Saturday, March 19, 2011

SIMILITUDES OF PROPHECY

NaturalNews.com printable article

Originally published March 19 201

Earthquake predicted for California

by Randall Neustaedter OMD

(NaturalNews) In case you have not had enough apocalyptic disaster scares and events this week, a geologist who predicted the 1989 Northern California earthquake has predicted another to occur next week between March 19 and 25th.

Geologist Jim Berkland asserts that he has a 75 percent accuracy rate in his earthquake predictions, which are often based on tidal forces and abnormal animal behavior events. He says that four factors are coming together that make an earthquake in California a likely event.

First, the moon will be full and at its closest point to the earth during that time, a factor associated with previous earthquakes. Second, the spring equinox occurs during this time, producing some of the highest tides of the year. Third, the recent massive and unexplained fish die-off in Southern California could signal a magnetic shift that affects animals with unusual behavior. For example, beached whales have preceded previous earthquakes in California. And fourth, the Pacific Rim faults, known as the Ring of Fire, have experienced three recent quakes in Chile, New Zealand, and Japan. These earthquakes have proceeded in a clockwise direction, possibly indicating that the fault lines in California are next.

Berkland has a website at
www.syzygyjob.com and a written newsletter through his site. He was recently interviewed by Jim Noory on Coast to Coast about his most recent prediction.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQXD...

http://www.naturalnews.com/031755_California_earthquake.htmlDr. Randall Neustaedter, OMD.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Iodine supplement supplies wiped out by nuclear fallout fear - here are the foods that contain high levels of natural iodine

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor


(NaturalNews) It's happening everywhere now: Potassium Iodide supplements are getting wiped out as people concerned about the possibility of radiation fallout are purchasing them for their own protection. Yesterday evening, we posted a story about an alternative source of iodine -- Nascent Iodine -- and now it has been completely sold out everywhere in North America, too. (Our store was sold out within minutes and now the product is back-ordered.) The U.S. Surgeon General has even publicly supported the idea of buying potassium iodide as a "precaution" in case the radioactive fallout reaches the United States.


In the midst of all this, some sellers are jacking up their prices to exploit the shortage for their own financial gain. One seller hiked his price from $49 / bottle to $499 / bottle on eBay. Another guy was asking $1500!


The NaturalNews Store has been the lowest price on the 'net for Nascent Iodine, and we kept our prices on sale through this entire iodine shortage because we always strive to deliver exceptional values to our customers (and we operate with ethics, too, meaning we don't price gouge just because people are desperate -- shame on all the pricks and shysters who are trying to rip people off in this moment of crisis! They remind me of the price gouging practices of the pharmaceutical industry...).


Remarkably, our Nascent Iodine still sells for just $23 even though the exact same product costs at least 50% more elsewhere (http://store.naturalnews.com/index....). (The manufacturer will only allow us to run this low price for another week or so, after which we will be forced to raise it back to "regular" pricing, which is just under $36 a bottle. We often negotiate incredible discount deals for NaturalNews readers, but the always have a time limit window of opportunity...)


Not surprisingly, at this price we sold out very, very quickly. And now people are asking what else they can consume to increase their intake of natural iodine.


Fortunately, there are several key foods that are very high in iodine -- and no, table salt isn't one of them. To boost your levels of iodine from table salt, you'd practically have to poison yourself with an excess of salt. The best forms of natural iodine, it turns out, are sea vegetables.


And YES, sea vegetables can provide sufficient levels of iodine to help prevent radiation poisoning of your glandular system. One quarter of a teaspoon of organic kelp granules (see below), for example, provides 3mg of iodine (milligrams, not micrograms).


Remember, 1 mg = 1,000 mcg. And the recommended daily intake of iodine is just 150 mcg (micrograms). Dr. David Brownstein recommends a daily intake that is significantly higher -- as much as 6 - 12mg per day, which you can reasonably achieve from eating a planned quantity of sea vegetables. Of course, an iodine supplement such as Nascent Iodine (http://www.naturalnews.com/031708_i...) is going to provide a far larger serving of iodine, which it's why it's worth ordering some and having them on hand for the future.


