right now we're looking at rikuzentakata. this is in iwata prefecture. the tsunami flew up the river into residential areas on friday. you can see the water coming in, washing away houses. just pouring in. look at that picture. even on saturday, the sea level is still rising and falling at intervals of 30 to 40 minutes. tsunami had been striking and drawing back near the coastal

area. you can -- we are just seeing footages that were taken at rikuzentakata with the water just coming in. and now we move to kesanuma city. you are seeing smoke and piles of smoke coming in. this was taken this morning on saturday morning here in japan. and the only thing we can actually get to see is the vast area covered by fire. now we are taking a look at rescue operations in yamamoto town in miyagi prefecture. you can see people on the roof. they are being lifted by probably a helicopter up there. the rescue operations are being carried out. these are the self-defense forces of japan rescuing them. you can see people being lifted off the rooftop.

we are still seeing the pictures of yamamoto town in miyagi prefecture which saw tsunami waves of about four meters high. and we say four meters but that's the data that we've got. and not considering the fact that no more data has been sent about the height of the tsunamis that could even be much higher than the recorded four-meter height in miyagi prefecture. there's a wide area shot of yamamoto city in miyagi prefecture. people being lifted in helicopters. there's more. we have more footages of rikuzentakata in iwata prefecture. you can see a rescue operation. they are forcing people off the

rooftops. they are leaving behind ruins. the devastation of the massive earthquake and tsunami that followed in iwata prefecture. there are more people under the helicopter. the helicopter of the self-defense forces in rikuzentakata in iwata prefecture. the massive earthquake has also damaged two nuclear power plants in fukushima prefecture. air has been released from the plants to ease the mounting pressure, but high levels of radioactivity have forced the fukushima number one plant to suspend the release. radiation at the fukushima number one plant rose tie level 1,000 times higher than unusual the central control room at one point. the rising pressure poses a threat to the containment vessel.

japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency says the operation to release air from the react boers gan before 9:00 a.m. local time on saturday. the valves to release the air have to be operated by hand but the radioactivity at one valve was too high to ensure the safety of workers. the agency is now considering other options, including rotating the workers frequently to limit their exposure and operating the valve by remote control. the agency says the release air -- the released air poses no risk to people outside the ten-kilometer evacuation zone. university of tokyo professor says filters will remove radioactive substances before the air is released. the agency says air inside the container will be tested for radioactivity. >> translator: at this moment, we have no confirmation that radioactive materials was released. we ordered people within a

radius of three kilometers to evacuate for safety reasons. all nuclear power plants have some form of backup water system in case of an emergency, but as we've just been reporting, the system failed at that power plant in fukushima prefect purp the mechanism to cool the reactor is called eccs or the emergency core cooling system. eccs is made up of a series of systems designed to safely shut down the nuclear reactor during serious accidents. it provides emergency cooling water to the core of the reactor to keep it from overheating. under normal conditions, heat is removed from a nuclear reactor by condensing steam after it passes through a turbine. the condensed steam is then fed back into the reactor and through the heat exchanger which keeps the reactor core at a constant temperature. the quake hit fukushima number one plant has a total of 13 diesel generators to operate the eccs, but the operator of the

plant says all the generators failed because of the quake. the japanese government -- experts of the japanese government say the magnitude 8.8 earthquake may have occurred across a wider area than they had initially thought. experts on the earthquake research committee say several earthquake focal regions were synchronized in a way they hadn't expected. the committee held an extraordinary meeting on friday night. the chairman told a news conference that an observation using a gps earthquake tracker showed that the ground at the observatory had moved about four meters to the east. the committee concluded that all four expected focal regions were synchronized. they cover a stretch of a few hundred kilometers from waters off miyagi prefecture to waters off ibaraki prefecture. the committee's shairm said further evaluation of the quake is needed when more data have been collected. he said only then it will be possible to determine whether a

quake with a magnitude of 7.3 on wednesday was a warning of the bigger quake that followed. earlier, the japan meteorological agency held a news conference and it warned that more tsunami ss could hit japan's coast. the official says some areas could be hit by repeatedly by tsunami waves. he warned residents to stay in safe areas and not go near the coast. he said that looking at tidal patterns, the waves seem to be subsiding but warned residents to stay on the alert. the agency is now monitoring the waves and assessing the damage level. the official says strong and frequent aftershocks may also be felt in some areas. he says since the first jolt at 3:15 on friday, since there have no -- there have not been aftershocks above magnitude 7. the official said it's difficult to count the number of aftershocks but they are occurring right along japan's pacific coast. the agency is now trying to

