by Dana Kennedy
As the world watched horrifying images of a giant wave washing over northeastern Japan like a sledgehammer from the sea, the U.N. said that rescue teams from at least 30 countries were poised to help with the fallout from today's 8.9 earthquake.
Unconfirmed reports now say that hundreds have been killed or injured in one of the worst earthquakes ever recorded. Those numbers are expected to grow. Four million homes around Tokyo alone were without electricity.
Aerial images showed a dark wall of water, reportedly 32-feet high, hurtling across Japan, swallowing cars, boats and buildings as if they were tiny toys in an old sci-fi film. The very first rescue workers said it was hard to tell which had been land and which had been sea.
One high-speed bullet train was missing, an oil refinery was set ablaze, natural gas pipes have been set alight and a state of emergency was declared at a nuclear power plant.
The Pacific Rim was on alert for tsunamis as a result of the quake. The Philippines was braced to be hit around 8 a.m. ET but reports from Manila and later from Guam indicated the waves were not as powerful as feared.
Walls of water engulfed several Japanese coastal cities, appearing to sweep up everything in their path and morphing into surreal inland seas. The hardest-hit areas were farmland and fishing villages.
Hundreds of homes are believed to have been swept away by the tsunami.
"The water is running over the houses, the water is running over everything," an anonymous, anguished male voice shrieked on video broadcast on Sky News.
Japan issued a state of emergency at a nuclear power plant after its cooling system had a mechanical failure. Trouble was reported at two other nuclear plants as well but officials said there has been no fallout from radiation.
"Thirty international search and rescue teams are on alert; they are monitoring the situation and ready to help should Japan request aid," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
U.N. disaster assessment and coordination teams, which deploy in emergencies worldwide to try to locate and treat survivors, normally include sniffer dogs and medical teams, Reuters said.
Homemade video broadcast of the moment the quake hit showed houses and cars shaking and a woman crouched in a panic on the sidewalk.
more at AOL News
No comments:
Post a Comment