disaster, text to red cross to 90999 and donate $10 to the american red cross. that will help those poor people tonight. here's anderson cooper with "ac 360." >> piers, thank you very much. good evening, everyone. we'll have important and late developments in the battle of libya, including an attack on our team in tripoli. but we begin with the terrible devastation in northeastern japan. the destruction there simply epic. the death toll mounting. exact numbers unknown. now a nuclear emergency. several badly damaged power station reactors with serious cooling problems. pressure building. reports now of radiation venting at two of them. we'll talk to a woman whose husband was in one of the plants, he escaped. all of it and everything else. the result of the fifth largest

quake in recorded history. just look at that wave. followed by the wave, a fast-moving tsunami wave that turned everything into its past, even miles inland, into rubble. watch as it hits those buildings head on. this is what it looked like as it made landfall. you can see it's not just seawater we're talking about. there is deadly debris, cars, trucks, small houses being swept along, smashing and battering everything in their path. the tsunami reaching all the way to the american west coast where several people were swept out to sea. magnitude 8.9. look at those cars being swept away. according to the u.s. geological survey, that's hundreds of times stronger than the one that leveled port-au-prince. japan is maybe the best prepared country in the world for earthquakes, but nothing prepared anyone for this.

>> at 2:46 p.m. local time, an 8.9 earthquake strikes off the east coast of japan. >> oh, my god. the building is going to fall! >> it's the most powerful earthquake recorded in the country's history. the fifth most powerful ever recorded in the world. its shockwave churns out walls of water up to 30 feet, traveling up to a mind boggling 500 miles an hour. a tsunami bears down on japan's coast in minutes. >> looks like that tsunami wave is moving upstream rapidly. and we're still seeing large tsunamis moving and hitting the area of sendai. that tsunami is going to hit the coastal areas, as we speak.

we do not know the extent of the damage at this time, but obviously a huge tsunami. >> within just 30 minutes of the earthquake, the tsunami crashes ashore. >> homes are swallowed in an instant. water roars six miles inland, devouring everything in its path.

>> the tsunami has already engulfed some cities, fires breaking out due to the earthquake. >> cars are tossed about. we still don't know if passengers got out before the tsunami hit. just offshore, a giant vortex of ocean currents looks like something from science fiction, but it's all too real. the airport in sendai, closest to the earthquake's epicenter, is now like much of the city, under water. people stranded on its roof. >> it looks like the sendai

airport almost completely flooded. >> oil refineries erupt in flames. >> it just blew up! this is crazy! [ explosion ] >> it happened again. >> two nuclear power plants just 150 miles from tokyo, declare a state of emergency after they lack power to cool their reactors. >> everything was shaking and next thing they were told is get out, leave, evacuate. >> thousands are feared dead. many more are trapped. as the death toll rises along with the numbers of missing, an

excruciatingly long night leads to daylight and the full horror of the destruction the tsunami has left in its wake. it is just past noon on saturday now. we're live for two hours tonight and we're constantly getting in new pictures. still a lot we have not yesterday heard from the worst hit areas. we have reporters close by. we'll hear from them in a moment. but information is coming in every few minutes in bits and pieces. we need to tell you about those nuclear power plants. word tonight of a second damaged power station venting radiation into the atmosphere. fears of a possible, and emphasize possible, radioactive meltdown. most experts say it is unlikely, but they're watching it closely. the evacuation zone has been expanded to six miles outside the first damaged plant. here's what it looked like at the plant during the quake. tremors doing damage to the cooling system, and the reactors are shut down, but they're hot,

and that's causing a pressure buildup inside the core, making it necessary to vent radioactive steam. i spoke to a woman named janie udi. her husband, danny, works at the plant. she got one call from him but lost contact. when was the last time you talked to your husband, danny? >> that was at 6:47 this morning our time. >> no word from him since that time? >> no, not a word. i've been sitting by the phone patiently waiting to hear from him. the 12-hour time is up. i was looking to maybe get a call, if they could get any type of communication at daybreak. but nothing. nothing yet. >> where was he when the quake hit? >> he was at fukushima nuclear power plant. >> he was inside the plant work thing? >> right. >> what did he say it was like? i know he got one call through to you. what did he say happened? >> the quake hit.

it was -- they're used to the quakes, but this one was difficult. it was hard, it was just shaking the building. they knew this was different. it's something they've never experienced before, even the local people who work and live there were getting scared, starting to panic. they called to evacuate. when the buildings were shaking, the lights were falling from the ceiling. he said glass was going everywhere. they had the insulation, the duct work, everything was falling and coming down. very dangerous. they had the big cranes were starting to sway. they knew it was a dangerous situation. they called for evacuation to get them out. they were leaving to go outside where it's safer to get from anything from falling on them. he had to go through -- a lot of

them changed suitings and they weren't totally in their dress attire to go out yet. he said they were just running out as fast as they could. >> so people were running out not even fully clothed. >> grabbing who they could to go with them. he went through glass. he told me he cut his feet. it kind of slowed them down. that's when he told me that's a good thing, because with him slowing down like that, a little bit of time it took, it kept him from getting the time frame for being right in the path of the tsunami. >> so he saw the wave of water coming? >> right. the way he explained to me, he said 30 or more feet high. he said it was just this mass wall of water sweeping, he said just everything in its path. and he said that's what -- he

said it makes you feel like you're -- how small you are on this earth when that powerful -- something that powerful goes by. he said it was pushing anything and everything out of its way like it was nothing into the ocean. >> and the little town that he was in is basically destroyed? >> basically the way he explained, it is -- it's not a little town anymore. what they were -- you know, that's where they were headed, the little town they were staying in. the hotel, that's where they were all going together for the safe place. and they didn't know what had happened till they got there, and he said getting there was a problem, because the roads, they lost a lot of the roads, a lot of cave-ins. the grounds had split, cars had fallen into the cracks. >> the hotel he's staying at has been destroyed. i understand they grabbed some

blankets, because some of them didn't even have clothes or shoes. when you actually talked to him, where was he? >> he was outside of the hotel. he said they were going for higher ground. the ground was still shaking. they had -- sounded like a smaller van is what they were leaving in. so they were going to higher ground to get -- because they could hear the wind starting to blow. they felt like the water, the wave was coming back. then the rumbling sound, i could hear it over the phone so loud. he said it's another quake, and it just kept roaring. he said the ground was shaking under my feet. >> what a lot of people don't realize is it's cold there. >> it's freezing. it's snowing. and i was worried about that part by not having proper clothing. and where they had to stay i

