#1
That is a frightening video. The relentless power of the sea pouring into the town, taking down most everything in its path is unreal. I wonder what the fellow with the video camera was thinking as the water rose higher and higher toward his vantage point.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/29/2011 2:26 Comments ||
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#2
It makes the Boxing Day tsunami videos look like a minor inconvenience.
Note the multi-storey building in the center that withstood the tsunami.
I keep thinking about the geomorphological evidence for tsunamis 10 to a 100 times bigger than this one along many of the world's coastlines. And their re-occurence at seemingly regular intervals.
#3
And to think this is *exactly* what is going to happen some day along the coast of Washington, Oregon and Vancouver. They are sitting on exactly the same kind of fault and it has been about 300 years since the last quake of almost exactly this same size.
#4
I thought subby oversold it in the first minute, but it just got worse and worse. I was wondering if that concrete building was going to go by the end. Wow.
#6
Yes, sooner or later Yellowstone will blow again, plus the New Madrid fault will go again. What exactly causes sand geysers anyway? Ugh.
Posted by: Jefferson ||
03/29/2011 7:00 Comments ||
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#7
I kept imagining what I would do if I were down in that parking lot. I thought about getting on top of the parking structure and then getting on top of that small two story building.
Yeah, I'd be safe there...
Nope, not really.
Lesson: pay attention to warnings. Last minute heroics get you dead.
#8
The light first dawned for me a long time ago, with a Jacques Cousteau program where he had divers descend down the undersea wall of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. It's a 32,500 ft. tall mountain, and most of it is underwater.
That wall was pretty flat and straight down, and is basically a retaining wall for that ginormous mountain. Even as a kid I could tell that if that wall "went", something very, very bad was going to happen.
The Hawaiian islands have already had several such collapses, creating massive tsunamis, but they have also been on the receiving end of tsunamis as well, from Japan, Alaska and even Chile.
#11
Looks like a 30' surge above sealevel. Rose enough to take out the docks then rose another 20' around the tall buildings just beyond the docks.
Posted by: Jack Thuter4002 ||
03/29/2011 13:15 Comments ||
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#12
And then came the fires at Kesennuma port.
Posted by: Jack Thuter4002 ||
03/29/2011 13:29 Comments ||
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#13
Jeezus, it just keeps coming and coming! What did it finally get to - 20, 30 feet high? More?
I'd probably stop filming long enough to bend over and kiss my ass goodbye.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/29/2011 19:44 Comments ||
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#14
How long did it go on, is what I want to know? The water is still coming strong when the video ends. I'd like to see it go to the end and then see what the backwash was like.
Also, the one part where the guys speak, they say "Oi, oi, hito!" and point out in the water. This means "hey, a person." But I can't make it out. But I keep wondering how many people were trapped in those cars or in the boats, etc. The only other people you can make out here are on the roof of the other building.
Posted by: DJ Curtis C ||
03/29/2011 20:47 Comments ||
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#15
Definitely scary. Actually I didn't think that tsunamis would be like that.
Starts out like a wave you could walk away from until you realize that even running won't do.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/29/2011 20:53 Comments ||
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#16
Some estuaries and other coastal configurations funnel and intensify tsunamis. Esentially the volume of water piles up in a narrowing gap. That may be the case here.
Five locations were tested on the grounds of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Two samples showed a trace of plutonium 238. This contamination is consistent with global background contamination since Cold War atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. Ingesting 50kg of this soil over a 50 year period would result in a dose of 0.12uSv. The activity level of the contamination is 0.54 Bq/kilo or less than 1/100th that of a single banana.
[Al Arabiya] Egyptian holy men and employees of state Islamic religious bodies are demanding an end to what they say is rampant corruption by bigwigs who manage religious endowments.
Corruption being defined as not sending enough funds in the complainer's direction.
Sheikh Mustafa Hassan, head of a mosque and an employee in the endowments ministry, said kickbacks and book-fiddling in Egypt's Islamic religious bodies were rife.
"We want an end to the huge administrative and financial corruption practised by officials in the endowment ministry for many years," he said.
About 1,000 years, actually. But let us not quibble about details.
"We also want the head of (Egypt's highest Islamic authority) al-Azhar to be elected. We want measures for reviewing religious authorities that are fair and transparent," said Hassan.
"And a pony!"
No official figures exist for the sums donated to Egypt's top Islamic institutions to help manage and build mosques and pay imams, but independent estimates suggest they run to the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The bodies have been under state control for more than three decades and their reputation among many Egyptians has declined as part of broader discontent at the failings of government.
Last month's popular revolt that ended President Hosni Mubarak's ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... three-decade rule was the cue for an anti-corruption drive targeting bigwigs in the former regime.
On Wednesday a top official in the religious endowments ministry set part of the building alight by accident while he was burning "important documents inside his office", according to Egyptian state news website www.egynews.net.
Dozens of Islamic scholars and employees of the endowments ministry have protested daily in front of the cabinet office in Cairo asking authorities to investigate what they call huge corruption at the ministry and for more pay.
Another demonstration organised by employees of al-Azhar called for the removal of senior consultants who they say are unnecessary and overpaid. Some say all religious bodies should be made independent from the state.
"We are in deep need of a new system that would ensure officials don't take donated money," said political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah, researcher in al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
"We must have a council to supervise all religious bodies and monitor their internal affairs."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] A Tunisian court has rejected an appeal by the party of former president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali against a ruling that it be dissolved, state media has reported.
