Earthquake in Japan

It’s been almost 12 hours since the 8.9M earthquake – one of its strongest on record – shook Japan. It’s been almost 6 hours since I woke up in NYC, checked my email, and saw that my parents had preemptively emailed us from Tokyo saying they were okay. A few minutes later we also confirmed that my in-laws were okay. When I awoke the death-toll was 29. When I left the house it was 62. When I got into the office it was in the hundreds.

I’m not going to go into detail about the earthquake here because, for one, it’s still unfolding. Plus, it’s all over the news so there’s really nothing I can add. If it’s photos and videos you want, allow me to direct you to some footage. Although there is plenty of overlap, each of these news organizations has their own breathtaking slide show:

The New York Times (19 photos)
The Atlantic (33 photos)
DailyMail (33 photos)
Boston (43 photos)

For video footage, turn to youtube for the terrifying tsunami as it approaches land, office buildings swaying back and forth in Tokyo, and a whirlpool the size of a football field. You can also tune into an official live stream of the Fuji TV channel, who they are reporting around-the-clock. Also, a Wikipedia page has already gone up and will continue to be updated as developments unfold. I wish the government was as quick to act as google, who, several hours ago, launched a person-finder app to help confirm the well-being of missing people.

I’ve been glued to twitter all morning which, as one might have guessed, has been delivering real-time updates and information. Before I went down into the subway I refreshed my twitter feed and, sitting on the train, preceded to read through the terrifying reports and first-hand accounts. It’s going to be a long night and, unfortunately, a very sad morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those in Japan.