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CNN Saturday Morning News

Special Coverage: Quake Tsunami Disaster; 10 Nuclear Reactors Near Quake Shut Down; The Role of Japan's Strong Building Codes; Fears of Disease Outbreaks Following Disaster; Asian-American Communities Mobilize to Send Help to Quake Victims; The Science Behind Tsunamis

Aired March 12, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Two extraordinary scenes. Those cracks in the grounds we saw in some of the images, and the ground apparently will not stop shaking in much of Japan, strong aftershocks making rescue that much harder.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Concerns about nuclear reactors in the quake zone. People nearby are being told to get even further away from them.

WHITFIELD: And the world responds to this enormous catastrophe. Aid, supplies, food and equipment all beginning to arrive in Japan. Hello, everyone, I'm Fredericka Whitfield.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause from CNN International and you're watching CNN's breaking news coverage of Japan. The disaster in Japan, let's get you updated.

WHITFIELD: It is right now the middle of the night in Japan where half the people in one northern town are still unaccounted for; that's about 9,500 people. The town is right on the coast very close to the earthquake's center and where the tsunami crashed ashore yesterday.

A major concern right now, 10 nuclear reactors near the quake site are shut down. A huge explosion did occur at one of the nuclear plants, prompting officials to evacuate people more than 12 miles away. And then look at this unstoppable power, the tsunami wave smashing into the port city of Sendai. Roads cracked, buildings crumbled as far as 125 miles away from the epicenter.

VAUSE: Right from the onset CNN began deploying worldwide resources to bring you the story and we're not stopping. Over the next few hours we'll talk to CNN correspondents covering all the angles including Stan Grant in Tokyo, Kyung Lah in Sendai, Japan, CNN International correspondent Anna Coren is there as well and our senior State Department producer Elise Labott who is in Washington, D.C., and Josh Levs here at the Atlanta headquarters.

One correspondent just arriving in Tokyo is Martin Savidge. He joins us on the phone now.

Martin, you just touched down. Give us an idea of your impressions. What's the situation? MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hello, John and Fred.

We actually got here about 12 to 15 hours ago. We've been struggling. Once we arrived at Narita airport, which was actually kind of calm, the next step has been trying to get another flight domestically to get north into the tsunami quake. That's the part very difficult because of course many outages on the road and the rail.

And even when flying in, there are many difficulties. A number of the airports up there are damaged or have a problem with aircraft already on scene. So that's struggling as far as our ant to get up there.

But the real concern is Japan as a whole struggling to become from this double blow of natural disasters. First you have the earthquake. Then you have the tsunami. And now what could turn into a third, this time perhaps manmade disaster of this nuclear nightmare. And what I mean by that is all eyes, and literally when you watch Japanese television all eyes are focused on the town of Fukushima which is about 160 miles north of Tokyo where there's a desperate battle under way to try to cool two nuclear reactors, simply referred to as reactors number one and number two.

You probably know that Saturday there was an explosion at one of the plants that blew the roof off one of the buildings there and also heavily damaged the outside walls of one of the crippled reactors. But officials say that the reactor's main containment structure -- and this is important -- is still very much intact and working.

Officials in the Japanese media have been reported there have been leaks of radioactive material from the plants but they've been receded ever since the explosion, and that officials say they hope that's an indication that a imagine meltdown is not -- and I stress is not -- under way.

But according to Japan's nuclear safety agency they have detected quantities of cesium in the atmosphere, which they say would indicate that the fuel rods in the reactor there were starting to melt. The government has extended the evacuated area around the two reactors. It's now extended to 12 to 13 miles. And that means tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee.

There are reports of iodine tablets either handed out or prepared to be handed out in the area. Of course this unfolding drama near the epicenter of the quake is hampering efforts to search for victims and rescue those who suffered as a result of the quake and tsunami.

The government says no one has suffered as a result of radiation sickness. However Japanese media disputes that saying three workers at the plant have suffered radiation exposure.

