right. the tsunami from a massive 8.9 earthquake. it killed degrees -- hundreds of people. >> the quake causing problems, mostly santa cruz. boats broke loose. the water is moving just too

fast. >> people in half moon bay took the warning to get to higher ground seriously. many drove up highway 92, a mass exodus created a traffic backup that looked like a parking lot on skyline. >> live pictures from sky 7 hd over santa cruz where it appears to be calm at this moment. but there is extensive damage to boats here and some of the docks as well. >> the latest developments now in our team coverage to the bay area's response to japan. live in santa cruz. >> well, there are several road closures around this area, kristen. also the beach boardwalk and wharf behind me are closed and the damage it mounting. take a look at this dramatic video from sky 7. we have had several tsunami surges come into the yacht harbor. the first before 8:00 this

morning and the damage as you can see is pretty significant. at least five boats are sunk. many are slammed into the dock by these tide changes. pieces of pilings are floating in the water and being sucked out to sea. a lot of this damage right now just property damage. fortunately no injuries to report. people have flocked to cal state beach where the tsunami tide activity was especially dramatic. >> it just sucked way out like a superlow tide over the course of about five minutes and it's doing it again right now. this is the third one. could be the big one. >> this is the second time i've seen a tsunami here in santa cruz. when i was 13-year-old i saw the one in 1964 and it did exactly the same thing. the water retreated first. >> it was unbelievable to watch the sand shift, the mile buoy that's normally in one position is completely out of position

right now. >> when they come into the shallow water here, all that energy moving the whole depth of the ocean gets piled up in the shallower water. the water shorten and actually get taller. >> so despite warnings and the possibility of more tsunami surge activity, there are surfers in the water at cal beach. after all, this is santa cruz and they're taking advantage of this. was a lifetime opportunity to ride a tsunami surf and that's the situation here in santa cruz. >> at that -- careenna, thank you very much. authorities are worried the death toll could soar into the thousands. jenelle wang joins us with more. >> that's right, cheryl. we're hearing reports over 400 dead and nearly 90,000 missing but those numbers are expected

to rise rapidly because entire towns have been wiped out. we saw people running for their lives unable to escape the tsunami which can clock speeds of up to 500 mph. >> it was 2:46 friday afternoon local time when japan's largest earthquake ever recorded, a magnitude 8.9, hit off the country's northeastern coast. what soon followed looked like a hollywood movie, a massive tsunami wiping out small towns, roads, farming fields and hundreds of homes. a wall of muddy water filled with cars, trucks and boats. the hardest hit were the north even part of the country 240 miles north of tokyo. police reported at least 300 bodies. in okinawa city 300 homes washed away in an instant. after that destructive fires burning out of control, entire neighborhoods on fire. oil refineries shooting flames

high into the air for hours. several nuclear power plants shut down because of system failures. the terror lasted for hours with dozens of aftershocks with magnitude 6.5. president obama says the u.s. will help the country. >> the images of destruction, flooding coming out of japan is heartbreaking. >> the city of over 12 million people major disruption. public transportation shut down. the city's two major airports closed. total damage is still being assessed but the dollar figure is expected to be astonishing. >> we asked the people of japan to continue to be cautious and vigilant, and we ask the people of japan to act calmly. >> japan's earthquake is the fifth largest in the world since

the u.s. started keeping records in the 1900s. the strongest was a magnitude 9.5 in chile back in 1960. four years later a magnitude 9.2 in alaska. japan's quake quick triggered tsunami warnings in 50 nations along the pacific. just to give you an idea how strong, it was stronger here in the bay area. >> tsunami triggered warning sirens at dawn today. sheriff's deputies went door to door telling people to get to higher ground. officials say the tsunami caused severe damage to the harbor in crescent city. 35 vessels crashed into each other and are sinking.

