Disaster

I'm up at this hour and watching coverage of the horrendous news from Japan.  It looks like the Tokyo area hasn't been hit hard by the earthquake, variously reported as either an 8.9 (CNN) or 8.4 (NHK).  I have CNN on my teeve and NHK World streaming video on my PC.  The tsunami damage in Sendai is extensive, with the airport completely engulfed and a lot of farmland completely inundated.  The live video coverage has been extensive and quite good, as far as production values go.  I've never seen live footage of a tsunami before and the effect of the wave is mind-boggling.  The damage is going to run into the billions of dollars, the human toll is largely unknown at this point.

I watched the Japanese prime minister's brief comments a short while ago, and the good news is there is no damage or incidents at Japan's many nuclear power plants.

Well, damn.  NHK's stream just went down; I imagine their servers are getting hammered or perhaps they've lost power.

My best wishes go out to the Japanese people.