Japan's Tsunami Death Toll Seen Reaching 1,000
Japan's Tsunami Death Toll Seen Reaching 1,000
VOA News March 11, 2011
Japan's central island of Honshu is waking up to scenes of widespread death and devastation from a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit its Pacific coast Friday, with local media saying as many as 1,000 people may have been killed.
The 8.9 magnitude quake struck waters east of Honshu early Friday afternoon, shaking buildings in Tokyo and sending waves up to 10 meters high into coastal areas northeast of the capital. It was the most powerful earthquake on record to hit Japan and the world's fifth largest in more than a century.
Japanese officials said a power outage at a nuclear plant in the city of Fukushima shot radiation levels to 1,000 times above normal in some parts of the facility after the reactor's cooling system failed.
Japanese Prime Minster Naoto Kan ordered a widening of the evacuation zone around the plant, telling thousands of people to move at least 10 kilometers away.
Television footage showed a muddy torrent of water sweeping across farmland near the city of Sendai Friday, carrying vehicles and buildings, some of them on fire. Japanese authorities said 200 to 300 bodies have been found in Sendai, the city closest to the quake.
Japan's National Police Agency reported at least 150 other deaths from the disaster and said more than 500 people were missing.
The Japanese government said it was deploying troops and helicopters to help with rescue efforts, but damage to highways and widespread flooding was making it hard for them to reach to the worst-affected areas.
Northeast of Sendai, fires raged through the night in Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people. A large fire also erupted at an oil refinery in Ichihara, near Tokyo. Japanese media say a ship carrying 100 people also was carried away by the tsunami.
The quake halted all train services between Tokyo and neighboring towns, leaving thousands of people stranded in the capital, unable to get home. Several airports were closed, including Tokyo's Narita.
The tsunami flooded beaches in Hawaii and damaged harbors in ((the U. S. West Coast state of)) California, while prompting evacuation alerts in several Latin American nations, including Chile. The U.S. Coast Guard was searching for a man swept out to sea off the coast of northern California.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he called Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and pledged U.S. assistance for what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster in Japan, a close U.S. ally.
fuente: http://www.voanews.com/
VOA News March 11, 2011
Japan's central island of Honshu is waking up to scenes of widespread death and devastation from a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit its Pacific coast Friday, with local media saying as many as 1,000 people may have been killed.
The 8.9 magnitude quake struck waters east of Honshu early Friday afternoon, shaking buildings in Tokyo and sending waves up to 10 meters high into coastal areas northeast of the capital. It was the most powerful earthquake on record to hit Japan and the world's fifth largest in more than a century.
Japanese officials said a power outage at a nuclear plant in the city of Fukushima shot radiation levels to 1,000 times above normal in some parts of the facility after the reactor's cooling system failed.
Japanese Prime Minster Naoto Kan ordered a widening of the evacuation zone around the plant, telling thousands of people to move at least 10 kilometers away.
Television footage showed a muddy torrent of water sweeping across farmland near the city of Sendai Friday, carrying vehicles and buildings, some of them on fire. Japanese authorities said 200 to 300 bodies have been found in Sendai, the city closest to the quake.
Japan's National Police Agency reported at least 150 other deaths from the disaster and said more than 500 people were missing.
The Japanese government said it was deploying troops and helicopters to help with rescue efforts, but damage to highways and widespread flooding was making it hard for them to reach to the worst-affected areas.
Northeast of Sendai, fires raged through the night in Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people. A large fire also erupted at an oil refinery in Ichihara, near Tokyo. Japanese media say a ship carrying 100 people also was carried away by the tsunami.
The quake halted all train services between Tokyo and neighboring towns, leaving thousands of people stranded in the capital, unable to get home. Several airports were closed, including Tokyo's Narita.
The tsunami flooded beaches in Hawaii and damaged harbors in ((the U. S. West Coast state of)) California, while prompting evacuation alerts in several Latin American nations, including Chile. The U.S. Coast Guard was searching for a man swept out to sea off the coast of northern California.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he called Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and pledged U.S. assistance for what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster in Japan, a close U.S. ally.
fuente: http://www.voanews.com/
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