On March 11, 2011 at 14.46 (local time), a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck 81 miles (130km) east of Sendai, the capital of Miyagi prefecture (Japan), followed by a 13 foot tsunami. The devastating impact caused by the earthquake and tsunami is under monitoring. While it may be some time until the full impact has been assessed, A Current overview summary is as under.
Japan struggled to prevent a nuclear catastrophe and to deliver food and water to hundreds of thousands of people, three days after a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the nation with what the prime minister described as its worst crisis since World War II.
The death toll from Friday's disaster was likely to exceed 10,000 as whole villages and towns were wiped off the map by a wall of water, leaving in its wake an international humanitarian effort of epic proportions.
Nuclear plant operators worked frantically to try to keep temperatures down in several troubled reactors, wrecking at least two by dumping sea water into them in last-ditch efforts to avoid meltdowns. Officials warned of a second explosion but said it would not pose a health threat.
Near-freezing temperatures compounded the misery of survivors along hundreds of miles of the northeastern coast battered by the 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 while survivors examined the ruined remains.
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Since the initial 8.9-magnitude quake, Japan has been struck by scores of aftershocks.
A massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake — fifth largest since 1900 — struck at 2:46 p.m. local time Friday (12:46 a.m. ET), centered approximately 100 miles east of Sendai city on Japan’s main island, Honshu.
Tsunami
The quake generated a tsunami of at least 13 feet, that swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland in Japan. Smaller swells struck other Pacific Rim countries, causing serious but far less extensive damage.
Casualties
Hundreds of people were confirmed dead, but officials say they expect it to climb as they reach the hardest hit areas.
Nuclear plants
Authorities declared states of emergency at five nuclear reactors in Fukushima prefecture; the situation at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear ractor No. 1 was of highest concern, with the company saying it feared a possible meltdown of the radioactive core before an explosion on Saturday severely damaged the building around the unit.
Other impacts
Transportation and communications systems were largely paralyzed and large areas of the country were without power.
The death toll surged because of a report from Miyagi, one of the three hardest hit states. The police chief told disaster relief officials more than 10,000 people were killed, police spokesman Go Sugawara told The Associated Press. That was an estimate — only 400 people have been confirmed dead in Miyagi, which has a population of 2.3 million.
According to officials, more than 1,800 people were confirmed dead — including 200 people whose bodies were found Sunday along the coast — and more than 1,400 were missing in Friday's disasters. Another 1,900 were injured.
For Japan, one of the world's leading economies with ultramodern infrastructure, the disasters plunged ordinary life into nearly unimaginable deprivation.
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 had gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households were 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 29,000 gallons of gasoline plus food to the affected areas, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said electricity would take days to restore. In the meantime, he said, electricity would be rationed with rolling blackouts to several cities, including Tokyo.
"This is Japan's most severe crisis since the war ended 65 years ago," Kan told reporters, "The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War Two," a grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a news conference on Sunday.
Japan's central bank has injected 7 trillion yen (US$85.5 billion) into money markets after the disaster raised dire worries about the world's third-largest economy. Stocks fell in early trading Monday on the first business day after the quake. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average shed nearly 5 percent shortly after the market opened.
Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimated that insured property losses from the quake will range between 1.2 trillion to 2.8 trillion yen — about $15 billion to $35 billion in U.S. dollars.
In a rare piece of good news, the Defense Ministry said a military vessel on Sunday rescued a 60-year-old man floating off the coast of Fukushima on the roof of his house after he and his wife were swept away in the tsunami. He was in good condition. His wife did not survive.
A young man described what ran through his mind before he escaped in a separate rescue. "I thought to myself, ah, this is how I will die," Tatsuro Ishikawa, his face bruised and cut, told NHK as he sat in striped hospital pajamas.
Dozens of countries have offered assistance. Two U.S. 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 U.S. rescue teams of 72 personnel each and rescue dogs arrived Sunday, as did a five-dog team from Singapore.
Still, large areas of the countryside remained surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed, though, at some, cars waited in lines hundreds of vehicles long.
The United States and a several countries in Europe urged their citizens to avoid travel to Japan. France took the added step of suggesting people leave Tokyo in case radiation reached the city.
Community after community traced the vast extent of the devastation.
In the town of Minamisanrikucho, 10,000 people — nearly two-thirds of the population — have not been heard from since the tsunami wiped it out, a government spokesman said. NHK showed only a couple concrete structures still standing, and the bottom three floors of those buildings gutted. One of the few standing was a hospital, and a worker told NHK that hospital staff rescued about a third of the patients in the facility.
In the town of Iwaki, there was no electricity, stores were closed and residents left as food and fuel supplies dwindled. Local police took in about 90 people and gave them blankets and rice balls, but there was no sign of government or military aid trucks.
At a large refinery on the outskirts of the hard-hit port city of Sendai, 100-foot (30-meter) -high bright orange flames rose in the air, spitting out dark plumes of smoke. The facility has been burning since Friday. The fire's roar could be heard from afar. Smoke burned the eyes and throat, and a gaseous stench hung in the air.
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