instances. so, we really have some challenges with respect to aging infrastructure. and the new normal with respect to natural disasters. i think that these sequence of major earthquakes, and particularly this earthquake in japan, has put everybody on notice that we have to prepare better and we have to do some fundamental rethinking about how well prepared we are, what kinds of engineering and other kinds of planning and preparation solutions that need to be put out there to reduce the risks that we re exposed to. i ve got to tell you, thomas, i m very glad that i m sitting down listening to you, because i think you have been very articulate and honest about the way you feel and there are a lot of people thinking the same thing, a new normal, but this is really somewhat frightening. thomas o rourke from cornell, thank you. we appreciate that. more on the incredible pictures we are seeing at the moment the tsunami hit the coast of japan. we re going to be playing these pictures all
washington. and we know from records in the past that there have been very serious tsunamis. there s a culture, in the indians there, where they have folklore related to experiences of these indigenous people with respect to tsunamis in the past. so, we have a very serious risk in that part of the country. and what we see here in japan i think represents the kind of devastation that could actually occur with a cascadeous abduction event and something that we should take very, very seriously. okay. after listening to you, i m sure we are taking it very seriously. thomas o rourke from cornell university. thank you very much. my pleasure. still ahead, more stunning images that show how the earthquake and tsunami dramatically altered the landscape in northeast japan and we ll look at what s being done to get help to the survivors of the quake. also coming up, a paralyzing late winter storm leaves parts of the midwest snowbound. you heard it, snow in midmarch,
near, 500 miles an hour or so. so, if you are some distance and you know the wave s coming, you have that amount of time to be able to respond. yeah, with a tsunami, certainly that it will be very close. that will help with a tsunami, for certain. but i guess i m looking at what we re talking about relative to japan, and everyone says that japan experts have been saying this, at least is the most well prepared, they are the most outfitted with the sensors everywhere. you re talking about that which they have on their high-speed trains to sense movement and shaking and the like. how about here in the states, thomas? how are we doing on that front here? well, you know, there s been an extraordinary sequence of events. if we put this in context, i think a year ago in january of 2010, we had an earthquake in haiti which killed 230,000 people. we had an earthquake in february of last year off the coast of chile, an 8.8-magnitude
hello, again, alex. i m so glad you re here. let s talk about what we are seeing. i don t know if you can see the monitor. can you, thomas? can you see this video? yes, i can. i can see some of the video that was being shown about sendai and places in japan. yeah. this is absolutely shocking. have you ever seen anything like this? i have never seen anything like this. we ve seen things which were similar after the indonesian earthquake and tsunami in 2004, but this exceeds even the destruction and massiveness of that event. this is extraordinary. and of course, it shows you how vulnerable our infrastructure is. i mean, the japanese have among the most modern infrastructure in the world. and even with the design and the excellent engineering that goes into these systems, being exposed to this type of tsunami and this type of event, you can
have now raised the magnitude of friday s earthquake to 9.0. that is still the strongest on record to ever hit japan. and the size and scope of the quake has raised a lot of questions about how much advance notice can be given before such a catastrophic event. for more, i m joined live by thomas o rourke, professor of civil and environmental engineering at cornell university. he is also on the advisory committee for earthquake hazard reduction. so, thomas, we re going to be showing thank you, by the way, for being here and as we speak good morning, alex. we re going to run the amateur video just in to nbc. this is remarkable. about three minutes of it, in fact, as the tsunami was striking. can you get a heads-up with regard to the earthquake that causes this tsunami? we hear reports of people in tokyo having been given as much as two minutes warning. any chance we re going to develop the ability to do it even further in advance of that? well, there s two issues. there is