Japan tsunami warning lifted

Smaller and less disastrous than predicted. Japanese prefectures had urged a total of 320,000 people to evacuate in the northeast, half a million nationwide, as the waves were expected to be more than 3 meters high. Japan lifted the alarm early Monday, ending the fear of population alarmed by local televisions of the possibility of a killer wave.

A test for emergency evacuation and crisis management

Transportation on many lines of the country's railways and highways has also been initially suspended due to the tsunami. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appealed earlier in the day to people not to go near to the coastal areas and stay in the shelters until the evacuation orders are lifted. "We must not drop our guard and please don't go near the coast, " Hatoyama said on TV.

As the first waves approached the archipelago areas, the Japanese weather agency downgraded tsunami alert from a rare "major" to normal level for the northeastern region at about 7 p.m. Sunday, relieving most of the fears as local TV's said after a "tsunami" of reports alarming, falsely some critics say, the population .

The waves first hit a small island of Ogasawara islands midday local time, 2000 km south of Tokyo. Waves of up to 30 cm were seen in the eastern coast of Hokkaido at around 2pm. At 1548 a tsunami of 120 cm was observed in Iwate prefecture's Kuji port. Some roads near the Kuji port and Kesennuma Port in Miyagi Prefecture were flooded and the water level had been rising with no harm to infrastructures or people. Only Otsuchi, also in Iwate prefecture, reported a tsunami of about 1.45 meters at the town's fishing port.

It is the first time in more than 15 years for Japan to issue a major tsunami alert, a warning with top intensity level. Japan is very cautious about tsunamis and earthquakes as in May 1960, a tsunami struck the coasts of Hokkaido and the Sanriku region of Japan after the huge 9.5-magnitude quake in Chile, leaving around 140 people dead or missing.

I covered for Radio France broadcasters on July 12, 1993 a devastating tsunami wave which occurred along the coasts of Hokkaido in Japan as a result of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, 80 miles offshore.

Desolation http://bit.ly/ZUvIV

The President of Chile says on Monday morning in the first evaluation of the seism that more than 700 people died in the earthquake that hit the country on Saturday.

Japan calm while tsunami small waves reach the shore

Minami Torishima - Ogasawara (the Bonin islands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonin_Islands ) 10 centimeters tsunami wave.

No incidents reported. In spite of what western media especially TVs' say, there is NO sign of panic since last night, just sense of awareness as people here are trained for years in case an alert.

BUT Japan is under alert until 9PM local time.

So far 245.000 households advised to evacuate from 15 prefectures.

Japan under alert: Tsunami coming, TVs' say

Thousands being evacuated from Japan Pacific ocean coast

The tsunami, running high speed on the Pacific ocean, could hit northern areas of Japan's main island of Honshu around 1 p.m. --in 15 minutes from now-- 4 a.m UT, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The tsunami warning covered the eastern seaboard of Japan, although for Tokyo Bay and many other areas the warnings were for waves of only around one meter (3 ft), similar to that seen earlier in Hawaii and New Zealand.

In May 1960, a tsunami struck the coasts of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido and other northern Pacific coastal areas after an earthquake in Chile, killing around 140 people. The affected northern region has many small harbors, these could concentrate the force of a tsunami, if strong.

Many Japanese harbors have had sea gates installed to try to protect from tsunami and storms and authorities ordered these closed this morning. "Coastal barriers have been built since the 1960 tsunami so we can't simply compare the situation with that time but it is still crucial that people evacuate," said an union member of the Kamaishi Eastern Fishery Union in Iwate, in northern Honshu quoted by wire service news.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, the International Tokyo Marathon continues, under a heavy cold rain and the loud noise of helicopters of the local TV networks filming the run, adding lots to the population anxiety.

On the TV screen, one can see marathon runners apparently under pressure to end their run before the Tsunami strikes the coast, if it does, while TV networks run lots of advertising since the early morning.