JAPAN DISASTER

JAPAN DISASTER: Key supplies run low in Japan

Millions of Japanese were without drinking water or

electricity yesterday, surviving on instant noodles and

rice balls, two days after a powerful earthquake and

tsunami hammered the northeastern coast, killing at

least 1,000 people.

Although the government doubled the number of soldiers

deployed in the aid effort to 100,000, it seemed

overwhelmed by what’s turning out to be a triple disaster.

Friday’s quake and tsunami damaged two nuclear

reactors at a power plant on the coast and at least one

of them appeared to be going through a partial meltdown,

raising fears of a radiation leak.

According to officials, at least 1,000 people were killed

— including 200 bodies found yesterday along the coast

—and 678 were missing in the earthquake and the

ensuing tsunami that hit with breathtaking force and

speed, sweeping away everything in its path.

However, the police chief of badly-hit MiyagiPrefecture,

which lies north of Fukushima, said that the death toll

was certain to exceed10,000 in his district alone.

The US Geological Survey calculated the quake to have

a magnitude of 8.9, while Japanese officials raised their

estimate yesterday to 9.0. Either way, it is the strongest

quake ever recorded in Japan.

Teams searched for the missing along hundreds of

kilometers of the Japanese coast and thousands of

hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency

centersthat were cut off from rescuers and aid.

At least 1.4 million households had gone without water

since the quake struck and about 2.5 million households

were without electricity.

Large areas of the countryside were surrounded by

waterandunreachable. Fuel stations were closed and

people were running out of gasoline for their cars.

Public broadcaster NHK said about 380,000 people have

been evacuated to emergencyshelters, many of them

without power.

In the town of Iwaki, residents were leaving due to

concerns over dwindling food and fuel supplies. The

town had no electricity and all stores were closed.

Local police had taken in about 90 people and given them blankets and rice balls, but there was no sign of government or military aid trucks.

In the small town of Tagajo, near the hard-hit port city

of Sendai, dazed residentsroamed streets cluttered

with smashed cars, broken homes and twisted metal.

Residents said the water surged in and quickly rose

higher than the first floor of buildings. At Sengen

GeneralHospital the staff worked feverishly to haul

bedridden patients up the stairs one at a time. With

the halls now dark, those that can leave have gone

to the local community center.

“There is still no water or power and we’ve got some

very sick people in here,” hospital official Ikuro

Matsumoto said.

Wrecked buildings stand yesterday in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami struck the area on Friday.

※資料來源：

Explosion at Japan nuclear plant

Powerful aftershocks

(Prime Minister Naoto Kan)

Earlier, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the situation at the

nuclear plant was alarming, and the earthquake hadthrown

Japan into "the most severecrisissince World War II".

NaotoKan said: "We as Japanese people can overcome

these hardships".

The government advised people not to go to work or school

on Monday because the transport network would not be able

to cope with demand.

The capital is also still experiencing regular aftershocks,

amid warnings that another powerful earthquake is likely to

strike very soon.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of relief workers, soldiers and

police have been deployed to the disaster zone.

Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake

andtsunami in the tens of billions of dollars, a huge blow

forthe Japanese economy that - while the world's third

largest –has been ailing for two decades.

※資料來源：

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