Mar 11, 2011 – 6:37 AM
Theunis Bates
Contributor
The biggest earthquake to hit Japan since records began almost 150 years ago smashed into the country's northeast coast today, triggering a 32-foot tsunami that swept away boats, cars and homes. Large waves are now rolling into Hawaii, where thousands of people have been evacuated from the islands' coastline.
The 8.9-magnitude quake's epicenter was 231 miles northeast of Tokyo, the United States Geological Survey reported. But the destruction caused by the natural disaster is expected to spread far beyond Japan, as the Red Cross in Geneva reported the swell moving across the Pacific was higher than some islands.
In preparation, authorities in Hawaii ordered the evacuation of all coastal areas. The first waves -- measuring at least 3 feet high -- barrelled into Oahu and Kauai at around 6 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, and officials warned that the waves would continue and could become larger. In the tourist district of Waikiki, visitors were moved to higher floors of their hotels. Elsewhere, residents queued at stores selling emergency supplies, including gas, bottled water, canned food and generators.
"We're preparing for the worst and we're praying for the best," John Cummings III, spokesman for the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, told the Associated Press.
Tsunami warnings have also been issued for the whole of the Pacific Basin, including the U.S. West Coast, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and Russia.
So far, at least 32 people in Japan have been killed, and an unknown number injured, by the 8.9-magnitude quake and tsunami, the Kyodo news agency reported. But the sheer scale of the devastation suggests that the final death toll will be much higher.
Dozens of cities and villages in Japan's northern Miyagi, Aomori and Iwate prefectures were devastated by the tsunami. Towering waves tossed around fishing boats, cars and trucks like toys and sent them crashing into bridges and apartment blocks. The overwhelming power of the wave could be seen in the port of Hachinohe in Miyagi, where two huge cargo vessels were ripped from their moorings and thrown onto their sides.
Fires have erupted across the quake zone. Storage tanks exploded at a 220,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery in the city of Chiba, near Tokyo, and flames ripped through the turbine building of the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture. A state of emergency was also declared at a nuclear power station in Fukushima after its cooling system failed following the quake.
However, Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a press conference that no radiation leaks had been detected at Japan's nuclear power stations. The International Atomic Energy Agency echoed Kan's assurances in a statement Friday, reporting that "the four Japanese nuclear power plants closest to the quake have been safely shut down."
Residents and workers in Tokyo have gathered in parks and open spaces as aftershocks continue to rock the city. There were reports of about 20 people injured in the capital after the roof of a hall collapsed onto a graduation ceremony.
Many residents said they had never experienced such a powerful quake. "I was terrified, and I'm still frightened," Hidekatsu Hata, manager of a noodle restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka area, told Reuters. "I've never experienced such a big quake before."
Office worker Jeffrey Balanag told the BBC that he was stuck in the Shiodome Sumitomo skyscraper in the center of the capital, because elevators had stopped working. "There's no panic, but we're almost seasick from the constant rolling of the building," he said.
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