ian williams, nbc news, rikuzentakata. >>> that's our report for this friday night. thank you for being with us. i'm lester holt. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and right back here tomorrow night. good night, everyone. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

ian williams, nbc news, with navy relief operations in northeast japan. >> and back here in new york, that's our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. and we hope, of course, to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> down pours and nasty wind bringing town trees, power line, hillsides. tonight we keep you ahead of the storm and help your family avoid treacherous travel. nbc bay area news at 6:00 starts right now. good evening. thanks for joining us on this soggy night. >> a messy and miserable day across the bay area. wind toppling trees

ian williams, nbc news, otsuchi. >>> as you may have heard, the quake actually moved japan slightly to the east and lowered the level of the land in many places. and when we talk about the japan quake being felt around the world, here's what we mean. it took 34 minutes for the shaking in japan to reach florida. we know that because groundwater measurement gauges in south florida all registered what they're calling an unusual oscillation, meaning the needles jumped all over the place and continued to for over two hours. the water management folks in south florida said those same instruments also picked up the nearby haiti quake right after it happened last january. >>> when we come back here tonight, the calendar says spring, but apparently nobody informed mother nature. >>> the second day of spring arrived with dramatic special effects in washington, d.c., this morning. a wild electrical storm produced spectacular cloud-to-ground lightning today, all of it captured by time lapse photography, but we couldn't speed up the thunder the same way. as d.c. watched the show overhead, new jerse

ian williams, nbc news, miyako. >>> meantime, the desperate effort to stop the radiation disaster at that nuclear plant north of tokyo is showing some signs of progress tonight, but the nuclear threat is far from over and the newest evidence is in the food supply. nbc's robert bazell now with that part of the story. >> reporter: as they struggle to contain the radiation, engineers now have some kind of water supply going at all of the reactors. for now, water temperature and pressure is either holding steady or falling in each of them. >> translator: we've been making some sure and steady progress. >> reporter: but radiation at the site remains high. spreading contamination has been showing up in milk and some vegetables, first spinach, now other leafy vegetables. the government has banned all milk shipments from the area near the reactors. but vegetables with low levels of radiation have been found far from the site. and even if the health risks are considered low, there is growing concern. at a tokyo market we spoke with kyoko kanu, who told us she's worried about the effects of ra

ian williams, nbc news, misawa. >> former secretary of state warren christopher has died.op diplomat for decades. he helped win lease of the american hostages in iran and bring peace to bosnia. secretary of state hillary clinton called him one of the giants. christopher died of complications of kidney and bladder cancer, he was 85. >> when we return here tonight we'll lighten up a bit. why you will want to look up at the moon tonight. he was 85. >> when we return here tonight we'll lighten up a bit. why you will want to look up at the moon tonight. moon tonight. iates ranked us "highest in customer satisfaction in the united states." so, we thought we'd take a little time to celebrate. ♪ all right, then, back to work helping clients. outstanding client service. just one more example of how everything we do at quicken loans is engineered to amaze. sounds like a mini-wheats day to me! and becka's science fair is on the 8th. she's presenting the solar system. hey, i've got just the wholegrain fiber to keep her full so she can stay focused. um, you rock. she'll be ready to roc

our report from nbc's ian williams. >> reporter: u.s. plans for a massive relief operation have also been overshadowed by japan's escalating nuclear crisis. >> i know they're looking at several different options. something a little bit closer but not too close to, obviously, what's going on with the reactor plants. >> reporter: marines are looking to set up a forward base at yamagata. that needs japan's agreement. today they were still negotiating over the size and scope of the operation. >> if our number's called, we're ready to assist in any way possible. >> what kind of stuff could you bring in? >> a variety of stuff, all the way from search and rescue to food and supplies. >> reporter: hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes along japan's devastated northeast coast. japanese officials have told us they face a critical shortage of water, blankets and medicine. the u.s. has already conducted helicopter missions along the battered coastline, finding isolated communities of survivors. >> we found essentially hun

brian. >> ian williams in northern japan as our coverage of this will continue. that's our broadcast for now on this thursday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> right now at 6:00, team coverage tonight, including the fears that radiation will reach the united states. >> we want to give you a live look now at one of the only three japan towns in the entire united states. two here in the bay area. tonight there's a vigilance for one of them and it's about to get started. >>> we begin with breaking news out of richmond. it's a delicate story regarding church and foreclosure. police are

