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Tsunami warning sirens sounded early this morning on the Oregon coast following a 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan. We'll talk with people up and down the coast as high waves are expected to hit this morning. Early reports from Hawaii say damage is minimal. Are you on the coast? Have you moved to higher ground? Have you lived through a tsunami before - perhaps the one that struck the West Coast in 1964?
Think Out Loud will have live coverage of President Obama's press conference this morning and return to special coverage of the tsunami until 11:00.
Show in production. Details to follow.
Tagged as: earthquake · tsunami
Photo credit: MiK / Creative Commons
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Unfortunately, Portland and the Willamette Valley are built on layers of sediment deposited by the ice age floods. Inland western Oregon might not fare well in a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. How do you prepare for something so catastrophic? Get your emergency preparedness kit setup in your garage and hope for the best.
Considered moving to Costa Rica but learned of really bad earthquakes there. Vacationed down the street from an active volcano which erupted occasionally. That was neat in small doses.
New Zealand was sweet but there are thermal vents posted "out of bounds" on golf courses for crying out loud. And we know what happened to poor Christchurch. Walked around Auckland New Zealand from extinct volcano to extinct volcano, and visited Rangitoto Island which errupted 800 years ago. Constant reminders the Earth is always in motion.
Considered Kansans or Arkansas, but learned this week that natural gas companies have shut down two hydraulic fracturing wells in Arkansas because there have been 800 earthquakes in the area, the largest being 4.7 magnitude a few days ago. This area hasn't had an earthquake of that magnitude in 35 years. Humans might be causing localized earthquakes with their oil and gas exploration activites. Nifty, hunh?
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that bend over and kiss ur butt goodbye comment/observation is really funny >. perhaps someone could inform us what it really means, if it in fact means something else
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Penny
"...put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye!"
When the radio emergency alert system first started back in the 1970s one of the Eugene radio stations played the practice alert warning and right after it the announcer snarkily said "and if it had been a real alert you might as well put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye!" He never said that again, he must have gotten quite a chewing out.
That was a great rock and roll station for a long time, though I don't recall which one it was. We listened to it over here in Bend until someone bought it and changed the format. Pretty much all music and very few ads.
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I would guess, Tom, that the station where that happened was KZEL (96.1); they also played a tape at 7:30 a.m. that went "It's 7:30 in the morning -- GET YOUR A$$ OUT OF BED!!!" Also, when they did the news, they said they were bringing us "The news from around the world, across the nation, and up your street." Then a second voice would say, "Up mine?" to which the first voice would respond, "Up yours." Certainly a rather irreverent way to introduce the news -- I don't know if they ever got in trouble for it, as they were still doing it up until the end of Feb 1983, when we moved to Texas.
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Penny
That sounds like it. KZEL rings my memory bell.
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I am impressed that this is the LARGEST EARTHQUAKE EVER MEASURED!
And compared to the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004 when 250,000 people lost their lives--many whose bodies were never recovered-- we may be looking at less than 500 casaulties in Japan. Triumph for Preparation.
Volcano eruptions in Iceland, Italy and Alaska; Mega Earthquakes in Haiti and New Zealand; Tsuanmi's in Japan and Indonesia; and the Strange Absence of Hurricanes of the past 7 years since Katrina.
These are Climate events beyond the pale of Global Warming and Man. STUFF HAPPENS. Sometimes blame cannot be assigned as much as we would like. i.e. Republican, Big Corporate, Globalization, Big Oil, Dick Cheney Plot. But it does not stop Paranoid Schizoids from luxuriating.
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not worth commenting on- where do you find this "information"?
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lolo
He makes it up.
And he is doing what psychologists call "projecting" his own faults onto others.
His comment:
"But it does not stop Paranoid Schizoids from luxuriating."
Applies to himself.
I think he is relatively harmless.
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QUESTION FOR COSTAL GEOLOGIST:
HOW FAR UP THE COLUMBIA RIVER CAN A TSUNAMI ADVANCE?
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When talking about impact of tidal surges from the tsunami event it is important to note that on The Oregon coast, at least, this surge is arriving on a low tide. (1.2' at 10:32 AM at the Columbia River bar). This would serve to greatly reduce the potential impact of such a wave today.
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Looks like the hard work local communities have been doing to educate folks about tsunami preparedness and evacuation is paying off. This one may well wind up being a drill, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Oregon Sea Grant at OSU has some great short videos from coastal hazards expert Patrick Corcoran explaining simple steps coastal residents and visitors can take to be safe when a tsunami strikes:
http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/breakingwaves/2011/03/11/pacific-tsunami-reminds-oregon-to-be-prepared/
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The Japanese are tremendously disciplined people, plus they have a tradition of dealing with natural disasters. As far back as their records reach they record earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. This time, though the have the additional threat of multiple nuclear reactor melt downs. That is the only disaster they haven't handled before.
