Live data from Hacker News

8.9 earthquake hits Japan

earthquake.usgs.gov

121–130 of 269 posts

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#121
post #17

Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??

There are push notifications of major earthquakes, though I think they're opt-out-able, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#123
Red Cross and others will likely be jumping to the aide of those who have been affected by this disaster.

If you have a website, please consider adding a message and link to the Red Cross donation website or the link to the donation page of any other website.

To get it up ASAP, I've used the HelloBar (http://www.hellobar.com) on my site. You can see a working version of it at http://www.webdesigncompany.net but really any way that grabs attention would be a good way.

PS: I'm not associated with the HelloBar product but I've sent them an email requesting that they allow those who want to use their product to participate to get an invite to their beta. Hopefully they'll reply here soon.

If you don't want to setup an account or don't have an invite yet, you could copy/paste the following code:

  
  
    new HelloBar(3823,9104);
  
The text and link will never change.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#126
Last year I experienced the chilean earthquake. It was 8.8. There were tsunamis in various cities and a lot of friends lost their houses. The days after it the earth wouldn't stop shaking. A new major aftershock every 5 minutes, and a new tsunami alert every couple of hours. For about 3 months. We still feel the occasional 6.5 aftershock every couple of weeks, more than a year later.

It's really sad to wake up and find that it has happened again.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#127

If you're in Hawaii or California, we're in a Tsunami Warning (which is the run-for-the-hills, highest grade warning): http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/04/messagelhvpd... If you're on a coastline, here are the tsunami height predictions: http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/models/models.html

Looks like the NOAA website is having issues, but the email service isn't. Here's the latest report via email:

Web message at http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/06/messagelhvpd...

WEAK51 PAAQ 111037 TSUAK1

BULLETIN PUBLIC TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 6 NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK 237 AM PST FRI MAR 11 2011

THIS MESSAGE KEEPS THE WARNING AND ADVISORY REGIONS FIXED AND ADDS NEW TSUNAMI OBSERVATIONS. A LINK IS PROVIDED FOR TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE FORECASTS.

...THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA TO THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER...

...THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF ALASKA FROM AMCHITKA PASS ALASKA/125 MILES W OF ADAK/ TO ATTU ALASKA...

...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA FROM THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER TO POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA...

...THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF WASHINGTON - BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA FROM THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER TO AMCHITKA PASS ALASKA/125 MILES W OF ADAK/...

A TSUNAMI WARNING MEANS... ALL COASTAL RESIDENTS IN THE WARNING AREA WHO ARE NEAR THE BEACH OR IN LOW-LYING REGIONS SHOULD MOVE IMMEDIATELY INLAND TO HIGHER GROUND AND AWAY FROM ALL HARBORS AND INLETS INCLUDING THOSE SHELTERED DIRECTLY FROM THE SEA. THOSE FEELING THE EARTH SHAKE... SEEING UNUSUAL WAVE ACTION... OR THE WATER LEVEL RISING OR RECEDING MAY HAVE ONLY A FEW MINUTES BEFORE THE TSUNAMI ARRIVAL AND SHOULD MOVE IMMEDIATELY. HOMES AND SMALL BUILDINGS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND TSUNAMI IMPACTS. DO NOT STAY IN THESE STRUCTURES.

ALL RESIDENTS WITHIN THE WARNED AREA SHOULD BE ALERT FOR INSTRUCTIONS BROADCAST FROM THEIR LOCAL CIVIL AUTHORITIES. A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN RECORDED.

A TSUNAMI ADVISORY MEANS THAT A TSUNAMI CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG CURRENTS OR WAVES DANGEROUS TO PERSONS IN OR VERY NEAR THE WATER IS EXPECTED. SIGNIFICANT WIDESPREAD INUNDATION IS NOT EXPECTED FOR AREAS UNDER AN ADVISORY. CURRENTS MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO SWIMMERS... BOATS... AND COASTAL STRUCTURES AND MAY CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS AFTER THE INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL.

