Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Special Coverage: Quake Tsunami Disaster; Anatomy of a Tsunami; Preventing a Nuclear Disaster; Japanese Media Reporting Three Workers Exposed to Radiation; U.S. Military Sends Help to Japan; The Search for Missing Loved Ones

Aired March 12, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm glad you're with us. I'm Randi Kaye in Atlanta.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm Becky Anderson in London.

You're watching CNN's breaking coverage of the most powerful earthquake to strike Japan in recorded history and it's catastrophic aftermath.

KAYE: It is 1:00 Sunday morning in the disaster zone right now. And as rescuers work through the night in a frantic search for survivors, there are growing fears about a severely damaged nuclear reactor. It's in northeastern Japan, an area still being jolted by powerful aftershocks.

Radiation has leaked out of the plant, we're told. It's not clear exactly just how much. So the evacuation area has been expanded now to 20 kilometers or about 12 and half miles from the plant. And Japanese authorities say that they're getting ready to hand out iodine tablets, which keeps the body from taking in too much radiation.

The plant is about three hours north of Tokyo. More than 80 aftershocks have been felt since Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Rescuers are scrambling to reach survivors all over Japan. So far more than 3,000 people have been rescued. More than 900 people dead.

The Japanese government is being inundated with offers of help. The U.S. military is sending ships and planes loaded with equipment and humanitarian aid and various search and rescue teams are also mobilizing.

ANDERSON: You know, what we're seeing from Japan is incomprehensible; so much damage, so much misery. These aerial pictures are from the Japan broadcasting corporation NHK. You can see what the monster waves did to this one area.

Have a look at this and iReporter Harrison Payton is sending us these pictures he took during Friday's earthquake. It was so strong he could barely stay on his feet.

Well, Japan's government says efforts to cool the reactor at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant caused Saturday's explosion. The blast injured four workers, crumbled concrete walls amidst heightening fears of a nuclear meltdown.

Let's go straight to CNN's Stan Grant. Stan, authorities reportedly plan to give out iodine to residents in Fukushima. How big a problem is this at this point?

STAN GRANT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're right, Becky, and that, of course, iodine would work to offset the impact or any an impact of radiation.

I can also bring you some reports that are circulating here in Japanese media. I must stress that CNN have not been able to independently confirmed this, but it's Japanese media reporting that three workers at the plant have had some exposure to radiation.

Now, of course, this nuclear emergency became even more critical -- a loud explosion was heard (INAUDIBLE) outside and then we saw these plumes of smoke heading in to the -- the sky. And that raised concern that this may have been an explosion in the reactor. The safety agency is now saying that no, it wasn't the reactor, but the outer cement casing is where this explosion actually took place. (AUDIO GAP) material was released in to -- in to the atmosphere.

But in fact they say that the radiation levels have been decreasing. But of course at the same time there is this 20-kilometer exclusion zone. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes around there. And the effort continues to try to cool this reactor and that's something they've been unable to do since it first flared after the -- after the quake and that's more than 24 hours ago -- Becky.

ANDERSON: That's right, Stan. This has to be one of the authorities' biggest concerns. Let's remind our viewers there are 55 nuclear reactors in Japan; 11 of them went off yesterday. Five have had coolant problems. And this is one of those.

We are some 30 hours or more in to the aftermath of this earthquake and tsunami. At this point, are you feeling more aftershocks? Are you finding out about any more people who may have survived this? Because the numbers are very, very thin on the ground at the moment.

GRANT: Yes, very thin on the ground. I think that's because there's been difficulty getting exactly to where people are. You've seen those pictures of the devastation of course, with the water pushing up in to the worst affected areas.

So this is likely to come to light. There have been reports of up to 10,000 people missing in one part of -- of the country that was affected. So looking at the numbers they're more than likely sadly to increase in the coming days that the number of people who -- who've lost their lives in this -- in this tsunami.

You mentioned there the aftershocks. And there was a report of one around 5.8 on the Richter scale. We did feel something. We've been feeling them throughout the day, Becky, to be honest, and some of them a little bit stronger than others, nothing to get too excited about. We certainly hadn't felt the -- the room rocking or shaking or anything.

