Japan quake kills 703, fears of over 1,000 dead Rescue workers hurry to a building following reports of injuries in Tokyo's financial district. -- PHOTO: REUTERS TOKYO - AT LEAST 703 people were killed in the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Friday - but Kyodo News agency said it estimated that more than 1,000 people died. As dawn broke over the shellshocked country the morning after the disaster, Japan's Jiji Press News agency said police and other data showed that the total number of quake dead and missing topped 1,000. The reports came as grim updates indicating appalling loss of life kept emerging from along the hard-hit east coast of northern Honshu island, where the monster waves destroyed more than 3,000 homes.
The National Police Agency said 503 people had been confirmed dead and 740 missing, with 1,040 injured in the massive quake and tsunami disaster that devastated large parts of northern Japan's Pacific coast. Police in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, separately said 200 to 300 bodies had been found on the shore. Fears rose for greater losses as reports came in of a ship with 100 people swept away, several trains missing, and a dam break flooding more homes. The defence ministry said about 1,800 homes in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture, were destroyed, while in Sendai authorities said 1,200 houses were toppled by the tsunami. -- AFP
215,000 in shelters after Japan quake, tsunami Stranded people rest at the Tokyo International Forum building, which has been converted into a temporary shelter. -- PHOTO: REUTERS TOKYO - MORE than 215,000 people were in emergency shelters in eastern and northern Japan on Saturday, a day after a massive quake and tsunami struck the country, the National Police Agency said. The number included more than 100,000 people who took refuge in the northern prefecture of Fukushima, including residents ordered to evacuate areas around two nuclear power plants. The full scale of those left homeless was believed to be much higher, with police saying they had not received a tally from Miyagi prefecture, a hard-hit northern Japan province where hundreds of deaths have been reported. Thousands more were trapped in buildings surrounded by swirling floodwaters in Miyagi, authorities said, after a towering wall of water generated by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake tore into homes, streets and towns. Fears of a radiation leak prompted thousands of residents near the two nuclear plants in Fukushima to evacuate as their operator Tokyo Electric Power attempted to ease building reactor pressure by releasing radioactive steam. The company stressed the move posed no health risks. The 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan on Friday. More than 1,000 people are feared to be dead. -- AFP
224,000 in Philippines go home after tsunami alert MANILA - NEARLY a quarter of a million people returned to their homes all along the eastern coast of the Philippines on Saturday as the threat of a tsunami from Japan's devastating quake subsided, officials said. The government ordered the country's Pacific seaboard cleared of people on Friday as a magnitude 8.9 quake unleashed tsunamis on Japan's east coast and triggered a Pacific-wide alert. National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council executive director Benito Ramos said residents were allowed to return home after spending the night at temporary shelters inland, but advised them to avoid the water. 'The current trend of observed wave heights suggests that the threat of a hazardous tsunami has passed,' he said in a statement. The council said 224,243 people were moved off the coasts overnight as a precaution. Small tsunami waves struck the country in early evening, but caused no damage or casualties. -- AFP
China monitoring damage to Japan nuclear plants BEIJING - CHINA said on Saturday it could 'learn lessons' from Japan as it develops nuclear power facilities after cooling systems at two reactors north-east of Tokyo failed following a massive earthquake, prompting fears of meltdown. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the plants as authorities were reported as saying nuclear plant Fukushima No. 1 'may be experiencing nuclear meltdown', after Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit. 'We can learn lessons from Japan in the development of nuclear power in China,' Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of environmental protection, told reporters on the sidelines of the country's annual session of parliament. But 'the plan and determination for developing nuclear power in China will not change'. China currently has 13 nuclear reactors and has given the green light to plans for 34 others, 26 of which are already under construction, according to previous state media reports. Vice-minister Zhang said China was 'closely monitoring' the impact of the earthquake, the biggest in Japan's history, on the nuclear plants located about 250km north-east of greater Tokyo, an urban area of 30 million people. Parts of Fukushima No. 1 reactor's nuclear fuel rods were briefly exposed to the air after cooling water levels dropped through evaporation, and a fire engine was pumping water into the reactor, Jiji Press reported. -- AFP