AT 946 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME ON MARCH 10 AN EARTHQUAKE WITH PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 8.9 OCCURRED NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU JAPAN. THIS EARTHQUAKE HAS GENERATED A TSUNAMI WHICH COULD CAUSE DAMAGE TO REGIONS IN A WARNING OR ADVISORY. ESTIMATED TSUNAMI ARRIVAL TIMES AND MAPS ALONG WITH SAFETY RULES AND OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON THE WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV.

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI ACTIVITY

  LOCATION                   LAT    LON     TIME        AMPL
  ------------------------  -----  ------  -------     -----------
  TOSASHIMIZU  JAPAN        32.8N  132.9E  0747UTC   00.9FT/00.27M
  TOKAI  JAPAN              33.8N  137.6E  0645UTC   00.8FT/00.25M
  OFUNATO  JAPAN            39.0N  141.8E  0605UTC   10.8FT/03.29M
  HANASAKI  JAPAN           43.3N  145.6E  0643UTC   09.3FT/02.82M
  BOSO  JAPAN               34.8N  140.8E  0609UTC   02.6FT/00.78M
  MINAMITORISHIMA  JAPAN    24.3N  154.0E  0747UTC   01.5FT/00.45M
  NAHA  JAPAN               26.2N  127.7E  0902UTC   00.7FT/00.20M
  SAIPAN  USA               15.2N  145.7E  0901UTC   02.6FT/00.79M
  WAKE IS.  USA             19.3N  166.6E  0918UTC   01.6FT/00.50M
  SHEMYA, ALASKA            52.7N  174.1E  1028UTC   01.3FT/00.43M
TIME - TIME OF MEASUREMENT AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL. IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT. VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).

TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE EXPECTED TO PEAK TWO TO THREE HOURS AFTER INITIAL ARRIVAL ALONG THE NORTH AMERICAN COAST.

FORECAST TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ARE AVAILABLE ON THE WCATWC WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV.

TSUNAMIS CAN BE DANGEROUS WAVES THAT ARE NOT SURVIVABLE. WAVE HEIGHTS ARE AMPLIFIED BY IRREGULAR SHORELINE AND ARE DIFFICULT TO FORECAST. TSUNAMIS OFTEN APPEAR AS A STRONG SURGE AND MAY BE PRECEDED BY A RECEDING WATER LEVEL. MARINERS IN WATER DEEPER THAN 600 FEET SHOULD NOT BE AFFECTED BY A TSUNAMI. WAVE HEIGHTS WILL INCREASE RAPIDLY AS WATER SHALLOWS. TSUNAMIS ARE A SERIES OF OCEAN WAVES WHICH CAN BE DANGEROUS FOR SEVERAL HOURS AFTER THE INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL. DO NOT RETURN TO EVACUATED AREAS UNTIL AN ALL CLEAR IS GIVEN BY LOCAL CIVIL AUTHORITIES.

PACIFIC COASTAL REGIONS OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA/ OREGON/ WASHINGTON/ BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA SHOULD REFER TO THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES FOR INFORMATION ON THIS EVENT AT WWW.WEATHER.GOV/PTWC.

THIS MESSAGE WILL BE UPDATED IN 60 MINUTES OR SOONER IF THE SITUATION WARRANTS. THE TSUNAMI MESSAGE WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO... YOUR LOCAL TV OR RADIO STATIONS... OR SEE THE WEB SITE WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV.

$$

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#129
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that strange ? I mean cable should be more easily broken than airwaves, no ? Is it because the landlines in Japan are designed to resist and the cell phone tower got power disruption ?

It's because everyone in Japan started sending SMSes to everyone they knew practically before the shaking stopped and that DOSed the network. This happens fairly regularly (e.g. for a few minutes after midnight on New Years, when a large portion of Japanese people send well wishes within the same 15 second window).

From my experiences in Germany, SMSes send around midnight New Year did sometimes take several hours to arrive.
Post reply on HN