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American Morning
American in Tokyo Recalls Moment Quake Struck; Tsunami Warning Extends to Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast; Nikkei Falls After Quake; Tsunami Expected to Hit Hawaii in Minutes; Wisconsin Governor Wins Battle
Aired March 11, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And it's 7:00 a.m. here on the East Coast on this Friday, March 11th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm T.J. Holmes. It is 9:00 in Japan right now. There's a major breaking news story and a major effort going underway to try to rescue people. Japan devastated right now by an earthquake of historic proportions. This is a magnitude 8.9 earthquake that hit just of the coast of Japan about 230 miles from Tokyo, but they felt it in Tokyo, as well.
This was an underwater quake and now it has unleashed a powerful tsunami. The pictures we are seeing are simply unimaginable, a massive wave of water in the Pacific Ocean rolling toward shore. And when it made it to shore, my goodness, it took everything with it.
CHETRY: Yes. So this water could be seen just washing over farmland in Sendai near the epicenter carrying tons of mud and debris with it. Some of the tsunami waves reporting as high as 30 feet. This isn't just a swell. This is literally a wall of water 30 feet just literally obliterated everything in its path.
These powerful waves sweeping through, hitting buildings as you can see right here, cars just literally bobbing up and down in the water. Right now we are getting, unfortunately, an update on the number of dead. At least 40 deaths reported, nearly 40 people missing, and of course, authorities expecting those numbers to rise.
Nearly two dozen countries across the Pacific Rim have tsunami warnings up, and that includes our state of Hawaii. Tsunami waves expected to hit there in about an hour. A coastal evacuation is underway in Hawaii. Tsunami warnings have also been issued for areas along the west coast of the United States and Canada. Those expected to come a little bit later in the morning.
HOLMES: And as we've mentioned, this earthquake -- underwater earthquake about 230 miles from Tokyo, but they felt it in Tokyo, as well. Our Kyung Lah is there. Describe what it was like in Tokyo.
KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was in Tokyo Station, T.J. It's one of the busiest subway stops in all of Japan. There are hundreds of people in Tokyo station. And at the time that the quake struck, all of a sudden you felt the earth move. The signs were shaking back and forth. You could see people, a level of concern rising very quickly among people. You could hear children screaming.
The reason why I'm mentioning this level of concern, people in Japan are very, very used to earthquakes. This was different. This went on for several minutes. The train lines were shut down. People were eventually -- we were all told to evacuate out of Tokyo station and that the train line would be shut down for the time being.
That is something that is highly, highly unusual. So it was our first sign that we were on the brink of a national disaster. And so what we've seen in the hours after that is that even though everyone in Tokyo felt this, city of 13 million people felt the earth shake and people saw their lamps fall over, pictures fall over, ceiling falling in, the damage here is relatively minor.
If you go closer to where the epicenter was further north, that is where we are seeing the crisis. That's where we're seeing search and rescue, that devastating tsunami. And it's the debris, not the water that's really got people concerned. That massive debris cutting across agricultural land, houses, people, and cars, that is what has people concerned.
Now, we're on our way up to that region. It is very difficult to get there. We've already been told that many of the highways are cut off there. They don't want people to be on the highways because in Japan, many of the highways are elevated, so they don't want to cause another crisis by having the highways jammed with cars, because in all of this, we've been feeling aftershocks quite frequently.
And so the concern is there may be damage to the highways and there might be ensuing crises as rescue crews and people try to get up to that region.
So it is going to be very tough going, slow-going. It is winter time conditions, it is cold, dark. We may not know the full extent of exactly what we're looking at in that northern region until it's daybreak. It's just after 9:00 p.m. here. So we have a long road ahead before we understand the full scope of this disaster.
CHETRY: And are you getting any sense of how they're mobilizing, how to tackle this. As you said, it's dark now, it's night, it's cold. What is the plan from Japanese authorities on how to possibly conduct these rescues?
LAH: There are a number of systems in place to react to this sort of thing. To give you an idea of the head space of where the Japanese officials are, this country goes through national drills regularly for earthquakes. Children from the time they enter preschool are told to how to react to an earthquake. And so the systems are in place to jump on this as quickly as possible.
What makes this situation so different is we're dealing with an 8.9 quake. It was large. And even though it wasn't a direct hit on a city, because of the tsunami and because of the extent of the damage, certainly those systems are really going to be put to the test.
We've already heard from the Red Cross. The Red Cross mobilizing, using helicopters to get up there because the landing strips are washed away and covered, you have to use choppers to get in. And they're trying to mobilize by using as many flexible crews as possible to get to that area with rescue crews.
CHETRY: Kyung Lah in Tokyo this morning. We'll be checking in with you, as well, thanks so much.
