Catastrophe in Pacific - Watching a disaster unfold

IT was impossible to watch the tsunami sweep through Japan’s costal cities and towns yesterday without being deeply moved by the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people caught in its path.

The great, rushing tide of destruction demolished everything in its way and even if you could not see people struggle in the deluge it was obvious that we were watching the events, maybe even the very moment, that cost people their lives.

Watching people speed along a motorway trying to escape the tsunami only to see them trapped as the waters rose around them was harrowing. Those terrible scenes will not be easily forgotten. It was reality television, possibly a bit too real.