Japan Tsunamis

Hundreds Dead As Quake, Tsunami Rake Japan

March 11, 2011

A 30-foot tsunami triggered by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded smashed into Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes as widespread fires raged.

Tsunami waves hit Hawaii hours later and warnings blanketed the entire Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast.
Developments In Japan
Earthquake Rattles Japan's Eastern Coast
AP

Earthquake Rattles Japan's Eastern Coast

Japanese authorities said 200-300 bodies have been recovered in the city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture, and an additional 110 people were confirmed killed. The death toll is likely to rise.
The 8.9 earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. local time at a depth of six miles, about 80 miles off the eastern coast, according to the USGS. The temblor was felt as far south as the capital, Tokyo, and triggered a 30-foot tsunami that swept over parts of northeast Japan.
Tsunami alerts were issued for the low-lying islands of the Pacific, as well as the western coast of the U.S., Canada and Alaska and South America. Waves hit the Hawaiian islands at about 8:30 a.m. ET. Evacuations in western Hawaii saved lives, and there were no immediate reports of damage.
Japanese officials ordered the evacuation of residents around a nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture after a cooling system for one of the reactors fails. Authorities said there was no radiation leakage and that the evacuation was only a precaution. The turbine building of a nuclear plant in Miyagi prefecture caught fire.
Public transportation in Tokyo was shut down, leaving people stranded. Broadcaster NHK said more than 4 million buildings in the capital were without power.
President Obama expressed condolences and promised U.S. assistance. The U.N. also said it has rescue teams on standby if needed.

The magnitude 8.9 earthquake rocked Japan at 2:46 p.m. local time — the biggest temblor to hit the country since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s. Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles from the epicenter.

More than 50 aftershocks followed, many of them magnitude 6.0 or greater.

Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture, the city closest to the quake's epicenter. An additional 110 people were confirmed killed and more than 300 were missing.

The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of the disaster. Police also said more than 500 people were injured.

"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference.

Nuclear Power Plant Damage Prompts Evacuations

Damage from the quake caused the cooling system of one of Japan's nuclear power plants to fail, prompting Japanese officials to issue the first-ever state of emergency for a nuclear facility.

Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous damage.

- Yukio Edano, chief government spokesman

NPR's Louisa Lim reported that nearly 3,000 people living near the plant in Fukushima prefecture were evacuated after power outages and a failed backup generator starved cooling water from a reactor, forcing workers to shut it down hot. Kan said there was no risk of a radiation leak.

Nuclear power plants like the one at Fukushima are designed to contain nuclear material even if the cooling system fails.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said residents around Fukushima were told to stay at least two miles from the plant. He said the state of emergency had been declared "so we can be fully prepared for the worst scenario."

"We are using all our might to deal with the situation," The Associated Press quoted Edano as saying.
This image provided by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, shows a "tsunami forecast model" predicting the wave height of the tsunami generated by Japan's earthquake Friday.
Nathan Becker/AP

This image provided by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, shows a "tsunami forecast model" predicting the wave height of the tsunami generated by Japan's earthquake Friday.

Japan, which relies heavily on nuclear power for electricity generation, shut down three other plants as a precaution after reports of damage at Fukushima and another facility, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In Miyagi prefecture, the turbine building of another nuclear power plant caught fire. Public broadcaster NHK showed footage of a large ship being swept away and ramming directly into a breakwater in Kesennuma city.

Airport Swamped, Hundreds Of Houses Swept Away

Japanese TV images from Sendai showed highways buckling and older wooded structures flattened by the force of the shaking. As the tsunami wave swept ashore, Sendai airport was instantly inundated. The wave washed through a fish market near the shoreline, picking up an entire parking lot full of cars and sweeping them into the sea.

More than 300 houses were washed away in Ofunato City alone. TV footage showed mangled debris, uprooted trees, upturned cars and shattered timber littering streets.

The quake struck at a depth of six miles, about 80 miles off the eastern coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The area is 240 miles northeast of Tokyo.

Video images showed a large building on fire and bellowing smoke in Tokyo's Odaiba district. The tremor bent the upper tip of the iconic Tokyo Tower, a 1,093-foot steel structure inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Buildings shook violently and workers poured into the street for safety as the temblor hit, but there were few reports so far of collapsed buildings — a sign that stringent building codes may have averted a far greater disaster.

Largest Earthquakes Since 1900

Magnitude 9.5 — Southern Chile, 1960

Magnitude 9.2 — Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1964

Magnitude 9.1 — Off Northern Sumatra's West Coast, 2004

Magnitude 9.0 — Kamchatka, Russia, 1952

Magnitude 8.9 (preliminary estimate) — Japan, 2011

Source: USGS National Earthquake Information Center

Tokyo airports closed and all public transportation was shut down, leaving people stranded on the streets. TV announcers urged workers not to leave their offices to prevent injuries in case of more strong aftershocks.

NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in the city and its suburbs.

"Normally, we're used to building shaking, but this just went on and on and on," Lucy Craft reported for NPR from Tokyo. She said she was in the building in Tokyo that houses Japan's Diet, or parliament, when the quake struck.

"The subways were stopped, most of the transportation links are halted now; the highways are closed; trains are not running. It's difficult to make phone calls," Craft said. "The country has just come to a screeching halt."

She said Japan spends huge amounts of money on disaster prevention and resistance. But even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific proportions.

'I've Never Felt Anything Like This'

"Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous damage," Chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said. "We will make maximum relief effort based on that assessment."

He said the Defense Ministry was sending troops to the quake-hit region. A utility aircraft and several helicopters were on the way.

U.N. spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs, speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, said 35 international search-and-rescue teams were on alert and would be dispatched immediately if Japan requested assistance.

In the U.S., President Obama expressed his condolences, saying in a statement that "the United States stands ready to help the Japanese people in this time of great trial. The friendship and alliance between our two nations is unshakeable." Obama said U.S. officials were monitoring tsunamis in the Pacific and that he had ordered FEMA to be ready to assist Hawaii and any other affected U.S states and territories.

In Hawaii, where vulnerable areas were evacuated, waves about 3 feet high hit the islands of Oahu and Kauai at about 8:30 a.m. ET. Water rushed ashore in Honolulu, swamping Wakiki Beach but stopping short of the area's high-rise hotels. There were no immediate reports of damage.

The tsunami warning extended to a number of Pacific, Southeast Asian and Latin American nations, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities said they expect a 3-foot high tsunami.

Osamu Akiya, 46, was working in Tokyo at his office in a trading company when the quake hit. It sent bookshelves and computers crashing to the floor, and cracks appeared in the walls.

"I've been through many earthquakes, but I've never felt anything like this," he said. "I don't know if we'll be able to get home tonight."

Footage on NHK from their Sendai office showed employees stumbling around and books and papers crashing from desks. It also showed a glass shelter at a bus stop in Tokyo completely smashed by the quake and a weeping woman nearby being comforted by another woman.

A History Of Killer Quakes

Several quakes had hit the same region in recent days, including a 7.3 magnitude temblor on Wednesday.

Japan's worst previous quake was in 1923 in Kanto, a 7.9-magnitude temblor that killed 143,000 people, according to the USGS. A 6.9-magnitude quake in Kobe city in 1995 killed 6,400 people.

Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 nations. A magnitude-8.8 temblor that shook central Chile last February also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.

With reporting from NPR's Louisa Lim in Beijing; Lucy Craft in Tokyo; Lisa Schlein in Geneva; and Jon Hamilton in Washington. Material from The Associated Press was used in this story.