Matrix Games

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ORIGINAL: SeanD

This is just insane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-A0NDsPcZY

I think I saw a few good sized houses, in flames, moving at what looked like 30 MPH. God I hope that's a sparsely populated part of Japan.

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ORIGINAL: Joram
Yes, my thoughts go out to the people in Japan.   Hopefully the waves heading to Hawaii and the west coast don't cause much damage.

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Japanese authorities have warned there could be a small radiation leak from a nuclear reactor whose cooling system was knocked out by the earthquake. Technicians at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are set to release vapour from the unit in question to lower the pressure and prevent a meltdown. This carries a risk that a "small" amount of radioactive material could leak, officials say.

Around 3,000 people have been evacuated from the surrounding area. These are residents who were within a 3km (1.86 miles) radius of the plant. But early on Saturday morning, local time, people living within 10km (6.2 miles) of the plant were asked to leave.

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0828: Japan's NHK TV showing before and after pictures of the Fukushima-Daiichi plant. It appears to show that the outer structure of one of four buildings at the plant is no longer there.

0822: The Associated Press cites Fukushima Prefecture official Masato Abe as saying the cause of the white smoke seen above the plant is still under investigation, and that it's unclear whether there was an explosion.

0810: Japanese media reports say that radioactivity has risen 20-fold outside the Fukushima-Daiichi plant."

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0857: The BBC's Nick Ravenscroft was on his way towards Fukushima, but about 60km from the plant was stopped by the police and told it was too dangerous to proceed. He says there is lots of traffic coming in the other direction. Authorities in vehicles with sirens are making public announcements to the crowds.

0855: Some pictures have come through now on Japanese TV of that explosion. It looks very strong. You can see debris being blasted from the building, then a cloud of smoke mushrooming up from the plant.

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ORIGINAL: Mobius

KI. Potassium Iodine.

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One of our local newscasters said about that footage of the wave engulfing a city and wrecking buildings that it's something you expect to see in a Hollywood disaster epic like "Deep Impact"...but not in real life.

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ORIGINAL: SeanD

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One of our local newscasters said about that footage of the wave engulfing a city and wrecking buildings that it's something you expect to see in a Hollywood disaster epic like "Deep Impact"...but not in real life.

My thoughts exactly. The video I linked to was something out of Day After Tomorrow or some other natural disaster movie.

Right now they're unofficially declaring the death toll "around 1000" I believe. Frankly that's astonishing given the severity of this event.

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Japanese broadcaster NHK says the total number of confirmed deaths caused by the disaster now stands at 1,596.
But police warn that the death toll in Miyagi region alone could top 10,000.