So you have this tremendous overwhelming natural disaster. But then they also have this nuclear drama that's unfolding. And it could be very critical in the days and hours ahead. What they plan to do is try to force seawater into those reactors to cool them down. Some in the industry see that as a last-ditch, almost a desperate effort, and it's a process that could take five to ten hours. We don't know when that's going to begin. John and Fred?

VAUSE: Martin Savidge on the line with us. We just found out he has been there for a while. He's trying to get to Sendai which is the town closest to the epicenter of the quake, obviously a lot of trouble with the infrastructure, keeping a close eye on the nuclear reactor crisis as is everybody in Japan.

Take a few moments to watch and listen to a powerful piece of video.

WHITFIELD: It shows the exact moment that the tsunami swallowed an entire town. It is taken from high ground where the townspeople were evacuated to. You can hear their screams as the water rises. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So these pictures were taken from high above, kind of a bird's-eye view there above Kamaishi in northeast Japan. Again, people were asked to go to seek higher ground and among those who did brought a camera to be able to show you the force of that water as it lunged right into that port city. We've heard reports of 300-mile- per-hour velocity of this wall of water.

VAUSE: Like an airplane.

WHITFIELD: It's incredible. You can see the devastation.

VAUSE: Watching these pictures, it's bewildering, it's compelling. It is heartbreaking and it is compelling to watch. It is also very difficult to watch as well.

WHITFIELD: And all these relieved people. You see the view of the relieved people who did indeed seek higher town and watching their entire city washed away by all that water.

So you can tell by the widespread devastation as a whole no building is 100 percent earthquake-proof either, but Japan is a world leader in building buildings with shock-absorbers to withstand severe shaking. It's helped limit the damage.

Last year our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta checked out why Japan has such strict building codes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So would you even know what to do if you found yourself in the middle of that? What we're experiencing is a 6.9 magnitude earthquake. What they'll tell you is go into the corner of the room. Stay away from glass as much as possible. Also cover your head and face and get under the table if you have to, just something to protect yourself. Of course all of this is just a simulation. That's what you need to do as an individual. But given that so many live in urban cities around the world, how do you recover and rebuild after something like that? That's exactly the question they were asking them service in Kobe Japan in 1995. A 6.9 magnitude earthquake just like that one 20 seconds in length, 200,000 buildings gone, 5,000 lives lost. A lot of work to try to rebuild this place.

Well, Kobe did it in less than ten years. Now they serve as a model for the rest of the world. A lot of lessons have been learned. For example, don't put all your disaster resources in one particular area. Also, try to engage the survivors of an earthquake as much as possible in the rebuilding process. And finally hospitals, they have to be able to stay open and functioning even after an earthquake.

Of course there are the buildings. The awful images like this one. Remember, 200,000 went down. This was one of them. Well, take a look at what it looks like now. This is the same building rebuilt just quickly after the earthquake. What do they do specifically? They use materials here to try to isolate this building from the ground and the shaking that accompanies an earthquake.

They also use metal plates to allow the building to move as well as materials that sort of allow this building to sway if the ground is shaking.

It is by no means perfect, and if you ask Kobe officials they say about 80 percent is rebuilt. There are problems still. Narrow thoroughfares like this would be tough to navigate and the buildings could come down into the streets making rescues that much more difficult. But the balance is always there, trying to retain what Japan has been for hundreds of years in the middle of all this reconstruction.

I can tell you it is human nature to sort of wait for a disaster to occur before planning to do anything about it. We've seen that over and over again. And that's part of the lessons learned here in Kobe. Try to prepare ahead of time so you can mitigate some of the effects of the natural disasters and other health problems. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Thank you, Sanjay.

A former New Yorker was right in the middle of the action when the quake hit. She lives in a high rise apartment in Tokyo. Cynthia Beglin joins us by phone.

And Cynthia, you're on the 13th floor when everything started shaking. I understand that the buildings continued to shake for at least 30 minutes. What did you think was going on?

