Houses burn at night following an earthquake in Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, March 11, 2011. The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars and farm buildings on fire. A tsunami warning has been issued for the entire Pacific basin except for the mainland United States and Canada following a huge earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
Photograph by: KYODO
Credit: REUTERS
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Japan quake-tsunami: Over 1000 killed, radiation leak reported
Yahoo!7 and Agencies
March 12, 2011, 12:17 pm
Snapshot
- An 8.9 quake triggers tsunami up to 10 meters (30 feet), with waves sweeping away homes, crops, vehicles and submerging farmland.
- Police confirm 402 dead, toll expected to exceed 1,000, with most people feared drowned.
- Japan is still experiencing some very moderate aftershocks. 5.1, 5.2, 5.2, 6.0, 6.8 hit within a just in 15 minutes.
- Strong quakes also hitting northwestern Japan.
- Some 3,000 residents living near a nuclear plant in Fukushima evacuated after warning of a radiation leak.
- A nuclear safety panel says radiation levels are 1000 times above normal in a reactor control room.
- Tokyo Electric Power has lost its ability to control pressure in some of the reactors of a second nuclear power plant.
- Contact lost with four trains along the coast area of northeastern Japan, Kyodo news agency says.
- A ship carrying 100 people was swept away by the tsunami, media reported.
- Tsunami alerts lifted from Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
*Donate to Save the Children's Japan Earthquake Appeal: Call 1800 76 00 11
*Online at www.savethechildren.org.au
*DFAT assistance helpline: +61 2 6261 3305
*DFAT hotline for Australians concerned about family and friends: 1300 555 135
*Online at http://www.dfat.gov.au/
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Japan confronted devastation along its northeastern coast on Saturday morning, with fires raging and parts of some cities under water after a massive earthquake and tsunami that likely killed at least 1,000 people.
An 8.9 earthquake - -- the strongest in Japan since records began -- on Friday unleashed a 10-metre high monster tsunami that surged into cities and villages, sweeping away everything in its path.
Daybreak revealed the full extent of the damage from the earthquake and at least 402 people were confirmed dead. Grave fears are held for over 1,000 others.
"This is likely to be a humanitarian relief operation of epic proportions," Japan expert Sheila Smith of the US-based Council on Foreign Relations wrote in a commentary.
In one of the worst-hit residential areas, people buried under rubble could be heard calling out "help" and "when are we going to be rescued", Kyodo news agency reported. TV footage showed staff at one hospital waving banners with the words "Food" and "HELP" from a rooftop.
The giant wall of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through the streets of Sendai and across open farmland, while a tidal wave of debris-littered mud destroyed everything in its path.
The quake zone remained highly volatile for hours after the killer temblor and many aftershocks were reported as far as 400 km from the epicentre.
Moderate aftershocks measuring 5.1, 5.2, 5.2, 6.0, 6.8 hit within a span of 15 minutes on Saturday afternoon.
A second earthquake with a magnitude of a 6.6 hit northwestern Japan on Saturday following the killer tsunami. The second quake sent US crude oil prices spiraling further down.
The National Police Agency said 137 people had been confirmed dead and 531 missing, with 627 others injured in the tremor, and a spokesman said this did not include the bodies reportedly found on the Sendai coast.
"The damage is so enormous that it will take us much time to gather data," an official at the agency told AFP.
Japan warns of threat of nuclear radiation
Japan warned there could be a small radiation leak from a nuclear reactor whose cooling system was knocked out by the massive earthquake, but thousands of residents in the area had already been moved out of harm's way.
A Japanese nuclear safety panel has said radiation levels are 1000 times above normal in a reactor control room after a huge quake damaged the cooling system of Fukushima plant.
Underscoring grave concerns about the plant, some 240 km north of Tokyo, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US air force had delivered coolant to avert a rise in the temperature of the facility's nuclear rods.
Public broadcaster NHK, quoting nuclear safety officials, said there was "no immediate health hazard" to nearby residents from a possible minute leakage, and people were urged to evacuate the area calmly
Trade minister Banri Kaieda warned that an operation to relieve a pressure build-up at Fukushima nuclear plant following the quake could release radioactive steam.
Pressure may have risen to 2.1 times the designed capacity, Kaieda said. Media also said the radiation level was rising in the turbine building.
Some 3,000 people who live within a 3 km radius of the plant had been evacuated, Kyodo news agency said.
"It's possible that radioactive material in the reactor vessel could leak outside but the amount is expected to be small and the wind blowing toward the sea will be considered," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
Japan's network of advanced nuclear power plants are designed to shut down as soon as the earth shakes in one of the world's most quake-prone countries, though a fire broke out in the turbine building of another nuclear plant in Onagawa.
Tokyo Electric Power said it had lost its ability to control pressure in some of the reactors of a second nuclear power plant at its quake-hit Fukushima facility.