HOLMES: Our Rob Marciano also on this story for us in Atlanta. We've been talking a lot, Rob, about these warnings, these tsunami warnings and when these waves are supposed to make it to certain parts of certain countries, including the west coast of the United States. What do you have?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This thing's so big, it's going to get here. The question is, not show much when, it's how much of this energy is going to propagate all the way over across the pacific and over toward the west coast.
Now, we've got a number of buoys out here called dark buoys. They're specifically designed to measure the sea level as a tsunami happens. The problem is, if one goes up two or three feet, a boat would barely feel that. How does that translate once it runs up to a place like Hawaii which is a very steep run-up and you've got volcanoes that are developing these islands. What does that do to the wave as it comes onshore?
Well, let's talk about -- let's break this down as far as the timing goes. When this thing happened around 1:00 a.m., this is how it timed out as far as how fast this traveled across the pacific, at about 500 miles an hour. Like a jumbo jet.
So in about six to seven hours time it gets to Hawaii, at about nine to 11 hours time it gets to the west coast of the U.S. here's how it breaks down in exact times, and these are local. It gets to the coastline of Oregon, about 7:15, and the border of Oregon and Washington right around 7:20 local time. And then it's going towards San Francisco about 8:00 in the morning local time. Again, add three hours for eastern time.
If you go south at Point Conception, this area is under an advisory. We expect minimal effects at this point south of point conception, down toward Los Angeles and San Diego. That's where you expect to see a wave of some sort.
How big of a wave? We just don't know. Some experts are saying it could be, two, three, four, maybe as much as five or six feet in some spots. The problem is when you look at the energy that this thing throws out from the epicenter. This is a cool map. Here's the epicenter just of the coastline of Japan, all that energy going bang off towards the east. And guess what right there. Hawaii.
So what's going to transpire here in the next hour to hour and a half is -- to use the word "anxiety" is an understatement. We don't know how big this wave's going to be when it hits Hawaii. It's going to hit Kauai first, and how large this wave is going to be, we don't know. It doesn't matter how big it is, it's going to have a huge mass of water with it and it's traveling really fast. It's going to move inland with much more force and distance than a wave you would surf in on.
So that doesn't sound like a big wave. This is a different kind of wave. It's a whole different animal. And that will arrive in Hawaii in about an hour's time.
CHETRY: And do you have any sense of how destructive it could be? I mean, I know they have so much technology to gauge where it's headed. But they won't know until it arrives basically?
MARCIANO: We can time out when it's going to get there. But there's so many variables as to how much the ocean actually buffers the energy of this wave as it makes its way across the ocean and the local impacts. Every shoreline is different. The ocean floor is different. That's how the wave develops.
Certainly once it goes inland, you know, the mountains around Hawaii, and there's plenty of them, that will certainly determine the flow of that water. So it gets very, very localized as the wave comes onshore.
HOLMES: That's a great point to make. So many different places are going to be affected so differently depending on those shorelines. Rob, we appreciate that illustration. It was good to put it all into perspective.
We're going to show you more of these pictures we've seen that started coming in overnight. This first one we can show you. And this is probably one of the ones -- it's amazing to see. This is when this wave -- and we keep calling it a wave. And you see a surfer out there on a wave. We're talking about a wall, essentially, of water that comes in. This one is coming in off Sendai. And this was the water first starting to come in.
CHETRY: That's right. And this wave of water left hundreds of homes swamped. People in this disaster zone were forced to scramble, in some cases scrambling to the highest part of their home and then literally waiting for rescue. They have measures in place, an apparatus in place to try to get to people, but the scope of this disaster is so wide that even now some seven hours after this happened, they are still struggling to try to get people out.
HOLMES: Other pictures we can show you again. We keep getting new pictures in. But take a look at this one. This is an aerial video. This looks like a huge ocean whirlpool, just off the coast of japan. Again, it was about 80 miles out, 230 miles from Tokyo. But, again, it's just amazing to see what happens.
This was an earthquake that was shallow, if you will. It was just about 15 miles down. So that's a very shallow earthquake. And for it to be 8.9., that means the force of this thing, the energy becomes that much more powerful and destructive as it makes its way. CHETRY: Also at Sendai airport, passengers made their way to the roof of the terminal to escape the wave of water, just such dramatic pictures. Cars, buses, even airplanes lay water logged in the parking lot below. The runways were covered by muddy, brown water.
HOLMES: Well, we checked in a short time ago with Matt Alt, a writer and translator living in Tokyo. He was at home when this earthquake struck. Matt, hello once again. And a lot of people were struck. To hear how large this earthquake was. It was so far away from you there in Tokyo. But you felt it pretty strong there. How long would you say the shaking went on?
MATT ALT, EARTHQUAKE WITNESS: It was shocking. It went on for an extended period of time, at least a minute, maybe two, and the experience was like trying to stand up on a skate board on a carnival ride. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life.