But certainly you feel this trembling underneath your feet. You see the plants start to move, you see clothes hanging on clothes hangers and they start to -- to move and sway. So certainly you can feel it here in Tokyo. And that's a result of these aftershocks that are being felt right across the country -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Stan Grant for you. Thanks, Stan.

KAYE: Joining me by now phone now is Janie Eudy. Her husband was part of a group of workers who were inside the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant when the quake hit at that very moment.

Janie, your husband was working inside the plant, you spoke with him today. How is he doing? What did he tell you?

JANIE EUDY, HUSBAND WORKS AT FUKUSHIMA POWER PLANT (via telephone): Well, it was late last night around 11:00 our time, 11:00, 11:30. They -- he was traveling with a few of his co-workers. At the time, I didn't know how many. They were headed for the hotel called Pwaki, P-W-A-K-I. And they thought they would find shelter there, a hotel. But once they got there, there was no hotel.

So I really don't know, since I haven't talked to him again, how they made it through the night, but I did get a call from one of the other gentlemen that he worked with, a wife and said she got a call in which now they're all calling in and any report they get -- we're kind of putting it together where they're at. And --

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: So it sounds like he's sort of working his way through the -- the countryside there?

EUDY: Right. They are on the southern -- they're going south. They're headed -- trying to go towards Tokyo to get help so they can evacuate the, you know, escape and get away and, of course, get further away from Fukushima where they're having the problem.

KAYE: And how are they getting around?

EUDY: They had the rental cars that they started with -- when they started the job. And as far as I know that's how they're traveling.

KAYE: And I know that -- we said he was inside the plant, some really scary moments. Just very briefly if you can, remind us of what he experienced inside that power plant.

EUDY: Well, from what he told me, it was a -- it was a very scary moment. Everything started shaking, rattling, parts of the building was falling. Well, the -- the -- all the glass, the lights, the air conditioner, vents and all of that was coming down. They had just debris flying everywhere from the lockers and whatever.

And in the midst of it that's when the lights went out. And they were trying to get out and get everybody they could out.

KAYE: And find their way out really in the dark. Did they have any warning at all?

EUDY: As far -- I'm not for sure, but evidently they didn't. If they did, it wasn't much.

And they were used to having quakes there. But this one, you know, how it come out -- it was just different. And this usually they would go through it. No one -- they just keep working as normal.

And -- but with this one, it was so different and everything they had to evacuate for the -- for the safety of it on -- on all the workers.

KAYE: I know -- you know, I have to say you sound really tired. I'm -- I'm -- I imagine you're probably not getting a whole lot of sleep worrying about him today.

EUDY: No, I -- I don't think I've missed any news report. We've got every channel I can get and every TV I can pool around to watch. And especially with the rescue was going on and thought maybe I might get a glimpse of -- of him going through somewhere or find out where rescue people and maybe some of the military, maybe they'll run up on them to help them. To -- because I don't know how the roads are to travel.

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: Right it's amazing that he's able to just call you and let you know at least he's alive trying to make his way back to a safe place.

EUDY: That was the biggest -- that was the biggest thing. That was a -- a great moment when I -- I knew because that was the only, the second time I've heard from him. Last time he was -- I -- and -- and the only time, the first time all I knew was he was on the side of a mountain and it was cold. And that was it.

And I didn't know if he'd made it through the night or -- they kept having more and more quakes. But he -- I know he's alive. And he's -- he's trying with all his might and all of them to get -- to -- to a safer ground and to head for help so they can get home.

KAYE: Yes, well our thoughts are certainly with him and with you and with so many other families both in Japan and here in the United States and wherever they maybe just watching and waiting to find out more news about their loved ones.

We really appreciate it. Janie Eudy, thank you -- Becky.

EUDY: OK, thank you.

ANDERSON: Yes, a remarkable story.

The city of Sendai closes to the epicenter of the quake is one of the hardest hit areas. The picture there is one of devastation and an eerie silence.