A judge had previously ruled on March 9 that Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) be disbanded and its funds seized, provoking street celebrations as one of the last vestiges of the ousted leader's rule was dismantled.
However, The ever-popular However... the party lodged an appeal a few days later.
Monday's ruling confirmed the dissolution of the party, effectively preventing the RCD from putting forward a candidate in future elections.
Ben Ali was toppled on January 14 after mass protests and decamped to Soddy Arabia, ending 23 years of rule.The country's interim authorities have struggled to restore stability in the North African country but earlier this month set out a transition road map.
On Monday, Tunisia's interim president Fouad Mebazza also named a new interior minister. The state-owned TAP news agency said Habib Sid would replace Farhat Rajhi in the post. It said Mebazza made the appointment on the recommendation of prime minister Beji Caid Sebsi, without giving details.
Rajhi, a judge, was appointed interior minister earlier this year in the second caretaker administration since Ben Ali's ousting. He remained in his post when Tunisia's interim authorities appointed a new government on March 7 and disbanded the state security apparatus, notorious for human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... abuses under Ben Ali.
Elections called
A caretaker government of technocrats led by Sebsi, a respected figure with no ties to the ousted president, was unveiled after the collapse of two previous interim administrations which included members of Ben Ali's old guard.
An election has been called on July 24 to choose a national assembly which will rewrite the constitution.
The request to disband the RCD was filed on February 21 by the interior ministry, following accusations that party members had played a role in instability since Ben Ali was toppled.
Ben Ali loyalists fought shootouts with Tunisian soldiers shortly after his removal and were suspected of inciting subsequent festivities in parts of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Fierce fighting has broken out in Cote d'Ivoire's western town of Duekoue between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo ... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints... , the incumbent president, and his internationally recognised rival, Alassane Ouattara, residents and combatants say.
Rebels who took control of the north of the country during the 2002-3 civil war and are now backing Ouattara said on Monday they had taken Duekoue, which has been under Gbagbo's control for nearly a decade.
Duekoue lies in a region that produces around 250,000 tonnes of cocoa a year in the west African nation, which is the world's top grower.
"The town of Duekoue has been under our control since 7am (0700 GMT). We are conducting search operations throughout," said Lacine Mara, a front man for pro-Ouattara forces in the west.
Gbagbo's forces confirmed the fighting, but said they remained in control of at least part of the town.
"Our men have been in combat since about 2am (0200 GMT) this morning with the rebels, who tried to take the town. We control one part and they control the other," said Yao Yao, operations chief of Gbagbo's Front for the Liberation of the Great West (FLGO) militia.
A Rootersnews hound in the main city of Abidjan also reported shooting and heavy arms fire on Monday, from areas where pro-Ouattara fighters seeking to oust Gbagbo are pushing towards the city centre.
Thousands displaced
Cote d'Ivoire has been in turmoil since last November's disputed elections, with security forces backing Gbagbo regularly clashing with Ouattara's supporters, mostly rebels calling themselves the Republican Forces.
The UN estimates more than 400 people have been killed since the election and up to one million have been driven from their homes. Tens of thousands of people have had to seek refuge in neighbouring Liberia and Ghana.
Gbagbo insists he won the election though the United Nations ... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... , the African Union and ECOWAS, the west African economic grouping, recognise Ouattara as the winner. He remains holed up in an Abidjan hotel, protected by a ring of UN peacekeepers.
Monday's fighting came only days after Ouattara rejected an African Union-appointed envoy from the island nation of Cape verde to mediate the crisis, saying the appointee has personal ties with Gbagbo.
Pro-Ouattara forces have already seized four towns in the west and Gbagbo's forces fear that if they capture enough important towns, they will be able to march south to the port of San Pedro, which ships about half of Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa crop.
"The rebels want to take Duekoue and Guiglo so they can easily descend on San Pedro," Yao Yao said. "We won't let them."
Last week, around 15,000 pro-Gbagbo youths turned up at the army's headquarters to enlist, raising fears that all-out civil war is now unavoidable.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2011 00:00 ||
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VISITORS have been coming from around the country to look at a "miracle" egg in Forest Fields.
Asim Taj, 24, and his family saw the word Allah in Arabic written on the egg's shell when they were about to cook a meal.
Since then, he has shown it to people living nearby and people have come from Dewsbury, Luton and Birmingham to his house in Noel Street.
And an independent expert at the University of Nottingham has confirmed the letters can be recognised as reading Allah.
"We were shocked and surprised. It is a miracle. Everybody is talking about it," said Mr Taj.
"I have heard stories like this from back home in Pakistan but I have not heard of it here."
The box of eggs was bought from a shop in Berridge Road.
The lettering appears darker than the rest of the shell.
He said: "The box was normal. It's not something that can be written on, it's in the shell itself.
"People smile when they see it. They can tell straight away what it says."
Mr Taj said the egg had caused excitement in the Muslim community, and his faith in Islam had been strengthened by the find.
The letters alif, lam, lam and haa can been seen on the shell. They are connected in the Naskh script a specific calligraphic style for writing in the Arabic alphabet to read the word.
Mr Taj believes the word appeared because his family held a proper celebration on the birthday of the prophet Muhammad at their home in February.
He said: "All the local women were sitting down and reading the Koran because that's what we feel is the right and proper way."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
And then came the fires at Kesennuma port. 
From NHK Japan morning broadcast:
Egyptian 
Laurent Gbagbo