Sea vegetables with natural iodine: Kelp, Nori, Kombu and Sea Spaghetti



One of the very best natural sources of iodine is Kelp. The NaturalNews Store consistently carries an inventory of Organic Kelp Granules that provide 3mg (yes, milligrams, not micrograms) of iodine in just a 1/4 teaspoon serving.


You can find that product at this link:
http://store.naturalnews.com/index....


We are probably already sold out by the time you read this, but we have 1,000 more bottles arriving on Monday, so if you order now, you can most likely receive them within 10 - 14 working days.


You can also find this same product sold at health food stores and online nutritional retailers. It will be the next iodine source that's sold out as soon as enough people realize that kelp is an abundant source of natural iodine.


This product is normally used as a kind of natural salt shaker, to add a salty taste to soups, salads or just about any meal, by the way. It's a regular superfood source that's also very high in other trace minerals.


All seaweeds contain iodine in a natural state. One of the highest is kombu, which contains up to 2500 mcg (micrograms) per gram of kombu. You can find kombu seaweed at many local health food stores, too. Just soak it in water to reconstitute it, then you can cook it into foods, eat it on a salad, or whatever you want. Cooking does not destroy iodine, so don't be afraid to heat it if you want to. Iodine is a trace mineral, and no minerals are destroyed through high-heat cooking (just vitamins, proteins and other phytonutrients).


Nori sheets (the seaweed sheets used to make sushi) are also a source of iodine, although they only contain about 16mcg per gram. So they're not nearly as iodine rich as kombu. But nori is easy to find and delicious to eat. Make some nori wraps!


Nori is often very easy to find at health food stores, and we also sell it at a special sale price at the NaturalNews Store: http://store.naturalnews.com/index....


Can you overdose on iodine from nori sheets? It's almost impossible to do so. You'd have to eat hundreds of nori sheets at one setting to get that much iodine. And given that most people are chronically deficient in iodine, a person can safely consume up to 50 mg of iodine per day to restore sufficient levels in the body, according to Dr. David Brownstein (yes, 50 milligrams, not micrograms). The U.S. government's "official" numbers on iodine are, just like all the other nutrients, kept artificially low (like with vitamin D) in order to encourage people to actually stay deficient in essential nutrients (http://www.naturalnews.com/030598_v...).


Sea Spaghetti

As luck would have it, we just launched a new seaweed-based superfood product at the NaturalNews Store called Sea Spaghetti. It's made entirely from a natural brown seaweed called himanthalia elongata. It's made in France, and we just got it into our store yesterday.


It's a natural source for many trace minerals, including iodine. Although it's not a huge amount, each 5-gram portion (a very small amount) of sea spaghetti delivers 500 micrograms of iodine (333% of daily value). This is not enough to correct a severe iodine deficiency, but every little bit helps, and even seemingly small portions of this food can start to add up to several milligrams of iodine. It can truly help supply a steady source of iodine to meet your body's nutritional needs.


This is also a fantastic product for completely removing grains and pastas from your diet. You can just make your favorite spaghetti sauces using these sea noodles instead! It contains just 12 calories per serving! (Yes, 12.)


Pick some up at:
http://store.naturalnews.com/index....


The nutrition facts on this product are:


Serving size 5 g
Servings per bag 10
Calories per serving 12
Protein 1.5% DV
Fat 0.4% DV
Fiber 6% DV
Sodium 7% DV
Carbs 0.5% DV
Vitamin C 7% DV
Potassium 13% DV
Magnesium 50% DV
Calcium 3% DV
Iodine 333% DV


DV = Daily Value


Don't get ripped off on radiation pills

There's panic in the market right now. People are desperate to find a source of iodine. But that panic is unjustified. Most people simply don't know you can get plenty of iodine from eating sea vegetables.


There are also brown seaweed extracts available on the market today that have their own natural iodine. For years, I've been recommending Modifilan (http://www.modifilan.com), which is an amazing brown seaweed that's naturally rich in iodine.


You can also just go out and buy seaweed vegetables at your local health food store right now. Or get yourself a "seaweed salad." Or go visit a local Japanese restaurant and order something with seaweed in it. Lots of seaweed. It's all good for you for lots of reasons beyond the iodine.