identify the focus of the tremors. a strong earthquake jolted the prefectures of nagata in japan on saturday. japan's meteorological agency says a magnitude 6.7 quake occurred at 3:59 a.m. local time. it estimates the quake had its focus at a depth of eight kilometers in niigata prefecture. jolts with intensities of 6 were recorded in nigata prefecture inspect the north of nagano prefecture -- along a railway. >> the meteorological agency says it's not clear whether this earthquake is related to the massive earthquake in northeastern japan on friday. japan's electric company saved more than 5 million households across the nation still don't have power. they say it will take some time to restore electricity supplies. according to tohoku electric power corporation, more than 4

mill job households in niigata prefecture were without power at 7:00 a.m. the electric power corporation said that the damage is so serious that it will take a long ti to resume operati at t power plan said there's a possibilofni are out o operatiod by 7:00 recent

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couries and territ offered assistance. governmerealking with lal governments t aess the extent of the damage and o . and for those o y just tuning , emergency teams are trying toaftermath of the biggest earthquake to hit japan sinc records started being taken 140 years ago. the8.8 tremor hit the country's northeast on friday. tsunami waves slammed into japan's pacific coast causingdae a strong earthquake also shook nagano prefecture in southern

japan on saturday morning. the meteorological agency has a says aftershocks could follow. e scale of the death and hour.ction in japan is getting at least 573 people have died and more than 740 others are missing. miyagi was a tsunami pounded sendai city washing inland ten kilometers. police say 200 to 300 tiods have been found. in other parts of miyagi prefecture, 62 people have been confirmed ad rescue and identification s bng slowed because much of the area is under water. a fire has engulfed much of the bay area. thfi dasr management agency says the flames may have been sparked after oil leaked in nghring fukushima a uni.

prefecture, 91 people have been confirmed dead and more than 480 are missing. tna hhe than 7.3 meters hit a port in the prefecture. wide stretches of the coastline iwata prefecture, at least 191 people have been confirmed dead. more than 200 others are reported missing following a tsunami. in tokyo and neighboring prefectures, 29 people have died, some after being hit by falling deis thumr o people dead across japan has reached 573. about 730 others are missing. the total number ofeand missing is expected to rise to more than 1,300. the massive earthquake has also damaged two nuclear power an i fukushima prefecture. air has been released from the plants to ease the mounting pressure. but high levels of radioactivity haveordhe fukushima number one plant to suspend the release. radiation at the fukushima

mb o pntosto lel 1,000 times higher than usual in the central control room at one point. the rising pressure poses a threat to the containment veel japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency says the operation to release air from the reactors began before 9. >> a.m. lal te o saturday. the vaults to release the air have to be operated by hand but the radioactivity at one valve was too high to ensure the satyf workers. the agency is now considering other options, including rotating the workers' frequently to limit their exposure and operating the valve by remote control. the agency says the released air poses no risk to people ouid t10-kilometer evacuation zone. university of tokyo professor says filters will remove radioactive substans bor eir is released. the agency says air inside the container will be tested for radioactivity. >> translator: at this moment,

we have no confirmation that radioactive materialsas released. we within a radius of three kilometers to evacuate for safety reasons. all nuclear power plants have some form of backup water system in case of an emergency, but as we've beenporting, the system failed at that nuclear power plant in fukushima prefecture. the mechanism to cool the reactor is called eccs or the emergency core cooling system. eccs is made up of a series of systems designed to safely shut down a nuclear reactor during serious accidents. it provides emergency cooling water to the core of the reactor to keep it from overheating.

under normal conditions, heat is removed from a nuclear reactor by condensing steam after it passes through a turbine. the condensed steam is then fed back into the reactor and through the heat exchanger which keeps the reactor core at a constant temperature. the quake hit fukushima number one plant has a total of 13 diesel generators to operate the eccs, but the operator of the plant, tokyo electric power company, says all the generators failed because of the quake. japanese government experts say the magnitude 8.8 earthquake may have occurred across a wider area than they initially thought. now we have different footages right now going off, but now you can see the japanese government experts holding a meeting. experts on the earthquake research committee say several earthquake focal regions were synchronized in a way they hadn't exnt. the committee held an extraordinary meeting on friday night. its chairman told a news conference that an observation