Well, I amend that. They suffered the Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuking- courtesy of the USAAF. So as wide ranging and horrific as these calamities may be, the Japanese have the preparation, discipline and resources to keep cool, work like beavers, and pull togther. Having a homogenous population is also a big plus in cases like this.
I can't help but look back at the Katrinia disaster here in the USA and consider that they still have not finalized the aftermath of that relatively minor (compared with the situation in Japan) disaster. Can you imagine what southern CA would be like if a disaster like that in Japan occurred there? The looting, the robberies, killings the racial conflicts? The human element would be the REAL catastrophy.
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the following is a non-sequitur which is then used to buttress the preposterous statement which follows it
"Having a homogenous population is also a big plus in cases like this. "
you make some assumptions which are not fact based, but instead indicate some really deep seated prejudices- which you follow up on in the paragraph after-
- in Japan there is an ethnic majority which does not look so kindly on an equally indigenous minority - Japan is NOT an ethnically homogenous country, any more than China, Russia, Britain, the Swiss, or ourselves - but there was never the same "slave-holding" mentality in japan that many whites here still want to hold over those, and their descendants, brought to this country against their will - The ethnic majority in Japan are in fact somewhat intolerant of the minority, and they ARE NOT the better off for that attitude- however it does not rise to the extremes we have in this country, thanks to folks with ideas like yours -your attitudes would lead to what happened in former Yugoslavia, or Rwanda- this is what your sort of intolerance leads to- it that what you want?
black folks built a lot of this country which you now rest your backside on, and you show them no respect for their work and contribution- again, you complain that they bite the hand which feeds them, feeds them poison- maybe if you spent a life time being treated as they have been??
karma will get us if nothing else does
i say white folks who feel like you, they should leave
OR you can show a little humility as an invader in a stolen land
have you called any of your amigos latinos "mestizo" yet?
****
- and you had your chance to state your opinion, and now i've had mine-that should do it - or we can follow with one round of rebuttal, if you like
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Our Tort System has Prepositioned Emergency Lawyers Standing-By on higher ground:
Who do you Sue, when its a Super Tsunami?
--And I hope he has ocean-deep pockets...we will get this B*stard!
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why joke about something as serious as this?
and you claim sensitivities???
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Wow! Is that ever the truth. Remember 9/11? The First Responders were actually ordered to stand down and allow better equipped and trained workers to take over the recovery work about 24 hrs later. But, I also remember the adament attititude of the First Responders. They refused to leave the scene and seek medical attention and continued to work, instead.
How long afterward did the First Responders begin their law suits against the city for reasons of health complaints? All of which were related to their having disobayed orders to leave the scene? But, in all the verbage regarding their suits I have not read a single reference to their insistance on remaining at the site and working in spite of having been told to desist?
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May I Join the Chorus:
This Tsunami is obviously the work of Fox News-Christian Right-Coal Lobbying- Tea Party-Conservative-Dick Cheney- Big Corporate-Glenn Beck-GMO Farming-Global Warming Denying-Rush Limbaugh-Big Oil-Religious(!)- Billionaire-Capitalist Republicans, Scheming to Destroy America in their Quest to Unseat Obama and capture the White House in 2012.
Yes a clever use of an under sea nuclear weapon precipated the geologic fault leading to an earthquake and tsunami all overseen by the mastermind Sarah Palin, who viewed the whole event from her Alaskan Porch. The Nuclear power plant was just the cover. This would never happen in Socialist Utopia where union membership was mandatory and jobs would be abundant. Therefore:
"Workers of the World Unite, You have Nothing to lose But Your Chains!" No more deaths to Republican machinations.
Paranoid Delusions can really explain the whole world....And they are fun too!
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cute - at least this is keeping someone out of other mischief
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How come the richter scale number bounces all over the place during reporting? Who is an authoritative source for the actual magnitude of the earthquake: the USGS?
Thank you for covering this event. My heart goes out to the Japanese and all those affected.
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initial reports are further refined as more distant stations report and the information is analyzed -it's not quite as simple as sticking the thermometer in your mouth and pulling it out and reading it - usually it takes several days to come to an agreed final "number", but the initial reports are generally in close enough agreement with the final result
in other words an 8 doesn't turn into a 4.5
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LOLO >. AS U KNOW A RECTAL THERMOMETER IS MORE ACCURATE
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as you should know, we all knew you would be the one to think of that- where's yours now?
