on our broadcast tonight, the big one hits japan. a massive history-making earthquake, one of the largest ever measured, and it triggers a massive tsunami all the way to the u.s. tonight we're watching the rising death toll. a nuclear plant in trouble. the aftershocks continue. the world is watching japan and our coverage begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> a special good evening to our viewers in the west tonight. as you know by now, the nation of japan has suffered a colossal

historic earthquake that has caused massive damage, massive loss of life and sent ocean waters racing over land. the big quake was a magnitude 8.9, it struck at 2:46 p.m., centered 78 miles offshore. while tokyo swayed and shook and bounced for minutes on end, sending millions to shelter, sendai was the closest population center. it has been devastated. the loss of life officially so far in the hundreds will almost certainly be thousands, as thousands are missing. the quake then triggered a tsunami, water upwards of 30 feet high that swamped the japanese shoreline, moving faster than people or cars could outrun it. then it headed out east across the pacific, traveling at the speed of a jet airliner. the original quake was big enough to move the largest island of japan eight feet further to the east. the aftershocks haven't stopped. a second big quake struck on land late today u.s. time.

kaori enjoji is the veteran cnbc tokyo bureau chief. she starts off our coverage tonight. kaori, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. japan is waking up to a morning saturday here like no other. the citizens of this country have long been accustomed to earthquakes, but what they saw 18 hours ago as this massive earthquake struck was like nothing they have seen before. the quake hit at 2:46 in the afternoon tokyo time, in the middle of what witnesses called a beautiful, calm day. terrified business workers scrambled to safety when the tremors hit. debris and office equipment falling everywhere. in the streets, chaos, as residents tried to dodge bricks and glass crashing to the ground. japan is no stranger to earthquakes. with reinforced building designs like nowhere else in the world,

but this one was a monster, measuring a magnitude of 8.9, one of the strongest in the country's history. an american university professor in tokyo on business told us the tremors were relentless. >> the shaking got worse and worse. i don't know exactly how long it lasted. it seemed like it went on forever. >> reporter: the country's prime minister, naoto kan, immediately activated an emergency response plan. after the shaking came the warning, and the wave, a chilling preview of the disaster to come. the target, the city of sendai, some 200 miles northeast of tokyo. hundreds are reported missing there. an unbelievable sight, the force of the swirling water sucking boats into its center. reports of at least one vessel missing with 100 people aboard. the tsunami hit with incredible force. the sludge sweeping away everything in its path.

this wall of water and mud, some 30 feet high, washed across the low-lying coastal areas. entire towns swept away. thick and brown, strewn with debris. fast-moving, farmlands quickly disappeared. entire major roads, bridges and homes, gone in a matter of minutes. [ speaking foreign language ] >> the airport at sendai was completely destroyed. workers and others scrambled onto rooftops trying to stay above the mud. a huge fire at an oil refinery near tokyo continues to burn. at least 80 other massive fires are still burning along the coastline after the quake cut off gas lines, causing a series of explosions, leaving homes and businesses ablaze. power is out throughout parts of the country, and mass transit is down. in some places trains derailed. tonight, evacuations are under way for miles around this nuclear power plant in

fukushima. officials say the cooling system failed during the jolt. authorities now say that radiation levels have surged outside the plant. with daybreak here, the search for dead and injured of this disaster is just beginning. not to mention the cleanup which will likely take months, if not years. although most of the public transportation here in the capital, tokyo, has resumed this morning, transportation communication to the northeast region has been sporadic. public broadcaster nhk reporting at least more than a thousand people have been either dead or missing, and the toll continues to mount. brian. >> kaori enjoji on again what is otherwise a beautiful saturday morning across japan. tonight our counterparts in japanese television news are anchoring their broadcasts wearing hard hats because of falling debris in their newsrooms and studios. but japanese television also

played a crucial role in this disaster, broadcasting 30 seconds advance warning and blanket coverage since the opening moments of the quake. our nbc news tokyo bureau chief arata yamamoto continues our coverage. i heard you in the middle of the night u.s. time on msnbc's live coverage say you were watching television, you got notice, which is very rare, enough time, 30 seconds, to take cover or leave structures for some people. >> reporter: that's right, brian. we were watching the parliamentary session and on the screen flashed a warning saying a big earthquake was hitting japan. shortly after that, 30 seconds afterwards, we started to feel the shake. the shake was so -- got to be so big that you couldn't stand without losing your balance. >> it's hard to see a beautiful sunny day on the side street where we've set up shop, but is

