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Way Too Early With Willie Geist

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  MSNBC    Way Too Early With Willie Geist    News/Business. New.  

    March 11, 2011
    5:30 - 6:00am EST  

coming on shore washing miles inland carrying land, debris, buildings, buses, car, whatever it can catch this its path taking it it with it. the government says now at least 32 people have died.it with it. the government says now at least 32 people have died.t with it. the government says now at least 32 people have died. with it. the government says now at least 32 people have died. we know that number will go up. tokyo which is hundreds of miles from the earthquake epicenter also feeling the effects. subway shut down on a busy friday afternoon in that city. a tsunami warning has been go expanded to include the entire west coast. communities in california, washington, oregon and southern alaska should be on alert and prepare for evacuation. some people down playing the effects, it could just be a couple feet worth of waves, but there is a tsunami warning reaching almost down to the mexican border and going up to oregon with advisories reaching all the way up in to alaska.
also in place for dozens of areas including hawaii, australia, new zealand, all getting advisory, as well. the biggest concern is the tsunami wave that struck japan which is higher than some pacific islands and could rush right over them. first waves are expected to hit hawaii at 8:00 a.m. eastern time this morning. that's 8:00 eastern, 3:00 a.m. local time. there have been evacuations from coastal areas. civil defense sirens sounded at about 10:00 p.m. local time across hawaii. fires triggered by the earthquake in japan, also burning out of control. just incredible pictures here up and down the coast, including one at an oil refinery according to the country's prime minister, there is, quote, major damage in northeastern japan, but nuclear power facilities in the area were not damaged we're told and there has been no radiation leakage.
this is video of when the earthquake hit. truck struck at 2:46 p.m. local time. followed by 12 powerful of taker shocks oig, seven of them measures at least 6.3. that is the size of the earthquake that struck new zealand just last month.that is earthquake that struck new zealand just last month.measure. that is the size of the earthquake that stck new zealand just last month. sean ibara joining us. they're expecting about 3:00 a.m. local time hawaii for a possible tsunami there. sean, what can you tell us? >> good morning to you, willie. my photographer and i are on the west side of the island of oahu. i can tell you we've passed several gas stations along the roadway here and i can tell you there has been a long line of people trying to figure up their gas tanks trying to get themselves in to gear. right now we're looking at police activity.
they're trying to clear a bunch of homeless people which are living on the west side of this island and that is a big problem here. a lot of the homeless are not aware of what's going on. we do have police officers going up and down the coastline informing people. >> tell us what it was like hearing the civil defense sirens that sounded with 10:00 p.m. local time there last night. what were people thinking at that point so? >> it was an eerie feeling listening to them go off. it was something that hasn't happened in a while and it is something that people are not familiar with. so i'm not with, so it's been going on in a while. but it is a very stern warning that something is going on that people need to it take precaution and evacuate.
the west side of the island where we are, we're in a low lying area, so this is right next to the beach area here there is a two lane road, one lane in, one lane out, so this is beach front property that waves can easily wash through depending on how big or small the waves are. >> and the pits we're sctures wg are from japan. this is of the tsunami washing ashore and flowing miles inland. we're talking to sean in hawaii where the tsunami warning of way waves potentially of six to seven feet expected at 3:00 a.m. local time. what kind of experience do the hawaiian people have with this? this is a his torically large earthquake. you can't have much experience with something this size, but have we heard the air sirens before? >> yeah, we did have a scare back in february of last year,
so the warning signs did go off. back then if i recall correctly, the waves were very not anything enough for people to have to leave. but people did leave and people did definitely heed the warning. but it wasn't the waves that come crashing through as many of us think about. but it is something that people do need to take seriously here. so this is something that i've i'm not sure we've seen yet. >> sean, thanks so much. we'll check back in with you shortly before obviously a lot of americans concerned about what could be striking the coast of hawaii here in the next couple of hours. but we want to go where the problem is right now. for the latest on the ground of japan, we bring in abc producer joining us live on the phone from tokyo. thanks for joining us morning. what are you seeing right now?