HOLMES: Tokyo, this was a city of 13 million people, but they're fairly prepared for this. Japan is used to, quite frankly, earthquakes no matter how strong. They are prepared. You said Tokyo pretty much intact.
ALT: Yes. Tokyo is in great shape. And I even heard some reports from people who were in skyscrapers downtown. And although there was definitely a little bit of panic at first when the tremors went on, they evacuated and made it down to the streets.
The only problem is the train lines have been shut down. They're just now starting to open up and a lot of people have been stuck downtown and I think a lot of people spending the night in their offices tonight.
HOLMES: And, Matt, one of our reporters, Kyung Lah, this is a buckling city, Tokyo, she said it was shocking and unusual to see this city completely come to a halt. Would you agree with that assessment?
ALT: It was gridlock, ground to a complete halt. And one of the scarier parts of it there was no phone service either. None of the land lines would go through. Fortunately the internet never stopped working the entire time and that's how we were able to keep updated. But the downtown area was literally a mess. But it was a sea of humanity, if you will. It wasn't actually a lot of destruction down there.
HOLMES: And last thing to you here, would you say it's strange -- we would hear an 8.9 earthquake and it's odd to think people were relatively calm. But you hit on this before. Even though this one was powerful, would you say people were fairly calm and orderly and knew what to do?
ALT: Absolutely. I think a lot of people kept a cool head. My wife certainly kept a cool head and calmed me down telling me to leave the windows and doors open in case the building shifted so the doors and windows wouldn't stick. And I think that sort of sense of grin and bear it kind of spread throughout the entire city, actually, and people dealt with this remarkably well. HOLMES: Are you getting reports there? Are they able to get news out? The news channels there possibly, are they able to get information out to people telling them what to do, giving them updates? And what have you been hearing? Whether or not there have been injuries and deaths and damage? Are they able to get those reports out?
ALT: The news channels are all running full blast as you can imagine. Right now, I believe the current list of fatalities is somewhere in the range of 30, but there's many, many other people missing. It's night. I don't think we'll know the full extent of this until the morning. And there's some very disturbing reports of a ferry, a fully-loaded passenger ferry filled with more than 100 people that got swept away with the tsunami and now nobody's able to raise it on the radio. They don't know where its whereabouts are.
HOLMES: Yes, we are checking on those reports. We are seeing those, as well.
Matt, oh, we appreciate having you this morning. We appreciate you checking in via Skype there. Like you said, the Internet is still amazingly working there and we're able to talk to you.
ALT: Yes.
HOLMES: Thank you so much.
ALT: Thank you.
CHETRY: Well, we also are dealing with the effects of this very far away from Japan and including right here in the United States in Hawaii, as well as parts of California.
Our Casey Wian joins us on the phone right now. He's in Seal Beach. This is in Orange County, California, and they have begun evacuations there, as well, ahead of the potential for these tsunami waves.
Hi, Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Kiran. I've got to be clear and say that evacuations have not begun on homes. But what we have seen is the pier in Seal Beach, California, and the beach have been closed. There are police officers here who stretched police tape across the pier. Obviously, it's just a little after 4:00 in the morning here so there's not much pedestrian traffic on the pier or on the beach. But as a precaution, they have closed the pier and closed the beach here.
This area is very prone to flooding. Big storms flood homes in this area quite frequently. So clearly, the threat of an impending tsunami arriving has officials here very, very concerned.
We're about five miles south of Long Beach, California, in northern Orange County. And we're expecting this tsunami to arrive in this area between 8:30 and 8:45 local time according to the latest figures I've seen, Kiran.
CHETRY: I got you. OK. So just to be clear again, they're closing down those beaches as a precaution. Is that an area where -- where there are residential areas or buildings that are close enough that they could possibly be threatened?
WIAN: Absolutely. There are beach communities all along this coast here that are right up on the sand and are very susceptible to flooding, big waves. In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers in recent years has been building up a sand berm to try to protect these homes. But many times they're still flooded in big storms anyway. So we don't know what obviously the tsunami is going to bring here to the West Coast at this point. Clearly, though, officials are very concerned.
CHETRY: All right. But you said they're stopping short of actually evacuating people at this time?
WIAN: Right. No evacuations in this area at this time.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll continue to check in with you. I know you're trying to get some video sent to us, as well, of the area of what you're seeing and witnessing there. Casey Wian for us. Thanks so much for joining us. He's in Seal Beach in Orange County, California.
HOLMES: Well, almost 20 minutes past the hour now. To our viewers, we are waiting. We're about 40 minutes away from what is predicted to be the first set of waves arriving in Hawaii. So we're keeping a close eye on that. We're a few hours away. Between 7:00 and 8:00 Pacific Standard Time is when the waves are expected to start arriving on the West Coast of the U.S., California, Oregon. So we are watching the clock and we are monitoring, and they are on standby right now and on alert waiting for those waves to show up.