1964 one was triggered in near southeast alaska. a dozen people were killed, most of them in crescent city. >> right now terry mcsweeney continues our coverage with more on the way officials and residents in pacifica and san mateo county responded. terry? >> just talking to police a couple minutes ago and they say please stay off the beach. if you don't live down here near the beach, don't come down here to check things out. over the course of the morning there have been a number of advisories (inaudible) >> police went through the neighborhood near the pacifica pier about 7:30 or so warning people to get away from the beach and residents to stay inside. that was before the first wave arrived. another warning went out at 3:30 this morning, a reverse 9-1-1 call to 2800 people in low-lying areas advising those people to go to one of five emergency

shelters. just an advisory. oceana high school thought dozens would be evacuated. he came to help out. >> i actually heard about the evacuation call. as soon as i heard that, it didn't really matter what kind of waves was gonna hit. it just mattered if some people got out here safe, making rounds trying to get people out of here. >> ironically irwin's school is oceanic high, one of the evacuation centers. just a few people turned out up there, not too many. around 4:00 this morning there were police gathering up there at oceana from all over san mateo county. pacifica, of course, also san bruno, hillsboro and a number of other cities ready to go through the neighborhoods with their loud speakers telling people to evacuate but that did not become necessary. as of right now evacuations are absolutely voluntary.

live at the pacifica, terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thanks a lot. we're just getting word a magnitude 6.6 quake has hit central japan causing buildings there to sway. that's coming out of japan. could be one of the many aftershocks. they've had several hundred and many of them in that pretty big range at 4.5 and 6.6. let's bring you back here locally. many in half moon bay are evacuated from their homes today. many are still out, have been all morning. cars lined up at a chevron station on main street to fill up before leaving. they have received warnings before. destructive pictures from japan encourage them to pack up. >> we had a warning a year ago and i think most of us ignored it -- exactly a year ago. everyone seeing what's going on in japan. extremely sad and trying to make more precaution in sitting out. >> pillar point near half moon bay was also evacuated.

it sits on the coast near princeton by the sea where officials have asked people to go to higher ground. >> the let in the front came and knocked on our door and said there was an earthquake in japan and they might be expecting this. around 8:00 we're getin' out and going back to manpika. >> and this is a time lapse of the search in half moon bay over the last few hours. let's take a look as the water starts to come in and then rushing back out you can see the water levels rising but clearly significant over the course of a few hours their water completely coming up to the rocks and then of course running back out. two surges so far, the second one being bigger. >> we want to head out to san francisco's ocean beach with amy hollyfield watching the situation there. amy, what's going on? >> cheryl, no big surge here but the great highway and ocean beach is still officially closed. police and local officials are

having a conference call right now discussing what to do next. they are feeling skittish but many people are not. many riding their bikes, some made it all the way out to the water. they're ignoring the fact the beaches are closed and it's over. they're headed out there. here's an example of how they feel about the threat out here. >> sounds like most people here weren't tearily concerned. the only threat is people swimming and being in the ocean itself, not really onland. we figure we were okay here. >> during the overnight hours police have no idea how large the tsunami would be. they shut down the beach around 4:15 this morning and patrolled the area all morning looking for people who weren't aware of the warnings. they told pedestrians they were here at their own risk. they didn't evacuate residents

though but some were ready to go. >> i've been up since 1:45 a.m. when my cousin called on the top of the hill in daly city. so we have our bags packed but i don't think anything big will happen. better safe than sorry. >> luggage was packed and loaded in the car. she headed for higher ground. but about 8:00 this morning, you could tell people started feeling a little more confident. the joggers came out and the dog walkers and continuing life as usual. the great highway is still closed right now. police are on the phone with local officials trying to figure out when to open up this highway. live in san francisco, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> thanks a lot. google has launched a person-finder app for the victims of the japan earthquake. people can log on to find a loved one or give information about somebody. by 8 a.m. this morning 4400

people have logged on to the site. we have a link on our website abc7news.com under "see it on tv." you also can find information how you can help donate to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami. >> stay with abc news 7 news for continuing coverage of the japanese earthquake and surge here in california. >> we're gonna shift gears right now and tell you about this. apple's long-awaited i-pad 2. the condition of shocked arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords. the completely sentences she's spoken and what she does and does not remember. >> we'll go back live to our karina rusk