don't know. i was told they found them. they were accounted for, but i still don't know where he's at. >> this has got to be a nightmare for you waiting. >> just waiting to hear, and the more i hear on the news is they're having problems with two more nuclear plants. so now what? what are we facing now? it's just one after another, another. they won't tell me where he's at, and i can't speak to him again. they just say he's safe, and if you all have got ground people or anything that could -- they find them or whatever, let them know -- let him know we are trying to get him home the best we can. >> let me just say, we're trying to get people to the region, and obviously if we encounter danny, we'll pass along a message. it's possible cnn is seen widely in japan. if you want to send a message to

him now in case he happens to be watching, feel free. >> danny, we're looking for you. we'll do whatever it takes. whatever it takes we won't stop. we are trying to get you home. we're trying to get all of you home. be assured we will not quit. we will keep after this hour after hour. if you can in any way, call. let some family member know that y'all are okay. call anybody. that's the message. and we love him. we're sending our prayers. we want him home. >> well, we'll pray along with you and i said we're trying to get people there as fast as possible. janie, stay positive. >> i know there's a lot of people in need. it's just the not knowing is the setting, the waiting, the not knowing. >> stay strong and we'll be in touch with you. >> thank you so much. you can follow us right now on facebook or twitter at

anderson cooper. just ahead, the latest on the nuclear emergency that danny witnessed first hand. what went wrong, what more could go wrong? and also what it looked like as the tsunami rolled ashore destroying everything in its path. >> the tsunami has already engulfed some cities. fires are breaking out due to the earthquake. in northeastern japan, tsunami waves of over four meters were observed. impressive resume. thank you.

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announcer: trade commission-free for 30 days, plus get up to $500 when you open an account. new video coming from the quake zone, the first images of people being rescued. a chopper performing the mission here. obviously i want to show you exactly what made it necessary. the tsunami, as it came ashore around 18 hours ago. just watch this. >> the tsunami engulfing farms and homes. cars, trucks. you can see some of the tsunami and looks like some fire-breaking out in the sendai

area after the tsunami has hit. major earthquake, that was a revised to a magnitude of 8.4. one of the largest earthquakes ever to hit japan. please, do not go near the waters. move to higher ground as soon as possible. a tsunami warning has been issued for japan, russia, northern marianas, guam, wake island and taiwan. and here is more live footage of miyagi prefecture of the sendai area. live coverage of what the tsunami is doing. that tsunami obviously going upstream, engulfing some of the farms and homes in that area. >> just extraordinary. more on the nuclear emergency.

you heard a moment ago from janie, her husband was inside one of the crippled power plants. more details on how serious the problems are right you with jean me serve. what's the latest? >> reporter: reports are that at one plant there are elevated temperatures. at the other plant, radiation levels are up. but according to the kyoto news agency, eight times the normal level at a monitoring station outside the plant. 1,000 times above normal in a control room inside the plant. here's what happens. the plant shut down during the quake, but the power into the plant was also disrupted, and that shut down the systems which cool the reactor core, which remains hot even after the plant is shut down. they had a backup system. those were some diesel engines, but those were knocked out by the tsunami. they went to a battery system. that's what they're using now, but it is a stop-gap measure.

>> how dangerous of a situation is this? >> well, that's a question of some debate. they're trying to get a better power supply to those plants. there are reports they're trying to bring in more batteries, trying to bring in diesel generators to get more water purposed onto that core to keep it cool. in the meantime, they have staged evacuations around one of the plants, a ten kilometer radius. >> and some reports that maybe the u.s. government was trying to do something to help, is that true? >> they have offered to help. the energy secretary is a physicist and understands the situation and what needs to be done. but at this point, the japanese have not requested anything. the big fear is, of course, that there won't be enough water in there, the core will get so hot we'll see a meltdown and we could have some sort of catastrophic event happen. they're trying to prevent that now by bleeding off some of that pressure with controlled

releases. there is some radiation in those controlled releases, but the experts say they are not life threatening. >> but they've evacuated an area around one of the plants, right? >> around two of the plants, ten kilometers around one, three around the other. >> jean, thanks. we are on for these two hours. isha sesay and i will be covering this. as you might imagine, the affected area is cut off from the rest of japan, power, phone lines are out, rail connections shut down, roads are difficult to travel on. people are being kept off of a lot of the roads. we're joined now from just outside sendai. what are you seeing where you are now? >> what we're seeing is something that is represented just right behind me. the reason we decided to pull off the road is about where we are, about 100 miles outside of sendai, we're starting to see a lot of this, a lot of houses

with roof damage. we're starting to see power lines that are leaning over or tipped over. and these houses, this particular house, if you look inside, we were pulling up, the homeowners were there sweeping up glass, many of the windows are shattered. this is minor damage if you consider and compare what's happening up north. this is something we're seeing over and over again on our ride up to sendai. i want to turn to this road over here. this is a two-lane road. we've been on this road for 15 hours. the reason why, this is the only way up to the north, if you are traveling on the road, because the highways in japan are shut down. so what does this mean for the rescue crews? well, we have heard chopper traffic up above us pick up significantly. we've seen a large number of military choppers go back and forth, because helicopters, anderson, are really going to be key to trying to rescue people. we've seen some of that video coming out of sendai trying to

puck people off of roofs and trying to get supplies to people who are trapped in the tsunami areas. anderson? >> do we know anything about the actual death toll? i heard one japanese government official, the japanese ambassador to the united states saying a thousand is what they've been able to confirm at this point. but the numbers may go much higher. do we know officially? >> reporter: it's really difficult to wrap your mind around the scope of this devastation. if you talk to people who live around here, what they'll tell you is that they simply never imagined that is tsunami would reach six miles inland. so many of these people were simply not prepared for this type of devastation, for the debris to come ashore. so the number of people who are affected by this is significantly high. and so, yes, we're starting to hear some of those reports from the government. but right now many people you talk to simply will not fathom a guess. the house, the people who live in the house behind me, they lost a relative.

