>Japan Confronts Multiple Crises as Death Toll Climbs

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MINAMISANRIKU, Japan — Japanese authorities struggled to contain new nuclear emergencies on Tuesday and the death toll continued to climb as search teams began reaching towns and seaports that were flattened by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.
The National Police Agency said Tuesday afternoon that 2,478 people have died, and many thousands were still missing. Some 400,000 people were living in makeshift shelters or evacuation centers, officials said. Bitterly cold and windy weather that was pushing into northern Japan was compounding the misery as the region struggled with shortages of food, fuel and water.
An explosion Tuesday morning at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station — the third reactor blast in four days — damaged the vessel containing the nuclear core at reactor No. 2 , government officials said, and there was a growing fear of a catastrophic meltdown. The operator of the plants, Tokyo Electric Power Company, confirmed there had been radiation leaks, that water was being pumped into three overheated reactors and a fire had broken out at a fourth.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan made a nationally televised address on Tuesday morning, imploring people not to panic.
People living within about 12 miles of the reactor complexes at Fukushima were ordered to evacuate, and those within about 20 miles were told to stay indoors and close all windows, doors and vents. If people had laundry hanging outside, the government advised, they should not bring it inside or touch it.
Fears of a deepening nuclear crisis led to panic selling on Tuesday that drove down the Nikkei stock index by 10.6 percent.
The United States Geological Survey revised the magnitude of the earthquake to 9.0, from 8.9, but it was the subsequent tsunami that did the most damage. The initial wave scoured away entire communities, and desperate survivors searched Tuesday for signs of friends and relatives who remained missing.
There was plenty that was missing here in the fishing village of Minamisanriku: the city hall, the hospital, the shipyard, police stations — and 8,000 people.
The tsunami might have crashed most heavily into this town that once was home to more than 17,000. Situated at the back of a mountainous V-shaped cove, the town was swamped by the first surge of muck and seawater that was 30 feet high as it roared between the valley walls.
As the deluge pressed in on them, Sanae Sato, 71, said 400 townspeople rushed to the community center where she worked. They thought the five-story building would be high enough to protect them. But when the water reached the fourth floor, they all sought shelter in the attic, jammed in beside the elevator machinery.
From the attic window, Ms. Sato said, she saw the floodwaters hurling cars along, with drivers and passengers still inside. Houses broke from their foundations and were carried along, their owners perched on the ridges of the roofs.
“I saw people trying to balance on the rooftops like surfers,” she said. “It didn’t work. It was like hell.”
The Miyagi prefectural government said Tuesday that search teams had located 2,000 people in Minamisanriku who had been missing and presumed dead. They had fled to surrounding towns as the tsunami bashed the coastal areas of the town.
Troopers from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces cleared roadways into the village on Tuesday as a long line of fire trucks waited to enter. Closer to shore, teams of searchers rummaged through the crushed houses and collapsed shops. They peered into cars that had been swallowed by the mud, hoping to find survivors. Searched cars were marked with yellow tape.
One gruesome discovery was a mud-caked woman hanging by her head from the roof of a gas station. She was brought down, covered in a blue plastic tarp, and her body was laid by the station to await collection by another disaster team.
Rescue teams from 13 countries pressed on with the searches in other towns, some assisted by dogs. In the air, helicopters shuttled back and forth, part of a mobilization of some 100,000 troops, the largest since World War II.
Because Fukushima have been lost to the national power grid, Tokyo Electric announced plans for rolling blackouts across the region to conserve electricity — the first controlled power cutbacks in Japan in 60 years.
The first set of blackouts Tuesday morning began in four prefectures outside Tokyo. The utility, which provides service to 45 million people in the region, said the cuts could continue for six weeks.
Public conservation of electricity was significant enough, the company said, that the more drastic blackout scenarios were being scaled back. Still, anticipating deep and lengthy power cuts, many people were stocking up on candles, water, instant noodles and batteries for radios.

