for "nightline" clarissa ward in osaka. >> and our thanks to clarissa.japanese military announced it does not plan any more helicopter air drops of water over the reactor. this could be very bad news for those reak zwroors when we come back, the facts on how bad the fallout could be if the worst happens. . ♪ [ male announcer ] here they come. all the new tech products you need. and they're all looking for the same thing. ♪ the one place that makes technology easy. staples. with highly-trained tech experts and expanded tech centers, staples makes finding the right technology just the way you want it. easy. easy to buy. easy to fix. easy to save. staples. that was easy. a fiber that dissolves completely, is cly different. benefiber. it's the easy way to get more fiber everyday. that's the beauty of benefiber it's the easy way to get more fiber everyday. welcome back to geico radio, hello uh george and linda! george: hello mr. gecko! linda: so, we're such huge fans - george: of yours...and would be really honored... linda: ...if you would marry us. me? lind

for "nightline," i'm clarissa ward in ishinomaki. >> our thanks and safe travels to clarissa ward foret's pivot to the grim task of search, recovery and rescue. and after that, trying to get food and water to all the refugees. christiane amanpour now with a look at the humanitarian effort. >> reporter: in the face of a nightmare scenario, even one of the world's most modern countries simply cannot mobilize fast enough against an ever-mounting series of crises. especially in the north, even the basics, food, water, electricity are in short supply. the red cross here has opened a 24-hour command center which can barely keep up. the biggest challenge, logistics. along the coast much of the basic infrastructure has been crippled. moving supplies on land or by air is severely hampered as we saw when we toured the devastation by helicopter. the red cross director showed us the worst hit areas sendai closest to the earthquake epicenter. what is the biggest need right now? >> for the moment it would be search and rescue. for the next few days and then next comes distribution of water and food

clarissa? >> reporter: diane, behind me is a high school, which is now acting as a temporary shelter for some 400 people, and we passed dozens of shelters like this as we made our journey across some of the hardest hit areas. pushing up north the chaos and clamor of traffic-filled streets give way to ghost towns. so we're just now getting to some of the most devastated areas, and the first thing you notice is how eerily quiet it is here. this place literally feels deserted, and the devastation is just enormous. i mean, there are trees uprooted, houses crumpled, doorways blocked completely and another thing we're really noticing now is we push up into the north is the smell. more and more i can smell ais we push up into the north is the smell. more and more i can smels we push up into the north is the smell. more and more i can smell decomposing bodies. along this stretch of coast there is almost no power and little food or water. what there is is devastation. memories of a home consigned to rub

clarissa ward, abc news, sendai. >> our thanks to clarissa ward and our team in sendai tonight. >>> of course that's just one of the cities all along the coastline that dealt with the wrath from that tsunami. tonight, christiane amanpour flies over the devastation for a first-hand look. she's here with us in japan, as well. christiane? >> reporter: david, this morning, japan is on high nuclear alert. as the government races to cool down two nuclear reactors. and the government is also racing to save lives. it has doubled its rescue operation from 50,000 personnel to 100,000. with search and rescue operations now under way in many parts of the earthquake/tsunami zone, we wonder how much of the country is effected by this kind of chaos and destruction. the helicopter's taking on fuel and we're going up to the sendai earthquake zone. japan is not a massive country, but part of that sendai area is quite remote. some of the roads have been damaged. there are mountains in the greater area around there, and that's hampering not just assessment, but also relief and the delivery of supplies. on

>> clarissa reporting from japan tonight. clarissa ward. >>> and as martha said to us, another band of brothers in japan is being asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. more japanese workers being asked to go inside that plant and an almost certain death sentence. it is that last ditch effort to save their countrymen and david muir, just back from the quake zone, looks more closely tonight at the physical details of the danger they choose to face. >> reporter: we have not seen their faces yet, but the world knows their valor. and today, what appears to be the first words from one of the workers at fukushima. "in the middle of the tsunami alert last friday, at 3:00 a.m. in the night, when we couldn't even see where we were going, we carried on working to restore the reactors with the realization that this could be certain death. as the hours turned to days, fighting fatigue and empty stomachs, we dragged ourselves back to work. there are many who haven't gotten in touch with their family members." and they know what history has

clarissa ward, abc news, tokyo. >>> and, you just heard clarissa tell us about what's happening at the airports in tokyo. david muir is also there, reporting in tonight. david? >> reporter: diane, good evening from haneda airport. we're southwest of tokyo tonight and you can see one of the flights here behind me taking off. many people are trying to get out of this country. i talked with a number of americans who are flying out on our flight, a little later from now, who tell me that they're leaving the country, as well. one husband leaving his job early to go back to north carolina. another family, quite poignant, the father staying here to work, the little boys blowing him kisses. the wife, the mother, taking the kids on break. and he was quite honest with us, he said he hopes his family can return here in a week or two, to a much safer japan, though everyone knows that the situation at those nuclear power reactors is deteriorating. as we report in here from the airport. again, our flight takes off about 30 minutes from now. we'll see you back in new york. diane? >> all right, david,

and clarissa ward is in japan and tells us an entire nation stopped today. clarissa? >> reporter: diane, out on the street, we saw it everywhere we looked. amid so much loss, the people here taking a moment to pause to reflect, to catch their breath. sirens sound as leaders of parliament, whole towns in shelters, observe a moment of silence. for the exact minute, one week ago today, the earthquake shattered their country, the tsunami wiping away the life they knew. and today, a new look at just what it was like to be inside the tsunami, facing that wave of water. the car races and races but it is no match, submerged in an instant. today, in the wake of those waves, the search for the missing continued. 9-year-old toshihito aisawa has been searching for his family too. he carries two signs. one with the names of his mother, father and grandma. the other with a simple plea. "i will come back at 11:00 tomorrow, please wait." and across this devastated country, signs of hope. a u.s. aid plane arrives in yamagata. by air and by sea, aid rushing to so many in need. masayuki

abc's clarissa ward is in the hardest hit disaster zone reporting from the town of morioka. >> reporter: an extraordinary tale of survival. a 16-year-old and his 80-year-old grandmother trapped for nine days pulled out of the rubble alive. today the teenager tells how they managed to survive clutching kitchen towels to stay warm. a refrigerator collapsed near them. in it coca-cola, water and bites of food. there were snacks, he says, so i ate snacks. so we've just arrived in the city of akita, which is about a three-hour drive from some of those hardest hit areas, and we've already seen our first team of relief workers packing up this truck with fuel and with generators, desperately needed supplies. at kenreesa tuol hospital, we meet sotomi. she was nine months pregnant when the quake hit. did you feel the shaking of the earthquake? "it was shaking so hard i couldn't get up, so i just laid down on the ground" she tells me. "my heart was beating so fast." with her 2-year-old boy she fled to higher ground narrowly missing the 30-foot wave that swallowed most of her town. she was immediate

>> our thanks to clarissa ward. the prime minister in japan very aware of the rescue efforts there in sendai, and of course, of the nuclear power plant, the fear over the explosion here today, and our christiane amanpour is also on the ground in japan tracking that part of the story. >> reporter: quite clearly, this is the worst nuclear accident in japanese history and it may shape up to be one of the worst in the world ever. the prime minister of japan went on television and urged calm, saying the utmost priority for the nation is the safety of those people within the radiation zone. as you know, the evacuation order has now doubled to 20 kilometers or 13 miles around the nuclear power plant, and what we have seen lately are pictures on japanese television of people being treated for possible radiation sickness, people being tested. japanese officials in full protective gear with what looks like geiger counters measuring possible radiation on some of the civilians. while people here are coming to grips with what th