Do not get ripped off paying $600 for radiation pills! It disgusts me that some people are profiteering off this crisis by jacking up their prices to insane levels. I will have no part of that. That's why we kept our prices low and even on sale for the Nascent Iodine sold through our store: http://store.naturalnews.com/index....


Oh, and by the way, we are donating $5,000 to the relief efforts in Japan in the next 24-48 hours. I hope to have time to post a story about that on NaturalNews. These are funds we acquired through the registrations for our "Financial Preparedness" event that runs this Sunday (which is also sold out).


We are trying to do our best here to help people get prepared for what's coming. We actually had our Nascent Iodine on sale before Japan's nuclear disaster, but virtually no one bought any at that time. There's a lesson here in all this: Get prepared in advance and don't allow yourself to be caught without being ready for what's coming: Financial collapse, natural disasters, social upheavals and a whole lot more.


That's why I publicly announced BEFORE all this happened that we would be focusing more on preparedness here on NaturalNews. Ten days before Japan's nuclear disaster, we announced our first preparedness event: http://www.naturalnews.com/031548_f...


The second preparedness event is going to happen in April and will be announced shortly. Watch NaturalNews for updates, and subscribe to our free email newsletter to be kept in the loop on all these important developments: http://www.naturalnews.com/ReaderRe...


The world is changing rapidly. There is information you need to know that your government officials are not admitting. They don't want to cause a panic, so they tell people everything is okay. The problem with that approach is that is lulls people into a false sense of security and discourages intelligent preparedness. I'd rather we be fully informed and aware of the realistic threats out there so that we can be fully prepared to handle the expected events that life seems to throw at us.


Preparedness is wise. And right now, a whole lot of people around the world are suddenly wising up to the reality of what the alternative media has been talking about for years.


Stay tuned to NaturalNews.com for more updates each day.



http://www.naturalnews.com/z031717_iodine_sea_vegetables.html



Saturday, March 12, 2011

LinkedInhttp://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T1

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Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth's axis  By Kevin Voigt, CNN

March 12, 2011 4:01 p.m. EST

Images released by NASA show Japan's northeast coast before, left, and after flooding from the quake-induced tsunami.
Images released by NASA show Japan's northeast coast before, left, and after flooding from the quake-induced tsunami.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Friday's powerful earthquake appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet
  • Report: The 8.9-magnitude earthquake shifted the Earth on its axis by 4 inches
  • The quake triggered more than 160 aftershocks in the first 24 hours
  • Similar strength to the 2004 quake and tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people
(CNN) -- The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.
"At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," said Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).
The temblor, which struck Friday afternoon near the east coast of Japan, killed hundreds of people, caused the formation of 30-foot walls of water that swept across rice fields, engulfed entire towns, dragged houses onto highways, and tossed cars and boats like toys. Some waves reached six miles (10 kilometers) inland in Miyagi Prefecture on Japan's east coast.

Timeline of disaster in Japan

Survivor describes roof collapse

Gallery: Massive quake hits Japan

Map: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan


RELATED TOPICS
The quake was the most powerful to hit the island nation in recorded history and the tsunami it unleashed traveled across the Pacific Ocean, triggering tsunami warnings and alerts for 50 countries and territories as far away as the western coasts of Canada, the U.S. and Chile. The quake triggered more than 160 aftershocks in the first 24 hours -- 141 measuring 5.0-magnitude or more.
The quake occurred as the Earth's crust ruptured along an area about 250 miles (400 kilometers) long by 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide, as tectonic plates slipped more than 18 meters, said Shengzao Chen, a USGS geophysicist.
Japan is located along the Pacific "ring of fire," an area of high seismic and volcanic activity stretching from New Zealand in the South Pacific up through Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coasts of North and South America. The quake was "hundreds of times larger" than the 2010 quake that ravaged Haiti, said Jim Gaherty of the LaMont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
The Japanese quake was of similar strength to the 2004 earthquake in Indonesia that triggered a tsunami that killed over 200,000 people in more than a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean. "The tsunami that it sent out was roughly comparable in terms of size," Gaherty said. "[The 2004 tsunami] happened to hit some regions that were not very prepared for tsunamis ... we didn't really have a very sophisticated tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean basin at the time so the damage was significantly worse."
The Japanese quake comes just weeks after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch on February 22, toppling historic buildings and killing more than 150 people. The timeframe of the two quakes have raised questions whether the two incidents are related, but experts say the distance between the two incidents makes that unlikely.
"I would think the connection is very slim," said Prof. Stephan Grilli, ocean engineering professor at the University of Rhode Island.
CNN's Ivan Cabrera contributed to this report

Okay...What makes you more qualified to know if they could possibly be linked than the "so-called experts"?? I always find it amusing when people say that scientists who have literally devoted their entire lives to studying one particular thing don't know what they are talking about.

