![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
BBC MUNDO RADIO
An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan early Friday, triggering tsunamis that sent a wave filled with boats and houses toward land. Are you in an affected area? Send an iReport. Read the full report on how the quake hit Japan and generated a Pacific-wide tsunami.
[9:48 a.m. ET, 11:48 p.m. Tokyo] Tokyo Electric Power Company warned Saturday that many areas could experience blackouts as quake and tsunami damage has forced power plants to shut down and put a strain on electrical supplies, the Japan Times reported. As of noon Saturday Japan time, 5.1 million households were without power, according to the report.
[9:04 a.m. ET, 11:04 p.m. Tokyo] An estimated 6.4-magnitude earthquake has hit near the east coast of Honshu - the latest in a series of aftershocks striking on and around Japan's largest island in the past 24 hours. The aftershock occurred at 10:15 p.m. and just 82 kilometers (about 50 miles) from Fukushima, where officials are assessing a nuclear reactor damaged by Friday's earthquake and tsunami.
[8:49 a.m. ET, 10:49 p.m. Tokyo] The walls of a concrete building surrounding the reactor container at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant collapsed in an explosion, but the reactor and its containment system were not damaged, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
[8:37 a.m. ET, 10:37 p.m. Tokyo] About 9,500 people are unaccounted for in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture , officials said Saturday, according to Kyodo News Service. The figure is more than half of the population of 17,000 in the town on the Pacific coast, they said.
[8:30 a.m. ET, 10:30 p.m. Tokyo] Japanese authorities are making plans to distribute stable iodine, a treatment to prevent radiation poisoning, to residents near two damaged nuclear plants, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.
[8:03 a.m. ET, 10:03 p.m. Tokyo] An explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.
The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels, he said. The effort is expected to take two days.
Radiation levels have fallen since the explosion and there is no immediate danger, Edano said.
8:01 a.m. ET, 10:01 p.m. Tokyo] U.S. Marine Corps cargo aircraft and helicopters were being dispatched from bases on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to mainland Japan to help in quake and tsunami relief efforts, the III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement.
[7:54 a.m. ET, 9:54 p.m. Tokyo] Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the natural disaster that struck his country Friday "unprecedented" and said the quake caused a bigger tsunami than expected. Kan said that "we'd first like to focus on saving lives and secondly the comfort of the evacuees" and "there will be many resources that will be needed for this evacuation process."
[7:24 a.m. ET, 9:24 p.m. Tokyo] Dozens of aftershocks from Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake jolted Japan on Saturday. Four of Saturday's temblors were of magnitude 6.0 or above, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
[7:07 a.m. ET, 9:07 p.m. Tokyo] Fires were burning at more than 200 locations in 12 prefectures after Friday's earthquake and tsunami, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported, citing the nation's Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
[6:54 a.m. ET, 8:54 p.m. Tokyo] The explosion at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant was not caused by the nuclear reactor but by "water vapor that was part of the cooling process," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday. He said no harmful gases had been emitted by the explosion.
[6:44 a.m. ET, 8:44 p.m. Tokyo] Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan confirms that the evacuation area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been increased to 20 kilometers. But no one has been harmed by radiation, he says.
[6:23 a.m. ET, 8:23 p.m. Tokyo] No people were visible Saturday in the streets of Minamisoma, Japan, a city whose population on Friday had been 70,000. All that was left of many structures were their foundations. Only concrete and steel buildings appeared to have withstood the wash.
[6:18 a.m. ET, 8:18 p.m. Tokyo] Authorities extended the evacuation area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to 20 kilometers, Kyodo News Agency reported.
[6:11 a.m. ET, 8:11 p.m. Tokyo] The roof of a reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant collapsed following an explosion around 3:30 p.m. (1:30 a.m. ET), Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported, citing Tokyo Electric Power Company.
[5:59 a.m. ET, 7:59 p.m. Tokyo] The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis, a U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist reports.
