See massive waves after earthquake hits Japan

We continue to follow breaking news for you this morning. Just frightening scenes coming out of Japan on this New Year’s Day. Japan’s West Coast reeling after a powerful 7.5 magnitude quake caused widespread damage, triggered tsunami warnings and four foot tsunami waves. This is the moment that the quake struck just a few hours ago. You see that building crumbling to the ground On the screens, upper left side there. And take a look at the scene from inside of an office building in That’s the first time I’m seeing this video. You can see just how long it

goes on and just how violent that shaking is. Houses have collapsed. We have seen pictures of roofs there just fallen down. The earthquake also caused fires in some areas. And at this moment, tsunami warnings do remain in effect. They have been downgraded. You can see the initial impact of one of these tsunamis, one of these small waves there. It doesn’t look like much, but this can be a threat, particularly if you get repeated waves. The warnings now are of waves of up to ten feet We have full team coverage for you. CNN’s Kanako Montgomery is

in Tokyo, Derek Van Dam at the weather center. And I go first to you. What are you hearing at this point from the Japanese government Yeah, John. So right now it’s

currently nighttime in Japan, so we’re still waiting to confirm a lot of outstanding questions about the extent of the devastation from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. But what we do know is that 33,000 homes in Ishikawa Prefecture, which is very close to the epicenter, have lost power. We also know that bullet train lines have been suspended. Some roads have had cracks in them, making it

very difficult for emergency medical personnel to get to survivors. We also know that fires have broken out across Ishikawa Prefecture and a thousand self-defense force personnel have been dispatched to aid in evacuation efforts. This is along with 1700 firefighters also to help in evacuation efforts. Now, 20 self-defense force aircrafts are also monitoring the area to just try to get a sense of the extent of this devastation. Now, also, I just want to point out that this did happen on New Year’s Day, a time when many people are celebrating New Year’s with their families in their

homes, with their loved ones. And when this quake hit at 4:10 p.m., that initial quake hit at 4:10 p.m., it shocked the entire country. People were forced to leave their homes, leave their belongings and evacuate to higher ground. Of course, the aftershocks that followed soon afterwards were also very powerful. And it’s reminding a lot of people of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami because of just how long the quakes are. How the tsunami warnings have also been issued, John. And just really a lot of fear and just lots to confirm about the extent of devastation

really early days into sort of assessing the damage. Hanako, thank you. Let me bring Derek into the conversation. Derek as we just said, we know the tsunami warnings have been downgraded. But help us understand practically what that means. I mean, what is the risk right now? Well, John, what you’re seeing is some really stunning new video coming out of the Ishikawa Prefecture. This this is new to us. And you’re looking at Suzhou City, Japan. So this is on the opposite side of the peninsula and just zooming in. What you’re looking at is a brick wall.

Some of the seawall here, we’re analyzing this video on the fly. So it’s a bit tricky to establish exactly what’s going on. But we believe that this is the moment the tsunami, the initial tsunami wave impacted this part of the Ishikawa Prefecture. And you can see the water kind of pummeling over that seawall, which we would have to guess here is several meters high if it’s protecting the harbor. But you can see the waves splashing up into the populated areas. I’m going to reset my graphics here and just give a little bit more of an

indication of where exactly this is. We’ve zoomed in to Suzhou City and there is that breakwater wall. This is the population area. And again, this is on the opposite side of where the magnitude 7.5 earthquake actually occurred. So we’re getting some profound video of the tsunami wave that has actually moved in and you could see other areas there fitting that narrative of waves over four feet in some instances, with tsunami warnings still ongoing across those Western Asian shorelines of the country of Japan, particularly across the Honshu region. All right. Derek Van Dam, thanks to you.

Hanako Montgomery who is in Tokyo. Our thanks to both of you. Let’s continue the conversation now. Joining us now is Robert Geller. He is a seismologist and emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo. Robert good to have you today. Can I just ask I mean, you are in Tokyo. Did you feel the earthquake? Can you share with us what your experience was? Well, I felt the earthquake, but only very, very low level shaking. I had the TV on and on. No warnings of an imminent earthquake striking a prefecture. Where would repeat in on a loop

over and over again with the kind of horn warning people. So not that was very dramatic, but actually, you could hardly feel anything in Tokyo. Well, that’s really interesting in the video that we’re showing. I’m not sure if you can see the screen right now, but the video is also quite dramatic monitors and office buildings really shaking from from their perspective. What is the biggest risk right now? What are you watching right now? Well, there are tourists slow. One is the buildings that have collapsed or partially collapsed. If there are people trapped in them, all

the emergency forces have about 48 hours to get the people out or mostly it’s too late. So so that’s a race against time. And I’m sure the firemen and self-defense forces will do the best they can. The second risk is there’s a very small problem it may be only one or 2% that you could have an even bigger earthquake in the next week or two. There sure to be aftershocks, but almost all the time they’re smaller than the main shock. So the aftershocks will only be a problem for buildings that have already been damaged and

then any little further block in the march them. But if you have a bigger earthquake that could really be a problem is not very likely, but it’s not impossible right now. Non-zero percent chance we’re talking about here. Some people do need to be on alert. We have seen some images of some of the smaller waves. The initial tsunamis that did did occur from this. There are still warnings in effect for waves of up to ten feet high. How long do you think people need to be on alert for the water there? Well, the flow from

the main shock probably not that much longer. I think perhaps the government is being a little overly cautious bearing in mind what happened in 2011 when you know it’s one of these better safe than sorry things if people stay away from their homes for 24 hours that’s probably not such a bad thing. Just in case. Extra precautions certainly in order given what happened in 2011 and the severity of this quake. It was a very powerful earthquake. Still assessing the damage from Professor Robert Keller we do appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much. Happy

New Year to you.