Emergency declared as tsunami hits US West Coast A fishing boat lays on its side after a tsunami surge withdrew in Crescent City, California. -- PHOTO: AP LOS ANGELES- CALIFORNIA'S governor declared a state of emergency on Friday after tsunami waves hit the US West Coast, forcing evacuations, damaging boats and leaving one man missing, swept out to sea. Governor Jerry Brown's declaration for four coastal counties unblocks federal funds to help clean up after waves triggered by Japan's devastating quake hit the US mainland, notably in northern California and Oregon. 'The effects of the water surge continue to threaten the counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz,' he said in a proclamation issued by his office. One of the worst hit towns was Crescent City, 560km north of San Francisco, where at least 35 boats were crushed and thrown on top of each other in a harbour. Some 7,000 people were evacuated before the tsunami struck. A tsunami in 2006 caused US$25 million (S$31.6 million) in damage to the town in Del Norte county, one of five in California where evacuation orders were issued, along with Humboldt, San Mateo, San Luis and Mendocino counties. 'We have one of those harbours that sucks it in,' said emergency services manager Cindy Henderson. A Coast Guard spokesman added that there had also been damage to about six boats in a marina in Santa Cruz, further south, after they collided with each other due to the buffeting tsunami waves. -- AFP
Japan earthquake left billions in damage: US A tsunami-drifted house sits on the debris in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture. An expert estimated that the mega earthquake likely caused tens of billions of dollars in structural damage to Japan. -- PHOTO: AP WASHINGTON - A MASSIVE earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on Friday was the strongest quake in the area in nearly 1,200 years. Mr David Applegate, a senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards for the US Geological Survey, said the 8.9-magnitude quake ruptured a patch of the earth's crust 240km-long and 80km across. He said the earthquake, which also spawned a massive tsunami that hit Japan before racing across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States, likely caused tens of billions of dollars in structural damage in Japan. Ms Laura K. Furgione, deputy director for the National Weather Service, said the tsunami first hit Hawaii early on Friday morning. A 2.5m wave destroyed piers and docks in Crescent City, California, later on Friday. -- AP
Japan launches massive quake rescue effort An elderly person is rescued by helicopter from the roof of an elementary school. -- PHOTO: REUTERS TOKYO - JAPAN mobilised 50,000 military and other rescue personnel on Saturday to spearhead a Herculean rescue and recovery effort, a day after being hit by its most devastating quake and tsunami on record. Every wing of the Self Defence Forces was thrown into frantic service, with hundreds of ships, aircraft and vehicles headed to the Pacific coast area where at least 1,000 people were feared dead and entire neighbourhoods had vanished. As emergency staff in the quake-prone archipelago dug through rubble and plucked survivors off the roofs of submerged houses, Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned that day one after the catastrophe was a crucial window for survivors. 'I realized the huge extent of the tsunami damage,' the centre-left premier said after taking a helicopter tour of the apocalyptic scenes, before meeting his cabinet ministers for an emergency meeting in Tokyo. 'What used to be residential areas were mostly swept away in many coastal areas and fires are still blazing there,' he told them. In the utter bleakness on the east coast of Japan's main Honshu island, where at least 3,600 houses were destroyed by the 8.9-magnitude quake, there were some rays of hope amid the carnage of smashed towns and shattered lives. Army helicopters airlifted people off the roof of an elementary school in Watari, Miyagi prefecture, and naval and coastguard choppers did the same to rescue 81 people from a ship that had been hurled out to sea by the tsunami.
