The Tsunamai
Mar. 12th, 2011 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloMike posted from Tokyo to say he was safe before I'd woken up to there being any danger.
The footage of the tsunamai is like nothing I'd ever imagined. Big waves have little clutching hands on top, right, as in the Hokusai print? This barely looked like water. It crawled. And, of course, it wasn't exactly water, but a tide of crud full of cars and boats and houses. And it didn't ebb as we expect waves to do but kept on spreading. The TV commentator very kindly pointed out what we might otherwise have missed- that there were cars moving on the soon to be flooded roads- and- barely visible, ghostly, making very little headway- a tiny figure running...
The footage of the tsunamai is like nothing I'd ever imagined. Big waves have little clutching hands on top, right, as in the Hokusai print? This barely looked like water. It crawled. And, of course, it wasn't exactly water, but a tide of crud full of cars and boats and houses. And it didn't ebb as we expect waves to do but kept on spreading. The TV commentator very kindly pointed out what we might otherwise have missed- that there were cars moving on the soon to be flooded roads- and- barely visible, ghostly, making very little headway- a tiny figure running...
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 11:20 am (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xOzYRdEPBE
Every time I see interior shots, made while the earth was still rolling, I get sick to my stomach. I was less than thirty miles from the epicenter of the Loma Prieta quake, in '89. It's a feeling you never forget.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 11:28 am (UTC)In a Hollywood movie everybody would be running about screaming- or acting manly. In reality they stand on a hill and watch. And a woman climbs the hill, taking her little dog for a walk.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 10:28 am (UTC)If you haven't seen these, they too are simply unbelievable:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html
no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 03:10 pm (UTC)The footage is horrifying. The poor souls who were caught in the waves...
no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 03:50 pm (UTC)