clarissa, good morning. i understand you have seen some truly horrific things. >> reporter: good morning, dan. that's right. we were in that devastated port area today. the police have now completely blocked that off because it's getting late here. and they say with such a high risk of further quakes, it is simply impossible for us to be there at night. the port of this modern city now almost like a war zone. soldiers watching over charred debris. plumes of smoke billowing from a burning refinery. [ sirens ] police and firemen pouring in to assess the enormous damage. this area was completely submerged by that wall of water coming with that force and just completely devastating this area. looking around, it's almost an apocalyptic landscape. you see here cars on top of houses literally. other houses completely crumpled. it's just hard to imagine how anyone possibly could have survived this. moments later a firemn orders people to immediately get out. sirens wail as we dash back to the car. residents of this

but i want to bring in clarissa ward, who covers asia for abc news, beuse you went to some of the moste regions and you saw some t things that both inspired and haunted you, i know. >> reporter: that's right, diane. just scene after scene of death and destruction. it's almost hard to convey with words the scope of this devastation. pushing up japan's coast, a series of surreal landscapes. boats swept miles inland, ships tipped on their side. now, the ocean is actually just under a mile in that direction, but looking behind me, you would never imagine that because huge swaths of this town are still completely submerged under water and, of course, it's impossible to know just how many people died here until that water recedes. the japanese army is just starting to come in to help, but for most aid workers, it is a logistical nightmare, hampered by roads blocked by debris. the japanese red cross tells us radiation concerns have not impacted their operations, but every radiation scare means more evacuees, more people without homes. there are simply so many people who need so much help. res

clarissa, i under you're about 100 mile as way. what are you seeing on the road? >> reporter: good morning. it's been an epic journey even trying to get here. we were diverted through three different cities. we've been traveling for more than 26 hours and we have now reached a point just less than 100 miles to the city of sendai. what's the most striking thing, when you look around here, the roads seem fine, the buildings look fine. there's electricity. but another 50 miles down the road. that is all expected to change when we get to a town called yamagata. which is being described as sort of the last frontier, an area people are coming in and regrouping and using as a staging ground before they go on to the affected areas. >> as you've gone through this epic journey, to use your term, have you seen a lot of people trying to get out of the area, and have you seen fear on the facials of the people you've met? >> we have seen a lot of cars coming and going, it's impossible to say whether they are fleeing the area. but the people we've talked to are certainly very, v

tonight, clarissa ward takes us back there, where she discovered a wall carefully built by the people there to protect themselves, in the end, did the opposite. >> reporter: they come every morning, baskets bundled on their backs, searching for scraps of their former lives. a shoe, an old photo album, any reminder of life before. "i knew her, she's dead," this woman tells me. "i should take this to her family." relief workers wading through muddied waters. sawing through mounds of debris. the people of taro actually built this 30-foot wall to protect them from a tsunami. but when that wave hit, it swept right over the top, completely wiping out everything in its path. and then the wall actually acted as a barrier, preventing that water from receding back out to sea. authorities here fear as many as 1,000 people may have drowned. some have given up their search. >> my friend and newborn baby, two days old, are under the sea. so, there's no way i can find her. >> reporter: others refuse to stop. hiromitsu sasaki cannot find his sister. "i will stay," he tells me, "until i find her." the

but our clarissa ward was able to travel there. >> reporter: there are scenes playing up up and down hundreds of miles of japan's coastline. we visited one of the hardest-hit areas, the city of sendai. that was a thrivin take a look at sendai's shoreline before the quake. and today, a wasteland. the air is thick with this acrid smoke coming from the refinery over there that's still burning. this tsunami took everything out in its path. from cars, which are strewn like toys, to traffic lights. for many, the devastation was almost too much to bear. we're a family because there is nothing here, this woman says. everything is gone. we've just been approached by a rescue worker who asked we be very careful when shooting this devastation here behind me. he says there are still a lot of dead bodies in those cthere's a need to and while there's a need to recover the dead, the rush is on to reach the living. countless people are stranded or homeless. sleeping in makeshift shelters. even for those who have not lost their homes, there are growing concerns over shortage of water, food and power.

abc news' clarissa ward reports from osaka japan, about 360 miles southwest of the plant. >> reporter: we've come down to the southern city of osaka, it's about 240 miles south of tokyo. the reason we've come here, of course, is because of that increasingly dicey situation at the nuclear plant in fukushima. the japanese military is now dumping water literally into a hole in the roof of reactor number three, caused by an explosion. and they were spraying water on reactor number four. they tried yesterday and had to abort due to high levels of radiation. all in an attempt to cool down the radioactive rods that are now fully exposed. all day long, the last line of defense against a full-on nuclear catastrophe has been a small group of employees, working deep inside the plant, armed with flashlights and hoses. it would be hard to describe how alarming this is right now, an american official told abc news. he said, everyone recognizes this is a suicide mission. the only glimpse of what was going on inside the plant came from their family members. "my husband is working, knowing he could be

abc's clarissa ward made her way to one of the hardest-hit areas. >> reporter: with all the aftershocksnslator is scared to join us on our drive up north. we're armed with only a few japanese phrases. where were you when the tsunami happened, i asked this woman. it washednica this morning. >> later on "good morning america," searching for the

clarissa joins us from japan. >> reporter: good morning, robin. this high school, home to 600 people, just some of the hundreds of thousands who have lost their homes. and officials at the shelter say it could be weeks, likely months, before they can get the people into temporary housing, so they can begin the process of trying to rebuild their lives. sifting through the pieces of their shattered lives. baskets bundled on their backs, they search for photo albums, memories of better days. i knew her, she's dead, this woman tells me. i should take this to her family. rescue workers saw through mountains of twisted metal and wood. this man came up from tokyo to look for his family. on sunday, they found his niece's body washed ashore. now, he looks every day for his sister. i will stay until i find her, he says. these men have been working around the clock for 11 whole days, since that tsunami devastated this entire town. they're going through painstakingly every area, trying to clear debris. looking for missing people. wading through high waters. a

clarissa reached the port city of sendai is better shown in pictures than described in words. >>> themodern city now almost like a war zone. soldiers watching over charred debris, plumes of smoke billowing from a burning refinery. police and firemen pouring in to assess the enormous damage. >> this area was completely sub mernd by that wall of water coming with that force and completely devastating this area looking around it's almost a terrible scene. cars are literally on top of houses. other houses completely crumpled. it's hard to imagine how anyone could have possibly survived in this 6. >> moments later a fireman orders people to get out. residents of the area have less than half an hour to get to higher ground. >> when i got home, i heard a neighbor shouting a tsunami is coming. when i got out of the house, i saw the tsunami approaching. today the roads are checked with ten block lines for gas now being rationed. countless homeless living in schools and hospitals. >> everything was turned upside-down after the tsunami. our house was gone. we lost everything. >> here in californ

>> okay, clarissa. thanks. >>> watching the nuclear disaster unfold in japan has all of us wondering whether our own nuclear facilities are safe. as a debate over whether to build more nuclear power plants continues. it turns out an unsettling number of reactors already online are located in earthquake zones. andrea canning joins us from michigan. good morning, andrea. >> reporter: good morning, george. here, they say trading is a big part of the reason why they've never had a serious accident at this plant. look at this amazing room we're in. this is a replica of the nerve center of this plant. they spend weeks here training every year. training for tornadoes and terrorist attacks. it was just after midnight when we gained access to the cooke nuclear power plant. after getting past multiple layers of security, we got a rare look at the facility that provides power to 1.5 million homes. but with japan's nuclear disaster on everyone's mind, we wanted to know how they keep the community safe here. >> ther

abc's clarissa ward takes us to the town of taro, which was nearly swept away by a giant wall of waterevery morning, baskets bundled on their backs, searching for scraps of their former lives. a shoe, an old photo album, any reminder of life before. "i new her. she's dead," this woman tells me. "i should take this to her family." relief workers wading through muddy waters. sawing through mounds of debris. the people of taro actually built this 30-foot wall to protect them from a tsunami. but when that wave hit, it swept right over the top, completely wiping out everything in its path. and then the wall actually acted as a barrier, preventing that water from receding back out to sea. authorities fear more than 1,000 people may have drowned. some have given up their search. >> my friend and newborn baby 2 days old are under the sea. so, there's no way i can find her. >> reporter: others refuse to stop. this man cannot find his sister. "i will stay, he tells me, "until i find her." the living returning home, hoping to salvage something from all that has been lost. clarissa ward, abc news,

