Tsunami waves have washed ashore in Hawaii, hours after a massive earthquake struck Chile overnight.

The impact from the waves doesn’t appear to be severe, as the flow of water looked more like a tidal fluctuation.

The waves arrived around noon local time, not long after water levels began dropping around the islands. The drop in water levels exposed reefs in some spots and sent streaks of muddy water into deeper areas.

Later, some water flowed over Coconut Island, which is a small park located offshore from the area of Hilo.

Much of the Pacific Rim remains under a tsunami warning after the 8.8-magnitude quake hit Chile early Saturday.

Coastal areas of British Columbia were also placed under an advisory.

The warning, issued by the West Coast Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, said there is the possibility of strong localized currents. While massive waves are not expected, low-lying areas and beaches are at risk in B.C.

The advisory also includes parts of coastal Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California.

The tsunami warning issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center includes parts of Central and South America, New Zealand, Russia, Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii and a number of Pacific islands.

Earlier in the day in Hawaii, sirens wailed as a warning for residents to leave low lying areas. Roads have also been cleared in the tourist-heavy Waikiki area.

According to the tsunami bulletin, all shores of each island are under threat, no matter which direction they face.

“A tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along coastlines of all islands in the state of Hawaii,” the bulletin reads. “Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.”

Hilo International Airport, located near the coast, was also closed.

“These are dangerous, dangerous events,” said John Cummings, spokesman for the Honolulu Emergency Management Department.

Meanwhile, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said Saturday that a huge wave has already hit the Robinson Crusoe Islands, which are about 660 kilometres off the Chilean coast. Three people are missing after a huge wave covered half of the village of San Juan Batista, said Ivan de la Maza, the superintendent of Chile’s principal mainland port.

Waves 1.8 metres higher than normal hit the Chilean coast near Concepcion, the country’s second-largest city, shortly after the quake.

Sirens and bells rang out on several Pacific Rim islands Saturday as officials took advantage of a significant lead time to alert residents of the coming waves.

Tsunami waves as high as two metres hit parts of French Polynesia early Saturday, but officials said no damage was immediately reported.

Police and officials in the Pacific Island of Tonga have started to evacuate the towns in low-lying coastal areas. The exodus of residents from the coastal areas was accompanied by a warning from officials that waves as high as one metre could wash ashore within three hours.

National Disaster Office deputy director Mali’u Takai told The Associated Press church bells were ringing to alert residents. Tonga officials plan to move up to 50,000 people from the coast to the interior.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told the Ecuavisa television channel that a tsunami has already passed the Galapagos Islands. It caused a swell, but no damage, he said.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Rim, disaster management officials in Fiji said they’ve been warned to expect waves as high as 2.3 metres to strike the archipelago’s northern and eastern islands.

Advance warning gives region time to prepare

Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said the lead time before the tsunami comes ashore has given officials much-needed preparation time.

“We have a reasonable lead time,” he told the Associated Press. “We should be able to alert everyone in harm’s way to move out of the evacuation zones.”

In Japan, broadcaster NHK quoted experts who predicted a tsunami could hit Japan in less than 24 hours, but it isn’t expected to be large. In 2001, a tsunami that hit Japan after an 8.4-magnitude earthquake near Chile measured 28 centimetres.

However, seismologist Fumihiko Imamura of Japan’s Tohoku University warned Japanese citizens that a tsunami could still be powerful and destructive even if generated by a quake thousands of kilometres away.

“There is the possibility that it could reach Japan without losing its strength,” Imamura said.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency has yet to issue a formal warning.

In Australia, local officials have put several regions under a tsunami watch.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for a “potential tsunami threat” to New South Wales state, Queensland state, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. A tsunami would not hit the region until early Sunday morning local time, the Center said.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology issued a low-level alert Saturday that residents should watch for potential tsunami warnings. The agency did not immediately recommend evacuations.

After a 9.5-magnitude quake struck the country in 1960, a tsunami killed 140 people in Japan, 61 in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines. According to Japan’s Meteorological Agency, that tsunami measured between one and four metres in height.

Source: ctv.ca

---

I realize this topic doesn’t really fit in with my blog topics but it is here are part of an experiment of mine.  I am trying to write about popular topics on the web right now and see if I can get traffic from Google.  If I can get a bunch of traffic from Google then I can possibly make some money of those people coming to my website and click on my advertisements.  It has proven to work in the past so I am testing this theory again now.  Hopefully it works.

However on a more serious note.  This news it very sad.  I wish we didn’t have this type of natural disasters in the world.  So many people are left homeless and without food.  It’s a sad time for everyone. Hopefully they will get a lot of support from the rest of the world.  I will be wishing the best for everyone in Hawaii and Chile.  Hopefully this won’t happen again and people in Chile and Hawaii are able to recover from this disaster.