CYNTHIA BEGLIN, AMERICAN IN JAPAN (via telephone): I knew immediately it was an earthquake. There had been another 7.2 on Tuesday. This was Friday. But -- so I -- it started the usual way but it just got worse and worse. And then the whole building was jumping up and down. The doors were slamming open and shut. I had to be on my hands and knees so obviously I realized it was a very, very bad earthquake. And it was terrifying. It was really terrifying. And I just frankly prepared to leave this world.

VAUSE: Wow, I can imagine. It's now been two nights since this earthquake happened. We're coming to the end of the second one. How are the people in Tokyo dealing with all of this and the people in Japan? How are they getting by?

BEGLIN: Well, the Japanese are very calm people typically, so it was rather upsetting when you realized that they were actually terrified during this earthquake. But they recovered quickly afterwards. And Tokyo is very quiet and calm.

I'm currently at Narita airport because my husband and I felt it was best to leave because there was so much uncertainty about the nuclear power reactor. First they felt they had the situation under control, although it was a concern, and then there was a huge explosion. They closed the airports. There's some concern that the weather is turning.

And since we left for the airport once we heard it had opened again, I understand they have the situation under control and it's much better. But they're saying that there are no more leaks. There was a little leak. And they think it's under control. But there's a second reactor which is having coolant problems as well. And we just felt if something happened there would be a rush on the airport. And while this is probably going to be totally fine, we wanted to get out while we could. So we're actually leaving.

VAUSE: Where are you heading to?

BEGLIN: We came to the airport with people from our building. Other people had left earlier. A lot of people were leaving. And like everyone, we came with no reservations. But we figured my husband has an office in Hong Kong. He can work there. So we asked to get reservations to Hong Kong and we're leaving in a few hours. We've been up for the second night in a row.

VAUSE: Go on.

BEGLIN: And so we're just waiting for a flight to depart.

VAUSE: OK. Are there a lot of people like you who are leaving? You have mentioned everybody in your building. How busy is it at the airport? Are there a lot of people trying to get out of Japan right now?

BEGLIN: Yes. I think there are a lot of foreigners. The Japanese are very brave and I think it's absolutely heartbreaking what's happened here. And obviously north of Tokyo is much, much worse. And we feel very lucky in Tokyo. While we were all terrified and I got to know a lot of people in my building when we evacuated to a nearby park and were later in the lobby, but still a lot of us felt we should leave. It really started when a few companies started evacuating their people when they became alarmed about the increasing comments by the government about the nuclear problem.

And so some people were evacuated -- their companies were sending jets if they could get them in to the airport. So we all started to feel like it was time to go.

VAUSE: Yes. We wish you the best of luck. Safe travels, and thank you very much for sharing your story with us here on CNN.

BEGLIN: Thank you. Bye-bye.

WHITFIELD: She's very fortunate that they may be able to get out. But a whole lot of people will remain by choice or simply they don't have the choice but to stay. So with that will come dealing with the standing water, the pipes broken, all the debris, the garbage, all of that left behind.

VAUSE: Yes, there's a lot of health issues here. We want to talk to a world health expert about what comes next in all of this, what the Japanese need to do to prevent an outbreak of disease.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Dazed is the best way to describe the faces today, according to one iReporter. Nikki Reseda was biking over the Tokyo Bay Bridge when the quake hit. She cycled as hard as she could. The noise was terrible. She made it, and she said people are now pulling together everywhere. And she wanted to add that being a foreigner in Japan right now has made people especially helpful.

Here's another incredible getaway, this time from the tsunami that struck after the initial quake. This woman outran the massive wave clutching her five-month-old baby tight in her arms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMOKO ITO, ESCAPED TSUNAMI (via translator): When I got home, I had a neighbor shouting that tsunami is coming. When I got out of the house, I saw the tsunami approaching. The elementary school the second evacuation site was too far so I ran to a footbridge.

We were soaking wet and the people at the footbridge helped to keep us warm. We are all right thanks to their help. I'm relieved that my baby was not harmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow, we're relieved too.