good morning to you, clarissa. >> reporter: good morning.mi/quake disaster could cost japan as much as $235 billion. simply an infathomable number. relief workers continue to flood in to northern japan. desperately trying to get supplies to those who need them. at this hospital, we meet sumi from the coastal town. she was nine months pregnant when it hit. did you feel the shaking of the earthquake? it was shaking so hard, i couldn't get up. i just laid down on the ground. i was so scared. she fled to higher ground, narrowly missing the wave that destroyed most of her town. a few days later, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. but her happiness is tinged with fear and sadness. her mother-in-law, not heard from since her house was destroyed by the tsunami. i'm worried about her, she says. i have no idea where she is. yet, many are not as lucky as she. stranded in their villages because of crippling fuel shortages. as this hospital stands by, ready to treat them. >> i'm sad because i can't do nothing about them. i'm just waiting here. >> re

>> clarissa, thank you. >>> we want to turn now to our dr. richard besser. he's back to talk about the critical situation inside the evacuation zone and how radiation might affect the food supply. when sam was talking about how radiation flies through air, also can get particles in the water. how will this affect the people in japan? >> we have to be thinking about them. this red dye. we use it to represent radiation. this is a body of water. this is the exclusion zone. putting two drops of radiation into that water. you stir it up. you can see that the concentration, the level is fairly high. people in that zone, they need to be provided safe food and water. that's something to think about that. if you move that into a larger body of water, the same two drops of radiation. you start to see it's being diluted out. >> you can see that. >> you can see it. but it's much less concentrated. and looking at this tank. let's use this as an example of the ocean. putting the same amount in there. the same amount of radiation. and you stir that up. you can see it swirl

clarissa ward, abc news, tokyo. >>> and now here's a look at your friday forecast.nd rockies. a rainy day from st. louis to cincinnati. some scattered showers in northern maine, vermont and new hampshire. >> much warmer in the east. 65 in boston. 67 in new york. and 81 in miami. dallas gets up to 83. minneapolis, though, just 43. mostly 50s from the pacific coast into the rockies. >> and let me just gloat today about the weather. because i suffered through my first winter of being back up in the north like in the last -- >> brutal. >> -- 14 years, and today on local news they said it will be the first 70-degree day here in new york since october. >> so excited. >> the first 70-degree day since october. spring, i can smell it. thank you. >> we've all been sort of living in a snow cave that's just now starting to go away. >> thank you, thank you. >> very happy about that. another story coming up, you're very happy. >> i can't get enough. >> i think this was you. >> yeah, really. yeah, right. now, to a royal sum for the dress that helped kate middleton capture prince w

clarissa ward joins us from osaka with their stories. >> reporter: good morning, george.ell, the death toll from the earthquake and the tsunami now over 6,400, with more than 10,000 people missing. and for those survivors, there is confusion and isolation. so many of them simply don't know where to go or what to do. heads were bowed and tears flowed just hours ago, as the people of japan observed a moment of silence. it commemorated the shattering devastating week of loss their country has endured since the earthquake struck. these new images of the moment the tsunami hit, at people ran for their lives. and the devastating aftermath. thousands continue to evacuate from the danger zone. including this 28-year-old american who had been living in sendai. >> we've been advised by the u.s. ambassador. and by a nuclear expert friend of mine, that we should get out for now. >> reporter: further away from ground zero, others are searching for safety, as well. at the osaka train station, we find a family of four arriving from tokyo. if i trust what the government is saying, it cou

