Earthquake and Tsunami hits Japan

A preview of 2012? Maybe, or maybe not. Today was a disasterous day in the country of Japan, as a strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake on the wester Honshu island. This earthquake which triggered a Tsunami was the strongest on record in Japan's history. Flood waters reached as far as 6.2 miles inland. There are at least several hundred people killed and hundreds more missing. As reported in Tokya by CNN, walls of water reaching 30 feet high hit Japan's north coast. Not much in the path of the Tsunami wave survived. The waves ran across rice fields, engulfed towns, and dragged houses onto highways. Cars and boats were tossed around liketoys. The water reached as fara s about 6 miles (10 kilometrs) inland in Miyagi. Tens of thousands of people are now displaced, according to Japan's Kyodo News agency.

Aftershocks continued to hit Japan Saturday, along with a pair of strong earthquakes in the early morning. The epicenter of the earthquake was a a depth of 3,280 feet (1 kilometer) beneath westen Honshu island. Almost 60 aftershocks have rocked Japan since the main quake on Friday morning that occured off the island's east coast. It was located offshore of Miyagi Prefecture, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) from Tokyo. Aftershocks were measured at 7.1.

As expected, there were collapsed buildings, and power outages and transportation disruptions throughout Japan. Rail service has been suspended, and elevated highways were shutdown. Extensive fires raged thoughout the damaged areas.

 One of Japan's nuclear power plants located at the Fukushima nuclear plant has been affected, as all the reactors except one, shut down as expected, but one of the reactors failed to go down, even with emergency measures in place. Japan issued warnings to the areas around the plant and started evacuations of people from around the plant. It has also been reported that a small radiation leak from a reactor containment could occur.

  An oil refinery located in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo was also on fire, but the flames could not be tended to originally by firefighters because the heat from the flames was just too hot to get emergency equipment within range to fight the fire. Fires also have been identified in areas of Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture.

In the area, a train had derailed and authorities lost contact with a 2nd train.

In Fukushima Prefecture, a dam had failed which washed away homes. There were no word of casualties, but at least 1,800 homes have been destroyed. At least 4 million homes are now without power.

The wave originally washed away hundreds of cars off of roads.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled as at least 13,000 people were stranded at the Narita airport, and another 10,000 stranded at the Haneda airport.

The Japan's busiest subway known as Tokyo Station was also affected, and hundreds of thousands of people at their homes were flooding on the streets hoping they could flee into safety from their shaking homes. Many people in Japan are familiar with these types of tragedies, but many were suprised that the strength of earthquake and the amount of damage caused by the Tsunami.