CNN's Paula Hancocks made her way to the city. She saw convoys of cars trying to get out. She filed this report a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The devastation from Friday's earthquake and deadly tsunami is clear here in the city of Sendai.

Now, we're quite close to the port here, maybe half a mile away. And you can see how far the mangled mess of these cars has actually been flung. You can feel the weight and the force of the water. And all the way up here, you can see cars that have just been flipped over on to their head. They've been wrapped around electricity pylons.

Further down towards the port you can actually see full-sized trucks that have been smashed against buildings. Now, notably the buildings themselves are still standing, but the devastation is pretty clear to see and debris all across the tarmac here.

Now, the reason we're not going further down into the port itself is because there's been at least two tsunami warnings. This is just in the last hour alone. You can see this is obviously from the earthquake itself. There's a lot of cracks in the road around this particular area.

Now people have been streaming away from this area, as I said, there have been two more tsunami warnings, obviously, aftershocks are triggering these warnings. The police are moving people away. They don't want to take any chances. And you can see in the distance here this very thick black plume of smoke.

Now, we understand from locals this is from a petrochemical installation. We've been here for maybe an hour. And it does to us look as though it's burning even more ferociously now than when we first got here. And we understand from locals that it's very difficult for the -- the search and rescue teams and the emergency teams to get close enough to that particular incident to even be able to try and put it out.

So this is a very quiet area at this point. As I say, people have been moving out the whole time. As we drove in to the city of Sendai, there was a long queue of people trying to get out of the city.

But bizarrely, when you drove through, it didn't feel like very much had changed in the city itself. It seemed normal, until you turned a corner. And then you saw a hundred cars queuing to get petrol, waiting an hour to just be allowed ten liters of gasoline.

You turn another corner and then there was a hundred people queuing for just the one grocery store in the town that was open. Another corner was turned around and then you saw another hundred people waiting for a drugstore. There is very little electricity. There's very little mobile connection here. So many people are just trying to get out.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Sendai in Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Well, there is a huge concern right now about the youngest victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Save the Children says such disasters can be incredibly traumatic for children. Stephen McDonald is the group's humanitarian response team leader in Japan. He's with us now by phone from Tokyo.

Stephen, you have to worry about the little ones in -- in a disaster like this. What's your greatest concern for the children caught in the middle of this?

STEPHEN MCDONALD, SAVE THE CHILDREN (via telephone): Absolutely Randi and as we -- as we know from -- from long, long experience, these kinds of disasters have -- have -- have quite a traumatic effect on children. What we are particularly concerned about is the short term and long term impact.

So we have teams who are going out tomorrow morning between Sendai and Tokyo to try and get a much better picture than we've had today of the impact on children, to try and get a -- a better idea of the kind of physical conditions that they're -- that they're -- they are being exposed to at the moment.

And then based on that information and as our teams also move in to further northeast and into Sendai itself, we'll start to deploy what we call Child-Friendly Spaces, which is basically an area where children can start to normalize their activities and hopefully start to get back into -- into a routine.

KAYE: Yes and you know as we look at the -- the damage there, we also notice that there are chilling temperatures there. So these children are probably -- if and when you do find them, they're going to be cold and hungry.

MCDONALD: They -- they -- they will be. And we work very closely with the Red Cross and other local partners that we have in Japan. And -- and -- and they are really looking at the -- the -- the shelter needs of all people who have been displaced by this horrific disaster.

And -- and what we're -- what we're also are very concerned about as well as that -- is school term here and a -- and a lot of the schools will have been very badly damaged if not destroyed. And -- and because children were in school at the time, there's the potential that some will have been separated from their families.

KAYE: And in your experience just briefly, do you find that children can actually understand -- those that you will find and those who have suffered through this -- will they understand what's happened to them? Depending on their age, of course; but can you speak to them about this disaster?

MCDONALD: Yes, you can. But you need to do it in a particular way, obviously according to the age of the child. And the best thing that we can do is reassure them. Even before I got on a plane to come to Tokyo, I had to reassure my own 4-year-old daughter that things would be fine and she was seeing these images on the television.

