafia/mob. Organized crime.) have opened their doors to anyone in need of shelter and food!

UPDATE: 6:12pm (USA Eastern Standard Time)

Just got word from a friend that Volcano Sakurajima in the southern tip of Japan has erupted due to the ongoing aftershocks! You can see footage of the amazing explosion here:

This stratovolcano if famous for it's ash eruption way back in 1914, which left the area it's closest to covered in ash! Let's hope this doesn't happen again soon! Kesennuma city of Miyagi Prefecture with a population of 74,000, is nearly entirely on fire with a third of the city submerged in water. ~3000 people have now been evacuated from the area around the Fukoshima Daiichi power plant due to radioactive vapors being released as a result of intense pressure in the reaction core. I also have a link to video of a man out-driving the massive tsunami!

The shakiness being shown through this camera is NOT from bumps in the road, but from the road itself shaking!

[Kash]

I was just about to make a thread on this. this is horrible.

[Dani]

It's so terrible what's happening. I'll keep the victims in my thoughts. There are 50+ countries affected by the disaster so far.

[Ragdollfrey]

It's not just Japan though :l Poor Queensland is gonna get another Tsunami after all they've just been through...

All the same, why are we getting so many disasters this year? It's horrid

[GeekyBones]

Jesus Christ... 8.9? I can't think of any earthquake that strong hitting a major populated city like Tokyo in recent memory... AND tsunami's are coming afterwords? *shakes head*

I have a number of friend's who have family and friends in Japan, but luckily so far no reports of deaths or injuries from them. According to some of a friend's family who live in Osaka, the aftershocks of the Tokyo earthquake alone sent all the items flying off their shelves in their house.

Time to head to BBC and Al-Jazeera to get the full story. (Also good to hear some other ponies here ue Al-Jazeera. One of the best news sources.)

(edit)

Oh no.. Tsunami's heading for New Zealand? Oh for the love of all that is holy, please miss Christchurch. They've already had enough tragedy and death there in the past month. ._.

[GeekyBones]

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598

The Red Cross in Geneva warned that the waves could be higher than some Pacific islands, Reuters news agency said.

A passenger train with an unknown number of people aboard was missing in one coastal area, police told Kyodo.

And a ship carrying 100 people was swept away, Japanese media reported, quoting police in Miyagi. It is not clear what happened to the vessel.

The earthquake also triggered a massive blaze at an oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, engulfing storage tanks.

Here's a map with approximate times of the arrival of tsunami waves. Apparently, large waves are already starting to show up in Hawaii.

[Derpy]

This was a bit of a scary experience for me last night/today because I was actually talking with one of my friends when the quake happened. He said "oh, there's an earthquake..." and then things started falling off his desk and his LiveStream/Internet cut out. I tried calling him immediately afterward on his cell and landline, but they were both busy. Then I turned on the news and it was reporting that there was an 8.9 magnitude quake -- Japan's biggest in the last 180 years. He's in Tokyo and I knew that I shouldn't try calling again, since it is a national emergency there, but I was so worried. The quake happened at around 11:00 PM and I didn't receive word that he was okay until 4:00 AM my time. I'm so happy that he is alright, but I'm heartbroken to see all of this devastation on the news knowing that others must be experiencing far more panic right now waiting to hear from family and loved ones. This is so tragic and my heart really goes out to Japan.

If anyone here is in the same situation I was in: http://goo.gl/rlR07

[Tempest Rime]

I also had a friend there, but I didn't hear about it until just recently. Fortunately, she'd already posted on the Facebook that she's ok. Still, my heart goes out to those in the areas hit.

[DoodleDev]

Time to head to BBC and Al-Jazeera to get the full story. (Also good to hear some other ponies here ue Al-Jazeera. One of the best news sources.)

Yeah, I've been following Al-Jazeera since the quake in Haiti! They have had the best coverage on everything.

To Derpy: Oh my gosh that is crazy! I was so nervous going to sleep last night/this morning because I wasn't able to get a hold of my old middle school friend who is studying in Japan through an exchange program. Thank you for that link! Although I don't know what good it will do for me, she's not registered as a citizen of Japan.

[Sunburst]

Poor Japan! :C

My roomate told me he had been having dreams about Earthquakes, and a particularly bad one last night. He didn't see it in the news until this morning (We don't have cable, so he looked it up on his phone)....eesh. My heart goes out to everypony in Japan...

[brianblackberry]

Jesus Christ... 8.9? I can't think of any earthquake that strong hitting a major populated city like Tokyo in recent memory... AND tsunami's are coming afterwords? *shakes head*

Largest in the nation's history, it is even more powerful than the 1923 Great KantÅ earthquake which killed 100,000 in Japan and was an 8.3. The fact so many fewer people died is a testament to Japan's earthquake preparedness.

[Akie Tara]

This is really scary stuff.

I can't even describe the way I feel right now because of this...

... My hopes and prayers to everyone in Japan.