First the earthquake, then the tsunami -- could an outbreak of disease be next in Japan? I want to bring in Dr. Barbara DeBuono, a world renowned expert in health and helped southeast Asia after the tsunami hit in 2004. Good to see you.

So we're still within, doctor, the first 48 hours of this disaster. We're seeing lots of destruction, the standing water, temperatures in the 30s overnight. What are the immediate health concerns that you think people knee to look out for?

DR. BARBARA DEBUONO, PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT: The biggest issues, the biggest public health concerns are access to safe drinking water, food, shelter and of course medical services. Food is critically important, but more important is clean water, because with clean water, not only will people be able to hydrate themselves, and you can't go very long without water.

But secondly, clean water is essential to really avoid the spread of infectious diseases as well as to clean surfaces. It's really quite important that there be access to clean water.

Certainly medical services are going to be key. There are going to be facilities such as health care centers or hospitals that have been terribly destroyed by this catastrophe. And there are babies to be born, people who need surgery, people who are acutely ill. And getting them transportation to other facilities to assure that they can be taken care of is also critically important.

WHITFIELD: And so all of those things are likely being addressed by the local emergency first responders. But then as the international organizations volunteer to help out, how urgently do you suppose Japan might start asking for that international assistance?

DEBUONO: Well, I think that after the initial search and rescue is completed -- and that's of course still underway -- there are of course issues to deal with around the identification of the dead and the disposal of all kind of waste and rubbish that has been created by this disaster.

So where and how to dispose of the garbage and the rubbish is going to be very, very critically important. And I believe that international aid will be most welcome when it comes to that issue of disposal and clean-up.

In addition, there are people who need antibiotics, people who need their chronic heart medication and who either have lost it in this disaster or again don't have access to a doctor or facility that has those medicines. So certainly international aid in the form of antibiotics, chronic diseases such as diabetes where people need their insulin, so medicines like insulin and other cardiac medicines is equally critical at this time.

Again, this is where the international aid organizations can help. Those who are tremendously injured perhaps from the force of the water, who may have lost a limb, there's blood loss. Certainly blood will at some point be needed, if not already.

And then another issue that I'm sure is being addressed right now is the consequence of this nuclear issue, which is whether or not it is time or it is necessary to treat peep with potassium iodide to prevent the uptake of the radioactive iodine --

WHITFIELD: Well, apparently the iodine pills we heard from a reporter in they would be distributing them. And one would have to wonder there are difficulties trying to distribute the iodine pills. What would be the window of opportunity to do that? When would it be too late?

DEBUONO: That's a good question. I think one of the issues that first has to be determined is really whether or not the supply and the access to the supply is there so people within the radiation of the plant can receive the medicine. But the sooner one gets that, the more likely that if any radioactive iodine was to be dispersed, they would be prevented from the consequences of exposure.

WHITFIELD: Dr. DeBuono, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate that.

DEBUONO: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: So it is indeed a very unsettling feeling having loved ones, knowing they're in harm's way or endured all that the people did endure over the past 48 hours.

VAUSE: People can't get through. Next we have a look at how Asian-Americans in communities here in the U.S. are reacting to this disaster. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: There is desperation, panic, and fear from people in Japan. And for the past couple of days we've been hearing from them, their stories as they experienced the powerful quake and the tsunami that followed. One man who works at a U.S. Naval base in Yokohama calls his ride home wild.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just had a huge earthquake in Japan right now. You can see everybody in the streets. My car is still shaking. That was pretty big. Everybody came out of the stores. Everybody is in the middle of the streets hanging on to poles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: He is one of our iReporters, and he took this video on his smart phone just after the quake hit. He said he wondered if he would live through this experience. He did. He made it home safely and found out that his family was OK as well.

So as you can imagine, people with loved ones in Japan are frantically trying to contact them any way they can.

VAUSE: There's been an outpouring of concern from Asian-American communities, especially in San Francisco, as you would expect. It's a place also known as Japantown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAY LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in San Francisco, the big concern was the risk of tsunamis hitting the areas in the morning hours.