>> we're glued to the local tv coverage. more information is coming out as the day progresses. oef over 20 dead and over 30 missing. this is from six prefectures or states. and made are reporting there may be as many as 46 fatalities reported across six prefectu-ff. >> and that number will certainly grow from here. tell us what happened. about 2:46 local time, that's less than five hours ago, earthquake hits about 80 miles northeast off the coast of japan. ho how so how soon did you feel it and what happened next?
>> they were saying there was large earthquake expected to hit northern gentlemanen pap. we have an early warning earthquake system that's still on trial here, but this might be the first time it actually worked. anyway, about 30 seconds later, we started to feel a tremor inside the office. we're on the 27th floor. and in about 30 seconds, the building started to shake very slowly and then suddenly the lights started to shake and some of the things on my desk fell to the floor. we were told to evacuate and we had to walk down 27 flights of stairs. it was hard to stand up straight. the tremor was so -- it was slow, but so strong that it was hard to keep your balance. and we basically walked down 27 floors to street level. >> we're glad you're safe. the pictures we're watching are
just breathtaking. you're watching entire communities being swept across the landscape of japan. buildings, car, everything else coming with it. is there anyway for you to assess based on your reporting there inside japan how far inland this damage may go? >> i think tsunami damage is around the coast. it's mostly farmland and small homes. it's not -- the place that the tsunami has struck is not -- wasn't a big city. so it's hard to say. when the earthquake struck, there might have been 15 minutes up until the first batch of tsunami could strike. some areas had even more warning time. and if the people took the warnings -- warnings are wraft on television, on radio. if it they took these warnings and hopefully at the moved to
higher ground, hopefully the number of fatalities might not be as bad as people expect. but it's hard to tell. they're trying to assess the extent of the damage and the casualties and fay talitiefatal. >> history has taught japan how to take them seriously but also how to prepare. the skyscrapers in japan are built with steel girding. we're looking at new video right now. the damage at least from the pictures we're seeing inside tokyo does not look to be can he have investigation stating. is that a factor of the way those buildings are built? >> it's a fact. obviously the tremor here was not as strong as it was in the prefecture up north. we have seen reports of isolated cases where buildings shook and people fell and ambulances were called. right now as we speak, the train
system is still shut down. for precautionary reasons, they're checking for any damage to track. a lot of the train lines ultimately run coast to coast and as you talk to your guests in hawaii, it's not just the first wave you have to watch out for, it's the next wave. and they could continue. we just don't know until the meteorological agency feels safe to lift those warnings. >> these pictures we're looking at from the coastal areas almost defy belief. all right, thanks so much for all your reporting this morning. we'll check back in with you a little bit later on. we'll have much more on this massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit japan's eastern coast earlier today unleashing tsunami throughout the region. and now warnings for hawaii coming up in the next couple of hours. they're expecting tsunami waves perhaps and a warning for large portions of the west coast of
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the story right now is the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit japan right off the coast of northeast japan. the numbers we have are about 32 dead. obviously that number will go up. now we're getting tsunami warnings for hawaii and the west coast of the united states. >> tsunami warning is in effect for a whole lot of folks in the pacific. this is huge. this goes way beyond hawaii, but of course they are all if red here. every sigh land, we don't know which island will be affected and that's why they leave them all in a warning. this warning goes until 7:00 a.m. it will likely be happening around 3:00 as we've been reporting. that's local time. so here it will be more like
8:00. we'll be hearing with about it then. and of course this include positive more of united states from seattle down to the mexican border. mexico is also in this. chile, south america, all of the pacific would have red. now, aboif you went north to alaska, it changes to watches and advisories. again, for hawaii which is most affected, we go from 3:00 to 7:00 a.m. >> we know there have been big evacuations from all the islands in hawaii and joining us from the west coast of oahu of the pacific tsunami warning center, dr. cisero. what you can tell us from where you're sitting? how grave is the situation there? >> in hawaii, it won't be too bad. it's probably a little worse than the earthquake in chile last year. the latest we have in terms of the models that we're running
looks like a meter. hilo, we're still guessing i would say that it's going to be something about two meters which is pretty significant. other areas are probably a meter or less, which is not too bad. and we're at mid range in the i'd o tide. so i think at worst we'll have floodi flooding, but i wouldn't be in the water because of the very, very strong currents. >> so we have 8.9 magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of japan. big waves coming in to the country of japan, but you're saying by the time it gets to hawaii, perhaps not destructive, but still concern that people need to get to higher ground and evacuate? >> yes. and even though our models are showing about a meter or more, it's still an evacuation at this point. our modeling effort is still
very, very young and we're pretty much learning our way along. a lot has been done over the last couple of years as you might imagine. but for i would say most of the west coast, it looks as though from these models that we're unlikely to see anything more than about 40 cent meters at most. >> so there are a lot of people waking up this morning or still have their tvs on, they see a tsunami warning up and down. what should they be doing? >> just stay off the coast. crescent city might be of concern because that area tends to resonate, that bay. and anyplace where you've got a bay or you've got a river system coming out into the ocean, you can have resident effect that
could cause the waves to get larger than they would otherwise. but apart from that, it looks like most of the west coast extending all the way down to the southern tip of south ameri america, from will this model it looks like it will all be undear meter.r meter. so still dangerous, but not terribly destructive. >> and a 4.5 making thi tmy att hit the big island. any concern there? >> no. the only concern was that it caused our web page to go to green rather than red. we have to fix that. >> it sounds like you're down playing what could be happening on the island. what should the people on the islands of hawaii be thinking?
