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Third Explosion at Japan's Nuclear Plant; Japan Stock Market Plunges; What's Going on Inside Reactors; Fact Check on Nuclear Plant Safety; Evidence of Tsunami's Power in City Streets; The World Sends Aid to Japan

Aired March 15, 2011 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We begin in Japan and the fear that the world could be inching closer to a nuclear disaster. Earlier this morning there was a third explosion at a damaged nuclear plant. Japan's government says the current level of radiation will not cause harm to human health. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us in a few minutes with a look at that.

All morning, the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has been climbing. The latest figure from the government, nearly 3,400 bodies have been recovered, thousands more may still be buried.

And Japan's economy is reeling Overnight Japan's stock market plunged. The NIKKEI index has lost 10 percent of its value since this time yesterday. Explosions, fires, and a possible meltdown in several of the reactors. Even nuclear experts say this crisis is rapidly descending into unchartered territory.

CNN's Stan Grant has been diligently following all the latest developments. He joins us now from Tokyo.

So, Stan, what's going on now and what exactly is the Japanese government saying?

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, this takes twists and turns almost by the hour, let alone by the day. Let me focus in on two things that occurred today.

There was an explosion in the number two reactor. There are concerns that this may have caused some damage to the containment vessel. Now that's important in the case of a full meltdown because that is the last line of defense in keeping in the nastier radiation inside the plant and not seeping into the atmosphere.

Then there was a fire in reactor number four. What appears to have happened here in this disabled reactor was that there was so much heat generated that a pool of water in which there was spent fuel rods evaporated.

Those fuel rods, according to an electricity company here, may then have ignited causing this fire. That led to a sharp spike in the radiation levels. It jumped to a level we have not seen at all previously in the four days of this crisis. That was contained within the plant itself. Now as you say outside the plant, those levels have come down. The government is saying they're no longer pose a danger to people but there is this 20-kilometer, 12 or 13-mile exclusion zone that's also been expanded to 30 kilometers now. The prime minister telling people, stay inside, keep your windows shut, keep your doors shut, and try to stay away from any contact with radiation.

The government has entered unchartered territory. It's battling on multiple fronts here. People have to trust in the word of the government, whether they are telling the full truth, whether they're getting the full story here, but on top of that they have trust in metal and steel within this reactor, within this plant to hold in the event of the worst outcome, a full meltdown. That's a lot to trust on when you're sitting on the outside looking in -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You're not kidding. Stan Grant live in Tokyo.

There is a ton of information coming out of Japan but it's often confusing and contradictory especially when it comes to Japan's nuclear crisis. There are reports that Japan's prime minister frustrated with Tokyo Electric Power, now personally taking control of crisis management from the utility company which begs the question, do we really know what's happening at Fukushima?

Jim Walsh, international security expert and CNN contributor, is here to help us to clarify this, if you can.

So, Jim, let's start here. Is there a crack in this containment vessel? The last line of defense, so to speak?

JIM WALSH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, that's the big development over the past 24 hours, that and the fire. The government has said that that is possible. So -- and they've never said that before. We do not know for a fact that it is true. There is some circumstantial evidence that might suggest that it is true. But we can't confirm that.

So I think we should be cautious on this one because this is a critical detail. If, as Stan just reported that containment vessel is breached, then that is the last line of defense that would be holding the reactor rods and the radiation inside that vessel.

You know, Three Mile Island, when it had its problem, the containment vessel held and while there was some radiation out there, it did not -- the core did not leak out into the environment. So that's the difference here.

You know we're sort of hoping for Three Mile Island as ironic as that is. We're hoping that the containment vessel works and keeps most of that radiation inside the reactor.

COSTELLO: OK. So that's a crazy, scary thought.

I wanted to ask you. I know that the workers near the plant have been evacuated. Are there any human beings there physically? WALSH: Yes. The answer is yes. And they evacuated most of the workers but 50 workers remained. And I mentioned this before. You know the power company, the utility has had all sorts of problems historically. One could criticize how it's handled things this time around.

