Video of Devastating Tsunami Hitting Japan After Powerful Earthquake

Japan was hit by several heavy earthquakes in the last few days, but today’s was the strongest yet. The original reports talked about a 7.9 magnitude earthquake, later it was upgraded to an 8.8 magnitude earthquake to finally settle at 8.4, but this number can still be adjusted. The earthquake had an epicentre off the coast in the north-east of Japan,
400km from Japan’s capital city of Tokyo. It is the largest recorded earthquake in Japan’s history. The tsunami it triggered hit the country almost instantly.

All 5 Japanese nuclear power plants have been shut down, but the tsunami has sparked many fires, including one in the oil refinery. The transport has been severely disrupted too. Many airports are shut down, trains are on hold and roads in the north west are under water.

20 people are known to have lost their lives already (UPDATE – the number of casualties reported to have grown to 26, UPDATE #2 – as many as 60 people are already known to have lost their lives), many more are missing. The tsunami warning was extended to Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hawaii and the Pacific coast of Russia.

UPDATE March 13, 2011: The number of confirmed deaths has grown to 2,000 – almost a double of what it was a few hours ago and it is expected that by the end of the ordeal, there could be as many as 10,000 dead. Northern area of the Miyagi Prefecture has been affected the most. Japanese authorities confirmed that they have 10,000 people from that area – more than half of its population unaccounted for.

The situation is developing as we speak. Stay strong, Japan. Video of the craziness triggered by the tsunami is below:

Another video of the whirlpool effect created by the tsunami just off the coast of north-east Japan:

And some photos of the damage caused by the eathquake and the tsunami in Japan: