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. 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? 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. 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.
9.1 sumatra earthquake that struck the day after christmas. this is slightly larger than the 8.8 we had off of chile last february. again, significant damage. but as with japan, the chile was a country that had significant building codes. if there s a country that can try to take this sort of a punch, it is japan. but the relentlessness of both the event and as you pointed out the tsunami is hard to deal with. i want to ask you about the tsunami. because we have these warnings. the sea level readings. and as we start to see the, i guess, areas that are in the line of fire when it comes to these waves potentially making their way through, what are the biggest concerns that you re
two-prong disaster happening right now. initial earthquake 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.
you knew this was different because it went on for quite a long time and the shaking was so strong. the train signs were moving back and forth, and people were reacting differently. normally if there s an earthquake, oh, you look at your watch and move on. the difference here is that people were alarmed. and when the trains were shut down, certainly the concern level rose, as well. but the prime minister has made sure that people understand what they don t want now in the aftermath of this is even more concern that s really not warranted here that there be no panic. that people try to find their way home, make sure they connect with their families, start to free up some of the mobile phone lines. that s been a real challenge here trying to get through on phone lines and then try to get those rescue crews out of tokyo or the nearby corresponding areas and through the hard-hit regions. it is nighttime here, it is winter here, it is going to be a challenge trying to reach all those people
we cannot predict the exact height of the wave when it makes landfall. geraldo: and in dare i say a hawaiian typical stormy day you have waves that would dwarf a 6-foot tsunami, they would wallow the tsunami and we soot surfers with the supermodeller waves probably ten times what tautens was today. that s right. some people could say hey, what is all the fuss about, i have seen bigger waves before. geraldo: i actually saw some surfers out there today. look what happened with the sumatra earthquake of 2004. the wave itself was not that high, 8 to 12 feet but kept on going miles and wiped out entire cities and areas so we have to be on alert for these things. geraldo: everybody argues about and debates climate change. whistling or not it is real or just a creation of people with