I know they are in a difficult situation and, as you alluded to, the prime minister is stepping in. But that may or may not be true. But the workers, the people are staying at the plant. They are brave. They are risking their lives. They may pay the ultimate price for staying behind when others are evacuating.

And they're doing that because they're trying to keep this from getting worse. They're trying to protect their country and protect their community and, you know, my heart goes out to them because they are in a very, very difficult situation.

COSTELLO: Jim Walsh, thanks.

It begs the question again, could something like this happen in the United States? And Jim will join us again in about 10 minutes with a fact check on nuclear plant safety here in the United States.

The Japanese government is warning today spike in radiation was dangerously high so what exactly does that mean?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us on the phone with some perspective.

Sanjay, I understand you're now in Akita, Japan, and that's a safer distance from Sendai, from the Fukushima plant. Why did you decide to move farther away from the plant?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, you know I think this had to do with just being careful. Not necessarily fearful. I mean there was a couple of pieces of information that came out this morning, Carol, as you might have heard.

First of all, official spokes people saying that radiation levels had risen to the point where they could be -- could have an impact on human health.

We also heard that there were low levels of radiation detected, you know, some distance away from the Fukushima plant up to 175 miles away, for example, on the "USS George Washington."

So this was just sort of a collective decision to try and determine, you know, how to -- you know, best be careful in the sort of situation.

COSTELLO: For the people still living near that plant, I guess you have to stay 18 miles -- on an 18-mile radius. You know you have to stay outside of those bounds. The Japanese government says stay inside your homes.

Will that really protect you from radiation? GUPTA: Well, you know, it can, to some extent. If you think about protection from radiation it really breaks down to three sort of broad things. Time, so decrease in the time of exposure. Distance, which you mentioned. That means you want to be as far away. You know some distance away from the source of exposure.

And then what they call shielding. This idea that you can shield yourself, buildings, for example, can be a good source of shielding. There are other things that people can do. You know, carrying around a dosimeter, for example, something that can measure radiation, give you some signal as to how high radiation is around you.

Those are some, you know, relatively simple techniques, Carol.

COSTELLO: So when the government says there's a dangerous spike and then it dissipates from the air, how much danger are people in and what lasting effects could they have?

GUPTA: It's a great question. And I mean, you know, the numbers are probably important here. Even though it may seem like you're getting in the weeds, but the highest level reading today that we heard was 400 millisieverts.

Now that probably doesn't mean a lot to most people unless you put it in context. For example, getting an X-ray could be a couple millisieverts. Getting a CAT scan could be a couple hundred millisieverts. Just walking around what we call, sort of getting background radiation from the earth, from the sun, that can give you a few millisieverts in any given year.

You know they say that when you're talking about radiation sickness, becoming ill, it's usually getting a dose of like two and a half times that 400 number so closer to one full Sievert that can make someone nauseated, can make them vomit, can make them tired or and fatigued over a few weeks.

You start to get numbers higher than that, Carol, then you start to get some of the -- the much more severe consequences of radiation sickness and you know no one is talking about that yet but that's always in the back of people's minds.

COSTELLO: Really scary. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

As the nuclear crisis rises, Japan's stock market falls. Let's get to Christine Romans in New York.

So, Christine, are U.S. stocks in for a rough time as well?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They are. I mean we have futures on the Dow down 230 some points. It's been rock all morning.

World markets, Carol, are reacting to the disaster in Japan and you saw Japanese stocks, they had been down on Friday, they were down on Monday, and then again a huge decline overnight. They're closed now but they closed down more than 10 percent, 10.5 percent. The two days for the NIKKEI, that's the Japanese stock market. Two days combined was the biggest two-day drop since the crash of 1987. European stocks then went lower as well. U.S. futures went down.

I mean this is a major catastrophe still unfolding in the third largest economy in the world. It's going to have ramifications for demand for oil. Oil prices are down $3 here. Silver, copper, gold, palladium, these are things used in high-tech manufacturing. Those are all down.

Computer memory chips prices are going up because of disruptions in the supplies coming out of Japan. So this is just an example of just how globalized the world is and what happens in Japan really spilling around the world in its markets.

So we have about, you know, 21 minutes until we know what happens with U.S. stocks but they are indicated to open sharply lower here following Japan -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans, many thanks. Live from New York.

A quick check of other top stories for you now.

Turning to the civil war in Libya, pro-Gadhafi sources are pressing their offensive against opposition forces, re-taking the town of Zuwara. The "Los Angeles Times" is reporting that the rebel-held seaside city of Misrata is under an air, road and naval blockade, keeping food and medical supplies out.

Bahrain's king has just imposed a state of emergency following weeks of protest. This YouTube posted video from Bahrain shows police firing rubber bullets at demonstrators on Sunday. The Bahraini government has announced Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have sent troops into Bahrain.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is on her way to Egypt after meeting with the Japanese foreign minister in Paris. Clinton becomes the first Cabinet level U.S. official to visit Egypt since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. She will meet with youth activists who played an important role in the revolution.

General David Petraeus testifies today on Capitol Hill on the progress of the war in Afghanistan. It is his first appearance in the Washington hot seat since taking over as top general in Afghanistan. He met privately with President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday.

Lawmakers in the House are expected to vote on a temporary spending plan today. Yes, another one. Republicans want another $6 billion in cuts. If passed it keeps the government operating past Friday and gives Congress another three weeks to pass a final budget for the rest of the fiscal year.

There's a lot of focus on Japan's nuclear energy problems but how much do we know about how nuclear reactors work? Coming up, we'll have a closer look at the science behind nuclear energy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We've been talking about this all morning. An explosion at Fukushima's unit two reactor may have damaged the reactor's inner containment vessel and that is a serious issue.

Tokyo Electric Power advised everyone who lives within 18 miles of the plant to stay indoors for fear of radiation poisoning.

Jacqui Jeras is here to explain exactly what's going on inside that plant.

So much is going.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

COSTELLO: It's difficult to wrap your mind around.

JERAS: It is. It's a very complex thing. You know, and we make jokes about, you know, being a nuclear physicist to be able to understand things, right? So we're going to try and break it down as simply as we possibly can to hopefully help you get a better handle on what's been happening and what's going on and how this whole process works.

But the bottom line, as simple as we can say it, is that if things get too hot inside of the plant, a fire and an explosion will occur and that releases radiation and releases that big plume. And we've had three explosions now and one fire and so it's very concerned because this whole thing is basically compromised.

So it comes down to the fuel rods. The fuel rods -- this is where the uranium is encased in and this where the heat comes into place. These are control rods, which are inside of it, and those are supposed to, when it's all working properly, they're supposed to slow down or stop some of that process.

Water is all around that thing and creates steam. The steam, of course, causes pressure, which then, in turn, makes these turbines move, and then that is what causes electricity to happen. So, that's how the whole process works.

Now, those fuel rods are encased in what we call this main core, and that core is kind of the last line of defense sort of. This is -- if this thing is compromised, that's the problem, that's when things can get released, as well. So, as long as these are still in place, you're doing OK, but this is the area that we're concerned about, and this is the part that might have one of the cracks in it in one of those buildings. So, this is what we are looking for.

It's a very unstable situation. They've been pumping in, because the system hasn't been working, they've been pumping in sea water and boron to help cool the process down. And it's been interrupted at least twice and could, potentially, be the cause of some of those explosions that we had.

So, they're basically doing everything they can to try and keep this thing cool, but it's a very difficult thing. It's crazy hot. Basically, thousands of degrees, Carol. So, they're working around the clock to try and do that, but it's unstable and the risk is very, very high that something is yet to occur.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Jacqui. Scary stuff.

In light of what's happening at Fukushima, there's been a lot of talk about the safety of nuclear plants here in the United States. There are 104 plants throughout the country, 23 of them designed just like those in Japan.

We wanted to go deeper, so we interviewed an executive with the US nuclear industry, Tony Pietrangelo, yesterday. And he made some comments that kind of made us wonder. So, we want to bring in CNN contributor Jim Walsh for a fact check. So, welcome back, Jim.

