Worried but well-prepared Japan escapes tsunami damage

A nervous Japan on Sunday prepared for Godzilla. What it got instead was closer to the car insurance gecko.

Fearing a major tsunami could be triggered by Chile's 8.8-magnitude earthquake, authorities here ordered nearly a quarter of a million households along the island nation's eastern seaboard to evacuate to higher ground.

Disaster workers expected 10-foot waves or larger. Instead, by Sunday evening, only a few insignificant 6-inch to foot-high waves lapped onto Japanese-controlled shores.

"I was watching television all day and I was worried," said Yufuko Goto, a 19-year-old waitress. "They were evacuating people. And I thought that something really big was coming our way."

Continue reading A worried but well-prepared Japan escapes tsunami damage by John M. Glionna.

Photo: Evacuees gather at a shelter in the Japanese town of Minami-sanriku. Credit: Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP / Getty Images

Comments

[Pame]

No help needed. 8.8 earthquake and one of largest in human history with only 700 deaths? You should come here and learn something about quakes. Let's see how that Los Angeles does with an 8.8 shaker.