The town that drowned: Fresh pictures from the port where 10,000 people are missing after it was swept away by the megaquake

By Jo Macfarlane
Last updated at 12:36 AM on 13th March 2011
  • 10,000 people missing in Minamisanriku 24 hours after double disaster struck
  • Official death toll hits 574, but hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
  • Explosion at nuclear power plant, but experts say reactor is not at risk
  • Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160
  • Region hit by repeated aftershocks, some up 6.8-magnitude
  • Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
  • Force of quake shifts Japan 8ft to the East
Just 48 hours ago, it was a picturesque fishing town where tourists flocked to enjoy the coastal air and natural hot springs. But this horrifying picture shows all that remains of Minami Sanriku after it was destroyed by the tsunami that has wreaked devastation across Japan.
Last night, the official death toll from Friday’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake and ensuing tidal wave stood at 1,700 people – although it is feared the final total could rise sharply once a full picture of the catastrophe emerges.
In Minami Sanriku alone, 10,000 people could have died – more than half of the city’s population.
Obliterated: Where there was once a thriving town, buildings are now covered with mud in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi after the tsunami drowned the entire town
Obliterated: Where there was once a thriving town, buildings are now covered with mud in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi after the tsunami drowned the entire town

Utter destruction: Stunned local, lucky enough to survive, survey the appalling damage left by Fridays tsunami reducing a once-thriving coastal town to a desolate landscape of broken wood and twisted metal
Utter destruction: Stunned local, lucky enough to survive, survey the appalling damage left by Fridays tsunami reducing a once-thriving coastal town to a desolate landscape of broken wood and twisted metal
It only took a few minutes for the 30ft wave to wash the town away with terrifying force. The locals desperately tried to escape to higher ground. But most did not stand a chance.
It is hard to imagine any life remains among the debris. Where last week fishing boats bobbed in the harbour, it is now impossible to tell where the sea begins and the land ends.
One of the few buildings left standing is the town’s Shizugawa Hospital – the large white building to the centre left of this picture. But the rest of what was once the town centre is flooded with filthy sea water.
Other structures lie battered and smashed in piles of broken wood and twisted metal, but most are now little more than debris.
Just visible through the murky waters towards the bottom left of the photograph are the painted stripes of a zebra crossing.
Soldiers brought in to help with the rescue operation walk across debris and mud in Minamisanriku
houses that managed to withstand the force of the tsunami wave are clogged up with bricks and wood
Flooded: Soldiers brought in to help with the rescue operation walk across debris and mud in Minamisanriku
Surveying the damage: Soldiers walk along a road past an iron girder that has been uprooted from the ground and a fire that is still smoking in Minamisanriku
Surveying the damage: Soldiers walk along a road past an iron girder that has been uprooted from the ground and a fire that is still smoking in Minamisanriku
Scale of destruction: A tanker has been washed ashore by the massive wave in Kamaishi City
Scale of destruction: A tanker has been washed ashore by the massive wave in Kamaishi City
There are vague remnants of roads and the occasional outline of a flooded car, and it is just possible to see the half-submerged outline of the town’s athletics track towards the top left of the picture.
Minami Sanriku lies about 55 miles west of the earthquake’s epicentre and directly in the path of the subsequent tsunami.
And in Fukushima, thousands of people were forced to flee the vicinity of an earthquake-crippled Japanese nuclear plant after a radiation leak and authorities faced a fresh threat with the failure of the cooling system in a second reactor.            
The government insisted radiation levels were low following Saturday's explosion, saying the blast had not affected the reactor core container, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been told by Japan that levels 'have been observed to lessen in recent hours'.
But Japan's nuclear safety agency said the number of people exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant could reach 160. Workers in protective clothing were scanning people arriving at evacuation centres for radioactive exposure. 
These pictures reveal the brutal aftermath of the tsunami, but an amateur video posted online, filmed by one of the town’s residents, shows the terrifying moment the wave hit.
It shows people desperately driving uphill to escape the wave and the road lined with locals watching open-mouthed as their homes are swept away.
Gutted: Smoke billows from vessels off the harbour in Kesennuma
Gutted: Smoke billows from vessels off the harbour in Kesennuma

