Sendai, Japan: The estimated death toll from Japan's disasters climbed past 10,000 Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and hundreds of thousands of people struggled to find food and water. The prime minister said it was the nation's worst crisis since the Second World War.
Nuclear plant operators worked frantically to try to keep temperatures down in several reactors crippled by the earthquake and tsunami, wrecking at least two by dumping sea water into them in last-ditch efforts to avoid meltdowns.
Excessive levels of radiation at a second Japanese nuclear facility after Friday’s earthquake have led authorities to report a state of emergency there, the UN nuclear agency said.
“Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the first or lowest state of emergency at the Onagawa nuclear power plant has been reported by Tohoku Electric Power Company,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said Sunday.
More than 180,000 people had been evacuated as a precaution, though Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the radioactivity released into the environment so far was so small it didn’t pose any health threats.
Near-freezing temperatures compounded the misery of survivors along hundreds of kilometres of the northeastern coast battered by the tsunami that smashed inland with breathtaking fury. Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines while survivors examined the ruined remains.
The death toll surged because of a report from Miyagi, one of the three hardest hit states. The police chief told disaster relief officials more than 10,000 people were killed, police spokesman Go Sugawara told The Associated Press. That was an estimate — only 400 people have been confirmed dead in Miyagi, which has a population of 2.3 million. More than 1,400 people were confirmed dead.