if you stop and start talking to people, they'll tell you we lost a friend. so the death toll will grow as people figure out who is missing, and what the answers to those questions are. >> has there been a lot of traffic on that small road you're on? have you seen relief vehicles going up, military vehicles? >> reporter: we have seen surprisingly few military vehicles on the ground. and actually traffic right now is barely anything. we have been in bumper-to-bumper traffic for much of the way up here. it's lightening up the further north we go. but yes, no military vehicles, no ambulances. we think everything is happening via the airway. >> kim, appreciate the report. we'll check in with you later. coming up, the science behind the wave of destruction that hit japan, what the earthquake looked like when it hit. people in stores, office buildings, grabbing cameras capturing the devastation as it

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president obama today said he's heart broken by the devastation in japan.

he said he has a close connection to the japanese people in part because he learned a lot about the culture growing up in hawaii. he said he's confident japan will come back stronger than ever and the united states is ready to help. >> today's events remind us just how fragile life can be. our hearts go out to our friends in japan and in the region. >> it was nighttime for many of us when we heard about this, but it was 2:46 p.m. local time in japan when the earthquake hit. people grabbed cameras, capturing japan's strongest ever earthquake as it was happening. here's some of the remarkable sights and sounds.

>> that gives you the feeling of what it was like. to give you a better idea of the forces behind the wave of destruction, i want to bring in chad myers and jim garrity. chad, why was the tsunami as big as powerful as it was? was it just because of the magnitude of the quake? >> and the closeness and the proximity to japan in general. it was only about five minutes away technically speed wise. so when the earth below the water thrust itself up, the crust literally, the surface of the ocean bottom was pushed up by the earthquake, all the water moved as well and it moved very quickly into japan and didn't have any time to what we call attenuate which is a big long-term, but think about this. if you take the power of a blow dryer, and you put it close to your head, it's really hot. if you put it away a couple of

feet, it's not so hot. it's the same blow dryer and same heat coming away. but if you let the heat spread out, or you let the water and waves spread out over many, many miles and slow down a little bit before it got to the u.s. or south america, the waves are not so big. >> was there something, jim, about this particular area in japan that makes it vulnerable to these earthquakes or tsunamis? >> this part of japan is along the kind of ring of very large faults that surround the pacific basin. and we basically two tectonic plates are coming together and it's those faults that generate some of the largest earthquakes, and they are often linked with these tsunami events. >> you were watching the footage of the earthquake. you've never been in something like that, even though you studied it.

seeing it on camera allows you a new way to look at it. >> absolutely. most of us who work in this field are fortunate to have not ever been in an event like this. so this area of video technology has brought in new pieces of information. >> chad, has the danger to the u.s. at this point dissipated? >> oh, i believe so, yes. now, that said, this after shock or all of the after shocks we've been getting today, some as big as 6. are still making tsunami advisories up and down the japan coast. but there was a 7.2 earthquake in the exact spot two days ago. now, we thought that was the main quake until today when this 8.9 came in and we realized that two days ago that 7.2 was a foreshock, a foreshadowing shock to the big one. we didn't know that at the time until this big 8.9 happened today. there's still a threat that there could be a very large

after shock still around the maybe 8.0 region. but right now we don't see that. most of the after shocks are around 5, 5.5, somewhere in there. but only one about 1:45 ago was 6.8. that's a big quake all by itself. >> how would this compare to the earthquake in haiti? >> many times worse. hundreds of times larger. in terms of the way we estimate a size, it's hundreds of times larger. >> and the indian ocean tsunami, how does this compare to that? >> this one was smaller than the indian ocean one. the tsunami that it sent out is comparable in size. that one was also a little larger, as well. that happened to hit regions not very prepared for tsunamis, the local populations hadn't been educated.

we didn't have a tsunami warning system, so the devastation was significantly worse. >> but japan is very prepared for something like this? >> as prepared as you can be anywhere in the world. >> there have been a lot of after shocks, many above 6. 0 on the richter scale. does that concern you? >> it's completely expected. the chatter is right. we might expect an after shock about as one magnitude unit smaller. that could still happen. >> do we know how long -- >> the after shocks in general go upon for months and over time the size will peter out, and the rate will peter out. but they'll continue on for months and we'll be continuing to monitor them. >> jim garrity, thank you very much. and chad myers, as well. japan's earthquake is the biggest story in the world tonight, with you we have not forgotten about another disaster, a man made disaster in libya. gadhafi's son promising to crush the opposition.

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the devastation in japan is certain to take some of the world's attention off the fighting going on in libya. this program, however, we are committed to continuing to report on what is happening there. tonight, fighters in libya are retreating to the eastern part of the country that they still hold and it appears that colonel moammar gadhafi's armed forces are on the move after them. gadhafi's son, saif, vowed to crush the opposition and today gadhafi's forces pounded the key city of ras lanuf.

cnn's ben wedeman reports that gadhafi's forces set part of an oil refinery on fire, despite international pressure against the regime, they're vowing to retake all territory held by the opposition. our nic robertson was there as gadhafi supporters celebrated. watch. >> reporter: this is completely the reverse of what we saw here about two weeks ago. this square was full of government opposition. now it's filled with gunfire, blaring horns and the government celebrating victory. more gunfire going off. but here's what happened here. look at the trees over here. look at the devastation. look at the destruction here. this is what the government wants us to see, these people celebrating their victory here. what happened in zawiya, tank tracks through the park in the middle of the city. this had been turned into an

imprompt u graveyard by the government opposition. and over here you can see the scale of the destruction and you can see more as well more green flag waving supporters of moammar gadhafi being trucked in so they can show us they've got control. >> trucking in supporters to try and destroy the evidence of what many reporters said was a massacre there. earlier i spoke with nic robertson and ben wedeman. ben, what's the latest from ras lanuf? >> reporter: what we've seen, anderson, is that the opposition forces are really beginning to fall apart, fall away from ras lanuf. we were on the outskirts of the city, because they no longer allow the media inside the town. but we saw the town getting pummelled for hours by artillery, by what appeared to be mortar or rocket fire. we saw airplanes flying overhead. one of them flew over the