clarissa word is in china. >> reporter: good morning. that 5.1 earth quake hit at 1:00 local.orts there are people buried beneath the rubble. there are firefighters and policemen and soldiers working together to try to rescue trapped survivors. the chinese army has sent some 400 soldiers there to facilitate those rescue efforts. but it's important to remember this is a very remote area of china. it's way down on the border with myanmar. and it's an area prone to earthquakes. since january alone, just in the last 2 months, there have been some 1,200 registered tremors in that county. so certainly an area that is used to dealing with high seismic activity. juju. clarissa ward, thanks. >>> for the first time in 50 years, the fda has approved a new treatment for lupus. benlysta offers new hope for americans suffering from the disease, which causes the immune system to attack joints and organs. >>> jared loughner has come face-to-face with some of the victims he's accused of shooting in january. during his first court appearance in tucson, he smiled and pleaded not guilty to dozens

clarissa ward, abc news, morioka. >> amazing. >>> the suspect in a tucson shooting rampage has been orderedswoman gabby giffords. videotapes of the evaluation will be shared with prosecutors and defense. >>> this next story might sound funny but it's really not. san antonio police were out in force after an enraged taco bell customer fired an air gun at restaurant employees and then barricaded himself in a hotel room. the man was apparently upset over a price hike for his seven burritos. after a standoff police used tear gas to force the suspect out. he's now facing charges of attempted murder. >>> residents of a riverfront apartment complex in southern maine found themselves a lot closer to the water than they ever wanted to be. they were forced to evacuate after a breach in a dam sent water gushing by their building. the water never seeped inside their building but it did come just inches below window level. engineers are hoping to stop the breach by the end of the week. but if you wanted a waterfront property, there you go. >> great view of the water. >>> here now is a look at your tuesd

>> we do, clarissa. that's part of the reason why japan's prime minister said the country is facing its worst crisis since world war ii. >>> rescuers search for survivors as the death toll mounts by the minutes. the u.s. and dozens of other countries are rushing search squads in to help. our christiane amanpour is just outside of tokyo with this side of the story. christiane? >> reporter: robin, exactly that. race to find survivors. we spoke to the prime minister's office about it today in tokyo they told us they have doubled the number of japanese self-defense forces. in the biggest deployment ever to try to find survivors. and we asked one of the officials in the prime minister's office, how many towns and villages may have been destroyed, that person just burst into tears. it was really very poignant. and still, there are incredible stories of survival. this man waited on top of what's left of his home. more than 48 hours later, the 60-year-old man's prayers were answered. floating nearly 10 miles off

as we were this the air over the sendai area, our colleague clarissa ward had reached sendai. she gives us a snapshot of what she saw while we were in the air. >> one of the first things we noticed was the amount of traffic. literally, ten-block lines of cars waiting for gas, which is now being rationed. long lines of people waiting outside of convenience stores. it's been two days since that quake. people are getting anxious that supplies are dwindling. but for the most part, this area of the city looks pretty normal. some electricity. traffic lights seemed to be functioning. it was when we hit the port area that we saw the scope of the devastation. that area felt like war zone. sirens wailing. soldiers pouring into the area trying to assess is damage. smoke billowing up into the sky. it's almost impossible to describe the level and scope of the devastation. the process of trying to get into the city turned out to be quite an epic journey. we're on our way to the city of sendai. we've been traveling 36 hours. we've been diverted through three cities. japan's internal transpor

but clarissa ward got some better news this morning. >> reporter: good morning, george. well, overnight, we traveled up by a small fishing village called manami sunraki. where there was a brief moment of good news. today in japan, what many may call a miracle, in the remote town of manami sunraki. a town completed washed out. people were feared dead. people remain missing, 1,000 confirmed dead. in a long this stretch, there is no power and little food and water. >> we are tinning our push up to the north. but it is incredibly difficult, because so many of these roads are blocked off, and you have to approach them on foot. actually, you can see a perfect example here, the road has literally collapsed, and almost entirely swallowed up this car. thousands of homeless are flooding into shelters. >> is your wife okay? >> this 81-year-old man grabbed on to a floating log before rescuing his wife. we went up to the roof and waited 15 hours before a helicopter rescued us, he told me. even in these times of hardship, we found moments of community and compassion. this father and d