>> we're learning new information about the recovery of congresswoman gabrielle giffords. her husband says she has no memory of the shooting. that he had to explain the incident to her. during an update medical staff also say that she is walking and talking in completely sentences. doctors had to remove -- they did remove gifford's breathing tup and will likely attend her husband's launch next month. >> the devise i-pad 2 doesn't go

on sale until 2:00 tonight. it's thinner, lighter, faster with two cameras and a gyroscope. appearing cannot take preorders so anyone who wants to buy one will have to wait in line with everybody else. for people willing to wait for delivery, the i-pad 2 is available for sale online right now. >> meteorologist mike nicco has the forecast. >> we'll take a look at some of the surges we've had, officially two so far with the tsunami. we'll take a look at crescent city which bore the brunt of this rain and which day will be better to be outside and stay dry. 

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♪ we want to bring you back live to santa cruz where you can see in the harbor just a scene of a lot of damage as a result of the tsunami when the first wave started coming in at 8:08 and you can see what happened with the water, both have broken loose and they have floated down, taken out other boats, damaging them. taken out docks even. several have become even broken. harbor patrol busy, trying to get these boats out of the way, tying them back up. seeing another surge at the moment. water rushing back in and people

trying to stay away from that area and boats continuing to be tossed around by toy boats, rub boats. >> it's pretty impressive and very interesting to watch the wave activity here at cal beach as kristen mentioned where another series, another push of the tsunami surge activity and sky 7 if you take a look at that it really is impressive what happened there at yacht harbor. there is extensive damage as kansas city mentioned. some boats being sunk, some slammed into the pier. some damage in this area or still closed. i just talked to a woman who voluntarily evacuated her home this morning when the warning went out. she lives right along the coastline there. she has not been able it get back into her home and was

wondering when that volunteer evacuation order might be listed. there are evacuation centers set up but pretty much they are not being used because it is pretty calm here along the coast but the surge activity continues. karina rusk, abc 7 news. >> thanks so much. and some surfers waiting to surf. juicy information from the usgs gentleman. if you weren't with us with the full coverage, the eruption link 180 miles long and the slip was 40 to 50 meters. that is huge. and the rupture duration was several minutes. you can see why there was so much damage. 107 aftershocks right now.

we'd be talking about those if they were just normal earthquakes. kids playing with the boats and throwing them into each other. it was just incredible the way the surge was coming in and out. let's move along, talk about what was going on here at home. distinct surges so far in san francisco. 2 feet about 9:00. down at crescent city should say 8.1, largest surge anywhere in the u.s. that includes alaska. that came in about 8:57. here's a look at all those earthquakes we just talked about off japan. look farther to the south. this tsunami will reach south america and even antarctica. we're still under a warning. they'll cancel it eventually but it looks like we have about two more hours of surges. our forecast, partly to most

cloudy. lose an hour sleep, change the batteries in your smoke detectors. the rain back in the forecast for most of us. tomorrow morning you see clouds. rain possible tomorrow and even some of the drizzle developing down into the bay. then we get a little break sunday night and then sunday morning another surge comes in and all of us get wet. one behind that comes in sunday night and into the morning. temperatures will remain rather mild. low 60s today around the bay and inland with upper 50s along the coast. then we'll have i'd say near to 60 degree temperatures along the coast and mid to upper 60s for the rest of us and a better chance of rain tuesday and wednesday of next week. >> stick around. we'll be right back. 

(speaking in international language) and he said unto them go ye into all of the world and preach the gospel preach the gospel  ♪very creature in the world. (applause)

>> we're gonna take you back live sky 7 hd where a tsunami search from the earthquake tossed boats around like toys. we're going to continue our coverage with a special