JIM WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good to see you, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, my first question to Mr. Pietrangelo was about the structural integrity of US plants. So, let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY PIETRANGELO: We are designed to withstand the most severe seismic events or earthquakes as well as tsunamis, where applicable, and flooding. We have rules in place to deal with station blackout, which is what they're experiencing in Japan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I'm saying to myself, whew! But is it true?

WALSH: Well, technically, it is true, but it's worth remembering that Japan also had designed reactors to withstand the earthquake, and they did withstand the earthquake. But even having done that, they ran into other problems because they weren't table to get electricity and their backup systems failed on their cooling pumps.

So, are US plants designed to withstand high-impact earthquakes? Yes, they are. But despite that, you can have other things happen. So that's only part of the story.

COSTELLO: We also talked to Mr. Pietrangelo about safety drills. Hear what he -- here's what he had to say about those.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIETRANGELO: Every two years, every station undergoes an emergency planning exercise that is overseen by both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and FEMA. So, that's practiced every two years at every site across the nation.

In addition to that, there's local drills that are done. We have -- we're probably the gold standard of emergency planning, and a lot of other industries have learned from what we do at our stations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so that sounds good, too. But is it true?

WALSH: It is true. It's technically true. But, you know, drills are what you make of them. You can have a drill that's sort of walking through the motions, or you can have a drill that's serious and prepares you.

Again, he -- we're doing these drills once every two years. I wouldn't call that very frequently. But, in any case, it's true, but it all depends on how hard you work at it and how seriously you take it. Simply being required to do it probably doesn't get you there. You have to be really committed to it.

COSTELLO: Something else. I asked him about these pills. Like the government requires these pills to be passed out to people who live close to these plants in case something might happen. And Mr. Pietrangelo told me that, well, yes, they're kind of passed out and they're kind of not, and sometimes it's up to the states to pass them out. I asked him where I could get them, and he sort of didn't know. Do you know anything about that?

WALSH: Yes. You know, I'm glad you asked about that, and I think he's right. That is not the utility's responsibility, that has been state and local government.

But I think this whole pill thing is going a little crazy. We don't want to distribute the pills far in advance. People don't know how to use them, they wouldn't know when to use them, they could expire on the shelf and then they wouldn't be any good.

I know that -- we heard reports earlier on CNN this morning in "American Morning" suggesting that people are buying pills online. Please don't do that. That is just wasting your money. There's no way radioactive iodine from this problem in Japan is going get all the way to the United States in any way that would matter. Moreover, you wouldn't know when to take it.

So, I think the best policy here is to be prepared, have enough tablets stored in those areas where there are nuclear power plants, and then let local authorities distribute them at the time that they're needed with instructions on how to do it. This is not a do it on your own type project.

COSTELLO: OK. Good advice. OK, finally, I asked Mr. Pietrangelo if an 8.9 quake struck in the United States, would nuclear plants be safe? Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIETRANGELO: They're designed for the seismic events in their particular area. Obviously, the west coast plants are in a higher seismic area, so they're designed to higher standards than in the central and eastern United States.

But it's based on a historical look at what has happened in those specific areas, what kind of soil or rock they sit on. So, there's a lot of different attributes that go into the seismic design of those plants.

COSTELLO: Well, I --

PIETRANGELO: But they are very robust, and I think, as we've seen in Japan, despite the magnitude of that earthquake, they hold up quite well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so Jim, given the explosions we're seeing in japan, how can he claim their nuclear plants are holding up quite well?

WALSH: Well, what he's talking about is the structure of the plant itself. He's technically correct about that, as far as we know. Again, we're really not going to know for months or maybe even years until folks are able to get in and inspect those plants inch-by-inch to see what actually happened structurally.

But it appears, at least initially, that the plant, the plant core, the pressure vessel, the containment vessels, seem to have withstood the initial shock. The problem was that the tsunami came in and took out the power generation, so we weren't able to keep it cool. And we also weren't able, now we learn, to keep enough water inside the spent fuel ponds so that they wouldn't have problems.