Japan earthquake
Cut off: Two bridges, one of which was being built, were badly damaged in Namegata by the 9-magnitude quake
Cut off: The town of Yamamoto was swamped by the massive wave and, right, two bridges, one of which was being built, were badly damaged in Namegata by the 9-magnitude quake

Apocalyptic: A lone cyclist makes his way through a debris-choked street in Miyako
Apocalyptic: A lone cyclist makes his way through a debris-choked street in Miyako
The horrifying footage focuses briefly on those people caught in the traffic, including emergency vehicles, which failed to escape in time. One bus narrowly misses being washed away after speeding uphill as those filming shout ‘Run! Run!’.
Two hundred people were said to have been evacuated from the roof of the hospital and police believe the tidal wave may have washed away an entire train.
One photograph showed the letters ‘SOS’ written on the ground in the car park of the Minami Sanriku Elementary School. The letter H, surrounded by a circle, had also been added, a plea for helicopter assistance.
Scale of the devastation: A satellite image from the National Space Organisation shows Sendai before the earthquake, left, and after
Scale of the devastation: A satellite image from the National Space Organisation shows Sendai before the earthquake, left, and after

Damage: This satellite image shows towers that have collapsed at the Kirin plant in Sendai
Damage: This satellite image shows towers that have collapsed at the Kirin plant in Sendai

Rescue: Workers look for missing people in Yamamoto, but many areas are still cut off by damage to roads or flood waters
Rescue: Workers look for missing people in Yamamoto, but many areas are still cut off by damage to roads or flood waters
Tsunami warnings were issued to the entire Pacific seaboard, but the worst fears were not realised. Widespread damage was caused to some coast areas, including California, but there were no reports of fatalities.
President Barack Obama has pledged U.S. assistance and said one aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way.
Japan's worst previous earthquake was an 8.3-magnitude temblor in Kanto which killed 143,000 people in 1923. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.
The country lies on the 'Ring of Fire' - an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching across the Pacific where around 90 per cent of the world's quakes occur.
Counting the cost: People walk past a car that has been washed into a wall in Miyako
Counting the cost: People walk past a car that has been washed into a wall in Miyako

Japan graphic

Shelter: A young girl watches the news in a community centre in Fukushima, where an explosion destroyed a building at a nuclear power plant earlier today
Shelter: A young girl watches the news in a community centre in Fukushima, where an explosion destroyed a building at a nuclear power plant earlier today
Japan earthquake
Japan earthquake
Carnage: Boats, cars and buildings lie in ruins in Miyako and, right, rescue workers survey the damage from the top of a shattered building in Rikuzentakada
Precautions: Amid continuing aftershocks, Japanese news presenters wear hard hats as they announce that 9,500 are missing in the port of Minami Sanriku
Precautions: Amid continuing aftershocks, Japanese news presenters wear hard hats as they announce that 9,500 are missing in the port of Minami Sanriku
was no danger of a tsuna
An estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries were killed after a quake triggered a massive tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004, in the Indian Ocean.
A magnitude 8.8 quake which struck off the coast of Chile in February last year also generated a tsunami which killed 524 people. Authorities mistakenly told people in coastal regions there mi.

