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Tokyo: The number of
people feared dead or missing after Japan was hit by an earthquake
and tsunami could top 1,700, news reports said Saturday, as
concern rose over damaged nuclear reactors.
Japan was assessing the devastation a day after the nation's
massive 8.9-magnitude quake and devastating tsunami rocked the
north-eastern part of the country Friday.
The toll would probably be well over 1,000, said Yukio Edano, the
chief cabinet secretary.
"This is the largest earthquake since the Meiji Era, and it is
believed that more than 1,000 people have lost their lives," he
said.
Authorities had recovered hundreds of bodies, with more than 1,000
people still missing and many injured, news reports said, the
authorities warned of further tsunamis and aftershocks. The
Meteorological Agency said more than 100 aftershocks had occurred
many of them over 6 on the Richter scale.
About 9,500 people were unaccounted for in Minamisanriku, Miyagi
Prefecture, one of the worst-hit areas north-eastern Japan,
officials said. The figure is more than half of the population of
about 17,000 in the town on the Pacific coast.
Tens of thousands of houses were destroyed, several bridges
collapsed, bus and train services were shut down and many roads
were closed. Mobile phone networks and landline services were
affected.
Television footage showed flattened fishing villages and shattered
cities with piles of rubble on the streets as the tsunami surged 5
kilometres inland in some areas. Many people were forced to spend
the night on the roofs of schools, hospitals or government
buildings, as temperatures dropped to freezing.
In Rikuzen Takata, a coastal town of 23,000 people that was one of
the worst-hit areas, about 5,000 of the estimated of the 8,000
homes were submerged, news reports said.
Around 1,800 houses in Minami Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, were
destroyed. Flooding and tsunami warnings were preventing relief
efforts to reach survivors by road or boat.
Thousands of people were still stranded in the quake-hit region
while some 210,000 people were evacuated at 1340 locations in five
prefectures.
Though many people in the quake-prone country were used to a big
earthquake, large scales of devastation caused by the powerful
earthquake and tsunami in tandem shocked the whole nation.
"I had never seen such high tsunami before. I was so scared and we
rushed to higher ground," one woman in Rikuzen Takata told a
Japanese TV programme.
The government had mobilised 50,000 military and other rescue
workers, and sent 190 aircraft and 25 vessels to areas affected by
the quake and tsunami, airlifting some victims to safety and
evacuating others by lifeboat.
International assistance was on its way, as more than 140 US
personnel would arrive Sunday, and New Zealand said Saturday it
would send a 48-member search-and-rescue team.
About 900 Japanese troops and 250 vehicles were being transported
by ships belonging to US forces stationed in the country.
The government said that an explosion at a nuclear plant damaged
by Friday's massive earthquake, had not affected the reactors.
Nor had the explosion at the Fukushima I plant, 240 kilometres
north of Tokyo, led to a significant radioactive leak, Edano told
a news conference.
The blast caused the roof of a building housing one of the plant's
three reactors to collapse, injuring four people and raising fears
of a meltdown of the reactor core.
The government extended the evacuation zone to residents living
within 20 kilometres of the plant.
Three evacuees from areas near the plant were exposed to
radiation, news reports said late Saturday.
Radioactive material had been detected nearby, and radiation
inside the plant had been measured at 1,000 times the normal
levels, the government's nuclear safety commission said.
The whole country was also facing the risk of blackouts due to
damage to the power grid in the affect area, the Tokyo Electric
Power Co (TEPCO) warned.
TEPCO urged businesses and residents across Japan to use
electricity sparingly, as the energy supply capacity was reduced.
The company sought support from other energy operators, Kyodo news
agency reported.
Officials feared the toll could reach thousands, as the damage was
reportedly more widespread than in 1995, when 6,400 people died
after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Kobe in western Japan.
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