But for every piece of good news, there were more reminders of nature's cruelty against this seismically unstable nation - including the latest of a series of strong aftershocks in the morning, measuring a hefty 6.8. In large coastal areas, entire neighbourhoods were destroyed, with unknown numbers of victims buried in the rubble of their homes or lost to the sea, where cars, shipping containers, debris and entire houses were afloat. -- AFP
Greenpeace: Japan nuke crisis could be 'devastating' TOKYO - ENVIRONMENTAL group Greenpeace warned on Saturday that quake damage to two atomic plants means 'Japan is in the middle of a nuclear crisis with potentially devastating consequences'. Japan scrambled on Saturday to prevent nuclear accidents at two atomic plants where reactor cooling systems failed after a massive earthquake Friday, and ordered 45,000 people living near one and 3,000 near the other to evacuate. Cooling systems have malfunctioned at two plants, the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants, both located in an area about 250km north-east of greater Tokyo, an urban area of 30 million people. Operator Tokyo Electric Power said on Saturday it had released radioactive steam to reduce pressure from No. 1. 'Releasing any amount of radiation into the atmosphere risks the health of people in the surrounding area,' said Greenpeace International head of nuclear campaign Jan Beranek in a statement emailed to AFP. 'The fact that the Fukushima nuclear power plant is leaking, or has been forced to deliberately release, contaminated gases from the reactor into the atmosphere means that all of the physical protection that was supposed to isolate radioactivity from the environment has failed'. 'How many more warnings do people need to get before they understand that nuclear reactors are inherently hazardous?' asked Mr Beranek. 'We are told by the nuclear industry that things like this cannot happen with modern reactors, yet today Japan is in the middle of a nuclear crisis with potentially devastating consequences. While the immediate focus is on minimising radiation release and keeping local people safe, this is yet another reminder of the inherent risks of nuclear power, which will always be vulnerable to a potentially deadly combination of human error, design failure and natural disaster.' -- AFP
Japan pre-dawn quakes cause landslides in Niigata TOKYO - A STRONG 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit Japan's mountainous Niigata prefecture northwest of Tokyo before dawn Saturday, causing landslides and avalanches and destroying some wooden houses. Kyodo News said there were no immediate reports of casualties and no fresh tsunami alert was issued after the quake, which was followed by an almost equally strong quake in the same area half an hour later. The quakes struck in the west of the main Honshu island, on the Sea of Japan coast and far from the offshore Pacific Ocean tremor that triggered a mammoth tsunami on Friday that is feared to have killed more than 1,000 people. Police said they had received reports of a landslide and avalanche in Tokamachi and another avalanche in Tsunan town, Kyodo reported. The news agency also said wooden buildings including a town hall and a garage had reportedly been destroyed and some highways cracked in the village of Sakae in Nagano prefecture. The first quake in the inland region struck at 4am on Saturday (1900 GMT Friday, 3am Singapore time). The focus was in central Niigata but it also shook neighbouring Nagano, and a third quake later followed in the region. The US Geological Survey put the strength of the first quake at 6.2 and said it hit at a depth of only 1km, while the Japanese meteorological agency said it was 10km deep. -- AFP
Japan quake-hit nuke plant 'may be in meltdown' The Fukushima nuclear plant in north-eastern Japan. An elevated reading was taken in the control room of the No. 1 reactor of the plant. -- PHOTO: REUTERS TOKYO - JAPAN'S nuclear authorities warned on Saturday that quake-hit atomic plant Fukushima No. 1, about 250km north-east of Tokyo, 'may be experiencing a nuclear meltdown', media said. Kyodo News agency said radioactive caesium had been detected near Fukushima plant, citing the Japanese nuclear safety commission. The cooling system of the plant was damaged in the massive earthquake that struck the region 24 hours earlier, leaving the government to scramble to fix the problem and evacuate more than 45,000 residents within a 10km radius. Thousands were also evacuated from near a second plant, Fukushima No. 2, which also suffered damage to its cooling system. Parts of the No. 1 reactor's nuclear fuel rods were briefly exposed to the air on Saturday after cooling water levels dropped through evaporation, and a fire engine was pumping water into the reactor, Jiji Press reported. The water levels were recovering, said operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), according to Jiji. A TEPCO spokesman told AFP that 'we believe the reactor is not melting down or cracking. We are trying to raise the water level'. Public broadcaster NHK quoted