Japan is not the United States. They're different countries. The US is much larger. So presumably, if we had a natural disaster, it would not affect the entire country like it affected Japan.

But there are some similarities, too. Some of our plants are on the ocean next to the water. We often build plants in cluster, like Japan has. And so, what we are learning sort of for the first time is, when you build a lot of reactors close together, and then several of them start having problems at the same time, then it's very hard to manage that.

And if there's a fire, as we saw like last night, and there's a lot of radiation, well, suddenly you have to pull back the workers at a time when you have lots of problems all in one place.

So, again, Japan is not the United States, but I think some of the issues are parallel, and we're going to have to learn lesson from Japan and apply them here in the United States if we want to continue to have nuclear power here.

COSTELLO: Fascinating stuff. Thank you so much. That's helped us so much. It's helped us understand so much. Jim Walsh, CNN contributor and international security analyst. Thank you, again, for joining us. We appreciate it.

WALSH: Thank you, Carol. COSTELLO: So much devastating news coming out of Japan, but this picture captures a moment of hope. An infant found alive in the rubble. In two minutes, we'll take you live to Japan's damaged coast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Fears of radiation aside, hundreds of thousands of people are dealing with more pressing matters, like finding shelter and food and cleaning up, trying to live as normally as possible. Soledad O'Brien is in Kesennuma, Japan, that's north of Sendai.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can see those overturned cars down there, and just absolute debris. This is what it looks like when a tsunami slams into a much bigger city.

The city has a population -- it's called Kesennuma -- and has a population of about 70,000 people, we're told. And so, the damage, 90 percent tsunami, 10 percent earthquake damage. So, these buildings collapsed, although some of them were able to hold up well.

But look at this. This is the kind of -- really almost equivalent to some of the stuff we saw in Haiti, where just -- the structure just folds in on itself. That's because the earthquake happened.

And then, residents here tell us, about 15 minutes later from the water came a massive wave that just roared through this town that goes straight back up that way. Collapsed everything here. And the force of the water, as you can see, powerful enough to bring this ship in on the sidewalk.

So, when people are trying to figure out just how strong and how powerful a tsunami can be, this is a pretty good example of what the people here were dealing with. It is no surprise that a number of people in this town lost their lives, that the search and rescue is still looking for more people.

And today, they're trying to figure out what to do next. Many people asked us, "What do you know? What are you hearing?" We're not getting any information. Kesennuma, about two hours north of Sendai. Some of the people here saying they feel very cut off from understanding what the next step's going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And Soledad O'Brien is joining us, now, live from Akita, Japan. And Soledad, it's telling, we're not hearing more stories of amazing rescues. I mean, the streets you were walking on, the town was a ghost town. Are people still searching for survivors?

O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, absolutely. And the debris is piled so high. You know, one of the things that I noticed today for the first time, actually, was the smell of decomposing bodies. For the very first time, we started getting that whiff. It's a very particular smell, and we really hadn't noticed it over the last couple of days. But in that particular town, where there's so much debris and so many people, such a large population, and people missing, I think there is going to be a death toll of some significance in that community.

COSTELLO: Soledad O'Brien, reporting live from Akita, Japan. Thanks so much.

A six-year-old artist puts her works up for sale all in the name of disaster relief. Works of art like this are going for five bucks a piece, and she's already hauled in hundreds of dollars. We're going to hear from her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Japan, a nuclear crisis deepens and the fears ebb and flow with the latest headlines. Earlier this morning a third explosion rocked a damaged nuclear plant on Japan's east coast. The government says a dangerously high level of radiation escaped, but levels have since fallen off and pose no danger for the public.

But not the case for the 50 workers remained behind. They're trying to prevent a catastrophe and have knowingly accepted a possible suicide mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BRENNER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, RADIOLOGICAL RESEARCH: It's pretty clear that they will be getting very high doses of radiation and there's certainly the potential for lethal doses of radiation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: More than 200,000 residents have been evacuated from a 12- mile radius of the damaged nuclear plant.

Here are Japan's official casualty figures as of about two hours ago. More than 3,300 now confirmed dead, close to 1,900 injured. More than 6,700 still missing. As we've been reporting, these numbers are expected to rise.

