Japan's crippled coastline

Japan shaken to the core

Four days ago, Otsuchi was just another Japanese coastal town, a destination for surfers and lovers of remote beaches. Now, only a supermarket and a Buddhist temple remain standing amid a sea of devastation. Like most of Japan's northeast, Otsuchi was rattled by massive earthquake and then flattened by the ensuing tsunami. Officials fear more than half the town's population of about 19,000 is buried under the rubble. "Otsuchi reminds me of Osaka and Tokyo after World War Two," Tadateru Konoe, president of Japan's Red Cross, said.

The extent of devastation

Fires burned in the hills overlooking Otsuchi, complicating rescue efforts. Near-freezing temperatures, and the extent of the devastation, made chances for surviving this disaster slim. "It really doesn't get any worse than this - I've never seen anything so bad," said Patrick Fuller of the Red Cross. "I don't think you will find anywhere worse on the coastline." All along the ravaged northeastern Pacific coast, there were similar scenes of destruction. The wall of water transported homes inland, swept ships into fields, upended cars and, in one instance, lifted a sailing boat onto the roof of a house. 

Worse than 2004 tsunami?

In Minami Sanriku, Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters photographer Adrees Latif said the whole town had been wiped out by the waves. More than 10,000 people were unaccounted for, but some families who lived in the surrounding hillside survived and could be seen scrambling across the rubble to get to what once was the centre of town. "I have seen similar disasters - I covered the (2004 Indian Ocean) tsunami from Thailand - but I have never seen anything like this in my life," Latif said. "I stopped shooting for a while to look out on to the town, and I just stood there in disbelief." 

The misery continues

Many spent another freezing night huddled in blankets around heaters in shelters along the coast. Almost two million households were without power, the government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said food, water and other necessities such as blankets were being delivered by vehicles but because of damage to roads, authorities were considering air and sea transport. The Red Cross's Fuller said the priority must be on providing relief for the living. 

Unbelievable, but true!

In the town of Kuji, the Kita Nihon Zosen ship-parts factory was reduced to matchwood, but some staff turned up for work anyway and waited at the front gate, smoking cigarettes. One young worker at the ship parts factory explained why he was there. "Because it's a work day," he said. When the earthquake hit, factory boss Teruo Nakano sent a few workers to look at the sea level. "Just after the quake, the water level was already a meter lower, so we thought 'this is bad' and escaped immediately to higher ground," he said. All the workers survived.