the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency as saying that metal tubes, called 'fuel cladding', which contain uranium fuel may have melted. The broadcaster quoted Tokyo University professor Naoto Sekimura as saying 'only a fraction of fuel may have melted but the reactor had already been stopped and is being cooled. I urge residents to act calmly'. The government on Friday declared an atomic emergency amid growing international concern over its reactors after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the biggest in Japan's history, unleashed tsunamis that swept all before them. When Friday's massive quake hit, the plants immediately shut down, along with others in quakehit parts of Japan, as they are designed to do - but the cooling systems failed, the government said. -- AFP
Quake is 5th biggest, but Japan best prepared PASADENA (California) - TAKE the world's most earthquake-prepared country, jolt it with one of the biggest quakes in history and add a devastating tsunami minutes later. In the classic battle of Man versus Nature, Nature won again. Hundreds if not thousands of people are dead in Japan. One of the world's most technologically advanced and earthquake-prone nations is paralysed by a 8.9-magnitude 'megathrust'. It was the fifth-strongest quake in the world since 1900 and the most powerful on record ever to hit Japan, but not the deadliest. And it could have been worse. 'No matter what we do, we're not totally safe,' said disaster preparedness expert Dennis Mileti, a former California seismic safety commissioner. 'Nature can always throw an event at us that exceeds what we've designed for.' Because of warning systems, the tsunami wasn't as deadly worldwide as some in the past. Most buildings withstood the shaking. The quake was 700 times more powerful than the one that struck Haiti last year, but the death toll appears to be far lower than the 220,000-plus killed in the Caribbean. Friday's quake caused a rupture 300km-long and 150km wide in the sea floor 130km off the eastern coast of Japan. It happened 25km beneath the sea floor. All the way across the Pacific Ocean, in California and Oregon, the tsunami tore docks apart and knocked boats loose. The quake was caused when one giant tectonic plate was shoved under another, the type of movement that produces the biggest earthquakes. It's the same kind of quake that caused the devastating 2004 Indonesian tsunami. Earthquake experts in the US say Japan has the strongest building standards in the world for withstanding earthquakes. It trains and prepares more for them. And unlike the United States, Japan adopted an expensive earthquake early warning system that gave people a precious few seconds to duck and cover. And still the result was devastating. -- AP
Scenes of destruction after Japan's tsunami, quake An aerial view of the devastated Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture. -- PHOTO: AFP TOKYO - JAPAN'S north-eastern coast was a swampy wasteland of broken houses, overturned cars, sludge and dirty water on Saturday as the nation awoke to the devastating aftermath of one of its greatest disasters, a powerful tsunami created by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The death toll from Friday's massive magnitude 8.9 quake stood at more than 200, but an untold number of bodies were believed to be lying in the rubble and debris, and Japanese were bracing for more bad news as authorities tried to reach the hardest-hit areas. Aerial footage showed military helicopters lifting people on rescue tethers from rooftops and partially submerged buildings surrounded by water and debris. At one school, a large white 'SOS' had been spelled out in English. The earthquake that struck off the north-eastern shore was the biggest recorded quake ever to hit Japan. It ranked as the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, scientists said. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said an initial assessment found 'enormous damage,' adding that the Defence Ministry was sending troops to the hardest-hit region. The official casualty toll was 236 dead, 725 missing and 1,028 injured, although police said 200-300 bodies were found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area. Authorities said they weren't able to reach the area because of damage to the roads. Black smoke could still be seen in the skies around Sendai, presumably from gas pipes snapped by the quake or tsunami. -- AP