Pressure is stable inside the reactors but rising in the containment vessels, a spokesman said, although he did not know if there would be a need to release pressure at the plant at this point, which would involve a release of radiation.
The cooling problems at the plant raised fears of a repeat of 1979's Three Mile Island accident, the most serious in the history of the US nuclear power industry. However, experts said the situation was, so far, less serious.
Scene: Japan tsunami-hit port a frightened ghost town
More than eight million homes lost power, mobile and landline phone systems broke down for many and gas was cut to more than 300,000 homes, meaning many people could not heat their dark homes during a terrifying and cold night.
Japan's military mobilised thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships for the relief effort.
An armada of 20 naval destroyers and other vessels headed for the devastated Pacific coast area of Honshu island, while air force jets flew reconnaissance missions over the disaster zone and Washington sent an aircraft carrier to provide help.
The wave set off tsunami alerts across the Pacific, as far away as South America, New Zealand and the US west coast.
The northeastern Japanese city of Kesennuma, with a population of 74,000, was hit by widespread fires and one-third of the city was under water, Jiji news agency said on Saturday.
The airport in the city of Sendai, home to one million people, was on fire, it added.
A Japanese ship with 100 people aboard was reportedly carried away, more than 300 houses were destroyed in the remote city of Ofunato and a dam broke in the northeast prefecture of Fukushima, with homes washed away.
"It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt. I thought I would die," said Sayaka Umezawa, a 22-year-old college student who was visiting the port of Hakodate, which was hit by a two-metre wave.
Scene: Japan tsunami throws ships into town, houses into sea
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he had established an emergency headquarters for disaster response and called for calm from the public.
The quake, which hit at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT) and lasted about two minutes, rattled buildings in greater Tokyo, the world's largest urban area and home to some 30 million people. It was felt in Beijing, some 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) away. A strong 6.6-magnitude quake which hit the west of Honshu island, away from the tsunami, early Saturday was felt in Tokyo.
Millions who had earlier fled swaying buildings in the capital were left stranded in the evening after the earthquake shut down the city's vast subway system. Scene: Millions stuck in Tokyo as quake shuts down subways
The government urged people to stay near their workplaces rather than risk a long walk home, as highways leading out of the city centre were choked and hotels rapidly filled up.
There was major disruption to air travel and bullet train services. A passenger train with an unknown number of people aboard was unaccounted for on a line outside Sendai, Kyodo News reported.
The tsunami also submerged the runway at Sendai airport, while a process known as liquefaction, caused by the intense shaking of the tremor, turned parts of the ground to liquid.
Hours after the quake struck, TV images showed huge orange balls of flame rolling up into the night sky as fires raged around a petrochemical complex in Sendai.
A massive fire also engulfed an oil refinery near Tokyo as the quake brought huge disruption to Japan's key industries. Tokyo share prices plummeted and the yen was down against the dollar.
The first quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said. It was followed by more than 60 aftershocks, one as strong as 7.1.
"We were shaken so strongly for a while that we needed to hold on to something in order not to fall," said an official at the local government of the hardest-hit city of Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture.
"We couldn't escape the building immediately because the tremors continued... City officials are now outside, collecting information on damage."
US President Barack Obama led international offers of sympathy and aid, while the Kan government called on help from US forces stationed in the country.
"The images of destruction and flooding coming out of Japan are simply heartbreaking," Obama said.
Japan sits on the "Pacific Ring of Fire" and Tokyo is in one of its most dangerous areas, where three continental plates are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.
The government has warned of a 70 percent chance that a magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo's vast urban sprawl.
The last time a "Big One" hit Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires.
In 1995 the Kobe earthquake killed more than 6,400 people.
More than 220,000 people were killed when a 9.1-magnitude quake hit off Indonesia in 2004, unleashing a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in countries around the Indian Ocean.
Small quakes are felt every day somewhere in Japan and people take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a calamity.
Quake effect across the world
California ordered hundreds of people to evacuate from coastal areas as tsunami waves swept in, while a half-metre (18-inch) surge was recorded on Mexico's Pacific coast.
Thousands of people fled their homes along the California coast as the waves began hitting the US West Coast after rolling through Hawaii.
But the giant wall of water appeared to have lost much of its energy as it roared thousands of miles (km) across the Pacific Ocean toward North America, according to initial reports from officials in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Chile upgraded a tsunami alert for its coastline and remote Easter Island territory after waves triggered by a massive earthquake in Japan hit Hawaii, and said it would evacuate flood-prone areas along the mainland coast.
Chile was hit by a magnitude 8.8 quake and ensuing tsunamis a year ago that hammered towns, roads and industries in south central Chile, killed more than 500 people and caused an estimated $30 billion hit to the economy between damaged infrastructure, property and lost productivity.
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