the rest of the country in kind of a state of suspended animation? i've seen pictures of the bullet train just frozen in place on its tracks. >> reporter: yeah, that's correct. people are still stranded in train stations, even here in tokyo. people are still dazed. especially since we don't know the full scale of the damage that the tsunami/earthquake has caused. >> and in tokyo itself, we saw buildings absolutely swaying back and forth. the damage, of course, much less in the city than it is in the agricultural zone to the north, correct? >> reporter: that's correct, that's correct. but the buildings did shake quite a bit here. >> arata yamamoto is our long-time bureau chief in tokyo. we'll be relying on you as part of ou coverage in the days and weeks to come. thank you very much after a long night for being with us.

this issue of nuclear safety emerged early on in this story and it grew more ominous as this day went on and we learned more. specifically, the reports that one nuclear plant north of tokyo is in trouble. our chief environmental correspondent, anne thompson, has more on that story from our london bureau tonight. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. for the first time japan declared an atomic energy at two nuclear power plants and japanese officials say they have lost control of two reactors. the fear is those reactors could be headed for a meltdown. the plants are in fukushima, about 150 miles north of tokyo, where some 30 million people live and 50 miles from senda home to one million. officials ordered residents within a six-mile area of the plants to evacuate. the reactors in question are designed by general electric, one of the part owners of nbc universal. this problem started with a power outage caused by the quake, causing cooling systems in some of the reactors to fail.

those systems sent water to lower the temperature of the fuel. there should be backup systems, but apparently those aren't working. if the cooling system is interrupted, the fuel can overheat, melt and release a large amount of radioactivity. there are also reports tonight that the radiation levels inside one of the reactors is 1,000 times higher than normal levels. outside it's eight times higher. brian. >> anne thompson with more on this emerging nuclear angle, anne, thanks. to recap, an earthquake on the other side of the world, powerful enough to make seismographs jump across the united states, powerful enough to send a wave at jet aircraft speeds across the pacific ocean. we now want to take a look at the dynamic that creates that kind of energy. we have an explainer tonight from nbc's tom costello in washington. >> reporter: hi, brian. this earthquake occurred along what's known as the pacific ring of fire. that is a 25,000 mile string of volcanic and seismic activity

right here. 90% of the world's earthquakes and 80% of tsunamis happen right in that ring of fire. the most recent one was in christchurch, new zealand, right here. japan sits to the north, of course, but japan sits at the intersection of three different tectonic plates. they are the eurasian, philippine and pacific plates. today's earthquake was right there, 80 miles offshore. the edge of the pacific plate in the middle got wedged underneath the eurasian plate. that's called subduction. this grinding of plates pushes up the ocean floor which can, in the view of some, generate this massive shock wave. that shock wave ripples out and creates the actual tsunami, traveling at 500 miles per hour. as that tsunami travels toward the shoreline, it hits the continental shelf right there. . the waves bunch up and get much higher. we want to show you what it looks like from noaa's

perspective. the black area right here off the coast of japan, that is where the waves were the highest,30 feet. the tsunami then travels to the east. hawaii, about 3800 miles away, you can see there the waves were about seven to eight feet high, minimal damage. then the waves continued on to the east and of course hitting the pacific coast. we want to tell you also that japan is one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world, accounting for 20% of all quakes greater than 6.0, brian. >> tom costello in washington, thanks. japan may be the most prepared nation on earth. this is hardly their first major earthquake. but no two are alike. this one gives the experts now a lot to study and of course it's still going. hundreds of aftershocks and another separate quake this afternoon. among those experts, dr. lucy jones, seismologist at the u.s. geological survey. doctor jones, how long does it

take your instruments to reflect a shaker like this after the first shake in tokyo? >> it's actually only a matter of seconds to minutes. the earthquake waves actually travel at two miles a second around the world. the usgs system was able to look at the location of the earthquake within a matter of about ten minutes after the event. >> and what do you think they're in for now in the next few hours and days in japan? >> well, i think it's the overall disruption to their whole social system. there's going to be deaths coming. i mean there's people have already been found. there are going to be more to find. i think the next day or so will be really critical on that issue. the other important issue for them is getting the fires under control and also i think the nuclear systems. japan has a long history of fire following earthquake that's been very devastating. in 1923, the city of tokyo was destroyed with 150,000 dead