So we need to be able to -- we need to be able to reassure and support the children that have been impacted by this. But we also need to provide the parents with some tools as well because they're going to be under a huge amount of pressure themselves. They're going to be coping with their own grief and loss as well. And they need to be able to -- they need to be able to express themselves in a way that makes the child feel safe.

KAYE: Stephen McDonald with Save the Children, doing incredible work really to try and find and save these children who are caught up in this. Thank you so much.

And if you are moved to help like so many others who are watching as we bring you the images from Japan, you can certainly do so. You can help quake victims. All you have to do is visit our "Impact Your World" Web page; that's at CNN.com/impact. You'll find plenty of organizations there that you can sign on with to help.

Tsunamis spread death and destruction in just a matter of minutes. So how do they form and what makes them so powerful? We have some answers straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, tsunamis are among the most devastating natural forces on earth. So how exactly do they form and why are they so powerful? Let's check in with meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri.

Pedram, every time we sadly do a story which involves a tsunami or the prospect of a tsunami, I learn what happens and then I forget. In laymen's terms so that all of us understand, give us a sense of why this happens.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You know, the folks in Japan certainly not a stranger to tsunami. In fact the term "tsunami" derived from a Japanese word, "tsu" meaning port and "nami" meaning wave; the port waves that are associated with these quakes.

And you take a look at some of these aftershocks again. We've had over nearly 200, at this point, aftershocks across the area with, of course, that magnitude 8.9 being the initial quake that set off the majority of these.

See this fault line right here, that's the Pacific Plate. That's the area right there that sets up what we call "The Pacific Ring of Fire". And you take a look at the plate structure or the plate setup and let me just look back at the data to see how many of these quakes they see, say, in a 100-year period and only found five quakes that are, say, a magnitude 8 or greater in the past 100 years. So you do the math, one every 20 years and you get something that is an 8. But of course this wasn't an 8; this was closer to a 9.

And take a look at this animation because the plates begin grinding against one another. And after years of grinding moving towards each other at about four inches per year, the same rate where your fingernails are growing or about 100 or so millimeters. The development here builds up pressure all of a sudden we get the thrust associated with this plate boundary and we have the wave that sets up directly above the surface.

Now, if you're close to the shoreline, that's going to be a problem right there and of course, we know it took about five to ten minutes for this wave traveling some 500 miles per hour to reach the coastal region. So that's really what set up a lot of the destruction.

But if you're on the water, if you're, say, sitting there on a boat, you just feel a little bump. Really nothing at all that would set you off to think something is going on. But as the wave approaches the coastal regions, again traveling at about 800 kilometers per hour or the speed of a jet airline, all that energy has to go somewhere.

It gets right towards the coast and it develops what we call the run-up event here where the run-up of energy right along the coastal regions, where we have the waves begin to go up the coast, that sets up going from just a few inches of wave height to about 20, 30 feet perhaps of wave height associated with a tsunami and that causes some of the devastation we see along the coastal regions.

And again, you go back to seeing how often does this happen? And once every 20 years, as I said, you get about an 8.0 or greater. But when you get closer to a 9, go back to, say, October of 1707. 304 years ago was the last time we saw anything remotely like this as far as Japan is concerned.

And some of the smartest people in the world out there in Japan; they've got this down to a science. They have structures set up there where they have their homes built on stilts on the coast. So when the water rushes toward the coastal regions, that water goes right underneath the homes and doesn't affect the homes, of course.

And they've done things as far as setting up trenches and also levees in that area to protect themselves and certainly this could have been far, far worse if they hadn't taken the proper precautions. After all, the name "tsunami" is derived from them. They know what they're doing out there.

And fortunately it looks like things could have certainly gone a lot worse. It will improve here in the next couple of weeks at least with the aftershocks and --

(CROSSTALK) JAVAHERI: -- as well.

ANDERSON: Many people, of course, still missing. But you're absolutely right. It could have been an awful lot worse. Thank you for that.