refinery and minutes later, there was a huge plume of black smoke coming out of it. you definitely get the sense that they're losing confidence in their ability to stand up against the forces of moammar gadhafi, who obviously outgunned them by several factors. they're moving further back towards the east, and there's a sense that there's a possibility that this offensive that's been begun by the forces of tripoli could start moving steadily eastward in the direction of benghazi. >> nic, i understand you and your team got roughed up today by government thugs. what happened? >> reporter: there was a pretty organized campaign by the government. they don't let us go to some places, even though we've been told we're free to go, the reality is different. there were no government officials to go out with us, when we wanted to go to friday prayers. that's when the protesters were

fired upon by the police with tear gas and boy, as we wanted to go out there today, a lot of journalists headed to the east of the city here, and we got out there. we were barely on the street, talking to a couple of guys at the side of the road in an entrance to a building and two cars pulled up. a couple guys got out with ak-47s and motioned for us to get into the car. tommy evans was kicked as he was dragged out of a car. we were pushed into a car, our phones taken away, and this was so well planned and coordinated. they knew exactly who to call. they knew they were after journalists. they were planning to get us off the streets and grab us off the streets. by the time we got back to the hotel, several dozen journalists had been picked up in the same area. there was the government stopping protesters getting out, but making a controlled,

concerted effort with government i guess security forces, plain clothes guys with ak-47s, making sure we didn't get the story. of course, what they say is they're worried if we're there, they'll protest. the protesters feel safer when we're around them. >> even though journalists were present last friday after prayers, nevertheless government forces shot at them, even though journalists were present. the regime, nic, also took you to zawiya today, which is the city that's now fallen, which last report we had from another journalist who was there, they were desperately trying to clean up the evidence of what other journalists had called a massacre. what did you see? >> bill neely, who you talked to yesterday, described it as a mix between a massive ira blast, a tank battle and that's exactly what it looked like.

the destruction was so bad. there's no way the government could clear this up. they managed to take away some of the destroyed vehicles. what they've done to cover up this tank fire that had gone on, blasting at rebels in the building. i know that happened because i talk to a soldier and he told me they used a tank to blast at the rebels. they hung these big white and green drapes down the side of the building, anchors by rocks on the ground to cover up the destructi destruction. we found one very forelorned sign out there on a square, and it said we will overcome. and they were wrong. they were overcome by the government forces. the other thing that we heard from the government tonight, anderson, they're going to take us -- they say they feel confident as the rebels lose confidence, the government said it's going to take us to ras lanuf tomorrow.

that's how confident they feel. of course, if they do, we'll believe it when we see it. we've heard this before. but this is how confident they're feeling in the east now. >> ben, saif gadhafi said the big war is over, the main opposition has basically been broken. what's to stop them now, the government forces from getting to benghazi, the second largest city? >> reporter: they did suffer a defeat in ras lanuf, but they haven't been defeated. a lot of the rebel forces have simply pulled back, and they are being reinforced. so i think it's by no means over. and certainly the hope is that they'll be able to reinforce the defenses around the town of brega, which is about an hour's drive to the east of ras lanuf. and you need to keep in mind something. this is not a situation where one side can basically lose and live. if the gadhafi forces come to eastern libya, come to the city of benghazi, which has been so

openly in revolt against his rule, there will be a massacre. there will be another massacre. there will be a blood bath. so i think even though the opposition forces may have overextended themselves in pushing toward ras lanuf, if they are pushed back further toward benghazi, they'll put up an even bigger fight. they had problems, though. they're clearly apparently running out of ammunition. a lot of it has been wasted firing in the air. but they don't have the sort of supplies, the arsenals, the arment that the government in tripoli has. so they're being pushed to the wall. but the closer they get pushed to that wall, i suspect the harder they're going to fight. this fight is not over, in no sense. anderson? >> do opposition leaders worry that the outside world may have given up on them? one of the first thoughts i had when i saw the tsunami hitting japan and the earthquake there, i thought this is the best thing that could have happened for

moammar gadhafi, if the world stops paying attention to what's going on in libya. >> there's a real change of atmosphere at the front line. whereas before, until basically today, we were always welcomed by the fighters. they were happy to see us. they were shoeing us toward the front lines. now they're very hesitant. they're even a bit suspicious, and there's an element of resentment. they were hoping that there would be some sort of foreign support. a no-fly zone, many of them are hesitant to the idea of foreign forces in libya. but they feel like they've been let down. they feel like they revolted against moammar gadhafi, a dictator of 42 years. they talk about their desire for democracy, for freedom, and they thought they were expecting, and we've seen this from the moment we entered libya, that the so-called free world would come to their defense.

and now they've gone as far as they could militarily. they're starting to be pushed back, and they're saying where is the world? so there really is a change of atmosphere here from this sort of buoyant, optimistic, enthusiastic sense, to one that they may be facing what could be annihilation. anderson? >> ben wedeman, stay safe. nic robertson as well. my best to your crew, nic. thanks. still ahead, isha sesay with some other important stories we're following and live coverage from japan continues at the top of the hour. the latest from the center of the devastation and new details of a nuclear emergency that may be getting worse by the minute. details ahead.

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i whereabout to i want to show you some new video we just got in. we're going to be live through the next hour. look at this. it was shot in a small coastal city north of sendai. this is debris picked up by the tsunami water and deposited there. as the water retreated, it's left all of this behind. you get a sense of the power of the water, what it has picked up and what it has changed. sobering, not much more you can say other than our prayers go out to everyone in the quake zone. that's a look at the coastal area. more from japan ahead tonight. but first isha sesay has a "360" news and business bulletin. isha? anderson, today governor scott walker signed into law the controversial law that restricts

collective bargaining rights. great news about congresswoman gabrielle giffords of arizona. one of the doctors calls her condition remarkable and says her speech and memory has improved and she is walking. nearly 30 years after the assassination attempt on president ronald reagan, the secret service has released an audiotape of radio traffic between agents. it shows they did not initially realize that the president had been shot. >> shots fired, shots fired.

>> as it turns out, crown was a secret service code word for the white house, and raw hide was the president's code name. anderson, today in an l.a. courtroom, actor mel gibson pleaded no contest to a battery charge involving his former girlfriend. he will be on probation for three years and undergo anger management counseling. anderson? >> isha, as i said, we are on for the next hour live as well, bringing you the latest out of the quake zone in japan. our coverage continues at the top of the hour. we'll be right back.