[5:17 a.m. ET, 7:17 p.m. Tokyo] Friday's earthquake and tsunami crippled cooling systems at two Japanese nuclear power plants and workers were working Saturday to contain temperatures.
"This is a situation that has the potential for a nuclear catastrophe. It's basically a race against time, because what has happened is that plant operators have not been able to cool down the core of at least two reactors," said Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.
4:47 a.m. ET, 6:47 p.m. Tokyo] At least seven homes sustained substantial tsunami damage on Hawaii's Big Island, including one that was pulled into a bay. Hotels in Kailua-Kona also reported damage. CNN affiliate KHON has a full report.
4:22 a.m. ET, 6:22 p.m. Tokyo] The Tokyo Electric Company said four workers were injured in an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. NHK said the injured workers were in the process of cooling a nuclear reactor at the plant by injecting water into its core.
More than 900 were killed and about 700 others were missing Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. The number is expected to go up as rescuers reach more hard-hit areas.
The 8.9-magnitude quake was centered about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Sendai, a farming and fishing region battling to stay ahead following decades of brain drain from its youth moving to the capital of Tokyo.
[3:08 a.m. ET, 5:08 p.m. Tokyo] An explosion has been reported near a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan's Fukushima prefecture, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported, citing the country's nuclear and industrial safety agency.
[2:19 a.m. ET, 4:19 p.m. Tokyo] A small amount of radioactive Cesium has escaped into the air surrounding a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan's Fukushima prefecture, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Agency said.
The agency said there was a strong possibility that this was caused by the melting of a fuel rod, adding that plant engineers were continuing to cool the fuel rods by pumping water around the rods.
[2:17 a.m. ET, 4:17 p.m. Tokyo] Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Saturday that the death toll after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami is more than 900, with about 700 others reported missing.
Earlier Saturday the nation's Kyodo News News Agency, citing police, reported that the death toll was 433, with at least 784 missing.
The official death toll is likely to rise as authorities continue rescue and relief efforts in the worst-hit areas.
[2:00 a.m. ET, 9:00 p.m. Hawaii] Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie signed a "State of Disaster Proclamation" after the tsunami caused millions of dollars or damages as it swept through the islands. The proclamation will allow Hawaii to get federal funds to help rebuild, the governor said in a statement.
[12:00 a.m. ET, 2:00 p.m. Tokyo] The death toll from the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan rose to 433, the nation's Kyodo News reported Saturday. At least 784 are missing, Kyodo said, citing police.
[11:01 p.m. ET, 1:01 p.m. Tokyo] At least 398 people are dead and 805 are missing after the massive earthquake in Japan, the Kyodo News Agency reported Saturday. Earlier, the news agency said the death toll from the massive earthquake would likely surpass 1,000.
[10:01 p.m. ET, 12:01 p.m. Tokyo] As rescue crews continue to account for the damage caused by the country's largest earthquake on record, people in Japan on Saturday are struggling to contact loved ones near the hardest hit areas.
Lucy Craft, a freelance correspondent in Tokyo, has a teenage son at a high school near the epicenter in Sendai, northeast of Tokyo. More than 18 hours after the quake, she hadn't been able to make contact.
"The phone lines are still down... I haven't been able to get in touch with him by cell phone, I haven't been able to contact anybody there. I have his teacher's phone number," Craft said Saturday morning in Tokyo. "It's a very upsetting situation, as you can imagine."
[10:32 p.m. ET, 12:32 p.m. Tokyo] Residents of northern Japan streamed south from their earthquake-stricken hometowns Saturday, crowding stores in search of vital supplies as rescue teams worked north toward the historic quake's epicenter.
Roads and buildings showed cracks as far away as 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Sendai, the closest city to the epicenter. One man told CNN the scene in towns hit by the quake and the resulting tsunami was "unimaginable."
Shoppers were polite but tense as they sought food, water and gasoline from stores where shelves were quickly emptied and pumps soon ran dry.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário