Tsunami: Red Cross provides list of contact resources

Tsunami warnings and advisories continued along the West Coast of the United States on Friday, with portions of California and Oregon expected to bear the worst impact of the waves, set in motion by a 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan on Thursday.

Associated Press reports said the warnings traveled quickly across the Pacific in the middle of the night: a deadly tsunami was racing east Friday as fast as a jetliner.

Sirens blared in Hawaii. The West Coast pulled back from the shoreline, fearing the worst. People were warned to stay away from the beaches. Fishermen took their boats out to sea and safety.

The alerts moved faster than the waves, giving millions of people across the Pacific Rim hours to prepare.

In the end, the damage was mainly to harbors and marinas in California and Oregon. Boats crashed into each other, some vessels were pulled out to sea and docks were ripped out. Rescue crews searched for a man who was swept out to sea while taking pictures.

None of the damage -- in the U.S., South America or Canada -- was anything like the devastation in Japan.

Local resident Sandy Stapleton was vacationing in Hawaii and says she's OK, but wasn't sure if air travel slated for Friday would take place.

Many are looking for ways to find out if friends or relatives in Japan, Hawaii, or along the North American west coast are safe.

At this time the American Red Cross is unable to accept inquiries to contact or locate family and friends in Japan. Nevertheless, there are several resources available.

Overseas

* Inquiries concerning U.S. citizens living or traveling in Japan should be referred to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services at 1-888-407-4747 or 202 647-5225.

* For inquiries about relatives living in Japan who are not US citizens, encourage the members of the community to keep calling or to try contacting other family members who live in the region. Even though communication networks are overloaded right now, the situation may change and access to mobile networks and the internet may improve.

* The Google Person Finder site is available at: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

* If you have the mobile phone number of your family member in the affected areas, you may utilize the following services to check whether he/she has registered his/her message on this service. Services are available in English and Japanese.

DoCoMo: http://dengon.docomo.ne.jp/Einoticelist.cgi?es=0

SoftBank: .ip/pc-e1.jsp http://dengon.softbank.ne

Willcom: http://dengon.willxominc.com/dengon/MessageSearch.do;jsessionid=E1E3A8789C6AC141...

Please note that when users enter the mobile phone number for search on the Web page, the user should remove the country code 0081 and add 0 at the beginning. For example, if you dial the number internationally as follows, 0081-90-8877-6655, enter it into the Web site as: 090-8877-6655.

* Military deployed to Japan: Briefing from the Pentagon this morning advised that there were no reports of U.S. military members injured due to the earthquake. Installations have been updating their web homepages and Facebook pages if more specific information is needed. Yokosuka installation has published a commercial number for families to call from the United states 011-81-46-816-xxxx (xxxx= 1728, 1729, 1730, 1731, 1732 or 1733.

In the United States

For those individuals interested in checking on the family members or friends on domestic soil, please log onto www.redcross.org/safeandwell, Visitors to this site may search for loved ones from a list of those who have registered themselves as "safe and well" by clicking on the Search Registrants button. The results of a successful search will display a loved one's first name, last name and a brief message.

Donations

Donations may be made on the national Web site: www.redcross.org. Scroll down to the golden boxed section entitled How to help Victims of Disasters. Click on Number One Donate Now and then click on the second icon -- Disaster Relief for Countless Crises.

Those who choose to send a check locally must clearly label it "Japan Earthquake" and mail or drop off at the chapter office in Nevada, at 201 E. Cherry St.