Friday, March 11, 2011




Reuters/Kyodo
Tsunami waves swirl near a port in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture (state) after Japan was struck by a strong earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, AP – Tsunami waves swirl near a port in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture (state) after Japan was struck by a strong …
TOKYO – A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes on record slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away ships, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.
Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii but did not cause major damage. Warnings blanketed the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West coast. In northeastern Japan, the area around a nuclear power plant was evacuated after the reactor's cooling system failed.
Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, the city in Miyagi prefecture, or state, closest to the epicenter. Another 137 were confirmed killed, with 531 people missing. Police also said 627 people were injured.
The magnitude-8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and was followed for hours by more than 50 aftershocks, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0.
Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter. A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of being extinguished, public broadcaster NHK said.
"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference.
The quake was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that struck New Zealand late last month, devastating the city of Christchurch.
"The energy radiated by this quake is nearly equal to one month's worth of energy consumption" in the United States, U.S. Geological Survey Scientist Brian Atwater told The Associated Press.
The government ordered thousands of residents near a nuclear power plant in the city of Onahama to move back at least two miles (three kilometers) from the plant. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
Trouble was reported at two other nuclear plants as well, but there was no radiation leak at either of them.
Japan's coast guard said it was searching for 80 dock workers on a ship that was swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi.
Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific proportions because of the tsunami that crashed ashore, swallowing everything in its path as it surged several miles (kilometers) inland before retreating. The apocalyptic images on Japanese TV of powerful, debris-filled waves, uncontrolled fires and a ship caught in a massive whirlpool resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.
Large fishing boats and other vessels rode high waves ashore, slamming against overpasses or scraping under them and snapping power lines along the way. Upturned and partially submerged cars bobbed in the water. Ships anchored in ports crashed against each other.
The tsunami roared over embankments, washing anything in its path inland before reversing directions and carrying the cars, homes and other debris out to sea. Flames shot from some of the homes, probably because of burst gas pipes.
Waves of muddy waters flowed over farmland near Sendai, carrying buildings, some of them ablaze. Drivers attempted to flee. Sendai airport was inundated with thick, muddy debris that included cars, trucks, buses and even light planes.
Highways to the worst-hit coastal areas buckled. Telephone lines snapped. Train service in northeastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serve 10 million people a day, were suspended, leaving untold numbers stranded in stations or roaming the streets. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed indefinitely.
President Barack Obama said the U.S. "stands ready to help" Japan.
Jesse Johnson, a native of the U.S. state of Nevada who lives in Chiba, north of Tokyo, was eating at a sushi restaurant with his wife when the quake hit.
"At first it didn't feel unusual, but then it went on and on. So I got myself and my wife under the table," he told The Associated Press. "I've lived in Japan for 10 years, and I've never felt anything like this before. The aftershocks keep coming. It's gotten to the point where I don't know whether it's me shaking or an earthquake."
NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs.
As night fell, Tokyo's streets were jammed with cars, buses and trucks trying to get around and out of the city. Pedestrians swarmed the sidewalks to walk home, or at least find a warm place to spend the night as the temperatures dropped.
Tomoko Suzuki and her elderly mother stood on a crowded downtown corner, unable to get to their 29th-floor condominium because the elevator wasn't working. They unsuccessfully tried to hail a taxi to a relative's house and couldn't find a hotel room.
"We are so cold," said Suzuki. "We really don't know what to do."
A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in the city of Ichihara and burned out of control with 100-foot (30-meter) flames whipping into the sky.
"Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "We will make maximum relief effort based on that assessment."
He said the Defense Ministry was sending troops to the hardest-hit region. A utility aircraft and several helicopters were on the way.
Also in Miyagi prefecture, a fire broke out in a turbine building of a nuclear power plant, but it was later extinguished, said Tohoku Electric Power Co.
A reactor area of a nearby plant was leaking water, the company said. But it was unclear if the leak was caused by the tsunami or something else. There were no reports of radioactive leaks at any of Japan's nuclear plants.
Jefferies International Ltd., a global investment banking group, estimated overall losses of about $10 billion.
Hiroshi Sato, a disaster management official in northern Iwate prefecture, said officials were having trouble getting an overall picture of the destruction.
"We don't even know the extent of damage. Roads were badly damaged and cut off as tsunami washed away debris, cars and many other things," he said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 2:46 p.m. quake was magnitude 8.9, the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world.
The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. Several quakes hit the same region in recent days, including one measured at magnitude 7.3 on Wednesday that caused no damage.
A tsunami warning was extended to a number of areas in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Latin America, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities ordered an evacuation of coastal communities, but no unusual waves were reported.
Thousands fled homes in Indonesia after officials warned of a tsunami up to 6 feet (2 meters) high, but waves of only 4 inches (10 centimeters) were measured. No big waves came to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, either.
The first waves hit Hawaii about 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT). A tsunami about 7 feet (2.1 meters) high was recorded on Maui and a wave at least 3 feet (a meter) high was recorded on Oahu and Kauai. Officials warned that the waves would continue and could get larger.
Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in 1923 in Kanto that killed 143,000 people, according to USGS. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe in 1996 killed 6,400 people.
Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 nations. A magnitude-8.8 temblor that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.
___
Associated Press writers Jay Alabaster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo; Jaymes Song in Honolulu and Mark Niesse in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Seth Borenstein in New York contributed to this report.
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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

