westernized medical system there. it s a good system. unlike what we saw in haiti where the medical system was not comparable. but that must still be stretched as well when you re looking at what s going on. you know, it is, michael. but i ll tell you one thing. we re here in tokyo and you can see all the buildings behind us that are standing. and that s one glimpse of just how good a system it is here. big earthquake. these buildings are among the best-designed in the world for withstanding an earthquake. and i saw this firsthand. i was doing stories in kobe not that long ago about building codes here. they re remarkable. the same can be said of the hospitals. i mean, one hospital we were at, they took care of 600 patients in a few days. and they just this is what they do. they can take care of lots of patients at once. i think what made this really challenging was the tsunami. the earthquake, japan is a country that deals with that. the tsunami, i don t know how a country prepare
something we do quite often because our coastal regions are frequented. but this is something else. tsunamis don t really happen as often and not in a magnitude that hits almost 20 provinces. even here we feel the tension. they re saying that a major earthquake is set to hit manila sometime soon. it could happen any time. and what happened to japan today this afternoon sort of added to the feeling of apprehension, anna. winona, we want to let our viewers know we re looking at pictures of jachlt winona is bringing us pictures of manila.
tsunami hitting a major country here in the form of japan. you re seeing all the buildings traveling along the water there. but also we have the earthquake ongoing. ana? i just want to interrupt you there. let s go to the japan meteorological agency. they re talking and giving the latest. translator: been observed over the widist areas. houses and buildings have been damaged or collapsed, and if areas where the tremors had been very big, there is a risk of landslides, mud slides, and collapsing of buildings, so please be very careful for strong aftershocks. i want to give you an update on the situation. the magnitude of the earthquake has been revised to 8.8.
japan. you re close to the epicenter. taiwan specifically, all preparations and anyone along the coast has to have already moved inland, has to have done that by several kilometers and certainly at about at least 15 meters high, 50 feet. that is your safety there. if you re listening to that, that s what i want you to do. philippines, that is the same deal, about an hour later. again, indonesia, papua new guinea, and there are the marshall islands. that is the tsunami threat, anna. covering japan, i just saw another earthquake which is essentially what we call them after the original quake aftershocks, right, of 6.4. any buildings or structures that have been weakened as a result of the offshore 8.9 are going to come down in a hurry with
think that this wave of water has just swept through the city of 1 million people up in the northeast. you can see cars just strewn about. this doesn t resemble an airport, nothing like an airport. but there are dozens of people on top of this building, on o vusly just riding this out, waiting to be rescued. we know that the military has been dispatcheded, the naval ships have been sent up to this area. a massive, massive rescue operation is now under way. kyung, if i can bring you back into the conversation, what sort of time frame are we talking about from the earthquake hitting to the tsunami warning being issued, to the actual wave, that wall of water hitting the coastline? it s very difficult for me to gave because i was underground when the actual quake struck, so piecing together what i can,