ian williams in tokyo and saw for himself how impossible it is to move around parts of japan today. ian, good morning. >> good morning, amy. the threat of a nuclear disaster comes as japan is only beginning grasp the full and terrible extent of the destruction from friday's tsunami. japan woke today to images of terrible destruction along its northwest coast. this country has done more than perhaps any other to prepare for this sort of disaster, but nothing could lessen the shock from these scenes. the remains of towns, slammed by friday's 30-foot tsunami, which swept away houses, cars, ships, just about everything in its past. officials warned the death toll is expected to exceed 1,300 people. most of them drowned. up to 300 bodies found saturday along the coast of sendai. closest to the epicenter of the 8.9 quake, strongest ever in japan. a huge operation to rescue those still stranded. helicopters plucking desperate survivors from rooftops of homes engulfed by water. 300 people waiting to be rescued from this hospital, where they had been marooned amid the ruins. we tried to escap

my colleague, ian williams, is there. >> reporter: all along this coast there are reminders of the raw power of the tsunami. this fishing boat, one of several ripped from its moorings and simply dumped by the side of the road. this city survived the tsunami better than most, but here more evidence of the toll suffered by japan's elderly. they're exhausted and shaken, said the manager of this evacuation center. japan is a rapidly aging society. nowhere more so than in these devastated coastal communities. and the relief effort will increasingly have to focus on them. >> reporter: the snow and cold are still hindering efforts to get help to the furthest pockets of need. u.s. marines specially trained for bad weather flew supplies into yamagata today. international rescuers have little hope of finding any more survivors, but they are sustained by the measure of comfort they can provide to some anxious loved ones. >> yesterday we found a young girl's body, an 8-year-old girl. we were able to send that back to her family. >> reporter: amid debris, there are what seemed like small miracles.

nbc's ian williams saw the devastation firsthand. >> it's hard to imagine but until friday this wasteland was a busy residential neighborhood. they have no idea how many bodies are buried here. >> reporter: for the living a nightmare. millions are without clean water, electricity, adequate first aid or shelter in the mid-march cold. somehow, the japanese sense of order prevails, but the trauma in people's faces is plain to see. hospitals and shelters are completely overwhelmed. driving out of tokyo tonight at the height of rush hour, the traffic was amazingly light. we soon discovered why. all the gas stations are closed. at this highway rest stop, all we've seen are convoys of emergency vehicles, all of them heading north. many roads are impassable. train service in many parts of the country is nonexistent. four trains full of passengers are still missing, swallowed up by the tsunami. japan's $5 trillion economy, the third largest in the world, has been staggered by the disaster. insurance losses are estimated at $35 billion and counting. and there is no price on the loss of loved ones.

ian williams is in northern japan today where the recovery efforts continue. ian is with american p troops helping in the cleanup efforts. >> reporter: good morning. today we've joined volunteers from a local u.s. military base wanting to play their part in cleaning up the debris from the tsunami. they came from the air force and army as well as civilians from the base moved by the plight of their japanese neighbors. ? sgl if there is wetness over there, stay out of the liquids. there might be chemicals in the area. >> reporter: the battered port area including cars thrown into the local forest. >> the chance to get out here and help our neighbors, it's important. we needed to come. >> we're all out here helping and i'd do it every day until they get it back. >> reporter: this area survived the tsunami better than most. at least there is something left to clean up. further down the coast, entire communities have been wiped from the map. and there are reports of critical 140r9ages of food, water, medicine and heating oil. the u.s. has offered to help japan in ev

ian williams has made his way there and has this report for us. >> reporter: it remains difficult to reach the worst-affected areas so we traveled as far north as the helicopter could take us. then a further two hour drive brought us to sendai, the closest city to the epicenter of friday's huge quake and this. the muddied and shattered remains of homes and vehicles swept away by a tsunami that here reached around 2 miles inland destroying just about everything in its path. one of the worst affected areas, this industrial land housing zone around the airport. this is the parking lot of the sendai flying school, now amid the wrecks cars sits this training aircraft dumped here by the wave swept from the hangars over the back there. soldiers and rescue workers scoured the area on the ground and in the air. the authorities say they found 300 bodies in just one area close to here. we found desperate relatives searching for missing family members. this couple looking for a sister. while others struggle to navigate around the neighborhood brutally reshaped by the force of nature. the ground'

ian williams is in yamagatu, japan, with more. rescue teams are only just beginning to reach some of the worst affected areas close to sendai where the tsunami laid waste to entire coastal towns. this is what remains of the coastal district, once home to 10,000 people. here they had half an hour between the quake and the tsunami. 30 desperate minutes to get out. it's hard to imagine that until friday this wasteland was a busy residential neighborhood. they have no idea how many bodies are buried here. for now the priority is simply to gain access to some of the worst affected areas. clearing a path through the debris. in their wake, rescue teams made slow, methodical progress. the dogs trained to detect bodies still alive. there have been none today. some of those who escaped before the wave hit returned today to search for missing relatives. miwa saito was looking for her brother but was overwhelmed by the scenes around her. the. shikawa family was more lucky. they lost their mother but found her sunday. the family home was one o