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good evening again. we begin with the breaking news, the devastation in northeastern japan. new video in, this was shot in a small coastal city north of sendai. so many of the landmarks are knocked down or stacked up. late reports now of 215,000 people in emergency shelters. and now in addition to the destruction, a nuclear emergency. several badly damaged power

station reactors with serious cooling problems, pressure building, reports of radiation venting at two of them. we'll stalk to a woman whose husband was in the plant. all the result of the fifth largest recorded quake in history, followed by this wave turning everything in its path into rubble. this is what it looked like. you can see it's not just seawater. there's debris, cars, trucks, houses being swept alone, battering everything in its path. the tsunami reaching the west coast where several people were swept out to sea. 8.9 was the quake, hundreds of times stronger than the one that leveled port-au-prince. nothing, nothing prepares anyone for something like this. we should say it's impossible to get a full picture of the disaster, even in a single report or in several. but we thought we would try to give you a better sense by

putting it together in sequence from the beginning. watch. >> at 2:46 local time, an 8.9 quake strikes off the east coast of japan. >> oh, my god. the building is going to fall. >> it's the most powerful earthquake recorded in the country's history. the fifth most powerful ever recorded in the world. its shockwave churns out walls of water up to 30 feet, traveling up to a mind boggling 500 miles an hour. a tsunami bears down on japan's coast in minutes. >> looks like that tsunami wave

is moving upstream rapidly. and we're still seeing large tsunamis moving and hitting the area of sendai. that tsunami obviously is going to hit the coastal areas as we speak. we do not know the extent of the damage at this time, but obviously a huge tsunami. >> within just 30 minutes of the earthquake, the tsunami crashes ashore.

>> homes are swallowed in an instant. water roars six miles inland, devouring everything in its path. >> the tsunami has already engulfed some cities, fires breaking out due to the earthquake. >> cars are tossed about. we still don't know if passengers got out before the tsunami hit. just offshore, a giant vortex of ocean currents looks like something from science fiction, but it's all too real. the airport in sendai, closest to the earthquake's epicenter, is now like much of the city,

under water. people stranded on its roof. >> it looks like the sendai airport almost completely flooded. >> oil refineries erupt in flames. >> it just blew up! this is crazy! [ explosion ] >> it happened again. >> two nuclear power plants just 150 miles from tokyo, declare a state of emergency after they lack power to cool their reactors. >> everything was shaking and next thing they were told is get

out, leave, evacuate. >> thousands are feared dead. many more are trapped. as the death toll rises along with the numbers of missing, an excruciatingly long night leads to daylight and the full horror of the destruction the tsunami has left in its wake. it's just past 1:00 in the afternoon. we're getting information in and we'll have that throughout this hour. i want to talk more on the nuclear plants. word of a second damaged power station venting radiation and the evacuation zone has been expanded to six miles outside the first damaged plant. tremors apparently doing damage to the cooling system in one or more of the reactors. the reactors are shut down but they are very hot causing a dangerous pressure buildup, which makes it necessary to

vent. a spoke with janie eudy. her husband, danny, works at the plant and is now missing and the scene he described was terrifying. when was the last time you talked to your husband, danny? >> that was at 6:47 this morning our time. >> no word from him since that time? >> no, not a word. i've been sitting by the phone patiently waiting to hear from him. the 12-hour time is up. i was looking to maybe get a call, if they could get any type of communication at daybreak. but nothing. nothing yet. >> where was he when the quake hit? >> he was at fukushima nuclear power plant. >> he was inside the plant working there? >> right. >> what did he say it was like? i know he got one call through to you. what did he say happened? >> the quake hit. it was -- they're used to the quakes, but this one was different. it was hard, it was just shaking

the building. they knew this was different. it's something they've never experienced before, even the local people who work and live there were getting scared, starting to panic. they called to evacuate. when the buildings were shaking, the lights were falling from the ceiling. he said glass was going everywhere. they had the insulation, the duct work, everything was falling and coming down. very dangerous. they had the big cranes were starting to sway. they knew it was a dangerous situation. they called for evacuation to get them out. they were leaving to go outside where it's safer to get from anything from falling on them. he had to go through -- a lot of them had changed, which they change suits, and they weren't

totally in their dress attire to go out yet. that was why he was going through -- he said they were just running, running out as fast as they could. >> so people were running out not even fully clothed. >> just whatever they had, just get out and grabbing who they could to go with them. he went through glass. he told me he cut his feet. i don't know how bad, but it kind of slowed them down. that's when he told me that's a good thing, because with him slowing down like that, a little bit of time it took, it kept him from getting the time frame for being right in the path of the tsunami. >> so he saw the wave of water coming? >> right. the way he explained to me, he said 30 or more feet high. he said it was just this mass wall of water sweeping, he said just everything in its path. and he said that's what -- he said it makes you feel like you're -- how small you are on this earth when that powerful --

something that powerful goes by. he said it was pushing anything and everything out of its way like it was nothing into the ocean. >> and the little town that he was in is basically destroyed? >> basically the way he explained, it is -- it's not a little town anymore. what they were -- you know, that's where they were headed, the little town they were staying in. the hotel, that's where they were all going together for the safe place. and they didn't know what had happened till they got there, and he said getting there was a problem, because the roads, they lost a lot of the roads, a lot of cave-ins. the grounds had split, cars had fallen into the cracks. >> the hotel he's staying at has been destroyed. i understand they grabbed some blankets, because some of them didn't even have clothes or shoes. when you actually talked to him, where was he?

>> he was outside of the hotel. he said they were going for higher ground. the ground was still shaking. they had -- sounded like a smaller van is what they were leaving in. so they were going to higher ground to get -- because they could hear the wind starting to blow. they felt like the water, the wave was coming back. then the rumbling sound, i could hear it over the phone so loud. he said it's another quake, and it just kept roaring. he said the ground was shaking under my feet. >> what a lot of people don't realize is it's cold there. >> it's freezing. it's snowing. and i was worried about that part by not having proper clothing. and where they had to stay i don't know. i was told they found them. they were accounted for, but i still don't know where he's at.