Meanwhile, we're going to turn to our Ed Henry at the White House this morning. The president, of course, Ed monitoring what's happening there and also has a message for the people who've been affected already and for the world, I guess you could say.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, T.J.
Again, the president offering a very early morning statement here from the White House saying that he and the first lady offer their deepest condolences to the people of Japan who've been affected by this, but also making clear that his administration is going to get on top of U.S reaction here. Not just sending aid to Japan, but is also ordering his Federal Emergency Management Agency to get on top of the situation, Hawaii, other U.S. states and territories in the Pacific who may be affected by all of this through the tsunami warnings that you've been reporting on.
Let's take a step back and tell you when the president was first informed. It was at 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time. He was informed by his chief of staff, Bill Daley, we're told by White House officials. Then they started moving forward as I said instructing officials to start getting on top of this. The president saying in a written statement, quote, "Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the people of Japan, particularly those who have lost loved ones in the earthquake and tsunamis. The United States stands ready to help the Japanese people in this time of great trial. The friendship and alliance between our two nations is unshakable and only strengthens our resolve to stand with the people of Japan as they overcome this tragedy."
Now, the president has already visited Japan twice as U.S. president. Shows how important he sees this relationship, no doubt. But also worth noting, the president was born in Hawaii, spent a good chunk of his childhood there. And so when he talks about, you know, instructing U.S. officials to make sure that they're on top of the situation not just in Hawaii but all the U.S. states and territories and the Pacific who may be affected by this, this obviously affects this president personally, T.J.
And we should note he has a news conference already scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time here at the White House.
Last night, White House aides said that he wanted to talk about soaring gas prices here in the United States. No doubt Libya and other international crises would be on the agenda, as well. They know that. But now, this agenda has gotten more packed and certainly more urgent in terms of the topics the president will be addressing later this morning -- T.J., Kiran.
HOLMES: You know and that's a good point to make, as well. That, yes, in fact, the president is concerned about all American citizens, but that's his home. And you can imagine it's certainly near and dear to him to keep an eye on what's happening out there. Maybe it won't be as bad as some are predicting. Who knows what it will. We just don't know, but we're keeping a close eye.
HENRY: You're right.
HOLMES: All right. Ed, we appreciate you this morning.
HENRY: Thank you.
CHETRY: All right. We have some other really interesting information that's coming around. We talked about the massive relief effort that's going to be needed in Japan, especially on the northeastern part where you saw those amazing pictures.
China is now mobilizing to extend some help there, as well. The United States, we have two or three naval ships that are on-loading supplies that are also going to be going to that area to try to help out. But meanwhile, here at home in Hawaii, bracing for this impact. The tsunami waves due to hit the island in less than an hour and they're dealing with some emergencies there themselves. They have shelters that are already full. They have hospitals overwhelmed. People who may not even have medical emergencies heading there. The Department of Health actually forced to issue a statement saying do not go to the hospital if you're not in severe condition. So we're going to check in and see what it is like in Hawaii after a quick break.
Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: All right. Twenty-four minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. We have a special edition here because we have a breaking news situation and a disaster developing on two different fronts.
This is happening in Japan. It's now nightfall there. And there is an effort underway to try to save as many people right now as they can. This nation was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake. It was just off the coast about 80 miles. The rescue is underway right now, but the hospitals are being overwhelmed. Elementary schools that are serving as little refuge centers right now. Those are already full.
Take a look at some of the pictures here. This is the shaking. Look at this. This is the power of this earthquake.
Again, this thing was about 230 miles. The epicenter was away from Tokyo. But they felt it. We have reports that people thought the shaking went on for up to two minutes. Many buildings were damaged. Some destroyed, as well. Cars knocked off of bridges. Japan's news agency reporting that more than 50 people now have been killed. Dozens injured. Fires burning at more than 80 locations. Again, that number 50, many people do expect that to rise and rise dramatically, that death toll.
Now, the other part of this disaster. That was the initial disaster, that huge quake. It triggered a massive tsunami.
This is a wall of water. It's having a devastating impact right now along the northeast coastline. The waves, some reports say they're as high as 30 feet racing across farmland that is several, several miles inland. Washing away homes, cars, trucks, boats, people, anything in its path.
Now, tsunami warnings extend to Hawaii as well as the West Coast of the United States. We're 7:30 Eastern Time. We're expecting in the next 30 minutes. That's when they predicted the first wave would make their way over to Hawaii. They are on standby there. They've had sirens going off and they are prepared.
Meanwhile, back in Tokyo. The city right now according to our Kyung Lah who's reporting there, she felt this earthquake. She felt plenty. She said this one certainly was different. But the train services are shut down, the city itself of 13 million people. She said it's eerie to see Tokyo essentially come to a halt.