For those of you who have not heard of World Of Warcraft (aka WoW) I will explain a little bit about it before I go into details about Wrath Of The Lich King. World Of Warcraft is a computer game created by Blizzard and it is a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. Basically how it works is you can login to a server and play with over a thousand other people on the same server and you do a whole bunch of things from quests to fighting creatures and people. WoW can be a very addicting game that you can play with friends and also play by yourself. The game has been out for just over 4 years now but they have just recently release an expansion Wrath Of The Lich King which gives you a whole new class and continent to play on.

One of the new features of this expansion is the addition of a hero class: Death Knight.  They are a very fun class to play because you can get plated armor, have strong melee attacks, and also have a bit of healing and magic type attacks.  Anyone who has a level 70 character can create one of these characters that starts at level 55.  The nice thing about Death Knight’s is that they can be leveled very easily for the most part and you get a lot of blue items when doing the quests (blue items are rare).

Another addition to the expansion of the game is Northrend.  This is a new playing area for people who have the expansion.  It is a new place to explore with lots of cool scenery and a bunch of new quests and cities.

The level cap for the expansion has been changed from level 70 to level 80 which is fun (originally the level cap was 60).  By having a higher level you can do different quests, instances, have new gear, and also new talent points.  As well there has been the addition of a whole bunch of new 25-person dungeons.  Some of these dungeons include Utgarde Keep, Gundrak, Naxxramas, Ulduar, and The Violet Hold.

There has been an expansion of the bestiary as well.  New additions include: Flesh Giant, Iron Dwarf, Tuskarr, Wendigo, and Shoveltusk.  You also have the ability to get a stylish new haircut in the game now.   You can go to a barber in Azeroth and Outland to get a haircut so your character looks different then he or she originally looked.

A new profession of Inscription has been added to the game with the expansion.  The expansion has also added new achievements.  There is now an achievements page where you can achieve certain tasks and have them checked off on this list.  There has also been improvements to the real-time shadows, bigger draw distance, and better models.

Overall they have drastically improved the game and have made it much better.  If you like MMO type games you should try out WoW and this new expansion.  All the game requires is a decent computer with an internet connection and a cheap monthly subscription.  Try it out and see what you think!

If you haven’t heard the news today it appears that Circuit City (one of the leading electronic stores in the U.S.) is planning on shutting down 155 stores! Circuit City plans to leave the Kansas City market. The consumer electronics retailer said today it is closing about 20 percent of its U.S. stores. This means thousands of jobs will be cut in an effort for the store to return to become a profitable company.

The company plans to close its five area stores in Independence, the Northland, Overland Park and Lenexa.  The company has not released the figures of how many employees will be released.  It is estimated however that these layoffs could result in as many as 7,300 workers getting laid off.

Circuit City also canceled plans to open a new store in Merriam Village which was under construction at the southeast corner of Interstate 35 and Johnson Drive.

As for Circuit City, the Richmond, Va.-based retailer said it will close 155 of its more than 700 stores in 55 markets by December 31st in 55 markets.  This means that about 17 percent of its domestic work force will be laid off.  Circuit City also said they plan to further reduce new store openings and plans to work with landlords to renegotiate leases, lower rents or terminate agreements.

Circuit City has planned to move out of some markets and move into other markets where there are less competitors.  The move comes as Circuit City heads into a crucial holiday shopping season that could determine its future.

James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer said the decision to close stores was “difficult, but necessary.”

It is estimated that as much as 7,300 employees could be laid off because of the closing of these stores.  The company however says that the number may be lower because in some markets employees may be employed by other stores.  However the store would not give further details.

The company said that it expects the stores it is closing, which generated about $1.4 billion in net sales in fiscal 2008, not to open today, and that store closing sales will begin Wednesday.

Shares in Circuit City, which have traded under $1 for more than a month, rose 10 cents, or 38 percent, to 36 cents Monday.

Hey everyone.  I just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  For those of you who are thinking this is a bit early it is Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend.  So to everyone who is in Canada I hope you all have an awesome thanksgiving and have lots to be thankful for.

I am thankful for my family, friends, relatives, and everyone else who is nice.  Thankful for the good food, being healthy, and having a roof over my head.  I hope all of you can be thankful for some of the same things.  Now its time to eat lots of food and have a good time!

Look for a new post hopefully tomorrow if I have time on the holiday Monday.

So after some time I thought that my blog template needed a bit of an “upgrade” from what it originally was. The other one was fine but just wasn’t what I was looking for. I think with this new template things are laid out a bit more cleanly and everything is easy to read and access.

One of the great new features I am liking with this new template is how my posts look.  They are easy to read on the white background and after the first five posts on the homepage you will notice that the other posts are shortened so you can go through them a bit more quickly to find the information you are looking for.  Also if you go through the archieved posts all of them have been shortened so you can go through them quickly and click on the one you want to read.

So I hope everyone enjoys this new new version of my blog and feel free to make a comment about it!

Greetings to everyone who has stumbled upon Mind Of Michael dot Com.  Through this blog I plan on writing about all the topics that are of interest to myself and also write about things I am learning about.  Hopefully this will not only motivate me to learn new things but will also teach others.  Enjoy your stay here at MindofMichael.com and I hope to chat with some of you in the future.