Untold suffering in wake of tsunami
Source: Agencies |
March 14, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PEOPLE across a devastated swath of Japan suffered for a third day yesterday without water, electricity and proper food as the country grappled with the enormity of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than 10,000 people dead in one area alone.
Japan's prime minister called the crisis the most severe challenge the nation has faced since World War II.
Temperatures began sinking toward freezing yesterday, compounding the misery of survivors along hundreds of kilometers of the northeastern coast battered by a tsunami that smashed inland with breathtaking fury.
Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines.
In Rikusentakata, a port city of more than 20,000 people virtually wiped out by the tsunami, Etsuko Koyama escaped the water rushing through her home but lost her grip on her daughter's hand and has not found her.
"I haven't given up hope yet," Koyama told public broadcaster NHK, wiping tears from her eyes. "I saved myself, but I couldn't save my daughter."
To the south, in Miyagi Prefecture, the police chief told disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths was more than 10,000. Miyagi has a population of 2.3 million and is one of the three prefectures hardest hit in Friday's disaster.
Only 379 people have officially been confirmed as dead in Miyagi.
According to officials, at least 1,400 people were killed - including 200 people whose bodies were found along the coast yesterday - and 1,000 were missing. Another 1,700 people were injured.
For Japan, one of the world's leading economies, the disasters made ordinary life unimaginably difficult.
Hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers that were cut off from rescuers, aid and electricity. At least 1.4 million households have gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households are without electricity.
While the government doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the aid effort to 100,000 and sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 110,000 liters of gasoline plus food to the affected areas, Prime Minister Nato Kan said electricity would take days to restore.
In the meantime, he said, electricity would be rationed with rolling blackouts in several cities, including Tokyo.
"This is Japan's most severe crisis since the war ended 65 years ago," Kan told reporters.
In a rare piece of good news, the Defense Ministry said a military vessel rescued a 60-year-old man floating off the coast of Fukushima on the roof of his house yesterday after being swept away in the tsunami. He was in good condition.
For two days, Hiromitsu Shinkawa tried to get the attention of helicopters and ships that passed by - to no avail.
Finally, a Japanese military vessel spotted him waving a red cloth about 15 kilometers offshore from the city of Minamisoma.
Shinkawa told his rescuers the tsunami hit as he and his wife returned home to gather some belongings after Friday's quake. His wife was swept away, Kotake said.
Large areas of the countryside remain surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed and people were running out of gasoline for their vehicles.
In the town of Minamisanrikucho, 10,000 people - nearly two-thirds of the population - have not been heard from since the tsunami, a government spokesman said.
NHK showed only a couple of concrete structures still standing in the town, with the bottom three floors of those buildings gutted. One of the few buildings standing was a hospital, and a worker said hospital staff had rescued about a third of its patients.
In Iwaki town, residents were leaving due to concerns over dwindling food and fuel supplies. The town had no electricity and all stores were closed.
In the small town of Tagajo, near Sendai, dazed residents roamed streets cluttered with smashed cars and twisted metal.
Residents said the water surged in and quickly rose higher than the first floor of buildings. At Sengen General Hospital in Tagajo, the staff worked feverishly to haul bedridden patients up the stairs.
Police cars drove through the town warning residents to seek higher ground.
Dozens of countries have offered assistance. Two United States aircraft carrier groups were off Japan's coast and ready to provide assistance. Helicopters were flying from one of the carriers, the USS Ronald Reagan, delivering food and water in Miyagi.
Two other US rescue teams of 72 personnel each and rescue dogs were due to arrive last night, as was a five-dog team from Singapore.
Japanese officials raised their estimate yesterday of the quake's magnitude to 9.0. It was the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan.
A volcano on the southern island of Kyushu, hundreds of kilometers from the quake epicenter, also resumed spewing ash and rock yesterday after a couple of quiet weeks.
Japan's prime minister called the crisis the most severe challenge the nation has faced since World War II.
Temperatures began sinking toward freezing yesterday, compounding the misery of survivors along hundreds of kilometers of the northeastern coast battered by a tsunami that smashed inland with breathtaking fury.
Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines.
In Rikusentakata, a port city of more than 20,000 people virtually wiped out by the tsunami, Etsuko Koyama escaped the water rushing through her home but lost her grip on her daughter's hand and has not found her.
"I haven't given up hope yet," Koyama told public broadcaster NHK, wiping tears from her eyes. "I saved myself, but I couldn't save my daughter."
To the south, in Miyagi Prefecture, the police chief told disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths was more than 10,000. Miyagi has a population of 2.3 million and is one of the three prefectures hardest hit in Friday's disaster.
Only 379 people have officially been confirmed as dead in Miyagi.
According to officials, at least 1,400 people were killed - including 200 people whose bodies were found along the coast yesterday - and 1,000 were missing. Another 1,700 people were injured.
For Japan, one of the world's leading economies, the disasters made ordinary life unimaginably difficult.
Hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers that were cut off from rescuers, aid and electricity. At least 1.4 million households have gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households are without electricity.
While the government doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the aid effort to 100,000 and sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 110,000 liters of gasoline plus food to the affected areas, Prime Minister Nato Kan said electricity would take days to restore.
In the meantime, he said, electricity would be rationed with rolling blackouts in several cities, including Tokyo.
"This is Japan's most severe crisis since the war ended 65 years ago," Kan told reporters.
In a rare piece of good news, the Defense Ministry said a military vessel rescued a 60-year-old man floating off the coast of Fukushima on the roof of his house yesterday after being swept away in the tsunami. He was in good condition.
For two days, Hiromitsu Shinkawa tried to get the attention of helicopters and ships that passed by - to no avail.
Finally, a Japanese military vessel spotted him waving a red cloth about 15 kilometers offshore from the city of Minamisoma.
Shinkawa told his rescuers the tsunami hit as he and his wife returned home to gather some belongings after Friday's quake. His wife was swept away, Kotake said.
Large areas of the countryside remain surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed and people were running out of gasoline for their vehicles.
In the town of Minamisanrikucho, 10,000 people - nearly two-thirds of the population - have not been heard from since the tsunami, a government spokesman said.
NHK showed only a couple of concrete structures still standing in the town, with the bottom three floors of those buildings gutted. One of the few buildings standing was a hospital, and a worker said hospital staff had rescued about a third of its patients.
In Iwaki town, residents were leaving due to concerns over dwindling food and fuel supplies. The town had no electricity and all stores were closed.
In the small town of Tagajo, near Sendai, dazed residents roamed streets cluttered with smashed cars and twisted metal.
Residents said the water surged in and quickly rose higher than the first floor of buildings. At Sengen General Hospital in Tagajo, the staff worked feverishly to haul bedridden patients up the stairs.
Police cars drove through the town warning residents to seek higher ground.
Dozens of countries have offered assistance. Two United States aircraft carrier groups were off Japan's coast and ready to provide assistance. Helicopters were flying from one of the carriers, the USS Ronald Reagan, delivering food and water in Miyagi.
Two other US rescue teams of 72 personnel each and rescue dogs were due to arrive last night, as was a five-dog team from Singapore.
Japanese officials raised their estimate yesterday of the quake's magnitude to 9.0. It was the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan.
A volcano on the southern island of Kyushu, hundreds of kilometers from the quake epicenter, also resumed spewing ash and rock yesterday after a couple of quiet weeks.
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