Reports, as well, that Tokyo's main international airport canceled all flights for the rest of the day. This is the main airport we're seeing here, but this is another airport here. And again, our Kyung Lah has been reporting all morning. Most of the infrastructure, though, they do a lot, they get a lot of earthquakes there in Japan so they know how to deal. But the infrastructure for the most part in Tokyo is OK.
CHETRY: Right. And so that is not in the Tokyo area. That's northeast, right? That's the other airport that we're talking about where they are going to need a lot of help obviously. This earthquake also impacting markets across the globe as other countries react. Christine Romans is following that portion of it for us as well.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The Nikkei, which is the stock index in Japan was only open for a short time after the earthquake struck. And it fell immediately and is continuing to fall in futures trading. There you can see what it looked like after the earthquake. And we have stock markets around the world expected to be lower. They have been lower heading into this earthquake, but now expect it to be -- why? Well, because, look, this is the third largest economy in the world. $5.5 trillion economy. There are high- tech factories that will be shut down for you. There are oil refineries that have been shut down. One on fire right now.
Massive infrastructure that is basically paralyzed right now. When you have the third largest economy in the world paralyzed and dealing with a natural disaster like this, that dampens world demand for oil. Oil prices, folks, have fallen below $100 a barrel. The entire focus moving away from the Mideast and now looking at this particular natural disaster here.
Again, we're talking about the airports. Narita International canceling all flights. There are some other airports that are still open, but if you are an international traveler, this is going to have ripple effects around the world for all of the connections in the major ports.
Barbara Starr was reporting that, in fact, some U.S. commercial flights are going to be allowed to land at U.S. military facilities there, trying to literally land the planes because this happened just a few hours ago really. And so has disrupted international air travel.
CHETRY: Right. If you were already in route --
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: -- you'd have to end up somewhere.
ROMANS: That's absolutely right. We're watching oil fall, watching stocks fall. We'll continue to watch the impact here. There's very, very heavy futures trading. And what that means is this will be an international event that will drive the markets today.
CHETRY: Right.
I'm just wondering if once they start to realize -- I mean, as Kyung Lah said to us, the basic infrastructure of Tokyo, even though obviously they have a lot of cleaning up to do and a lot of assessing to do is intact. So I wonder if that will help as we get more information today.
ROMANS: Every piece of information will be digested to figure out what it means going forward. But this story is still unfolding.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROMANS: There was the earthquake. Now, it's the tsunamis. So this is a story that we're living in as we speak and that uncertainty is what we're seeing around the world in the market.
HOLMES: Christine, thank you this morning.
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: Well, tsunami warning sirens could be heard overnight in Hawaii. Waves expected to hit there in just about 30 minutes. Now, exactly what that means and how much of an impact it will have is still an uncertainty. Full coastal evacuations are underway. They are preparing there for the worst-case scenario.
CNN's Carter Evans is live in Honolulu. He's actually there on vacation. And now you find yourself in the middle of reporting what could be a huge disaster. They still don't know exactly what the impact will be.
What are you hearing?
CARTER EVANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, it's a scary situation. And I got to tell you the latest information we're getting here. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is they're sticking with their predictions of waves three to six feet hitting the shores of Hawaii in about half an hour.
Now, how do they know this? They the take readings from buoys in the ocean all throughout the Pacific. Also readings on Midway Island, several hundred miles away from the Hawaiian island chain show that the tsunami is hitting there at wave heights of about five feet now. And that's why they say they're sticking firm with their predictions because everything is falling right into place here. They're seeing those waves come ashore and those are quite large waves.
Now, tsunamis can hit in a couple of different ways. In some cases, before the tsunami arrives, the water will recede. And that can actually be quite a dangerous situation, especially if people are near the shoreline because they may look and say, "hey, nothing's going on here, the water's going back and then the waves slam ashore." That may not be the case with this tsunami.
When it hit Midway Island, we are hearing the first wave was a positive wave, meaning that it was about five feet tall. There was no receding before it came. Also to keep in mind the first wave to hit the shores may not be the strongest. That was the case with the last big devastating tsunami here in Hawaii back in 1959 when it hit the (INAUDIBLE). It was the second and the third waves that were the most destructive. So when that first wave came through, people thought it might die down a little bit after that. That's not the case. It got worse.
So these are still some unknowns that we're dealing with right now. I can tell you people are preparing here, I grew up in Hawaii prepared for this in school. We know what to do when we hear those civil defense sirens. The tourists here on the other hand, that's a different story. When I was down in Waikiki tonight when this earthquake struck, the hotels were getting the information. They were telling the people staying at the hotels they're going to need to move up to the sixth floor or higher. And that's what they're doing right now. Everyone else is being told to move at least half a mile inland to be safe.
Is that overkill in some cases? Possibly. But in a situation like this, you know, everybody is watching this video on CNN and CNN International of these waves hitting Japan. Wave after wave, and it's scary to know that's coming here.