As the death toll mounts, so does the losses on Japan's main stock market. As we told you the top of the hour financial markets overseas are selling off. And here at home the opening bell is about to cringe ring.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COSTELLO: A Georgia kindergartner has been watching the disaster unfold in Japan and she has decided to help out with some of her works of art. Tuesday Muse (ph) is holding an art sale for tsunami relief in her Atlanta neighborhood. Since preschool, the six-year-old and her mom have been stockpiling masterpieces and they've hand-picked the ones they want to sell. So, for $5 you can snag some of her artwork. Some pieces are abstract, as you saw. Some look like the work of an expert finger-painter. And, believe me. Demand is high.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm pretty sure it's a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think she just learned that in the face of something like this that happens so far away, we can't really do anything, but we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We can. You can hear more from this remarkable little girl in the noon hour of CNN. She'll join Suzanne Malveaux for a live interview.

Every little bit help and so far total donations to Japan have reached $23 million. That's according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. That sounds like a big number but it seems like donations are slow coming in.

For comparison, four days after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, donors had given more than $150 million. The four-day donation total after Hurricane Katrina, $108 million. Coming up in the next hour, we are talking to the president of Charity Navigator about why some people may be slower to give in this disaster. He's also going to spell out how to give safely to make sure your money has the most impact and goes to the people who actually need it. That's coming up in about an hour, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

An MIT grad student in Japan on a job interview suddenly finds herself in a disaster zone. She studied disaster planning and now she's living through one. Her story in pictures coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Even those who make a career out of disaster planning are struggling to come to terms with what is unfolding in Japan. And an MIT grad student in city planning found herself in the middle of it all. Shoko Takemoto happened to be in Japan for a job interview on Friday when the earth started shaking. In an instant she was confronted by a landscape of disaster. One of hundreds of thousands spending a night in shelter searching for food, trying to get ahold of her loved ones. She blogged about her experience and now she is safely back in Boston and she's joining us live today.

Welcome, Shoko.

SHOKO TAKEMOTO, MIT GRADUATE STUDENT IN CITY PLANNING: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: So take us back to the moment -- 2:46 p.m. last Friday. Where were you and what happened?

TAKEMOTO: I was in a city called Kamakura (ph), which is about an hour away from Tokyo with my little sister Fukuko (ph). We had just finished lunch and we were walking in a small shopping area in Kamakura and first we really didn't realize that the earthquake was happening but noticed that the lights in the stores were out and then people started to come out in the streets kind of looking worried. Then we saw the cars -- cars were kind of moving slower and then it finally stopped. Then it was -- then that we realized that the ground was really shaking below our feet. And then, yes, I think -- yes. It just didn't stop. It kept on going and going and we kept --

COSTELLO: Did you know what to do?

TAKEMOTO: Excuse me?

COSTELLO: Did you know what to do? I mean, the earth is shaking under your feet. All this weird stuff is happening. Did you know what to do?

TAKEMOTO: Well, in elementary schools in Japan, we're trained pretty well in terms of what to do for earthquakes and things like that. So I immediately looked up and checked if like I was around something that could potentially fall on me and everything. But then, you know, the signs of the stores were shaking pretty loudly and it was, you know, I've experienced earthquakes before but this was very different from what I've ever experienced.

COSTELLO: I cannot even imagine. You documented all of this on a blog and titled an entry, "Experiencing Resilience: A Post-Earthquake in Japan.

What resilience did you see?

TAKEMOTO: Yes, yes. I blogged about this in COLAB, Community Innovators Lab blog. But I think it was really the people knowing what to do and kind of staying calm and making sure that, you know, helping each other to make sure that we were all informed and kind of sharing snacks and things like that. And when were kind of waiting to hear about the next steps. Also the city workers were very, very helpful.

COSTELLO: You also said, and I found it interesting, that the people in Japan were whispering about the disaster but not talking outwardly about it. They were trying to carry on life as normal, knowing it wasn't normal.