using a gps earthquake tracker showed that the ground at the observatory had moved about four meters to the east. the committee concluded that all four expect the focal regions were synchronized. they cover a stretch of a few hundred kilometers from waters off miyagi prefecture to waters off ibaraki prefecture. further evaluation of the quake is needed when more data have been collected. he said only then will it be possible to determine whether a quake with a magnitude of 7.3 on wednesday was a warning of the bigger quake that followed. and earlier the japan meteorological agency held a news conference where it warned that more tsunamis could hit japan's coast. the official says some areas could be hit by -- could be hit repeatedly by tsunami waves. he warned residents to stay in safe areas and not go near the coast. he said that looking at tidal patterns, the waves seemed to be subsiding but warned residents

to stay on the alert. the agency is now mon thoerg waves and assessing the danger level. the official says strong and frequent aftershocks may also be felt in some areas. he says since the jolt at 3:15 on friday, there have not been aftershocks above magnitude 7. the official said it's difficult to count the number of aftershocks but they are occurring right along japan's pacific coast. the agency is now trying to identify the focus of the tremors. a strong earthquake jolted the prefectures of nagano and niigata on saturday. japan's meteorological agency says a magnitude 6.7 quake occurred at 3:59 a.m. local time. it estimates the quake had its focus at a depth of 8 kilometers in niigata prefecture. jolts with intensities of 6 were

recorded in niigata prefecture in the north of nagano prefecture, there were landslides along a railway leading to niigata. the meteorological agency says it's not clear whether this quake is related to the massive earthquake in northeastern japan on friday. and japan's electric company say more than 5 million households across the nation still don't have power. they say it will take some time to restore electricity supplies. according to tohoku electric power corporation. more than 4 million households in the tohoko area were without power at 7:00 a.m. the electric power corporation said that the damage is so serious that it will take a long time to resume operations at the power plant. it also said that there's a possibility of running out of electric power. and bullet train lines in the northeast of japan are also out of service due to friday's earthquake. the east japan railway company says it does not know twhen will

resume operation of the tohoku, yamagata and akita lines in the north of japan. two northeast japan bullet train lines, joetsu and nagano are also out of service. lines have been suspend since the earthquake. but the tokkaido shinkansen is operating as usual. about 180 flights both inbound and outbound have been canceled by 7:00 a.m. japan's government considers the quake damage as one of the most serious in the country's recent history. >> translator: given the situation, an emergency disaster response headquarters has been set up with myself as the head. we will secure the safety of the people of japan and in order to

minimize the damage, the government will make every effort possible. and we ask the people of japan to continue to be cautious and vigilant and keep tuned in to the reports on the television and radio. and we ask the people of japan to act calmly. >> chief cabinet secretary yukio edano says the government considers the damage to be extensive. >> we've received information that a great number of people are dead. as for tsunamis, there's a chance that waves bigger than the first could hit over the coming day or so. >> the minister of defense

prepared about 8,000 self-defense force troops for miyagi prefecture and other disaster areas. the ministry of foreign affairs has begun preparations to accept foreign assistance. the massive earthquake has also damaged two nuclear power plants in fukushima prefecture. air has been released from the plants to ease the mounting pressure, but high levels of radioactivity have forced the fukushima number one plant to suspend the release. radiation at the fukushima number one plant rose to a level 1,000 times higher than unusual the central control room at one point. the rising pressure poses a threat to the containment vessel. japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency says the operation to release air from the reactor bess g s began before 9:00 a.m. the valves have to be operated by hand but the radioactivity at one valve was too high to ensure the safety of workers.

the agency is now considering other options, including rotating the workers frequently to limit their exposure and operating the valve by remote control as well. the agency says the released air poses no risk to people outside the ten-kilometer evacuation zone. university of tokyo professor sakumura says filters will remove radioactive substances before the air is released. the agency says air inside the container will be tested for radioactive -- for radioactivity. >> translator: at this moment, we have no confirmation that radioactive materials was released. we ordered people within a radius of three kilometers to evacuate for safety reasons. >> at the fukushima number two plant, ten kilometers south of number one, equipment failures have made it impossible to cool three of the plant's six

reactors. people living within a radius of three kilometers have been ordered to evacuate. the government says there is no immediate threat of a radioactive leak. and here are some footages of what the quakes and tsunamis have done. this is miyako city just after the quake on friday afternoon. you can see the water rushing in, washing away everything on its path. the houses are inundated. this was the destructive and very, very destructive tsunami. it wiped everything away at a port on the coast across japan. fishing boats, cars are being washed away. and now taking a look at rikuzentakata. this is in iwate prefecture. self defense forces are trying to carry out rescue operations

in the area. you can see the water just rushing in, washing away the houses. this footages just are in from today actually. rikuzentakata in iwate prefecture. they've seen tsunami waves of about four meters high and we say four meters given the fact that data