Not good

[cleolinda]

8.8-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Chile.

31st major aftershock, magnitude 5.5, centered in Bio-Bio, Chile - U.S. Geological Survey. 

Death toll not expected to rise significantly from current count of 82 after Chile earthquake, interior minister says. (CNN is now reporting 122.)

No major damage reported from 6.3-magnitude quake near Salta, Argentina, but cell phone service is out - Buenos Aires Herald.

Tsunami threatens Hawaii, California and Alaska after massive quake in Chile.

Pacific islanders told to head for high ground as tsunami bears down. 

Samoa police issues nationwide evacuation alert ahead of predicted tsunami waves.

U.S. military assessing tsunami threat for Hawaii and whether ships, people will need to evacuate.

Tsunami advisory extended to Oregon, Washington, parts of Alaska, coastal British Colombia - West Coast Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. 

I'm following news as it comes in here. The latest is the cheerful announcement that President Obama is on his way to the White House Situation Room.

Comments

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

The earth appears to be very angry with us.

Eurgh. What a way to end the Olympics, if the waves hit BC.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

What a way to end the Olympics, if the waves hit BC.

That's what I thought too, and I uh feel oddly comforted that I'm not alone. Hopefully many (or all!) of these warnings will prove to be of no (ulterior) consequence. =(

[bumblebee-1983.livejournal.com]

GEEZ!

Is 2012 making an early entrance?

I have friends in Japan and were absolutely TERRIFIED of what they experienced. But they're okay, thankfully.

Now they're concerned about a tsunami. YIKES!!

[vega-pleiades.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. Somebody did SOMETHING that has pissed off a deity.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

The New York Times's slide show of images from Chile (http://nyti.ms/crR5PO).

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

What in the hell.

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

Crap, I better batten down the hatches.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I was about to say, I was hoping you were up and about and had the news on.

[farasha.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who's studying abroad in Chile... no news from her yet :|

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

Oh god. I hope you get some good news soon.

[celestinenox]

O.O Holy freaking hell! It's apocalypse now!

[unewillow.livejournal.com]

A dear friend and ex-coworker of mine lives in Chile and we haven't been able to get a hold of her yet to know if everything is okay. Just thinking about it kind of makes me want to vomit.

But yes, between all the earthquakes, snowicanes, and other natural disasters this past year I would think our planet is not happy at what we've done to her and is exacting revenge.

[himhilien.livejournal.com]

D: D: D:

I wonder how long will it take Pat Robertson and others of his type to blame these natural disasters on the "heathens" and their sinful ways.

[darth-snarky.livejournal.com]

I suppose the fact that they're predominately Christian won't matter.

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

Oh, crap. To the Red Cross site!

[khaman.livejournal.com]

I know it's shallow, but in lieu of having family in the affected areas, I'm worried (slightly) for the crew of LOST. They're filming right now - but if anyone can get their ass safe, it's going to be an A-list production, so. Shallow.

Meanwhile, I know, holy fuck! It's not very likely that this quake will trip off others in the Pacific but I can absolutely understand the fear everyone in the region has. Keep safe out here.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

but if anyone can get their ass safe, it's going to be an A-list production,

Would it be shallow of me to ask what's an "A-list production"?

The warnings seem to have been heralded quite tempestively, so I'm hoping all people will be able to actually get out of (possible) harm's way in time.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Well at least there aren't hundreds of thousands of people dead like in Haiti or the 2004 tsunami. So far. You know things are pretty bad when 122 people dead feels like thank heavens it wasn't worse.

[calimazan.livejournal.com]

MTE. It sounds terribly cruel but I'm glad the death toll won't probably rise much more than that.

At least this time it hasn't hit a poor country, I hope the tsunami warnings are effective this time.

[bruinhilda.livejournal.com]

My concern is that the earthquake in Chile is still going. The USGS (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php) site is showing 5.+ aftershocks happening approximately every 20 minutes. If any of them generate tsunamis, we could be on warning for days.

The projected wave height (http://www.kitv.com/news/22692073/detail.html) here in Hawaii is dangerous, but not enough to panic. The people in the inundation zones are evacuating now. Pretty much everything for today (work, events) is canceled.

We had quite a few sirens that failed to go off, but the fire trucks are going around with loudspeakers, and people have been calling and making sure friends and family know since the wee hours. (I was actually woken by phone calls from my coworkers 5 minutes before the first sirens went off.)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as of a couple of hours ago, they had already had 30+ aftershocks that were pretty impressive on their own. Stay safe out there.

[janecpb.livejournal.com]

That seems like an awful lot of aftershocks. Scary!

This is what I saw when I turned on my computer this morning:



Woah.

[jennygriffee.livejournal.com]

Now THAT is surreal.

I noticed this morning in NOAA's tsunami time estimates that the waves would start reaching Alaska before they wended their way through to Seattle, though. Go figure.

[sun-star-n-moon.livejournal.com]

Okay Mother Earth, you need to calm down a bit. Go take a nap.

[lost-garnet.livejournal.com]

Or a Midol.

[saramiskismet.livejournal.com]

It's callous, but one of the things I thought was, "The Earth must be seriously pissed at Roland Emmerich for revealing her plans...."

I have friends & friends with friends in various Pacific coastal locations, but the warnings seem to be ample and I hope the further damage is minimal.

What I can't believe is how we've got over 50 aftershocks and a lot of them are registering at over 5.0. It's like wave after wave of scary.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_stormthesea/]

I have friends in Hilo on the Big Island; I hope that people heed the warnings and get to higher ground.

[bruinhilda.livejournal.com]

Most people have. Local news is showing how deserted the roads and beaches are. There's the occasional stupid surfer spotted, that's about it. There was just Skype video from Hilo; they've evacuated to the high ground.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

I suddenly feel like I understand what made people throw virgins into volcanoes.
Sorry we're such crappy tenants, Earth, we'll try to do better. Please don't evict us, we have no place else to go!

=/

[tangerinedreams.livejournal.com]

Australia's been issued a warning, too (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/australia-issues-tsunami-warning/story-e6frg6n6-1225835182020).

the city I live in is about 15 minutes drive from the coastline, with a major tidal river flowing right through it.

[chickosaurusrex.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be submerged.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

OMG! Its the end of the world!! I also heard that there were two huge icebergs that broke off in the Antarctic and are just... floating out there.

O_o

[allie-meril.livejournal.com]

rachelmanija links to a NYT article and posts several comments from Chileans talking about the situation: here (http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/823114.html).

[nb2000.livejournal.com]

This is reminding me of this geography picture book I had as a kid (which I swear I just saw the other day but can't find now). The section on disasters was basically "Sometimes the earth gets angry, and when it does, we get earthquakes and volcanoes". I'm starting to think they were on to something.

[orangepecco.livejournal.com]

the tsunami that treatens to hit hawaii, california, and alaska is threatening to ALSO hit that other land mass right in the middle called CANADA. ... >_

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, they did mention British Colombia [sic], so it's not like they were ignoring that.