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 mini

nagano, the snow and ski resort there. it wasn't his responsibility to talk about any potential damage that occurred there. an operational member of rapid uk charity was involved in the search and rescue, 75,000 people lost their lives in that earthquake. you have been following this since the moment it broke. >> from the u.s. geological survey, it is a particularly high magnitude. we are trying to get reports from the country as to the levels of damage. because it might be a high magnitude, but it doesn't necessarily indicate severe damage. they're trying to find information of how bad the damage is, and we will put the offer of assistance to that country. there has to be a diplomatic process that we go through. we have gone through that process and offer our assistance to the japanese government for that. we all have day jobs that we do outside of rapid uk. it is something for our organization, we are quite small. it can help us maintain the ability to respond. >> there are a couple of particular areas, the earthquake se

and in the mountains near nagano, the ground crumbled beneath the railroad tracks. there are even fears about avalanches. and we will come back to this special live west coast edition of "nightline." we'll talk to our reporter based in tokyo. and for americans desperately seeking information about loved ones in japan. ooh, a brainteaser. how can expedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotels know they can't fill every room every day. like this one. and this one. and oops, my bad. so, they give expedia ginormous discounts with these: unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin' hotel, for less. my brain didn't even break a sweat. where you book matters. expedia. hi i'm chanelle pickens. i was tired of living in my apartment and decided hey let's go buy a house! i could go to quickenloans.com and sign all of the paper work i needed to take care of. it was nice to being able to call them whenever i needed to answer questions. quicken loans made everything super convenient and easy. so the fact that they could work with my schedule was just wonderf

a powerful 6.8 after shack leveled buildings in nagano that hosted the olympics. the force of the quake caused snow covered roofs to collapse. in someplaces roads actually split in two. in some cases they were raised up a few inches. >> that is the sound of the quake rattling a roof in japan. the earthquake shook for two and a half minutes and the man who shot this video says the shaking was so hard it was difficult to stand while holding the camera. you can see the tiles falling off the roof. and then the shaking stops. and everything is calm. this may be the first time the world has ever seen pictures like this. the power of a tsunami in action. and coming up at 10:30, the moment it hit and the devastation still being tallied tonight. >>> four california counties are under a state of emergency tonight after the japan quake generate add tsunami that reached the west coast of the united states killing at least one person and causing millions of dollars in property damage. the tsunami that roared east and south from the island struck hawaii in the early morning hou

a powerful 6.8 after shack leveled buildings in nagano that hosted the olympics. the force of the quake caused snow covered roofs to collapse. in someplaces roads actually split in two. in some cases they were raised up a few inches. >> that is the sound of the quake rattling a roof in japan. the earthquake shook for two and a half minutes and the man who shot this video says the shaking was so hard it was difficult to stand while holding the camera. you can see the tiles falling off the roof. and then the shaking stops. and everything is calm. this may be the first time the world has ever seen pictures like this. the power of a tsunami in action. and coming up at 10:30, the moment it hit and the devastation still being tallied tonight. >>> four california counties are under a state of emergency tonight after the japan quake generate add tsunami that reached the west coast of the united states killing at least one person and causing millions of dollars in property damage. the tsunami that roared east and south from the island struck hawaii in the early morning hou

it is on the western front, on the japan csi, a lark -- around nagano prefecture. there's a very popular hot spring around a that a lot of europeans might know of who have traveled to japan. it was apparently a 6.6. there was an earthquake there a couple years ago that did a lot of damage and killed a lot of people as well. the concern now is that the fault lines are so active, and when is the next one going to hit and where? >> you're also dealing with dozens of aftershocks following the main earthquake that took place about 14 hours ago, aren't you? >> that is right. what is amazing about this is that this is not on the pacific ocean side. this is completely on the other side of the mountain ranges of the country. it has got a lot of people spooked here in tokyo. we do not feel that we're out of trouble yet. we're still worried that there could be a direct hit on the city here as well. >> what is the latest on this situation at the nuclear power facility? >> well, the last report was that the government said that they believe they have it more under control, they

. >> i know nagano holds a special place in your heart.sted the olympic games and a special moment for me, everything that's going on is horrible. >> the world skating championships were to be in japan next week. i assume that's on hold now. must be difficult for the athletes who trained so hard. >> i can't imagine you work all year for this one event. hopefully they will reschedule. >> tell us about a skate camp you are organizing for kids. >> i would love to give back and teach and help kids learn what i did from my coaches and have the whole camp together by this summer, hopefully. >> all right. we have a treat in store, tara. you're going to give us a performance. as you get ready, we know you will perform to ben harper's "forever." here's tara lipinski on the ice. ♪ ♪ >>> a beautiful performance from tara lipinski, olympic gold medalist. we're back with more of "today" after your local news. >>> good friday morning to you. 8:56 right now. i want to check in with mike with a look at our morning commute. it was a soggy start. >> it was