• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Earthquake, tsunami wreak havoc in Japan

RIA Novosti

16:14 11/03/2011

MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) - The massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan on Friday left thousands without drinking water and provoked panic buying.

The death toll from the earthquake has reached 61.

"There are huge lines in stores...everything has been swept off the shelves," blogger touzoku writes.

Kaori Jinguji, a Tokyo resident, said people were hoarding up on food and drinks.

She described the earthquake as "the most powerful earthquake in my life."

"I thought it would never end."

According to blogger touzoku, 200,000 homes in and around Tokyo have been left without electricity, while water and sewerage pipes burst in some of them.

In the Miyagi prefecture, large numbers of people were left without drinking water and are melting snow.

The 8.9-magnitude quake that struck about 373 kilometers from the capital Tokyo sparked a tsunami that hit the Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, sweeping away houses and cars.

A tsunami more than 7.3 meters high hit the Soma port in the Fukushima Prefecture.

Tsunami more than 4 meters high hit the ports of Kamaishi and Miyako in Iwate Prefecture, the Meteorological Agency said.

A tsunami over 3 meters high was observed at the Oarai port in the Ibaraki Prefecture, the city of Ishinomaki city in the Miyagi Prefecture, and the Ofunato port in the Iwate Prefecture.

NHK helicopter footage on live TV showed a large number of houses being washed away in Miyagi Prefecture and elsewhere.

In Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture, many ocean-side houses have been submerged.

A large number of buildings and oil facilities can be seen burning in wide areas of the Pacific coast.

NHK showed footage of waves sweeping away buildings and vehicles as far as 1.5 kilometers inland. Airports were closed down and train services suspended. More than 4 million homes are without power.

The country's Meteorological Agency is urging people in quake-hit areas to evacuate to higher ground to avoid tsunamis.

More earthquakes measuring over 7.0 on the Richter scale could occur in and around Japan within a month, the Meteorological Agency said.

Honsu's Iwate prefecture was reported to have been hit by a 4.2-meter tsunami. Dozens of cars fell into the sea when a highway in Iwate was partly destroyed by the quake.