CHETRY: Absolutely. Just some other interesting information. They were talking about hospitals being overwhelmed. They're trying to let people know that if you don't have a severe medical emergency, do not go to the hospital. And they're also talking about some of these refuge centers already being full. Are you hearing about some other contingency plans or some ways to try to make this go as smoothly as possible with all of the uncertainty?
EVANS: When I was coming down here to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, we were seeing a steady stream of cars. (INAUDIBLE) direction. That's a little bit disconcerting heading into the eye of the storm, so to speak. People are heeding these warnings, that's the good news.
Another thing that they're telling people not to do is don't make phone calls if you don't have to. I can tell you -- I have an AT&T phone, I can't make the same call on it.
CHETRY: I understand. And certainly inundated. We just lost Carter. We'll check back in with him. Again, as he said he's going toward where the concern is as many others are trying to get out.
HOLMES: And let's turn to our Barbara Starr now at the Pentagon. Barbara, we know there are thousands of military personnel in Hawaii across the Pacific, Japan, as well, and the military right now mobilizing to help out, I assume trying also to protect their own.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Right, T.J., really two tasks here for the U.S. military to account for their own personnel at this hour, they think there are tens of thousands of people in Japan and across the Pacific are all accounted for. Some minor damage, but they think at this point everyone is just fine.
In Hawaii, let's start there. Underscoring what Carter just said. The U.S. military is telling its people if they live on low ground to get to higher ground. But their prediction at the moment based on what they see out of the tsunami warning center is they will be able to manage this, no U.S. ships are evacuating out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. They're going to ride it out in port. But we have learned that the decision so far is the same thing in San Diego on the West Coast. The U.S. military will stay in port. They believe they can ride it out. That is not to say that they're not telling people to get to higher ground, get away from the shoreline, take all the necessary precautions. So while all of that is going on, the U.S. military overnight is beginning to put into place the pieces of a humanitarian relief operation once and if, of course, the government of Japan asks for help.
Let's walk you through what we do know so far. There are three major Navy warships in the region that are getting ready to move to lend a hand to Japan. First up, the "USS Essex." It is in Malaysia and is getting ready to get underway relief supplies and start steaming towards Japan to help out there. It's going to take it a few days to get there, but they are getting underway.
The "USS Blue Ridge," a Navy command ship in Singapore also getting underway. It is specifically loading up relief supplies in Singapore and heading on to Japan. First up, however, will be the "USS Tortuga." It is already in Sasebo, Japan, and what they are putting onboard are small landing craft. The "Tortuga" will be able to use these landing craft to get to flooded areas where there are no roads, roads are washed out and to try and help get relief supplies in and get a relief operation underway. But, of course, all of this still awaits a request from the government of Japan. Both countries working very closely together. It is expected that the U.S. military along with many international organizations, of course, will step in and lend a hand very quickly. T.J..
HOLMES: A major effort underway right now. And a lot to get to. We appreciate you giving us all those updates this morning. Barbra, thanks so much.
STARR: Sure.
CHETRY: We're going to turn our attention now to some breaking news out of Libya today as well. It's 2:30 in the afternoon in Libya. Our Ben Wedeman has some breaking news for us. He's on the phone in Ras Lanuf. This is the key rebel held oil city where there's some new bombing taking place. Ben, what's the latest?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Actually, Kiran, Ras Lanuf is no longer rebel held. We're told that it's essentially empty at this point. What we've been seeing is an intense and steady bombardment on this city itself in the eastern edges of it. In addition to, there's been an air raid, actually two or three recently in the last half an hour. And also what we're seeing right in front of us now is one of the storage tanks at the Ras Lanuf refineries that has caused fire.
Now it's not clear what the cause was because we have a very good vantage point. And we did not see any bombs drop or even any explosion. But I can tell you that it's now sending up a huge plume of thick, black smoke. And I can see flames at the bottom. And what we're also seeing is sort of a mad rush by dozens of pickup trucks and cars belonging to the opposition forces. Away from Ras Lanuf. Of course, the worry is that Libyan forces are advancing. Certainly after all of this bombardment, it would be difficult for those opposition forces to keep their positions. Kiran.
CHETRY: Understandable. So as you explained what was once rebel held, they fled because of this prolonged land and air assault that took place. Do we know where they have gone and what the status is right now?
WEDEMAN: What they normally do is drive a few kilometers up the road and then reposition. But it's a long and open road with nowhere to hide and there are jets flying overhead. And so they may be going way back to the town of Brega, which is about an hour's drive from here. That's where the largest concentration of anti-Gadhafi forces are. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. Ben Wedeman for us in Ras Lanuf with new developments on a new assault taking place there by pro-Gadhafi forces. Thank you so much.
