Horrible Destruction in japan

About 200 to 300 bodies were found along the water line in Sendai, a port city in the northeastern part of the country and the closest major city to the epicenter. Thousands of homes were destroyed, many roads were impassible, trains and buses were not running, and power and cellphones remained down in the region.

Japanese officials today issued broad evacuation orders for people living near two nuclear power plants that had experienced breakdowns in their cooling systems as a result of the earthquake, and they said small amounts of radiation had leaked from both plants.

Some radiation had seeped outside the plant, with levels just outside the facility’s main gate measured at eight times normal, public broadcaster NHK quoted nuclear safety officials as saying. The safety officials said there was no immediate health hazard to nearby residents from the leakage, which they described as minute, and people were urged to evacuate the area calmly.

While the loss of life and property may yet be considerable, many lives were certainly saved by Japan’s extensive disaster preparedness and strict construction codes. Japan’s economy was spared a more devastating blow because the earthquake hit far from its industrial heartland.

The United States Geological Survey said the quake was the most severe worldwide since an 8.8 magnitude quake off the coast of Chile a little more than a year ago that killed more than 400. It was less powerful than the 9.1 magnitude quake that struck off Northern Sumatra in late 2004. That quake spawned a tsunami that killed 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

The survey said that yesterday’s quake was centered off the coast of Honshu, the most populous of the Japanese islands, at a point about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo and a depth of about 17 miles below the earth’s surface.

The earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. Japan time, shaking skyscrapers more than 100 miles away, collapsing buildings and roads, and generating tsunami waves up to 30 feet high. Buildings, cars, and ships were swept away in the flood. Train service was shut down across central and northern Japan, including Tokyo, and air travel was severely disrupted.

Vasily Titov, director of the Center for Tsunami Research, said that coastal areas closest to the center of the earthquake probably had about 15 to 30 minutes before the first wave of the tsunami struck. “It’s not very much time. In Japan, the public is among the best educated in the world about earthquakes and tsunamis. But it’s still not enough time.’’