>> this has got to be a nightmare for you waiting. >> just waiting to hear, and the more i hear on the news is they're having problems with two more nuclear plants. so now what? what are we facing now? it's just one after another, another. they won't tell me where he's at, and i can't speak to him again. they just say he's safe, and if you all have got ground people or anything that could -- they find them or whatever, let them know -- let him know we are trying to get him home the best we can. >> let me just say, we're trying to get people to the region, and obviously if we encounter danny, we'll pass along a message. it's possible cnn is seen widely in japan. if you want to send a message to him now in case he happens to be watching, feel free. >> danny, we're looking for you. we'll do whatever it takes.

whatever it takes we won't stop. we are trying to get you home. we're trying to get all of you home. be assured we will not quit. we will keep after this hour after hour. if you can in any way, call. let some family member know that y'all are okay. call anybody. that's the message. and we love him. we're sending our prayers. we want him home. >> well, we'll pray along with you and i said we're trying to get people there as fast as possible. janie, stay positive. >> i know there's a lot of people in need. it's just the not knowing is the setting, the waiting, the not knowing. >> stay strong and we'll be in touch with you. >> thank you so much. we're hearing from people who live in japan when the quake hit. it didn't take long to realize this was different from what other quakes they had experienced. it was stronger, went on longer.

matt is living in tokyo. i spoke to him earlier tonight, as well. matt, where were you when the earthquake hit? >> well, i live out on the west side of tokyo. i was in my home when it hit. we knew almost immediately that this was something different from the usual tremors that we had experienced up until now. >> how did you know it was different, because it went on so long? >> yes, absolutely. the duration, about five or ten seconds when it didn't ease up. usually earthquakes in japan are quick and it's over. this time it was just a sustained rolling sensation, waves washing over the ground. we literally could not stand on our feet. we had to hold on to the building and ball up and climb -- and crouch down to avoid being swept off our feet. >> so you felt there was a time where you were going to be taken off your feet? >> absolutely. it was like a sensation of extended vertigo. the closest thing to describe it

is being on a skateboard on a carnival ride. you could not stand up. >> what was the scariest point? >> the scariest point i think was not knowing when it was going to end. it's an earthquake, it's not a ride. you don't know when it's going to stop. as i said before, usually these things end quickly. so going on one, two minutes, i was thinking to myself, we were in a safe place here, but i just know when it goes on this long that there's going to be injuries and casualties elsewhere in the country. >> have you been able to get in touch with your friends and family? >> just a few minutes ago, i reestablished contact with a friend of mine that lives south of here. he was fine. he and his wife and child were fine. but there is little information coming out of the as far northern reaches of japan right now, especially around the city of sendai, which is a very major city. there's just little information coming out right now. their current casualty count is

1,000 the tho,000 people and co. >> still feeling after shocks? >> yes, definitely. last night when i was trying to sleep after everything happened, we felt two to three large after shocks, waking us both up, my wife and i up. it was very difficult to sleep. right now i can feel a very small tremor again. they're telling us it's going to continue another month. >> what does that feel like? >> it feels like the entire room is shifting. have you ever seen like an ant farm and shaken it, that's what it feels like a human. it's like the hand of god coming down and shaking you. with these smaller tremors, it's insteadiness on your feet. with the larger ones, it's almost apocalyptic. >> thanks, matt. stay safe. "360" is going to be there on the ground to report on the rescue and recovery. i'm traveling to japan. i have to leave right now, so i'm going to hand the rest of the broadcast over to isha

sesay. >> isha, thanks and safe travels. up next, what made this quake so punishing and how do tsunamis form? details from a leading seismologist. and minute by minute as the wave of destruction went mile after mile inland. >> the tsunami has already engulfed some cities, fires breaking out due to the earthquake in north eastern japan, tsunami waves of over four meters were observed.

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it's actually a 16-foot surge from top to bottom because it's eight up and eight down, so it's the eight-foot wave came into crescent city, an eight foot deficit went back in and out four times before that wave finally stopped. the reason why it was only that eight feet and not as damaging, is we have to understand the proximity to japan here. it was only 45 miles, and that only took like five or mten minutes for that wave to get here. now you have to consider how far it was from that wave to the u.s. thousands of miles. so the wave isn't focused like it would be very close to shore. if you spread that wave out over many, many hours and thousands of miles, all of a sudden what was a very large wave close to

the earthquake has now become a smaller wave because of friction and because the wave is farther and farther out. the size gets smaller top to bottom as the width gets bigger. it just kind of goes that way. isha? >> chad, we know that this earthquake at 8.9 is one of the largest ever recorded. give us perspective on the scale of the tsunami that was the result. >> well, it was so large, because of the way the earth's crust works. think about japan being over here. and this is the pacific plate over here. during this tsunami, because it was so very close, it didn't have any time to attenuate or to get slower or to get smaller. it crashed on shore immediately. what happened was that the pacific plate was pushing down on the plate that's near japan. and believe it or not, you have to go to the usgs to figure out why. the plate over japan is called the north american plate.

you think how can that be? it goes all the way around from alaska back down to japan. as it pushes underneath, it popped up. the waves, because the earth literally is pushed up from the bottom of the crust of the earth, and that pushing up of the crust moves water. that moving water becomes the wave and that wave spreads out from where it was. the pacific plate compared to the japanese plate, moves at 92 millimeters a year. that's about three inches. so the plate here moves into the japanese plate here about three inches every year. eventually there's going to be too much stress, and that stress today released. it released as a very large and powerful earthquake. the largest ever recorded in history. the biggest quake close to this was 300 years ago and mt. fuji

erupted 45 days later. that's how long it's been since that big a quake in japan. isha? >> chad myers, thank you. i want to bring in jim garrity, a seismologist at columbia university. thanks for joining us. chad talked a little bit about how tsunamis are created. talk to us a little bit more about that, and the system that's in place to detect these things before they hit. >> sure. so in general tsunamis are created when we have these earthquakes that occur predominantly earthquakes that occur in these type of environment where is one plate pushes underneath another one. and the stress builds up on the overriding plate, pushes it down, and then it releases rapidly and dramatically and pushes back against the water and produces these waves. the reason these faults are so susceptible to tsunamis is in

general they have very large stresses associated with them, so the displacement can be very large, and also they tend to be the faults they often find under water just off the coastline. so they are generally speaking, are going to be the kinds of earthquakes that produce these tsunamis. >> i know that japan has a very sophisticated tsunami warning system. how well did it work on this occasion? >> so the seismic sensor system is -- we put motion detectors on land all over the globe really, and the energy that emits from the earthquake comes out through the hard rock of the earth. it travels very, very rapidly and are detected on those sensors and we can often quite quickly get an estimate of the location of an event and estimate of its size. so in places like japan where they have early warning systems, they can make use of that information and within seconds after an earthquake occurs start