HOLMES: Well, again, we are following now several breaking news stories. We'll keep an eye on what's happening in Libya. Also the major story this morning, two-prong disaster happening right now. And initial earthquake, one of the largest the world has ever seen, triggering a massive tsunami, several places on alert with tsunami warnings right now including Hawaii, which is expected to see these waves in the next 20 minutes or so. We're following these breaking developments on this "American Morning." Stay with us.
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CHETRY: Forty-two minutes past the hour right now. We're following breaking news.
A developing disaster, as we speak, in Japan. And now has night falls, the rescue effort -- it's still unknown just how many people there are going to be able to rescue and how much progress is being made on that front. Many who were there say it will be some time before we know the scope of this disaster.
But just to update you on what happened. The nation was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake. This is an earthquake of historic proportions, easily in the top five recorded since the 1900s. And Japan now is reportedly asking U.S. troops for some help with the relief efforts. We're also hearing from a chief seismologist that minor waves have now hit the Philippines, a tsunami with a devastating impact along the northeast coastline. And this is going to have an impact in some 20 other countries around the world as the waves continue to travel.
But the waves here, northeast of the Tokyo reported as high as 30 feet, literally a wall of water just racing across farmland, several miles inland, washing away homes, cars, trucks, and everything else in its path. Tsunami warnings have extended now to Hawaii and to the U.S. West Coast. Now in Hawaii, the first waves are expected to strike just after 3:00 a.m. local time. We're talking about 15 minutes from now, New York time.
Honolulu's mayor talked to us earlier and said the city is planning for several contingencies. They are bracing for the worst- case scenario and acting accordingly. But they're not certain just how large these waves could be and also where they may hit. In the meantime, President Obama says that the U.S. stands ready to help the Japanese people. It has also instructed FEMA to be prepared to help Hawaii and other U.S. regions that could be affected by the disaster.
HOLMES: And again, that first wave expected to hit the United States is going the to be in Hawaii. And we are literally on a countdown, if you will, predicting it would happen just around 8:00 Eastern time so that is just minutes from now. Many people there hunkering down, evacuating some areas as well doing what they can.
I want to turn to Chief Petty Officer Kirk Fredrickson with the 13th Coast Guard district there in Honolulu. Thank you for hopping on the line with us. I guess, what are you doing at this point as you are literally, I guess, watching the clock and watching the coastline waiting for whatever to come?
CHIEF PETTY OFFICE KURT FREDRICKSON, COAST GUARD (on the phone): That's right. We are waiting for waves to come in the next 30 minutes. The Coast Guard has been very active for the last several hours in anticipation of a worst-case scenario.
We're primarily focused on maintaining the safety and security of the nation's ports as well as ensuring the safety of our Coast guardsmen, their families, and the local population. And we're doing that through close cooperation with the federal emergency management agency, and other local, federal, and state authorities. And we're telling people to heed any warnings that are coming from those authorities to seek shelter and higher ground.
HOLMES: And sir, I have to ask here, you said you're preparing for the worst-case scenario. What is that?
FREDRICKSON: I wouldn't be able to speak to exactly what the worst-case scenario would be. Obviously we saw what happened in Japan. So we are moving out to sea. We moved our aircraft to more suitable locations where they will be ready to respond if needed.
And the coast guard is standing by to continue operations and to reach out and assist the citizens of Hawaii. Not only Hawaii, the same thing is happening in coast guard operations in Guam. So throughout the pacific, the coast guard is positioning itself to respond as necessary.
HOLMES: And sir, can you give me an idea, as well, you said you certainly want to take care of your own personnel. Can you give me an idea of just how many members of the coast guard are in that district where you are?
And give us an idea of the type of -- I guess the facilities, the equipment, I guess, that would be in the -- in the path of this wave or whatever is coming? FREDRICKSON: There are around 1,400 coast guardsmen in active duty and reserve and civilian employees in the 14th Coast Guard District. In the coast guard, 14th district is huge. It covers not only the Hawaiian Islands, but over to Guam, south of Guam, all the way over to Japan.
We actually have coast guard offices in Tokyo and so it's a huge responsibility for the coast guard in this region to ensure the safety of everything that we need to keep our eyes on.
HOLMES: All right, Kirk Fredrickson, the chief petty officer at the 14th Coast Guard District there in Honolulu. Sir, thank you for giving us some time and an update and good luck to you all out there as we literally watch the clock, wait for if first wave to come on to Hawaii.
We're going to have more about this quake and the tsunami that has certainly struck and impacted Japan, but also now on the way to Hawaii, minutes away predicted from the first wave to hit Hawaii.
But also on the way to the west coast of the United States. This is just one picture of many we are seeing that gives you an idea of the destruction of the tsunami. Quick break here on this AMERICAN MORNING, and we are right back.
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CHETRY: It's 10 minutes now to the top of the hour and we are actually about 10 minutes away from when the first tsunami waves are set to hit parts of Hawaii.