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Ther are signs on the coast highway warnig that 'you are now in a tsunami zone'. If I'm in the zone & hear the sirens, should I keep going or turn around? Is the warning going to be far enough in advance that it doesn't matter? Just curious.
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TURN EAST
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jer16mia : The "Tsunami Evacuation Zone" signs you see on 101 the coast mark areas low enough to be at risk from tsunami waves - places you want to avoid or get away from in the event of a tsunami. Some communities are also starting to install "evacuation route" signs pointing to higher ground.
If a tsunami is caused by a distant earthquake. you may hear sirens (if you're close to a town) and should have plenty of time - up to several hours - to get to high ground. If you're on the coast and you feel the earth shaking, that's a near-shore quake and could be followed - as it was in Japan today - by tsunami waves within minutes. Move higher as fast as you can, even if it means abandoning your vehicle and climbing the nearest hill.
In either case, the stupid thing to do is to head for the beach to watch the waves come in. Yet people continue to do that every time there's a warning.
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good luck with that, buddy.
in your little world there will be slave boys to take care of your every need, and then, like the rest of us, you will die, and you will leave behind a pile of grease - add lye and it's soap, so your life won't have been a total waste after all
posted by Iolo 4 months, 3 weeks ago
This is the Queen of Insults, Soup so thick you gotta eat it with fork.
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you are one of the most poorly informed and loudest and persistent of critics today
where did you pick up all this misinformation? have you no shame? have you not a brain to think things out for yourself, have you never been anywhere other than as a tourist, if that? do all your friends think the same lies and you all simply repeat them to each other and reinforce this nonsense?
you are barking like a beaten dog with this foolishness, and you seem to think that by repeating it, it will become true - this is not like praying and you either get what you want or you forget about it -
you are astounding and you are wrong in every single accusation and exaggeration you make - you may believe you are right, but you simply are not. Get a life and go live it, then come back and talk when you have a variety of friends and experiences. is your life so impoverished that you have to blame and exaggerate a boogeyman for everything, and the wrong boogeyman at that?
STOP ALREADY
--Posted by Lolo 3 weeks ago
I did not know they could stack sh*t that high.
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SOME OF OUR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE UNION MEMBERS ARE AT THE READY ROUND THE CLOCK FOR SUCH EVENTS. SOME ARE EATING DONUTS RIGHT NOW, COLLECTING DOUBLE OVERTIME WATCHING FOR AN INCOMING TSUNAMI, AND I FEEL MUCH SAFER BECAUSE OF THEM. THE MEDIA POINTED OUT HOW WELL THEY DID THEIR DUTY, ALTHOUGH THIS WAS JUST "PRACTICE". SOME PUBLIC UNION EMPLOYEES HAVE DECIDED TO STAY ON THE JOB AROUND THE CLOCK AND ALL WEEK END (OVERTIME PAY) JUST TO ENSURE OUR SAFETY.
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again, it was probably you,d or g,after all , it is generally you three who have the most unsupportable opinions, and it is you three who go on and on, even as you do now-
and take a look at the heights you yourself have reached, J,with your doggerel, much more accomplished than I- and yet you manage to say so much less, and what it means is even less - how do you do that?
but it's every bit your right to look like a fool in fact it seems to be in your cases, a privilege
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Several commentators mentioning this morning the lack of looting. I recall the looting in NO during and after Katrina. If a disaster on the scale of the ones in Japan happened in any big city in the US except maybe along the Canadian border, we know who would be looting and who would not. It is a Simple fact of life in these disunited states.
In Uganda, one of our major projects in the mid 80s was rebulding village schools (they tore them down almost as fast as they were built.) Any kind of disturbance in far off Kampala was sufficient excuse for every one in the village to run to the school house and start tearing it down and stealing the GI roofing, the windows, doors, and every bit of furnishing. And the villagers themselves performed most of the labor to build the schools each time.
This IS COLD FACT; this kind of FACTUAL story about aid in Africa can be endlessly repeated because the behavior is endemic and commonplace.
The Japanese are overwhelmingly one people and a people with A strong sense of solidarity with each other. They are also smart and industrious.
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Let's support the people of Japan in their recovery. Tips for smart giving after disasters as a generic no cost PDF download "Checklist for Effective Disaster Response"
http://bit.ly/aN4BG2
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It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Do you agree? Air Jordan
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How prepared is Oregon for a quake off our coast?
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Comments are now closed.
Oh, the blessings of living in the Willamette Valley -- protected from tsunamis by the Coast Range, no evacuation calls when a quake hits Japan. (Of course, we still are at risk of other seismic and volcanic events within the valley, and there's alsway the possibility of the rivers bursting their banks if it rains too much too fast.)
>
P.S. I love the picture -- put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye!