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Rescuers Scrambling to Find Survivors After 7.0 Earthquake in Japan; Pope Francis to Visit Island of Lesbos. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired April 16, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN REPORTER: And hello everyone. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

Our top story is another earthquake in Japan. Rescuers are now scrambling to find survivors in the ruins of buildings after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Kyushu Island early Saturday. Nineteen people are now confirmed dead. Kumamoto City officially tells CNN some 800 are injured.

The quake hit just a few kilometers from where is so called forceps (ph) struck two days earlier killing nine people then. The latest quake is reportedly 30 times stronger than the previous one.

Earlier, I spoke with Osamu Yoshizumi about the conditions in Kumamoto. He's the city Senior Chief of International Affairs.

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OSAMU YOSHIZUMI, KUMAMOTO CITY SENIOR CHIEF OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: The 20,000 rescue workers' deployed so far, including, you know, national level and nuclear in Georgina (ph).

ALLEN: Can you tell me, sir, you know, that this followed an earthquake Thursday. Give us a sense of how much bigger, how much powerful this recent 7.0 earthquake is out there?

YOSHIZUMI: OK. Right now, I'm looking on the fourth floor of the city building and, you know, around this floor, many shelters, I mean, shelves, bookshelves were -- all fell. And, well, in the road, houses, private houses and stores, municipal buildings were damaged, including Kumamoto Castle. Yes, and water supply is thrifted and gas supply is stopped right now.

ALLEN: And where are people that live there in the city, where are they going right now? Where are they being instructed to go?

YOSHIZUMI: OK. City installed evacuation shelters for refugees and we opened over 100 evacuation shelters, it's our elementary school or junior high school or community center and we give food like bread, water and blankets, and they stay the night sometimes there. ALLEN: Are you getting other reports about what people -- how many perhaps structures there have been damaged or how many people maybe missing at this point?

YOSHIZUMI: Sorry. We are not for sure for the number because it's very messy here. The only thing we know is over 800 people were injured or affected so far. But the number is much more, I believe.

ALLEN: And the time moving forward, you already had rescue crews coming to the area to help with the initial earthquake. Are there efforts being hampered now by this second earthquake?

YOSHIZUMI: Yes. The first attack was very big. We thought that was the big one but the second attack was bigger. And we have a lot of aftershocks. It still continues. In the office right now, in the City Hall, I feel every hour one aftershock, medium size aftershock. It's swaying here every hour.

ALLEN: It's swaying. And is the, well, the building you're in, has it been proven safe?

YOSHIZUMI: Yes, there is some cracks in the building but basically you see the building is not damaged (inaudible).

(END VIDEO CLIP)S

ALLEN: A very calm city worker speaking with me on the phone a short time ago and as he said, aftershock is happening every hour and his building continues to sway.

So, what has Japan gone through in the past two days? Well, here speaking, a Senior Meteorologist Brandon Miller to walk us through it.

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BRANDON MILLER, CNN SENIOR METEOROLOGIST: At 9:26 p.m. on Thursday evening, the residence of Kumamoto, Japan experienced a 6.2 magnitude earthquake.

[0:04:58] The worst shaking Japan had felt since the 8.9 magnitude earthquake back in 2011. And just like all earthquakes at this magnitude, it contained a whole host of aftershocks, including this one, which was shot by a man that was in a 7/11. This was just one of many aftershocks, however, and even though these aftershocks were a lesser magnitude, each one has its own shaking and each one could be further damaging structures, which were hit in the first place.

But things got worst when a 6.0 magnitude earthquake that ride under the city of Kumamoto just after midnight, just about three hours after the first quake. This just further complicates the rescue efforts for the people that were trying rescue people trapped.

Daylight really brought into scope the disaster. And unfortunately, we found the news of the first new casualties, but there was some good news, such as these video of an eight-month-old little girl being rescued in a rescue effort that took six hours to complete. All the while, aftershocks continued, aftershocks that continued well into the night.

Unfortunately, early Saturday morning, things turned a lot worst when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck in almost the exact same location. The 7.0 earthquake is now the mainshock, everything before it was a foreshock and everything after it will be an aftershock. Hopefully, these aftershocks that will last several days and even weeks will be much lower in magnitude and we don't have something as strong or even stronger than the 7.0.

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ALLEN: Imagine what the people there are going through.

(Inaudible) Derek Van Dam joins us now. He's going to talk more about the conditions in Japan.

You know what? What's interesting about all this footage we're seeing, Derek, of the damaged structures is that Japan, is, you know, very used to earthquake and has very good codes as far as earthquake- proofed structures.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: They're extremely resilients and they build those buildings to sustain severe earthquakes just like this but there is no structure that can really withstand a magnitude 7.0 to say the least. Let alone, three consecutive 6.0 or larger earthquakes that's going to bring down some of the most vulnerable buildings.

What we've got here is from the U.S. Geological Survey and it shows you the various aftershocks after the original earthquake, this is the 7.0 that happens on Saturday morning local time.

And as we zoom into the region -- oh, we've kind of plot of this out. By the way, the orange dots are the aftershocks within the past 24 hours. The yellow dots are from the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred on Thursday and that is the epicenter of the 7.0, the one that we're dealing with at this moment in time. And as we zoom in to this region, we're going to kind of breakdown exactly what the people felt into the Kyushu Island and the Kumamoto region.

What we're going to do is put on this shake map and this will give you an indication of what people felt during the initial 6.2 magnitude earthquake, again, that's on Thursday evening.

This is a very highly populated area. What you're looking at here, these cylindrical tubes are one kilometer square radius and think of them as buildings. The taller the building, the taller the skyscraper, the more amount of people you can actually fit within that building. Well, this shading of orange represents severe shaking and the populations densities go up as you see the taller cylindrical tubes there.

Now, we put on today's most recent earthquake. What you're seeing now, the shading of read is actually people who felt violent shaking. This is a more severe form of shaking, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And that was roughly 715,000 people. So, heavy damage for many buildings, even some of the most resilient of structure should be anticipated going forward.

Now, I want to bring you in even closer to similar topography across this area. We have steep mountain slopes and much of this particular city is really built right along this mountain slope, so we have the potential for landslides and mudslides, and that is going to be a concern going forward, Natalie, because the weather is going to deteriorate within the next 24 hours. We have a cold front moving across East China Sea that will bring in rainfall but also colder temperature is not that's only going to happen but search and recovery efforts going forward.

ALLEN: And we've already seen on landslide just a shear off the side of a mountain. We've seen roads torn up as well. And this earthquake, if I understand it, Derek, is that relatively shallow as far as earthquakes go, even though it looks six miles down.

VAN DAM: Yes, and it's so crucial this shallow depth of an earthquake, because at 10 kilometers that is relatively shallow in terms of earthquakes.

[0:09:56] That allows for the ripples of energy to be felt more strongly by the people on the surface, if it was, let's say, 50 kilometers below the surface, we would have much more bedrock and grounds actually absorbed those tectonic plates and the shocks and the energy given off by the epicenter. But in this particular instance, 10 kilometers is rather shallow and that is why we felt so much shaking under such a highly populated area. Natalie?

ALLEN: All right, Derek Van Dam for us.

Thank you, Derek.

VAN DAM: All right.

ALLEN: Coming up here, we'll have more on the earthquakes in Japan. We'll take the latest conditions to find out more about aftershocks that are in store or this island.

Also ahead here, thousands of migrants have made it to Northern Europe after paralysis journey but others have died in the attempt.

Coming up, retaking to the final resting place for some that didn't make it.

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ALLEN: Recapping again our top story. At least 19 people are confirmed dead now after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Japan's Kyushu Island early Saturday.

Rescue crews are trying to find those missing. Many of here are trapped in buildings that have been damaged. The nation was already scrambling to recover from an earthquake that killed people Thursday.

Japans government says 20,000 Self-Defense Forces have been deployed to help in the rescue efforts. We'll look at other news now. We turn to Nigeria. The senate there is demanding answers from its security chief over the missing Chibok girls.

This comes in a response to this so-called "Proof-of-life-video" obtained here by CNN.

A government official told us the new footage as a new dimension to their investigation. It's been two years since Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their school dormitory.

Earlier, Nigeria's Finance Minister explained what else the administration is doing to try to find and rescue these girls.

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KEMI ADEOSUN, NIGERIAN FINANCE MINISTER: I think the first thing to say is that it's sad. You know, two years is a very long time and I'm speaking at the mother as well as a member of the administration, it's extremely sad that two years is on, these girls are still strange from their families.

Then also to what is being done if everything. Everything possible is being done at the highest level. And that I'm not one of the -- part of the security team, so I, obviously don't have the details but I will tell you that in terms of financial releases, in terms of cooperation with countries in the borders, in terms of just having all the surveillance equipment and things that we need, everything is being done.

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ALLEN: Well, the royals are visiting the Taj Mahal today. Prince William and Catherine are touring the famous monument to love, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

[0:15:00] Their visit is reminiscent of a similar trip taken by Princess Diana in 1992. During that visit, a photographer took this iconic photo of William's mother siting alone on what is now nicknamed "Lady Di's Chair".

Our Sumnima Udas is in Agra. She's following this league of the royals. Visit is certainly perhaps an emotional one for Prince William.

Hello, Sumnima.

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Natalie. Certainly this is going to be the defining image of the two. Not only because we're talking about the Taj Mahal, the monument of love right behind me, but also because of the symbolism, the connections there between Prince William's mother Princess Diana and of course the Taj Mahal.

Now, Princess Diana and Prince Charles were in India back in 1992. They were both supposed to visit the Taj Mahal at that time. But Prince Charles end up staying back in Delhi to meet with some industrialist instead. So Princess Diana came by herself, she took a tour of the Taj Mahal. At that time, she told the tour guide, she wished her husband was there with her then she sat down on a bench which is now called "Lady Di's Chair". She sat down on a bench looking very wishful, lonely almost even sad. For photographers, it was about a five-minute moment when they took all these pictures of her.

And at that time, not many people really were aware of the fact that the two were not really getting along, and 10 months after, that iconic picture is when the world came to know that the couple, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, were separating.

Now, about seven hours from now, Prince William and Catherine will be visiting the Taj Mahal of course and also taking pictures right at that bench. We don't know if they'll be sitting or standing when they do that. But clearly, the message is going to be a very different at this time. It's about sending a message that this couple is a much happier one and one of togetherness and one of love. Natalie?

ALLEN: Right. It's a new generation of royals. How has their trip? How has their visit been received for the most part by the people there in India?

UDAS: It's been received very well. I mean, have been very warm to their visit. I have to say before their arrival, there were a lot of questions being asked as through, you know, if anyone really cares about the royals anymore in India. Given the history here, given the 200-year British rule here, a lot of people here don't have good memories of that time.

So, Indians, in general, of course, a lot of them are very young, you know, more than half of population is under Asia's 25, so they don't have much of a connection with the British world, they have their own icons as well, they have the caricatures here, Hollywood stars.

So it's not something that, you know, that is hugely talked about but at the same time, with Catherine, with the Duchess of Cambridge playing cricket with Sachin Tendulkar, with the iconic images of her feeding the baby elephant and the rhinos, all of that has gone down very well here and it's been received very well. Natalie?

ALLEN: All right. Sumnima Udas, for us, as you say seven hours the pair will there at the Taj Mahal. Thanks.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff canceled a nationally televised address that had been scheduled for Friday evening. She was expected to make a case to the public to prevent her impeachment. The reason was given for canceling the event.

Meantime, the lower house of Brazil's congress is expected to vote Sunday whether to impeach the president.

Ms. Rousseff is accused of breaking budget laws to high deed (ph) deficit ahead of her 2014 election,

Pope Francis is expected to land in Griffin a few house to visit with migrants there. The pope will be on the island of Lesbos, which has become focal (ph) point of the migrate crisis. More than one in five people of the tiny island are migrants or refugees. Perhaps it's expected to meet Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as well before heading to a camp where migrants are living.

The pope is also expected to lay the reek (ph) for migrants who have died making the crossing from Turkey to Greece.

On Friday, a Catholic Church on Lesbos held a special service to remember them.

Senior International Correspondent, Atika Shubert visited a cemetery on the island, which holds some migrants who are drowned trying to make the journey there.

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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: High on a hill, the cemetery at Lesbos cares for the island's dead. Among the alabaster crosses are dirt graves marked with chunks of broken marble, those who died on the crossing to Europe.

Christos Mavrahillis is the 54-year-old caretaker here. He leads us to the grave of a one-year-old girl he calls a little angel.

[0:15:03] CHRISTOS MAVRAHILLIS, LESBOS CEMETERY CARETAKER: Sophie (ph).

SHUBERT: Sophie (ph) is angel?

MAVRAHILLIS: Sophie (ph).

SHUBERT: Christos met the parents when they brought her here. She had slept to her father's arms and drowned as he tried to hand her to the Greek coast guard.

"I don't care what religion people are, Christian, Muslim or Buddhist." he says, "We're all flesh and bone. When our bodies go silent, we are returned to the earth."

Thousands of people have died making the journey across the Aegean and the Mediterranean Sea. On Lesbos, more than a 125 are buried here. And the cemetery has had to exhume and rebury bodies to make space for more.

Now, there are two things that strike you as you walk through the cemetery. The first is the number of unknown headstones you see, unknown, unknown, unknown with only the date of death. Second, the number of children buried here. This is Omar al-Assad (ph), he died on October 13th, 2015. Unlike so many of the children buried here, he drowned just as he was about to reach Europe shores.

The unknown graves often have a number painted on them. The corner's file was DNA or other information that may help identify the dead.

Christos told us of an Iraqi father, who retraced the journey of his wife and child only to find them buried here. These little girls were survived by their parents. They could afford a simple engraving on marble unless small toys here before moving north through Europe. Christos says, "Life must go on."

The numbers of people crossing has dropped dramatically since the EU struck a deal with Turkey to deport most of those who reach Greece. But Christos, he's sure he will still have work to do.

"We can send them one way but there's just come back another", he says. "They'll still come no matter what agreement is signed.

Here, the graves stand as a silent reminder of just how much those crossing are willing to risk.

Atika Shubert, CNN Lesbos, Greece.

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ALLEN: I want to bring you now the latest on the news from Japan. At least 19 people are confirmed dead after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Kyushu Island early Saturday.

The nation was already scrambling to recover from a tremor that killed nine people just two days before. These pictures are the impact the moment the big quake hit.

It gives you an idea to how a shallow depth of about 10 kilometers and it struck a deathly populated area. Experts tell CNN those factors could add up to serious devastation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR SARDINA, GEOPHYSICIST: A 7.0 earthquake, just to give you an idea. One of the original magnitude, and I'm going to use that one, it was 7.2 (inaudible) inside here, we were thinking it was probably more like a 7.2.

And while yesterday, was a 6.2. Just to give you an idea of the difference between the two, a 7.2 is actually at least 31 times bigger than a 6.2. So, in other word, the earthquake that they had yesterday is 30 smaller than the one they have today. And you see the devastating effects of the earthquake that they had yesterday. So the one today is going to have a really severe serious imprecation inter in terms of damage and losses.

[0:20:02]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: So we've heard, yes, that a hospital maybe in danger of collapsing, there have been mudslide, bridges have collapse. And as far as the people that live outside the main city area, they haven't heard from the people in those regions, so they really don't know the scope and magnitude as far as people who've been injured or who might need shelter at this point.

Let's go to Derek Van Dam. He has been following the weather conditions. There are 20,000 people working in this rescue tent, inevitably (ph) have to deal with worsening condition.

VAN DAM: That's right. So, not only did I have aftershocks to be concern about, the aftershocks that could cause landslides, but the landslide potential could be exacerbated by the potential of rain.

On top of rain, there's also a colder weather that's due to -- settled into the region overnight, low (ph) dropping to the single digits quite easily. So, if there are people that are perhaps stocked within rubble or inside buildings at this moment in time, not only as rain are concern for hypothermia but the colding temperatures or the temperature is getting colder could also lead to just all kinds of various problems associated with hypothermia.

This is what we're looking at the moment, this is the current radar. There is a batch of precipitation now starting to move into the extreme western sections of the Kyushu Island area and broadening this perspective. It's actually all thanks to a low pressure system that's basically jacking (ph) off the East Coast of China at the moment. So it will move over the Eastern China Sea and then bringing our chance of precipitation across the affected area from the recent earthquake.

Cold fronts lies through temperatures (inaudible) we do expect the skies to clear out behind the system, but in the mean time, we do have rain in the forecast. And in fact, they can expect anywhere between, let's say, 15 to 25 millimeters of rainfall as we brought (ph) up right next to the mountain that obviously can go higher with rainfall accumulations, maybe 15 millimeters, so that increase is the potential of our landslides and our mudslide potential.

Here's our three-day forecast for Kumamoto. Sunday, today, 22 degrees. We do have mostly cloudy skies but look at the chance of rain. Really Sunday into early Monday morning, we are anticipating chances of rain showers that continues into Tuesday, those single digit over that lows (ph) are also a concern for me. People will need to stay warm as they take shelter outside of some of those compromised buildings. Natalie?

ALLEN: Ultimately. Well, there're a lot of shelters that offered (ph) them as well there in the city.

Thank you so much, Derek, and thank you all for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. Our headlines are right after a short break.

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