JAVAHERI: Absolutely.

ANDERSON: We'll be back with our special coverage of the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami here on CNN after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

Well, as if they did not have enough to deal with already, Japanese authorities are grappling with the ongoing crisis at a nuclear reactor. Radiation levels fell since an explosion shattered the building housing nuclear fuel. But officials are expanding now an evacuation zone to 20 kilometers from that power plant.

Joseph Cirincione is president of the Ploughshares Fund and author of "Bomb Scare: The history and future of nuclear weapons. He joins me from Washington. Let's talk, if you can, about this cesium which has apparently leaked from this plant. What is it and how concerned should we be about it?

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, PRESIDENT, PLOUGHSHARES FUND: Cesium is a highly radioactive element that is produced in the fuel rods during the fission reactions. So while the fuel rods are in the reactor producing heat.

And it was released in the atmosphere during the controlled steam release earlier today and late last night. And that was the sign that something was wrong with the reactor rods. Because the cesium could only be released if the water levels in the reactor had fallen below the reactor rods, exposing the reactor rods to the air and releasing some of that cesium. So it's a warning sign that all is not well with the reactor.

KAYE: And another warning sign could be -- and keep me honest on the numbers here -- but I believe there are 55 reactors online there and a group went offline. How concerning is that to you?

CIRINCIONE: Yes. Japan is very heavily vested in nuclear power. The government and the power industry has made a big investment in nuclear power in that country; 30 percent of their electricity comes from nuclear power. They have 55 plants. One out of every six reactors in the world is located in Japan. 11 of them went offline after the earthquake; so very serious loss of their electric power capability.

Five of those reactors have been declared to be in an emergency situation where they lost, at least for some period of time, control over the coolant. Two of them, the one at this Daiichi facility, are in critical condition. One of them is the one we're focused on today where we seem to be losing control of the reaction and officials are scrambling to get control back.

KAYE: I can see why that has your attention. Joseph Cirincione, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

CIRINCIONE: Thank you for having me on.

KAYE: We'll take a quick look at some other stories making news this hour when we return.

In Libya, the battle rages on for control of key cities. And it appears forces loyal to Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi are getting the upper hand in some places.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: We want to welcome back our viewers worldwide to what is CNN's special coverage of Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

Well, if they were not enough, or horrific enough, crews are racing against the clock to try to cool down the reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant, where Saturday's explosion occurred. One expert warns the situation has the potential for a nuclear catastrophe.

CNN's Stan Grant is monitoring developments from Tokyo.

Stan, several workers have been exposed, we believe.

GRANT: Yes. We've been hearing this reported on local media here in Japan, that three workers at the plant have been exposed to radiation. This is separate to the four workers who were injured as a result of that explosion earlier today. And that explosion really ramped up even more the concern about this nuclear emergency.

We saw these plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. And initial concern was about the reactor itself, because, of course, that reactor has been overheating since the quake. But according to officials here, no, that wasn't the case, that the explosion took place in a cement outer casing, not the casing around the reactor itself, and certainly not the reactor.

So they say that no harmful material entered the atmosphere. In fact, they say the radiation levels have been decreasing throughout the day.

That said, there is a 20 kilometer, about 12-or-13-mile, exclusion zone. Thousands of people have been evacuated. And there's also been reports of iodine tablets being handed out, Becky. And that, of course, is to offset any impact that people may have if they come in contact with radiation. And all the while, the effort continues to try to cool this reactor, but no success so far -- Becky.

ANDERSON: So just to -- in summation, Stan, as far as you can tell, authorities are confident that they have the reactor under control at this point, even though there's this exclusion zone to the tune of about 12.5 miles, that things are safe there as far as they're concerned?

GRANT: I think there is still an ongoing concern, to be honest, about the reactor and about the fact that it has been overheating. You know, there have been reports of three times normal heating inside the reactor. And the longer this goes on -- you've had analysts on throughout the day talking about this on CNN -- the longer it goes on, the more of a risk that this heating intensifying and it could damage the reactor itself. And, of course, people positing the worst-case scenario, where you see even more radiation escaping from that site.

So, no, you certainly wouldn't say that they have it under control. What the government is trying to do is very much show a face of calm here that, yes, they are working on this and working to fix the problem. But certainly not at this point have they been able to bring it under control -- Becky.

ANDERSON: All right. OK.

Stan Grant on the story for you -- Randi.

KAYE: Let's take a quick look now at some other news.

As the Arab League meets to vote on backing a no-fly zone in Libya, forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi are pushing on with efforts to crush the rebellion. The military has been pounding the key oil port of Ras Lanuf, once in the hands of rebel forces. Earlier, Libyan state media said the town had been "cleansed" of the opposition fighters. Pro-Gadhafi forces have also reclaimed control of the town of Bin Jawad.

In Yemen, weeks of protests have again erupted into violence. Witnesses say government security forces fired live ammunition on demonstrators outside Sana'a University in the capital. But a government source says police only used tear gas and water cannons. He says that third party instigators fired at people. A doctor says one person was killed.

Demonstrators have been demanding the ouster of the president, who has been in power there for more than 30 years.

NFL labor talks have broken down after owners have locked out players from any discussions. The disagreement is over how to divide $9 billion in annual income. Well, now the Players Union has filed papers to decertify itself. A group of players has already filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league.

You're looking at devastating scenes from a crash in the Bronx this morning. At least 13 people were killed when a tour bus in the area of New York there overturned.

The accident happened on the New England Thruway. In addition to the fatalities, 32 passengers were injured. Six, we're told, are in critical condition.

The USS Blue Ridge is on its way to Japan. We'll talk to a lieutenant who was on board in just two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: In Japan, it is the middle of the night. People are afraid to go to sleep because of all the aftershocks and even more damage.

People living near nuclear plants also worried from an explosion there. Everyone within 20 kilometers, about 12.5 miles of the plant, are now being evacuated. And authorities say they are getting ready to hand out iodine tablets which keeps the body from taking in too much radiation.

As rescuers race to save survivors, the official death toll climbs to more than 900. The Kyodo News agency reports 9,500 people are missing or listed as missing in one city alone. That's nearly half of the population of that small city.

Well, offers of help are pouring in to Japan. The U.S. military already has troops there helping with search and rescue. And more are on the way. The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet is mobilized to help with disaster relief in Japan. The USS Blue Ridge is already on its way from Singapore.

Lieutenant Anthony Falvo is on the ship.

Where are you right now, sir?

LT. ANTHONY FALVO, DEPUTY PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER: Right now we left Singapore this morning and we are steaming towards Japan as we speak.

ANDERSON: How long will it take you to get there?

FALVO: It's going to take a couple days or so. We're expected to be in Japan sometime around March the 18th.

ANDERSON: And what's the mission?

FALVO: The mission right now is to provide any type of comfort to the people of Japan as possible. Right now we're assessing the situation and we're positioning our forces so that they are ready to respond and provide disaster relief if it is directed by the secretary of defense.

ANDERSON: Sure. What sort of help do you expect the men on your boat to be able to provide?

FALVO: Well, we can provide a wide range of assistance, but what we have done so far is we've loaded humanitarian assistance and disaster response kits on the ship that can be used in any type of a -- in any type of an assistance effort.

ANDERSON: How many other ships are headed to Japan at this point? Do you know?

FALVO: Yes. I sure do.

Right now we have nine ships to include the USS Blue Ridge; the ships of the USS Essex, amphibious ready group; the ships of the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group; and then along with the USS McCampbell and the USS Curtis Wilbur. Tomorrow, we also expect to send the USS Mustin, so that would make for a total of 10 ships.

ANDERSON: Wow.

OK. Talk me through the way these things are done. Do you wait for direction from Japan on what they do since they seem to be leading the charge on this? Or do you take your instruction from the U.S.?

FALVO: Well, in any type of mission like this, we always serve in a support role. And the way that this would work is that direction would come from the government of Japan to the U.S. State Department, and then a request would work its way through the Department of Defense and on down. But again, we would only act in support of the government of Japan.

ANDERSON: Good luck, sir. We expect perhaps to speak to you at some point soon, but we hope your work will help.

All right. That's one of the ships speeding towards Japan, one of the U.S. ships, with some sense of what they hope to do when they get there.

Some though are asking, why aren't we seeing a more prominent role being taken by the United States?

Let's go to our senior State Department producer, Elise Labott, in Washington for more on that.

There seems to be a sort of global disaster after disaster. So let's start out with what the U.S. is specifically doing now, then let's move on.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Well, Becky, as the lieutenant said, we have those nine ships headed. The whole 7th fleet that's in the area is really mobilizing, getting ready, waiting for the marching order from the Japanese.

The USAID just dispatched two search and rescue teams. Those teams left early this morning, one from Virginia, one from L.A. They're en route, and also a disaster assistance team to help the Japanese assess their needs.

You have to remember, Becky, this is not a country like Haiti, where there wasn't a functioning government. This is a well-trained military, a well-trained government that has been preparing for these type of natural disasters. So they don't want to do anything to hurt the Japanese effort to kind of drop things on what they're doing and confuse the Japanese.

ANDERSON: Sure. Like I said, this disaster after disaster, sadly, at the moment, is there ever talk about coordinating response efforts?

LABOTT: Well, there is. We've heard a lot of aid officials and former aid officials talk about, why don't we have some kind of international aid corps, some kind of working with the Red Cross and U.N. agencies so that each country that has the specific resources can really mobilize?

You know, we saw in Haiti a lot of different people had a lot of different things and it wasn't coordinated very well. So there is some talk about that. Nothing really formal yet, but there are a lot of discussions that are in the aid community about something like that.

But the truth is, Becky, this is never going to look good in the first couple of days. When you have a big disaster like that, you have devastation, you're trying to get people in among the chaos, it's going to take time. They want to do it in a very methodical way.

And the truth is it's not going to be fast enough for anybody. Even if you had a more nimble, a quicker international force, international aid corps that could help, it's really just not going to look good in those first few days as they try to develop a system that can do it methodically and do it properly.

ANDERSON: Yes. Elise, we thank you for that.

On the ground, those covering this story on the ground, things aren't happening quick enough. We can't even tell at this point how many are dead, how many are missing. There's a whole town of 17,000 in one area. Half of those are listed missing at this point.

A really difficult story. And we're 30 hours in.

Well, after the quake, the tsunami, hundreds of people are missing. Josh Levs is going to look with us now at how people are desperately searching for their loved ones.

Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: With thousands of people reported missing in the quake and tsunami in Japan, people are desperately searching for their loved ones who haven't been accounted for. And social media is really proving to be the lifeline there.

Here's CNN's Josh Levs with that part of the story.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Randi.

You know, social media is playing such a significant role in this entire story. And I want to talk you all through the various ways it's important.

Understand that governments worldwide are looking at natural disasters and thinking and working on how social media can playing a relevant role. Can it warn people, can it inform people about things like evacuations? So one of the things we'll be learning in the coming days is how many people in areas that were evacuated actually found out about it first from social media, which ultimately, in some situations, could save lives.

One metric that we're taking a look at here is called the Tweet- o-Meter. And way down here -- let's see if we can zoom in -- it shows different major cities all over the globe.

And this one is Tokyo, which has many of the most tweets, 1,200 tweets per minute. That's how active it's been in Japan. And that included right after the earthquake. It took off like that.

Now, even now inside parts of Japan where cell phone service is out, there are people telling us that social media is playing a very important role. Here's what one Tokyo resident said earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSA KANAMORI, TOKYO RESIDENT: Because we don't have the phone line really working. So everyone is contacting through Twitter and they're knowing that each other is alive.