WATER TERRORISM

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Skyrocketing water bills mystify, anger residents

  • Atlanta woman reacts to her $3,000 water bill: I'm "sinking in a hole of water"
  • City water officials received more than 22,000 calls in January
  • Many problems arise after installation of automated water meters
  • Similar water bill spikes reported in Ohio, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Florida
Editor's note: Join Kyra Phillips on CNN TV throughout Tuesday for her Special Investigative Unit report on skyrocketing water Senior Investigative Producer Scott Zamost on Twitter.
Atlanta (CNN) -- Imagine paying as much for water as you do for your bills. Follow CNN mortgage.
Residents throughout Atlanta are outraged by hundreds, even thousands of dollars in monthly spikes in their water bills, and have questioned the legitimacy of the charges for years. Now, they're demanding answers.
"I thought we were sinking in a hole of water," said Debbi Scarborough. "It scared me to death. I thought we had a major leak when I got the bill."
Over two months last summer, her family's monthly water bill, shot up to $1,805 In July and then $1,084 in August, leaving a balance due of more than $3,000. She said in the past her bill has averaged $200 to $250.
"I'm not paying a $3,000 bill. And for those three months, we were pretty much out of town most of the time and there's no leaks," she said, showing CNN a copy of her plumber's report.

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The city installed a device on her meter to track daily usage. In the meantime, Scarborough's bill remains unpaid while she disputes the charges.
She is not alone.
While similar complaints about huge water bill spikes have popped up in Cleveland, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Brockton, Massachusetts; it appears that the issue has lasted the longest in Atlanta.
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It's led to a class-action lawsuit, countless meetings with city officials and continuing complaints from fed-up residents.
Thousands of residents who have seen unusual spikes have appealed their high water bills. Just last year, the city issued credits totaling $466,368 to customers.
Atlanta, with more than 500,000 residents, says it already has the highest water rates of any major city in the United States, due in part to federal consent decrees to overhaul the city's water supply infrastructure.
a trillion gallons



  • 10% of homes have water leaks totaling at least 90 gallons a da
    Water Leak Facts










  • Yearly home leaks could exceed annual water amounts used by Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami combined -- or more than y










  • A constantly running toilet wastes at least 200 gallons of water daily










  • A leaky faucet with one drip per second wastes more than 3,000 gallons a year

    Source: EPA.gov







  • Many of the problems arose after the installation of new, automated water meters, which began nearly five years ago, and involved contracts for meter installations, the electronic meters and software equipment.
    The automated meter-reading technology eliminates the need for city workers to manually check every meter. Instead, they retrieve the data by driving by each property. The meter electronically transmits data showing the amount of water used.
    From the beginning, there were problems.
    In 2007, city auditors found they were "unable to verify electronic meter readings" because of "meter read errors, equipment failures or human errors."
    Specifically, the audit said "about 9% of the meters could not be read due to broken or malfunctioning equipment."
    I thought we were sinking in a hole of water. It scared me to death. I thought we had a major leak when I got the bill.
    --Debbi Scarborough, Atlanta residential water customer

