Above is a screencap of the front page of this morning's Seattle Post-Intelligencer, taken this morning around 7. The death toll is now in the 100s. And likely to rise much higher. An 8.9 quake is one of the worst ever recorded in the world and the worst ever in Japan. If I remember right the Seattle transit tunnel is built to withstand a 9.0 earthquake. I would not want to be in the bus tunnel or one of its stations should an 8.9 earthquake occur.
I learned Japan had had a bad quake and tsunami when I read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning. As we learned recently, from Anonymous, if the Star-Telegram is not reporting it, it isn't news. The Star-Telegram had the Japan quake news on the lower half of their front page. This struck me as odd.
Below is the screencap with the Japan quake/tsunami news from the front page of the Star-Telegram.
I thought maybe the low key way the Star-Telegram was reporting this major disaster, so differently than the Seattle P-I, might have been due to the fact that Seattle is a Pacific Rim city, in the path of the incoming tsunami, with a lot of trade with Japan coming in and out of the Port of Seattle, while Fort Worth is a long ways from the Pacific Ocean with little trade coming or going with Japan.
And then I went to the Dallas Morning News. Dallas is also landlocked and a long ways from the Pacific Ocean. Dallas likely does a little more trade with Japan than Fort Worth does, which may account for the more prominent BIG NEWS way the Dallas Morning News reported the Japan quake, as you can see below.
That is one scary looking tsunami in the picture from the Dallas Morning News. When I heard on the radio that tsunamis were hitting Hawaii I turned on the TV. There was live video of the beach by Diamond Head in Honolulu. But it was dark in Hawaii, you really could not see anything. The talking head described the water receding and the first tsunami flowing in. As he described that the water was receding again, but you could not see it.
I've got a bad feeling this is going to end up being one of the worst natural disasters ever.
Mr. Galtex has been suggesting that I switch to the DMN for a long time, and this is more proof that he is correct.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen any tsunamis here, but it unusually windy. Yesterday the wind was so strong it knocked me off the curb and into the street while waiting to cross. A lady told us later that they closed a bridge because of waves caused by the wind.
Gail, I was just watching the quake/tsunami news on TV. I don't think the tsunami has reached where you are yet. The video out of Japan is shocking. Never seen anything like it.
ReplyDeleteI read about the high wind in the Seattle zone yesterday. I think it was the 520 floating bridge that was closed due to wind. There are two floating bridges across Lake Washington. Wind can make big waves on the lake, which gets the floating bridges to rocking.
Have you taken the tunnel to the International District yet and found Uyjimaya? You'll be glad you did. Just exit the International District Station, take the pedestrian bridge across the Sounder/Amtrak tracks. If I remember right you come to a plaza by Amazon.com which leads to the Uyjimaya complex.
So what was the top half of the Star-Telegram? I'm just wondering what made the cut as "big" news this morning in FtW.
ReplyDeleteSarah R---It is coming up on 3 in the afternoon. Checked the Star-Telegram again, figuring by now they'd have moved the Japan Quake and Tsunami to the top.
ReplyDeleteNope.
Instead, big headline "Chuck Greenberg resigns as Texas Rangers CEO." Abover and to the right of that, "NFL mock draft" with a little blurb. To the left of that a "Spring forward" note. An ad for JC Penney. Then several little headlines with links to the story. Top of those is "North Texans with ties to Japan keeping close watch" and TCC to begin voluntary buyouts for longtime workers." Stuff like that.
Then if you scroll down to the bottom half of the front page, the original blurb about the quake has been altered, with the headline now "Strong quake strikes central Japan, felt in Tokyo." Adding a couple links, one of which is "1 missing, 4 rescued as tsunammi hits West Coast."
The Israelis are pretty top notch in search and rescue/recovery as the result of their extensive experience with terrorists bombings.
ReplyDeleteI bet Col. Kadafi in Libya and PhD McDermott in Fort Worth's MHMR of Tarrant County are relieved that this news is coming along. It takes the focus, interest, and even energy and goodwill of moral people away from the devastations caused by them and their thugs on the libyan citizens and the Americans suffering from severe mentally illnesses, respectively.
Lucky b#$%^$!!