TAKEMOTO: Yes. Especially, I think I felt that a lot the next day, the day after. I think the electricity was back and the day after the disaster, at least in the Tokyo area, the train system was back up. So I think people went to work. All of the stores were open. I think we were trying to, you know, kind of go back to the routine to kind of make sure that, you know, things were happening normally but I guess, you know, but underneath really, like, people kind of definitely felt the shock.

COSTELLO: Oh, yes. You've got to do what you've got to do.

Shoko Takemoto. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate it.

TAKEMOTO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: A bit of breaking news and it's not good especially if you invest in the stock market. Let's head to New York and Christine Romans. What's happening on Wall Street?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We're seeing big declines as expected, down 250 points. Actually, Carol, this is not as bad as it had been just a few minutes ago. It was an outright plunge at the opening bell for New York stocks down more than two percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That is a rout after Japanese stock overnight.

I told you earlier the two-day losses for the Nikkei, the Japanese stock market, were the two biggest losses since 1987. So you can see when you have the third largest economy in the world suffering from twin natural disasters, first the earthquake and then the tsunami, and this deepening nuclear crisis, that's causing a lot of unease around the world in the stock market. The Nikkei down 10.5 percent in the end.

GE shares, by the way, down about 4.5 percent. I mention that because there had been a lot of activity earlier in electronic trading of GE. General Electric is the company that made technology components of those reactors and is also a big nuclear power plant provider of different technology and different pieces. Watching that one there. But, again, it's a pretty widespread decline -- 266 points now, 2.2 percent on the Dow.

Carol, a couple of people have asked me about trading halts or about what point would you slow things down. I want to be very clear here. A two percent decline for the Dow is nowhere near any kind of a massive, massive sell-off. Let's be very clear. You would have to see something go down 10 percent before you'd have any kind of a slowdown or halt of trading. So several people have asked me that and I want be to be pretty clear that a 266-point decline is while a deep decline, it's not something that sparks any kind of a slowdown in trade -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for that perspective.

Christine Romans, live from New York.

ROMANS: Sure.

COSTELLO: The world is coming to the aid of victims in Japan. We have more on outpouring of support from nations around the world, including many you would not suspect.

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COSTELLO: In Japan, many homes and businesses are now just piles of rubbles. Nearly 7,000 people are missing and teams are desperately searching through all of that debris for survivors.

Brian Todd is with USA's Urban Search and Rescue, near the fishing town of Ofunato. Brian, are they finding people?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, they are finding bodies, they are not finding survivors yet but they are still looking for them. We are about to go out in the coming hours with them back to Ofunato. We're just on the outskirts as they resume their search for survivors that could be trapped underneath the rubble.

This town was just completely devastated by the tsunami, after the earthquake, of course. The town lies just at the end of an inlet that comes in off the Pacific Ocean and on either side of the inlet are small mountains. And what rescuers told us was that that acted as kind of a funnel that brought the force of the tsunami in even greater than the normal and it's just leveled the low-lying areas of this town.

We were there earlier and walked with the teams as they -- as they fanned out in the city and trying to find survivors. We went into these teetering buildings, we were with them as they looked for people into the piles of rubble. And it was -- it was frustrating for them that they didn't find anyone alive but they -- they know that persistence often pays off in these situations and they're going to be back at it very soon.

COSTELLO: I -- I am -- I'm seeing these pictures, Brian, and I -- I'm seeing these rescue workers paint -- spray orange paint on posts. What does that mean?

TODD: That usually means that that is a building that they have just finished checking and if they -- if they put a zero on that building that means they didn't find anybody alive.

(AUDIO GAP)

COSTELLO: Oh yes. Brian, I'm sorry, you're breaking up, we're going to have to let you go. But we'll get back to you as you continue to -- as you continue to be embedded with those search-and-rescue teams. They are doing so much fine work out there although -- they're finding very little hopeful right now.

The U.S. isn't alone on offering aid to Japan, 91 countries and six international organizations have offered assistance including some countries that are struggling to meet their own needs.

For example, both Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have sent money for emergency supplies.

