Massive Tsunami Devastates Japan

The biggest earthquake to hit Japan since records began almost 150 years ago smashed into the country's northeast coast today, triggering a 32-foot tsunami that washed away everything in its path. Japanese television showed the vast wall of debris-filled water sweeping away cars, ships and even buildings.

The Red Cross in Geneva said the wave was higher than some Pacific islands, and a warning has been issued for the whole of the Pacific Basin, including Hawaii, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan. Authorities in Hawaii have ordered the evacuation of coastal areas.

Kyodo News / AP

 

An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan on Friday, triggering a deadly tsunami. Here, a flooded area in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, is shown.

So far at least 32 people in Japan have been killed, and an unknown number injured, by the 8.9-magnitude quake and tsunami, the Kyodo news agency reported. But the sheer scale of the devastation suggests that the final death toll will be far higher.

Fires have broken out across the quake zone. An oil refinery on the outskirts of Tokyo is reported to be in flames, and a fire also ripped through the turbine building of the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture. Japanese authorities have so far detected no radiation leaks at the plant or at 11 other reactors shut down following the natural disaster.

Residents and workers in Tokyo have gathered in parks and open spaces as aftershocks continue to rock the city. There were reports of about 20 people injured in the capital after the roof of a hall collapsed onto a graduation ceremony.

Many residents said they had never experienced such a powerful quake. "I was terrified, and I'm still frightened," Hidekatsu Hata, manager of a noodle restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka area, told Reuters. "I've never experienced such a big quake before."

Office worker Jeffrey Balanag told the BBC that he was stuck in the Shiodome Sumitomo skyscraper in the center of the capital, as elevators had stopped working. "There's no panic, but we're almost seasick from the constant rolling of the building," he said.