HOLMES: Rob Marciano has been keeping an eye on this for us today, giving us an idea of specific times. I guess that map you showed us earlier was very interesting and gave us some perspective of how this wave travels from that epicenter of that quake all the way over to the U.S.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's just, you know, nothing more than if you were to throw a rock into a pond how that wave propagates out and does it all in other directions. Of course, you've got the Asian continents to the north and west and a lot of that energy is going to be projected east and south.
With that, we've got Hawaii that in the cross-hairs with this. It's about 500 miles an hour is what this wave is traveling. It's already passed through midway. A wave measured with some of the buoys there around five feet. On shore about eight feet. That doesn't sound like a lot.
But you got to remember this thing is traveling in a much, much different way than a wave that you would surf on. Here is how we are breaking down where this thing is going to hit. Here is Kawai, all right, it's going to hit there in about 10 minutes.
North shore of Kawai, right there Princefield and Hanaleu Bay. You know, you got to remember how Hawaii breaks down. There's a lot of bays. There's a lot of areas in the coast and just goes straight up. So that wave is going to be maneuvered by completely by the bathymetry underneath the water and the geography once it hits that land.
So it's going to become an extremely localized event. A two- foot, five-foot wave in one spot might be a 10, 15 or 20-foot wave in another spot. That's what makes this scary. All right, so here -- we will do this in local time. And for all intents and purposes ten minutes from now. 3:00 a.m. right here. OK?
When we get into Honolulu, be there 20 minutes later. The north shore will happen 3:10 so in about 20 minutes. Then we get down into Honolulu. Now, you may think these waves only hit the north shore. These islands are small. They will actually wrap around. You're going to get the ocean rising on Honolulu even though it's on the southeastern side of the island seemingly protected by this wave.
Again, a five-foot wave in one spot may become a ten-foot wave in another spot. That is what makes this incredibly scary. The other thing to mention here, guys, again, it's not like a wave that a surfer might ride. In this part of the world they get to be 10, 20, 30 feet high.
A five-foot wave, a five foot tsunami you have a wave that's like this, OK? A wave that you might surf on might be the same height but it would be a little guy like this. You have all of this mast in a tsunami coming this way.
That's a tremendous amount of weight and a tremendous amount of momentum and that is what makes a four, five, or six-foot tsunami wave so much more dangerous than a wave you might just gently surf in on to the beach. That's what we have to look out for here, guys.
CHETRY: All right, not to put you on the spot, but has Hawaii had to deal with this? I mean, have we had to deal with this recently? Anything of this magnitude?
MARCIANO: About 1960 I believe or 1959 is when Hawaii had to deal with something like this. They had about a ten-foot wave. The west coast and talk more about this once we get this through the islands.
The west coast of the U.S. had to deal with this back in 1960 when we had a huge earthquake and resulting tsunami in Alaska. And there are obviously been other historic quakes so this has happened before, but not in recent memory and certainly not in decades.
CHETRY: Amazing. All right, Rob, thanks for breaking it down for us. Well, so as rob said and we have heard from Kyung Lah, this is really a historic disaster on two fronts.
In Japan, we're following the breaking news developments on not only the earthquake and its effect on Tokyo, air travel, et cetera, but, of course, the tsunami and the dramatic and devastating aftermath of that in some of those towns north and east of Tokyo. Stay with us. The special edition AMERICAN MORNING continues in just a moment.
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HOLMES: It's about 5 minutes to the top the hours now. We will get back to our coverage of that massive earthquake and tsunami in a moment.
Just want to give you an update on a couple of other stories of note. One in Wisconsin where the state assembly there has passed a bill that curbs collective bargaining rights for most state workers.
This bill will now go to the governor, Governor Scott Walker for his signature. He is expected to sign it. Protesters did show up outside the chamber chanting "shame."
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HOLMES (voice-over): Some had to be removed as you here by police officers. Thousands of people converged on the capitol during that vote. The only Democrat that was there when the joint Senate Assembly Committee agreed to the bill has filed a legal complaint now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: It was an emotional day at the capitol yesterday on the controversial hearing of the radicalization of Muslim Americans. New York Congressman Peter King who called for those hearings faced some strong criticism from some Democrats and Muslim groups.
Some accused him of McCarthy tactics. Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, he was the first Muslim elected to Congress. He gave a very emotional, emotional statement yesterday at the proceedings tearfully describing the sacrifice of American Muslims.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mohammed was a fellow American who gave his life for other Americans. His life should not be identified as just a member of an ethnic group or just as a member of the religion but as an American who gave everything for his fellow Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. Despite the controversy, King is promising additional hearings in the coming months. He says the next one could be focusing on the radicalization of Muslims in U.S. prisons.
HOLMES: All right, a quick break. We are expecting that tsunami wave to hit Hawaii at any moment. Live coverage continues right after a break.
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