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Friday, March 11, 2011

* Quake, wall of water kill at least 44
    * Now Pacific islands at threat from tsunami
    * Houses, ships, cars tossed around like toys
   
    By Chisa Fujioka and Elaine Lies
    TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) - The biggest earthquake to hit
Japan on record struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering
a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path,
including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings on fire.
    The Red Cross in Geneva said the wall of water was higher
than some Pacific islands and a tsunami warning was issued for
almost the entire Pacific basin.
    At least 44 people had been killed in the quake and tsunami
in Japan, broadcaster NHK said, adding that many were missing.
The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of Japan's
coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly.
    The 8.9 magnitude quake, the most powerful since Japan
started keeping records 140 years ago, caused many injuries and
sparked fires while the tsunami prompted warnings to people to
move to higher ground in coastal areas.
    "The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in
northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters.
    Some nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down
and a refinery was ablaze.
             


    Around 4.4 million homes were without power in northern
Japan, media said. A hotel collapsed in the city of Sendai and
people were feared buried in the rubble.
    A ship carrying 100 people had been swept away by the
tsunami, Kyodo news agency added.
    Electronics giant Sony Corp , one of the country's
biggest exporters, shut six factories, as air force jets raced
toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the
damage. 
    The Bank of Japan, which has been struggling to boost the
anaemic economy, said it would do its utmost to ensure financial
market stability as the yen and Japanese shares fell.
    "I was terrified and I'm still frightened," said Hidekatsu
Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo, where
buildings shook violently. "I've never experienced such a big
quake before."
    The Philippine and Indonesia issued tsunami alerts, reviving
memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. The
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for countries to
the west and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and
Peru.
    The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world
in the past century.
    There were several strong aftershocks. In Tokyo, there was
widespread panic. An oil refinery near the city was on fire,
with dozens of storage tanks under threat.
    "People are flooding the streets. It's incredible. Everyone
is trying to get home but I didn't see any taxis in Ginza, where
there are usually plenty," said Koji Goto, a 43-year-old Tokyo
resident.
    TV footage showed a muddy wall of water carrying debris
across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of
Sendai, which has a population of one million. Ships in once
coastal area were lifted from the sea into a harbour where they
lay helplessly on their side.
    Sendai is 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo and the
epicentre at sea was not far away.
    NHK television showed flames and black smoke billowing from
a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the
north of the country were halted.    Thick smoke was also
pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. TV
showed residents of the city running out of shaking buildings,
shielding their heads with their hands from falling masonry.
    TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks tossed around like
toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi
in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to
have collapsed and cars were turning around and speeding away. 
Kyodo said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves
carried cars across the runway at the airport.
    "The building shook for what seemed a long time and many
people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under
their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo.
"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan
more than 20 years ago."
    The U.S. navy said its ships had been unaffected by the
tsunami and were ready to provide disaster relief if needed.
China offered to provide earthquake relief.
    The quake struck just before the Tokyo stock market closed,
pushing the Nikkei down to end at a five-week low. Nikkei
futures trading in Osaka tumbled as much as 4.7 percent in
reaction to the news.
    The disaster also weighed on markets elsewhere.
   
    GREAT KANTO QUAKE    The quake was the biggest since records
began 140 years ago, according to the Japan Meteorological
Agency. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923,
which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people
in the Tokyo area.
    The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was
the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage
from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10
billion.
    Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed
other passengers' hands during the quake. The shaking was so bad
it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.
    Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into
Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown
Tokyo.
    Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were
flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a
drugstore.
    Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to
the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first
quake subsided, crowds watched and pointed to construction
cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying,
"They're still shaking!", "Are they going to fall?"
    Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a
coffee shop when the quake hit.
    "The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh
in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn't believe such a big
earthquake was happening in Tokyo."
    The U.S. Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of
7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east
of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to
8.9.
    Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has
suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake
struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area
killed more than 3,000 people.
    Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's mostismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20
percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
(Writing by John Chalmers and Miral Fahmy; Tokyo bureau and Asia
Desk, Editing by Dean Yates; Singapore +65 6870 3815)

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