Russia and Japan have never been close allies yet the Kremlin says -- the Kremlin says Russia will send Japan liquefied natural gas to help generate power lost from crippled nuclear power plants. Russia will send 100,000 gallons in April and the same amount in May.

China is sending money and relief supplies. A 15 member team is helping with search-and-rescue operations in hard hit coastal areas.

The Philippines is set to send a 41-member search-and-rescue members to Japan and the Philippines says it's important to help a neighbor that has helped their own country whenever there is a disaster.

The days after the Haiti quake, $150 million was raised for aid but the amount raised to help victims of Japan is far less. So what's keeping people from donating? We'll talk to a charity expert next.

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COSTELLO: A baby girl found alive in the rubble after three days is giving rescue crews in Japan a much-needed morale boost. Amid so much loss, we had to share this picture with you, a smiling soldier cradling a 4-month-old baby girl. Rescuers heard her crying and they found her. And she was apparently swept away and separated from her parents soon after the tsunami hit. She is said to be in good health this morning.

If you want to help the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, here is how you can do it. Go to CNN.com/impact to reach our "Impact Your World" site. You'll find links to several charitable organizations where you can send or text donations.

We're following every development of the deepening nuclear crisis in Japan. Let's check in first with Stan Grant in Tokyo. And I know Stan you just felt another aftershock.

GRANT: Another -- another aftershock here in Tokyo, a reminder of that big quake last week that crippled the nuclear power plant. Explosions, a fire, radiation taking another day of drama in the nuclear emergency. We'll have all the latest on that in the next hour.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the nuclear crisis in Japan already drawing comparisons to past nuclear accidents, namely, Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl. What are the differences? What are the similarities? We'll have all of that coming up right after this.

JERAS: And I'm meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. We're keeping a very close eye on the winds and how they could potentially impact any release of radiation. We'll have all the details on that for you coming up.

COSTELLO: Back in the United States, a soldier's surprise visit brings a family back together again, their reunion and a look at stories across country next.

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COSTELLO: Checking now on some stories from our affiliates that are making news across country.

First stop in Boise, Idaho, where a military family is back together again after dad spent a year in Afghanistan, Tyler Stansell couldn't wait to surprise his 9-year-old stepdaughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYLER STANSELL, U.S. NAVY: I'm very excited and almost -- almost like it's a dream, huh?

CHRISTY STANSELL, TYLER'S WIFE: Nothing makes me happier than to have the whole family home together again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In Virginia today we say good-bye to our last Dough Boy. Frank Buckles, the last American World War I veteran, will be laid to rest this afternoon at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Buckles was the last of his generation. He died March 6th at the age 110.

In Michigan, it was -- it was a cheerful season ender for the Fennville Black Hawks. Just over a week ago their star player died suddenly just after he scored a game winning shot. Fans of the team gave him a round of applause in the final seconds of the game.

And in California, a man -- or a man ran into some trouble when he tried to pay his credit card bill in pennies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THEIRRY CHAHEZ, TRIED TO PAY IN PENNIES: Money is money, isn't it? I want it back and now the award and they still don't want them. So does my -- my pennies stink?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: No, they don't quite stink, but some banks just did not have enough vault space for a nearly $7,000 payment in pennies. The man eventually found a bank that actually would accept all of those pennies.

We begin this hour in Japan, and the fear that the world could be inching closer to a nuclear disaster. Earlier this morning, there was a third explosion at a damaged nuclear plant. And just minutes ago, another aftershock, a 6.0 magnitude. Japan's government says the current level of radiation will not cause harm to human health.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us in a few minutes with a look at that.

All morning, the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has been climbing. The latest figure from the government is nearly 3,400 bodies have now been recovered, thousands more maybe still buried.

And we want to show these new images from Japans northeast coast. The tsunami virtually leveled this fishing town and left it largely isolated.

CNN's Brian Todd was able to reach it because he's shadowing the government agency U.S. Aid on a humanitarian mission.

We just don't know how radioactive material may have been released earlier today on that explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. But I spoke a short time ago with CNN contributor, Jim Walsh.