to get a handle on the fact there may be a lot of damage associated with that earthquake. if it happens to be in a place where it's offshore they can very quickly try to make an estimate where there's the likelihood of a tsunami. >> jim, one last thing i want to bring up with you, the fact we're seeing scores of after shocks, some very powerful, measuring over six on the richter scale. does that mean there's a likelihood we could see more tsunamis hit coastal japan? >> there is always the chance in general after shocks, there's kind of a rule of thumb that they send to be on the order of about a factor of ten smaller than the main shock. and to generate a large damaging tsunami, you really do need an event that's a magnitude 8.5 to 9. those tend to be the events that can produce the damaging tsunamis we saw today. smaller events are often only a few centimeters in height and

they'll pass by up noticed by most of the population. so i think roughly speaking, we would not expect necessarily a lot of tsunami activity associated with the after shock activity. but you never can be sure. there always can be additional events that can follow up and be produced by the stresses associated with these large events. >> chad myers has a question for you. >> eliot spitzer asked me a question that i couldn't answer. so i'm going to ask you. is there any way to estimate how far the land literally was thrust upward by this wave, by this earthquake? was it five feet, ten feet, 30 feet? any way to tell that? >> absolutely. there are around japan a number of very good instruments. basically they're gps instruments and they measure the

position accurately of each of those sites. so they're trying to analyze that data right now that the amount of displacement that the surface itself went in response to the earthquake itself. i think some initial reports i heard today were actually from many tens of kilometers away, there were meters of dispoli displacement. >> all right, thank you. >> my thanks to you both. now there are some truly amazing sights and sounds of the quake and the tsunami right as they were happening. people grabbed their cameras inside office buildings and grocery stores, capturing some incredible images and some of the most terrifying video is how this moved along. we'll show you some of the most compelling moments at this unfolded. stay with us. i do a lot of different kinds of exercise,

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it's been almost 24 hours since the massive earthquake hit, and the after shocks continue in japan. when the quake started, witnesses we talked to say they knew it was a big one. it started at 2:46 p.m. local time, and across the country, people in grocery stores and office buildings grabbed their cameras and documented what we now know is the strongest earthquake that has ever hit japan. here's some of the sights and sounds they captured.

it is still going. oh, my god, the building's going to fall! >> well, because the quake struck offshore, it triggered a powerful tsunami. but before we show you the big picture of that, i want to play you some new video of a tiny episode. a city street and around the corner comes a small fishing boat. i don't know how well you can see it, but it appears there's

somebody at the helm. a serene moment, almost, barely in the middle of a catastrophe. >> major earthquake hitting japan on friday afternoon. japan's meteorological agency said a quake measuring 8.4 and a tsunami warning has been issued. that tsunami engulfing some areas. this is in sendai in northeastern japan. the agency is warning the tsunami could reach between 6 to 10 meters. japan's meteorological agency has revised the ingmagnitude of4 from 7.9. back in 1995, a tsunami -- during that time the earthquake was the size of 7 on the seismic scale.

sit the same highest level, 7 on the japanese scale, from 0 to 7. you can see a big part of that area has been flooded from the tsunami. the pacific warning tsunami center has issued a tsunami warning not just for japan, russia, marcus islands, northern marianas, guam, wake island and taiwan. for those of you living near the coast, please move to higher ground as soon as possible. another tsunami is hitting miyagi prefecture. it looks like it's moving upstream rapidly. >> japan's earthquake is the biggest story in the world. but coming up, the very latest, including a promise from gadhafi's son to crush the opposition. cnn's ben wedeman says that opposition is all but falling apart in ras lanuf. that's next. revitalize

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the devastation in japan is certain to take some of the world's attention off the civil war in libya. but this program is committed to continue reporting on what's happening there. tonight, opposition fighters in libya are retreating to the eastern part of the country that they still hold. and it appears that colonel moammar gadhafi's well-armed forces are on the move after them. gadhafi's son, saif, vowed to crush the opposition. today, gadhafi's troops pounded the city of ras lanuf, routing the opposition that controlled it. gadhafi's forces set part of an oil refinery on fire. despite international pressure against the regime, the gadhafis

are vowing to retake all territory held by the opposition. yesterday, they launched a violent assault to oust opposition fighters from zawiya. tonight, nic robertson was there as gadhafi supporters celebrated. >> reporter: this is completely the reverse of what we saw here about two weeks ago. this square was full of government opposition. now it's filled with gunfire, blaring horns and the government celebrating victory. more gunfire going off. but here's what happened here. look at the trees over here. look at the devastation. look at the destruction here. this is what the government wants us to see, these people celebrating their victory here. what happened in zawiya, tank tracks through the park in the middle of the city. this had been turned into an impromptu graveyard by the government opposition. and over here you can see the

scale of the destruction and you can see more as well more green flag waving supporters of moammar gadhafi being trucked in so they can show us they've got control. >> earlier tonight, anderson spoke to nic robertson and our very own ben wedeman. >> ben, what's the latest from ras lanuf? >> reporter: what we've seen, anderson, is that the opposition forces are really beginning to fall apart, fall away from ras lanuf. we were on the outskirts of the city, because they no longer allow the media inside the town. but we saw the town getting pummelled for hours by artillery, by what appeared to be mortar or rocket fire. we saw airplanes flying overhead. one of them flew over the refinery and minutes later, there was a huge plume of black smoke coming out of it. you definitely get the sense that they're losing confidence in their ability to stand up

against the forces of moammar gadhafi, who obviously outgunned them by several factors. they're moving further back towards the east, and there's a sense that there's a possibility that this offensive that's been begun by the forces of tripoli could start moving steadily eastward in the direction of benghazi. >> nic, i understand you and your team got roughed up today by government thugs. what happened? >> reporter: this was a pretty organized campaign by the government. as you know, they don't let us to go some places, each though we've been told we're free to go, the reality is different. there were no government officials to go out with us, when we wanted to go to friday prayers. which was a week ago today, that's when the protesters were fired upon by the police with tear gas and boy, as we wanted to go out there today, a lot of journalists headed to the east of the city here, and we got out there. we were barely on the street, talking to a couple of guys at