>> i don't have any specifics on the big island apart from hilo. that looks like about two meters but that's just an estimate based on the model that i have in my hand. >> so about the line from you sounds like on the west coast, stay away from the beaches. other than that, you should be okay. >> and possibly crescent city. >> and on the islands of hawaii, stayoff t stay off the beaches and seek higher ground. >> yes, and that's about it as far as i can tell. i know that the navy has decided to leave their ships in the harbor. that's probably prudent because it's predicted to be something like a meter in earl harbor. so that sounds reasonable to me. >> and before i let you go, what you can tell us about what could follow in the next few hours and even days over on the island of
japan? we know waves have flooded miles. will there be more aftershocks? >> i'm sure there will be aftershocks. it's unlikely that they will have another event this large, but you never know. >> all right. dr. robert cisero reporting for us on the west coast of oahu. thanks so much for your insight morning. we appreciate it. we'll take a very quick break. we'll be right back with much more covering the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that struck off the northeast coast of japan triggering a 13-foot sue ntsuna. thank you for calling esurance.
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tipping our live coverage of the 8.9 magnitude earth quick that hit off the northeast coast of japan about five hours ago now. the death toll is at 32, but that's just a starting point. when you look at these pictures, staggering visuals of entire villages, cars, buildings, everything in its path being swept up in it a wauchl water and it just keeps across what's mainly rural farmland there. but of course the quake was felt across japan in main cities including in tokyo where subways an trains have been shut down. that busy city on a friday afternoon has ground to a halt.
what's the latest for many people just waking up here on the east coast of the united states, what you can tell us? we don't have him. he's been covering this for us, nbc tokyo. again the concern is right there. the pictures you're looking at in japan. but as we've been telling you as well, there is a tsunami warning for the islands of hawaii for 3:00 a.m. local time which would be 8:00 eastern time. people being used to get to higher ground and also the west coast of the united states, the mainland from southern alaska down to the coast of -- to the border of mexico, you have warnings and advisories there,
but the gentleman we just spoke to said that should just be a case of flooding and saying away from coastal areas. obviously stay with us, though, because this is kind of a moment to moment situation. you never can quite predict what nation is going to bring your way. so what we're looking at right here are pictures of coastal japan. 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit at about 2:46 p.m. local time. that's a little bit after midnight here on the west coast. a little over five hours ago. that's triggered a 13-foot tsunami. it swept walls of water into the country. you see fires at oil refineries. you have reports from the government that the nuclear power plants are safe, that will has been no damage to those facilities. and we want to get the latest now on where the warnings are, where this is all headed from ginger zee upstairs. what you can tell us? >> i can tell that you thk teloe
anxio angle, hawaii is more in the direct path than the west coast. so every island included thp. and you big island had an earthe itself this morning, a 4.6, tiny in comparison, because lot going on out there. here is what's different compared to the chilean one. that was over land. this one was under water. that displaces water much more. and something that we have to look out for in hawaii is it comes in waves. it's not just one large wave. it will come in waves and then it will recede and it will almost look like it gets sucked back out ahead of another tsunami wave. you mentioned, too, that the west coast under a tsunami warning.
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