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    Two years later, another audit concluded that a "high number of accounts" were not getting "actual meter readings" because of "meter read errors, equipment failures or human errors."
    CNN reviewed hundreds of complaints from Atlanta residents as well as city e-mails obtained through a public records request.
    On August 26, 2010, Mitch Elliott, a sales executive of Neptune Technologies, which manufactured the meters, wrote to a city official: "It has been an industry experience that typically when a utility does an AMR (automatic meter reading) meter changeout and also switches software billing companies that generally high bill complaints are either due to new meter accuracy and/or a billing multiplier error."
    Elliott would not comment, referring CNN to city officials.
    Peter Aman, the city of Atlanta's chief operating officer, said in an interview that he realized at that time the situation was serious. He's been on the job since January 2010. Last September, he replaced senior management in the Atlanta Dept. of Watershed Management.
    He said the city has sampled about 9,000 of the 132,954 residential meters and made a major discovery: About 1% of the meters' registers, which show how much water is being used, and the meter base underneath do not properly fit. That mismatch could result in a doubling of the water bill, Aman said.
    "These two components don't match and guess what? They're labeled. This one says three-quarter (inch) on it and this one has a "1" (inch) on it. Now, it's small print but it's big enough to see," Aman said.
    That would explain a billing multiplier error, which leads to higher bills, he said.
    He added that the problem was first "identified in the audit back in (2007) and [the city] put in place, or were supposed to put in place, a whole system of checks and balances as they went through the rest of the system upgrade, and clearly they failed because we're still finding these mismatches out there."
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    Operators of Lenox Square Mall and Phipps Plaza, two large shopping malls, complained about water billings "nearly $300,000 over last year for this same period of time," according to another e-mail.
    "There appears to be serious errors in the water billings that are creating huge hardships for both centers," wrote Michael F. Romstead, regional vice president of Mid Atlantic Mall of Georgia. "We need the city's full attention to correct the problem."
    The city responded the meters' registers. Romstead diby changing d not return calls to check whether the bills had gone back to normal, but there are no follow-up complaints in the city records supplied to CNN.
    Asked about problems with the rest of the meters, Aman said, "The majority of the people who complain about high water bills have some issue that is not associated with the meter. Many, many of them have either leaks, or increases in usage through irrigation or pool filling that they didn't fully understand the impact of, but that's not to minimize the fact that we do have some cases of meters that aren't functioning properly. And we're addressing those on a case-by-case basis and giving people their money back. To me, the story here is there has been a complete loss of trust between the city and its citizens and its customers."
    The city has not found issues with meter manufacturer Neptune Technologies Inc. or Systems and Software Inc. which installed the billing software, Aman said. Executives at both companies declined interview requests. Two other contractors that installed meters at commercial locations did not return calls.
    "We have not found a smoking gun, if you will, in terms of a system problem," Aman told CNN.
    However, he said the company that installed the residential meters should be held accountable. KHAFRA, an Atlanta-based firm, joined a Pennsylvania company to carry out the $40.3 million contract.
    After months of calls, KHAFRA President Valentino Bates agreed to an interview, but only after CNN had spoken to Aman.
    "When we ended the contract in December of 2009, we had a 90-day window to come in and address any concerns. No concerns were brought to us. So as of today sitting here with you, it is our understanding that the meters are functioning properly as they were supposed to when we installed them," Bates said.
    He said the company had identified 968 meters that had the mismatching problem, and fixed all of them by last March. The project, he said, was "very successful" and he added that he had not been informed about additional meter issues.
    Asked if his company would repair any other meters the city said were not correctly installed, Bates told CNN, "If it is our problem, we will do that."
    Meanwhile, Atlanta residents continue to complain to the city, which received more than 22,000 calls to its Department of Watershed Management in January. And last year alone, there were a total of 12,291 water bill disputes, according to the city.
    "Clearly, people are upset, and one of the things that we said to people is that we hear you and that we do believe we have problems in the water meter and billing system," Aman said.
    That doesn't convince residents like Wilda Cobb, who is astounded at a water bill that now totals $10,071.
    Her bill spiked to more than $1,200 in November, then skyrocketed to $6,879 in December.
    "I am furious, I am upset, I'm confused," Cobb said. "I can't get an answer from the city because they won't admit there is a problem."
    A city official reviewed Cobb's bills, and said the unusually high usage for the two months would normally mean there was some kind of leak, possibly with the irrigation system. The city installed a data logger meter that tracks usage during each day.
    Her latest bill is down to just $34.
    Ironically, Cobb knows something about water issues. She's an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency.
    "As I person, I know something's wrong here," Cobb said. "As an attorney, what can I do about it? But, I don't think it takes a law degree to say $7,000 for a month's use of water by one person in a small home is just crazy without a leak."

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