And we see a lot of comments from overseas and we're very cheerful from that. We see a lot of pictures that are like -- we think about Japan and all those comments. And we are really cheerful for that. And that's the reason why we can kind of hold it together right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: So everyone watching us worldwide right now, think about what Yusa was saying, that those messages you're sending and all sorts of social media platforms really mean a lot, because there are a lot of people there in Japan, where 80 percent of the population is online. They're getting those messages and it means a lot.

Now, people looking for loved ones are using this tool which Google has put back up. It's called the Person Finder. Let's zoom back in.

If you're looking for someone, or if you're in a stricken area and you have information on someone, all you do is click right there, type in a name. And pretty soon you're looking at information about that person, if anyone has posted it, or you're putting out everything you know. And as soon as they're able to get somewhere with Internet, or someone who knows them gets somewhere with Internet, they post the information about them. It's a new tool that's proven successful in if a couple other recent disasters.

We actually heard earlier -- it was actually last night on our air -- Nate Berkus, who is a TV personality in the United States, talking about how important it is to hold on to that hope and use these platforms. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NATE BEKRUS, LOST PARTNER IN 2004 TSUNAMI: Keep the hope that you will find your loved ones that are missing. Stay on the social media, Facebook, Twitter, all of these things. Keep posting the pictures of those who are missing.

Don't give up on that hope, because people are disoriented, they've been knocked unconscious. They may not know where they are or what's wrong with them. So there's always a chance that your loved one has survived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: Now, as always, I show you a bunch of links when I'm up here. I post them all in an easy place for you to find. They're all right there at my Facebook page right now, JoshLevsCNN. Also, I tweeted them, JoshLevsCNN.

Go ahead, check them out. Let us know what resources are working for you.

So, Randi, we'll keep an eye on the social media elements to this story in the days to come.

KAYE: You know what amazes me, Josh? Is that even with all the damage and all the water and all the hurricanes, we saw communities that were just cracked in half and people can still get their pictures out and our iReporters can still get us that video.

LEVS: Satellites in the sky are not hit by this. It's incredible, the way it works, yes.

KAYE: Yes. All right. Thank you.

LEVS: You bet.

KAYE: iReporters captured in the disaster zone, as we just mentioned, captured jaw-dropping images of the quake and tsunami as it was happening. We'll show them to you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: As the earthquake shook Japan, witnesses recorded the disaster unfolding before their eyes. They captured images of an historic event, the most powerful quake ever to strike Japan.

Reynolds Wolf has some of those images for us.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. We're going to get started with just some incredible images that were taken in Tokyo. Let's go right to them.

This was sent in by Nickky Washida. Nickky Washida is a mom of three kids, a 6-year-old, a 4-year-old, 1-year-old. Her husband happened to be out when this disaster struck.

It struck at 2:46 local time. And you see the damage around her house. All kinds of furniture overturned, clothes everywhere, things just knocked to-and-fro.

The shaking was incredibly violent, she said. She had, as I mentioned, been on her way to work when the quake struck.

Her apartment is actually located on the 17th floor of an apartment building. Now, one thing to just think about very quickly, if we can just come back to me for a moment, if you look at this map, you think about the location.

You have the quake which struck off shore. She's in Tokyo. That far away, and yet you had that kind of damage.

Let's go back and show you something else. We were showing you some of Nickky's images, but we also have some vide that was sent in by some soldiers oversees. Take a look at this and listen, if you can.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. Hey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF: Very little warning whatsoever. These are guys who are trained for combat. The first thing they do, they get underneath something sturdy in case the building gives way, which is always a possibility when you have these mammoth quakes. This, of course, the largest in Japanese history.

We're going to have more of these pictures, Randi. I have no doubt in my mind we're going to have all kinds of contributions that are going to be sent in from people worldwide. And, of course, as soon as we get them, we'll share them with you.

Back to you.

KAYE: Yes. Hopefully we'll get a lot of pictures that are moving, and pictures of survival as well.

All right, Reynolds. Thank you.

We also want to thank Becky, who has been with us for the last few hours, Becky Anderson in London.

Becky, a pleasure to work with you.

ANDERSON: And you.

KAYE: And our coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan continues with Fredricka Whitfield and John Vause right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)