>Japan earthquake: YouTube news videos show damage, massive tsunami [Updated]

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An 8.9 earthquake has struck Japan, taking the lives of hundreds of people and being followed by a tsunami with frighteningly high tidal waves.
Here’s a bit of video posted by news organizations on YouTube, owned by Google, displaying some of the natural disaster.

Tsunami slams Japanese coast after quake

Giant tsunami eats boat as earthquake hits Japan

Scientist Describes Tsunami Danger

Raw Video: Tsunami reaches Hawaii

RussiaToday is a English-language news channel funded by the Russian government.
On YouTube, the organization describes itself as being “set to show you how any story can be another story altogether. Broadcasting over six continents and 100 countries, our coverage focuses on international headlines, giving an innovative angle set to challenge viewers worldwide.The channel is government-funded but shapes its editorial policy free from political and commercial influence. Our dedicated team of news professionals unites young talent and household names in the world of broadcast journalism.”]
Eyewitnesses of Japan quake talk to RT from Tokyo

Scary footage: Tsunami waves raging, buildings burn after 8.9 Japan earthquake

Japan earthquake: CCTV video of tsunami wave hitting airport

>Travel disrupted by disaster in Japan

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Hundreds of Japan-bound flights are canceled, visitors to Japanese theme parks are stranded, and Hawaii hotels and California campgrounds are evacuated.
Travelers around the Pacific were stopped in their tracks by Friday’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Hundreds of Japan-bound flights were canceled over the course of the day, thousands of people were stranded at Japanese theme parks; hotels in Hawaii evacuated guests in the middle of the night to avoid surging water; and campers were evacuated from costal state parks in Northern California.
The U.S. State Department posted a travel alert, strongly urging “U.S. citizens to avoid tourism and non-essential travel to Japan at this time.” Officials at Los Angeles International Airport reported Friday that Tokyo’s Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport reopened about 12 hours after the disaster, but all passengers to Japan were advised to check with their airlines on the status of their flights. Airports closer to the epicenter in northeastern Japan remain closed.
Air travelers around the world were stymied by flight cancellations over the course of the day.
“Hole up where you are and ride it out for the next 24 to 48 hours,” advised Bruce McIndoe, president of iJet, a travel risk-management company. “And don’t try to insert yourself into the mess.”
Many airlines were waiving change and cancellation fees. A spokesman for Singapore Airlines said the airline would waive fees for refunding, rebooking or rerouting customers with airline tickets or air-and-land packages that were issued on or before March 11 and involve travel up to March 20.
Meanwhile, the massive earthquake also stranded thousands of people at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea by damaged roads and transportation interruptions that forced visitors to stay overnight in 30-degree weather. Though the theme parks experienced some quake damage, there were no reports of injuries.
Perhaps the most vulnerable travelers of all, those aboard cruise ships, apparently suffered no casualties, but at least one ship was forced to change course. The 2,620-passenger Queen Mary 2 was to visit Nagasaki, nearly 800 miles southwest of the epicenter, on Saturday but the ship will instead divert to its next port of call, Beijing, according to Cunard cruise line’s website.
The Azamara Quest of Azamara Club Cruises was docked at Nagasaki when the quake hit. “Guests on board found out through news reports,” said spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez. “None of them experienced the quake or the tsunami.” Martinez said the ship is still scheduled to stop at Osaka on Sunday. Thousands of miles across the Pacific, the city of Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii was hit by a wave in the middle of the night. Other islands were relatively unscathed.
A website for the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel reported that guests were evacuated at 3:30 a.m. and that the lobby and restaurant sustained water damage. The website reported that guests would be moved to other hotels for the next three days. The Four Seasons Resort Hualalai and the Kona Village Resort, neither of which could be reached by phone Friday, have posted notices on Facebook saying they had relocated guests to other hotels while they assess the damage to their properties.
In California, the northern part of the state took the brunt of the ocean surge with coastal damage at Fort Bragg and Crescent City. Campers were evacuated from state parks from Sinkyone Wilderness and others on the Mendocino coast down to McGrath State Beach in Ventura. A parks spokesman said campgrounds that had been evacuated were expected to reopen by the end of Friday.