Sad stuff going on over there, my oldest sister lives in Okinawa in the Marine housing there, she and her husband and son are doing fine, but they're really shook up about it. We're from northern California, so earthquakes aren't really anything we're used too(I've gotten used to them living in southern California the last 5 years though), she said it felt like it lasted forever.Soup kitchens able to feed and care for thousands of people.

The quake was the fifth-largest in the world since 1900 and nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one which devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, said scientists.Measured at 8.9 by the US Geological Survey, it struck at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) at a depth of about 24km.

The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at 800km/h (500mph) - as fast as a jetliner - before hitting Hawaii and the US West Coast, but there were no reports of major damage from those regions.

Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.

The biggest waves of more than 6-7ft (about 2m) were recorded near California's Crescent City, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

A tsunami warning extended across the Pacific to North and South America, where many other coastal regions were evacuated, but the alert was later lifted in most parts, including the Philippines, Australia and China.

Strong waves hit Japan's Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, damaging dozens of coastal communities.

A 10-m wave struck Sendai, deluging farmland and sweeping cars across the airport's runway. Fires broke out in the centre of the city.

There is a story about Brookings Oregon getting hit pretty hard, sweeping many commercial fishing boats out to sea, and sinking dozen's of others, one person is known dead, and 5 were swept out to sea, all were rescued and all but 1 have been released from the hospital. That hits home with me as well, my family owns a house on the beach in the next town north Gold Beach Oregon, which is only about 25 minutes north on the 101, and we spend a lot of time there. My mom hasn't heard if the house is okay or not yet she's going to drive up tonight when she gets off work to check on everything.

Prayers to everyone affected. I'm in ND and we are now under a blizzard warning... I'll take that any day. Glad your family is ok.

Thanks! My younger brother did three years in Minot ND in the USAF, he didn't love it to say the least. But I would much rather have a good pounding of snow over a 8.9 magnitude quake any day of the week as well!

What a bunch of great people over there in Japan. 3 days in and still no reports of looting, price gouging, all the typical bs that happens here. Just images of them all standing in line waiting patiently and peacefully for there supplies. Big THUMBS UP to the Japanese for their resilience through these tough times, we could learn A LOT from them.