because of primarily the fire after a big earthquake. so that's going to be part of whether or not they -- how they're going to be able to keep on going and fight the fires, be able to comprehend the dead, start mobilizing help and maintaining communications and helping people feel supported as they go through this. >> and doing all of that as the instruments behind you show, the earth continues to shake beneath their feet. dr. lucy jones, seismologist with the usgs, cal tech, thank you very much for being with us tonight. the tsunami that started in japan, ended up hours later slapping against the west coast of the united states, beginning with the hawaiian island chain, nbc's miguel almaguer is in santa cruz, california, tonight. miguel, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. a 25-year-old california man is dead tonight, swept out to sea

after a tsunami surge near the oregon border. this just in, four coastal counties here in california are under a state of emergency. in santa cruz, powerful currents capsized six boats, knocked others on their side and tossed some into the harbor. the cleanup here is still under way. six to seven-foot waves hit the small oregon coastal city of seaside nine hours after the earthquake. tsunami sirens and reverse 911 calls jolted many out of bed early this morning, as evacuations were ordered in oregon and washington state. but it was in hawaii that was hit first. sirens there sent residents scrambling to higher ground. homes and cars were destroyed, although the damage has been minimal. again, brian, four counties here in california are in a state of emergency. back to you. >> miguel al mmaguer in santa cruz, california, tonight. our coverage is going to continue after a break, including the team being ready to go to japan from southern california. beer and wine, and cupcakes.

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as we said earlier, japan is prepared. they drill constantly like a lot of places in known earthquake zones like california where they have experienced this and where they're sending their top-flight team across the pacific to japan. george lewis is at the headquarters of the search and rescue team in l.a. county. george, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. behind me the los angeles county search and rescue team ready to deploy to japan. many are just back from christchurch, new zealand, and they also served at the quake in haiti. they're the people who will have to rescue californians in future quakes here. one out of five californians practice for the big one every year, a massive drill called the great shakeout, involving school kids, hospitals, first responders. so how well prepared is california? >> obviously we've got a long

way to go. there are four out of five people approximately that aren't participating as far as we know. >> reporter: even as the death toll mounts in japan, u.s. experts say the japanese earthquake early warning networks alerted people to take cover, saving lives, a capability we lack. >> we're years away from having that in california or in the u.s. >> reporter: the thing that most worries scientists is the threat of a huge earthquake along the southern end of the san andreas fault. california faces a 94% probability of a magnitude 7 or greater quake in the next 30 years. in one scenario, a quake measuring magnitude 7.8 would leave 1800 people dead, would sever vital utility and transportation lifelines, and cause billions of dollars in damage. and as the los angeles county fire search and rescue team learned recently in new zealand, an earthquake doesn't have to be the big one to be deadly. the christchurch quake,

magnitude 6.3, was close to the surface. the ground shaking violent. >> buildings resemble los angeles, california. there are some buildings right next to buildings that are down that have survived the earthquake. >> reporter: a warning for californians. even with building codes that focus on seismic safety, many structures are still no match for violent quakes. among the rescuers headed to japan, several dog teams trained to detect people beneath the rubble and water rescue experts, because of all the flooding caused by the tsunami. brian. >> george lewis with the update from california tonight. george, thanks. when we come back, the u.s. military contribution to the relief effort. ♪

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earthquake in japan. personal stories, web video, and tonight we've compiled a look at what it was like to live through, to witness it and to survive the violent shaking that lasted several minutes and destroyed so much. [ speaking foreign language ] >> oh, my god. this is unreal. >> there are constant sirens in the city. the shaking got worse and worse. >> i kind of had to fall to my knees and just kind of hold on tight. >> i don't know exactly how long it lasted. it seemed like it went on forever. >> just kind of a cold, hard fear. where i didn't -- i didn't have

an exit plan. >> you could see skyscrapers all around swaying more or less like trees in the wind. >> everyone in tokyo has been severely rattled. they have felt the ground turn very wobbly on them. >> the country's most powerful earthquake on record generating a massive tsunami waves along both areas of the pacific coast. 200 to 300 unidentified bodies have been found. the ship with about 100 people on board has been swept away. >> we started to see those giant oil plumes come up. it's quite scary. >> people seem like they're in a bit of a state of shock. >> nothing compares to what happened today. this is just almost impossible to describe. >> the first desperate hours in japan. that's our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. thank you for being here with us. stay with nbc news and msnbc for the latest from japan. more tonight on "dateline" and

of course your late local news. tomorrow night, our continuing live coverage on "nightly news" with lester holt, who's right now traveling to the region. i'm brian williams. we'll look for you right back here on monday night. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes i did. [ ryan ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪ ♪