JAPAN TSUNAMI S'poreans scared but well-prepared Those who live in Japan say they had training in what to do when quake hits By Amelia Tan Mr Loh Weng Kong, his wife Jaine and daughters Angela (left) and Josephine, at their home in Saitama, about 40km north of Tokyo. Mr Loh said it felt like his home was being lifted when the quake hit. -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF LOH WENG KONG View more photos FIRST came slight tremors. Then they grew stronger. Finally, Singaporean Loh Weng Kong felt as if a force was lifting his house off its foundations. 'The walls were shaking and things which hung on the wall started falling down,' said the Christian missionary. 'My house felt as if it was being lifted by something. It was frightening.' Mr Loh, 44, was not even near the worst-hit areas of the earthquake. He lives in Saitama prefecture, about 40km north of Tokyo, with his Singaporean wife and two daughters. Elsewhere in Japan, Singaporeans working and living there battled panic and fear. Public relations consultant Cindy Low, 33, said that her office building in the Kojimachi area of Tokyo, shook 'for what what was probably the longest minute of my life' as books and files flew off tables and shelves. She and her colleagues grabbed their safety helmets and huddled under the tables of their fifth floor office. 'I was worried that the building might collapse. I held hands with my colleague under the next table and the physical contact was comforting as I felt that I would still have someone close by even if the building collapsed,' she said. The aftershocks continued and some people felt seasick from all the swaying. Because the trains had stopped, some of her colleagues prepared to bunk in the office for the night. When they went to buy food, they found that everything was sold out except cup noodles and chocolate. 'My office is paying for us to go home by taxi but cabs are in really short supply now and the roads are all jammed up,' she told The Straits Times late last night via e-mail. 'I'm not sure if I will go home tonight. I'm not looking forward to seeing the damage in my home in Nerima.' Mr Wilsurn Lim, 33, who is studying Japanese at a language school in Shinjuku, said: 'Now, there are huge queues for buses and people are stranded. Things are mostly thrashed in my apartment in Tsukuba.' English teacher Raina Ong, 28, was in her house in Saitama when the quake came. When the tremors subsided, she grabbed her wallet and phone and went outside.
'I've seen earthquake drills on TV and read about it in booklets, but when I saw a lot of people gathering at a field near my home, it struck me me that this earthquake is for real,' she said. Like her, other Singaporeans living in the country were familiar with Japan's earthquake safety procedures, and that went some way to curbing their panic. Mr Lim Kian Fong, 27, an associate in a property company, was in his 20-storey office building in Marunouchi, Tokyo's commercial district, when the earthquake hit. 'We stayed put and remained quite calm. I guess it is because earthquakes are common in Japan and we know the safety procedures of leaving the building once the tremors stopped,' he said. 'My boss told us to leave for the day. My colleagues and I went to a nearby bar to watch the news on TV. The bar was crowded with other office workers who had also left their offices for the day.' Mr Anli Tan, 39, manager of Singapore preschool EtonHouse International in Minatoku, Tokyo, said there were only four children in the school at the time. 'The children were all well trained. They put on their protective head gear and crawled under the tables,' he said. 'None of them were crying or frightened. Our shelves and cupboards are attached to the walls, so not many things were falling,' he said. The Singaporeans said they managed to contact their families back home via e-mail as phone lines were congested. While they were well-aware that Japan is earthquake-prone, yesterday's quake was still frightening. Missionary Mr Loh said he left his house when the tremors stopped to go to the train station. 'But when I reached the station, the tremors started again. Some people were crying, and everyone was fearful,' he said. 'This was definitely the strongest earthquake and most frightening I've experienced in all my 17 years living here.'
Strong 6.8 magnitude aftershock off Japan: USGS TOKYO - A STRONG 6.8 magnitude aftershock struck off the east coast of Japan on Saturday, US seismologists said, less than 24 hours after a massive earthquake created a powerful and destructive tsunami. The aftershock, which the US Geological Survey said hit at a depth of just 24km, was centred 174km east-south-east of the city of Sendai, the scene of huge devastation when a 10m tsunami struck on Friday. -- AFP
Waves cause no damage in the Philippines, Indonesia MANILA - SMALL tsunami waves hit the Philippines hours after a massive quake struck Japan on Friday, but there were no reports of local damage or casualties, its chief state seismologist said. 'This looks like good news,' Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Renato Solidum told a news conference after reporting waves ranging from 30cm to one metre. Meanwhile, the Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency said that the tsunami reached Indonesia's eastern coastline without causing any damage. 'A tsunami of only 10cm triggered by the earthquake in Japan was detected in the North Sulawesi and Maluku islands,' the agency's official Rachmat told AFP. 'We have just lifted the tsunami alert in Indonesia.' At least 60 people were killed and 56 missing in the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, unleashing huge tsunamis along its Pacific coast, police said. -- AFP