Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Japan Searches for Survivors; Food, Water Supplies Low

   VOA News  March 15, 2011
   An  injured  survivor  searches for food at a destroyed supermarket in
   Otsuchi, Japan, March 15, 2011.

Photo: Reuters

   An  injured  survivor  searches for food at a destroyed supermarket in
   the devastated residential area of Otsuchi, Japan, March 15, 2011.

   There  is  not  much  left on the shelves in northern Japan, four days
   after  an  earthquake  and  horrific  tsunami  wiped  out  swathes  of
   northeast Japan, killing thousands, crippling power plants, wiping out
   roads, and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
   Television  pictures on Tuesday from hard-hit Sendai show people lined
   up  for water, canned food, and some stores rationing food sales to 10
   items per person.

   In  Koriyama,  in  the Fukushima area where the crippled nuclear power
   plant  is  leaking  radiation, people have fled the region. Others are
   living  in  damaged  homes  or  trying  to  repair  their houses. Most
   businesses have closed. One hardware store had a sign out warning they
   were out of tarp and water containers.

   Listen  to  this  interview  with  VOA's  Steve Herman, reporting from
   Koriyama

   Supplies  of  gasoline  are also running low and expressways have been
   closed off to all vehicles except for emergency traffic.
   Japan's  NHK  television  on  Tuesday  quoted  government officials as
   saying 3,091 are confirmed dead, but thousands more are missing.
   Rescue operation 
   Rescue crews still were struggling through debris-blocked roads to get
   to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  whose towns and villages were
   leveled by Friday's magnitude-9 earthquake and a subsequent tsunami.
   Millions  more  are  in  need of of food, water and electricity, while
   relief  efforts  are  complicated  by  the  widespread  destruction of
   infrastructure.  Authorities  say  they  are also desperately short of
   coffins  and  body  bags for the earthquake victims, many of which are
   washing up on northeastern beaches.
   The  government  says  15,000  people  have  already  been rescued and
   450,000  have  been  evacuated  nationwide.  Of the missing, many may
   have been washed out to sea by the 10-meter tsunami.

   Aftershocks continue
   People shop for food at a nearly empty store in Tokyo, March 15, 2011.

Reuters

   People  shop  for  food from an almost empty shelf at a store in Tokyo
   March 15, 2011.

   Further  south  in  the  capital  Tokyo, aftershocks are still shaking
   buildings  every  hour  or  so. Mayo Issobe, who lives in the suburbs,
   told  VOA there had been a run on toilet paper, batteries and gasoline
   as people started to stock up against shortages.

   But  mostly  she  said  people  felt  hopeless  against  the  level of
   devastation,  saying "there is a limit to what you can worry about and
   what you can do. Life goes on," she said.

.