the side of the road in an entrance to a building and two cars pulled up. a couple guys got out with ak-47s and motioned for us to get into the car. tommy evans was kicked as he was dragged out of a car. khalil abdullah was pushed into a war, our phones were taken away from us, and this was so well planned and coordinated. they knew exactly who to call. they knew they were after journalists. they were planning to get us off the streets and grab us off the streets. by the time we got back to the hotel, several dozen journalists had been picked up in the same area. this was the government stopping protesters getting out, but making a controlled, concerted effort with government i guess security forces, plain clothes guys with ak-47s, making sure we didn't get the story. of course, what they say is they're worried if we're there,

then people will protest. the protesters feel safer when we're around them. >> even though journalists were present last friday after prayers, people did go out and protest, but nevertheless government forces shot at them, even though the journalists were present. the regime, nic, also took you to zawiya today, which is the city that's now fallen, which last report we had from another journalist who was there, they were desperately trying to clean up the evidence of what other journalists had called a massacre. what did you see? >> bill neely, who you talked to yesterday, described it as a mix between a massive ira blast, a tank battle and an artillery barrage. his analysis couldn't have been better. that's exactly what it looked like. the destruction was so bad. there's no way the government could clear this up. they managed to take away some of the destroyed vehicles. what they've done to cover up this tank fire that had gone on, blasting at rebels in the building. i know that happened because i

talk to a soldier and he told me they used a tank to blast at the building where the rebels were. they hung these big white and green drapes down the side of the building, anchored by rocks on the ground to cover up the destruction. of course, you can't cover up destruction like that. we found one very forlorn sign out there on a square, and it said we will overcome. and they were wrong. they were overcome by the government forces. the other thing that we heard from the government tonight, anderson, they're going to take us -- they say they feel confident as the rebels lose confidence, the government said it's going to take us to ras lanuf tomorrow. that's how confident they feel. of course, if they do, we'll believe it when we see it. we've heard this before. but this is how confident they're feeling in the east now. >> ben, saif gadhafi said the big war is over, the main

opposition has basically been broken. what's to stop them now, the government forces from getting to benghazi, the second largest city? >> reporter: they did suffer a defeat in ras lanuf, but they haven't been defeated. a lot of the rebel forces have simply pulled back, and they are being reinforced. so i think it's by no means over. and certainly the hope is that they'll be able to reinforce the defenses around the town of brega, which is about an hour's drive to the east of ras lanuf. and you need to keep in mind something. this is not a situation where one side can basically lose and live. if the gadhafi forces come to eastern libya, come to the city of benghazi, which has been so openly in revolt against his rule, there will be a massacre. there will be another massacre. there will be a blood bath. so i think even though the opposition forces may have

overextended themselves in pushing toward ras lanuf, if they are pushed back further toward benghazi, they'll put up an even bigger fight. they had problems, though. they're clearly apparently running out of ammunition. a lot of it has been wasted firing in the air. but they don't have the sort of supplies, the arsenals, the armament that the government in tripoli has. so they're being pushed to the wall. but the closer they get pushed to that wall, i suspect the harder they're going to fight. this fight is not over, in no sense. anderson? >> do opposition leaders worry that the outside world may have given up on them? one of the first thoughts i had when i saw the tsunami hitting japan and the earthquake there, i thought this is the best thing that could have happened for moammar gadhafi, if the world stops paying attention to what's going on in libya. >> there's a real change of atmosphere at the front line. whereas before, until basically today, we were always welcomed

by the fighters. they were happy to see us. they were shoeing us toward the front lines. now they're very hesitant. they're even a bit suspicious, and there's an element of resentment. they were hoping that there would be some sort of foreign support. a no-fly zone, many of them are hesitant to the idea of foreign forces in libya. but they feel like they've been let down. they feel like they revolted against moammar gadhafi, a dictator of 42 years. they talk about their desire for democracy, for freedom, and they thought they were expecting, and we've seen this from the moment we entered libya, that the so-called free world would come to their defense. and now they've gone as far as they could militarily. they're starting to be pushed back, and they're saying where is the world? so there really is a change of atmosphere here from this sort

of buoyant, optimistic, enthusiastic sense, to one that they may be facing what could be annihilation. anderson? >> ben wedeman, stay safe. nic robertson as well. my best to your crew, nic. thanks. up next, more of our coverage of the earthquake in japan. the video tells the story of the sheer power and force of nature.

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new video just coming into us. we want to show you, these are images coming to us from an area 100 miles north of sendai, the city closest to the eni center of this quake that struck off the coast of japan. pictures that really bring home

the scale of the devastation that has occurred. you see there cars tossed in amongst -- it looks like one big trash heap. but this is an area devastated by the force of nature. everything that stood in the path of the tsunami, of the results -- was the result of the quake and essentially battered and left in pieces. japan is prone to earthquakes because of its unique geological position. it sits on top of three major tectonic plates. one scientist is warning despite what happened, japan is still at risk for another major quake. this morning's quake is the most powerful to strike japan in recorded history. today proved once again that nature cannot be tamed.

>> it is still going. oh, my god, the building's going to fall. >> all of a sudden, bam, it just hit. and you could tell this was different. >> the ground was rolling for an extended period of time. i wasn't exactly sure what to do or where to go. i had never been prepared for anything like this. we stood outside and held on to the outside of our house.

you couldn't stand up. at the peak of these waves that were washing over the ground, you could not stay on your feet. you had to crouch down in a ball or put your back against something. >> the whole ground is shaking so much. it was up real. i can't describe it. it just felt like someone was just pulling me back and forth, side to side. >> an inferno, fire-breaking out on an oil refinery in chiba

prefecture north of tokyo. >> and it looked like the tsunami has engulfed several cities in miyagi prefecture. live footage as the tsunami has struck the area. obviously engulfing farms, homes, alongside the river. >> it started off like so many other earthquakes where, you know, you get a little shaking going on and you think, well, it's going to stop in a minute or so. but this did not stop. this just continued shaking and shaking. and then it started to get really violent. this was beyond scary. this was the scariest thing i've ever experienced in my life. >> incredible pictures. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] to the 5:00 a.m. scholar.

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