Fortunately, San Francisco was not affected by that risk. But what people are still very worried about, especially the Japanese community here in the bay area, is how are their relatives? Are they OK? Can they get in touch with them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Japan very good people. Japan is full of very good people. I'm very sad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So when you found out about the earthquake --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I saw on the TV. I'm worried about my family. I have many, many family living there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started panicking because I know a lot of people there and also my family is there. So I just hope that everything was OK. That was the first concern. And I wanted to rush over there, but that's not possible. So it's kind of very upsetting. It's real scary. They're fine, yes.

LEE: So as you can see, people are really having a hard time communicating with their friends and loved ones back in Japan.

Conventional methods aren't working very well. It's very hit or miss. So we've been hearing that people are resorting to other methods, social media such as Twitter, applications on iPhone, Skype, and that seems to be working. So any which way they can, people are trying to get through and they're going to keep trying.

May Lee for CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks for that.

So it is a frantic effort to avoid yet another disaster there as well.

VAUSE: Yes, we'll find out what Japanese workers are doing to cool a nuclear reactor that's been overheating ever since the earthquake happened. Stay with us here at CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Crews are using seawater to flood a reactor at a Fukushima power plant to bring the temperature down. A blast at the plant injured four workers. The government is sending a military unit which specializes in radiation contamination to calm nuclear fears. Officials have also evacuated tens of thousands of people living 20 kilometers, or 12 miles around the plant. And 900 people have been killed in this disaster and officials fear that number will go much higher. In one town alone, 9,500 people are unaccounted for. That's about half the town's population.

The Japanese prime minister says more than 3,000 people have been rescued from parts of northeast Japan.

WHITFIELD: One of the U.S. airmen murdered in Germany is being buried today. The remains of the airman arrived from Germany yesterday. His mother, father and brother were there. He was one of two U.S. airmen killed March 2nd when a gunman opened fire on a bus at a Frankfurt airport.

And take a look at this, devastating pictures from a crash in the Bronx this morning. At least 13 people were killed when a tour bus overturned after being clipped by a truck. That New York accident happened on the New England Throughway. In addition to the fatalities 32 were injured and 6 are in critical conditions.

VAUSE: And NFL labor talks have broken down after owners locked out players from any discussions. The disagreement is over how to divide some $9 billion in annual income. Now the players union has filed papers to decertify itself. A group of players has already filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league.

WHITFIELD: A nuclear plant explosion in Japan has emergency crews racing against the clock. They're trying to cool down the reactor at Fukushima nuclear plant. The concern, fear of a meltdown. Earlier today I talked with Edwin Lyman, a nuclear scientist that calls efforts so far desperate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EDWIN LYMAN, FORMER PRESIDENT, NUCLEAR CONTROL INSTITUTE: Well, the concern is clearly if the event continues to escalate, if the authorities are unable to restore cooling of the core to prevent any further damage to the fuel, then the danger is this could proceed to a full-scale core melt, which would then eat through the bottom of the steal vessel that's holding what's left of the fuel and potentially lead to a large-scale radiological release that it would affect potentially tens of thousands of people.

WHITFIELD: So is it encouraging to you, that they're using seawater to flood this area where this explosion has taken place and that might help cool it down. Do you buy that?

LYMAN: Actually, I don't. I think this is a measure of desperation, and that's what concerns me. I don't know of any emergency operating plan anywhere that calls for emergency injection of seawater. So I really think it's a desperate measure.

WHITFIELD: What would be the more effective route in your view, especially given the circumstances?

LYMAN: Well, there may not be one. I don't fault them for making an attempt. But, unfortunately, we're not getting enough information to know where the problems are. But it is clear that they've been unable to inject enough cooling water into the reactor to prevent damage to the fuel. It may be the only option they have at this point.

WHITFIELD: And what does this tell you -- sorry to interrupt but what does it tell you they're widening the evacuation area 12 miles? Does that say anything to you about the perhaps futile effort to try to contain the fumes that may have escaped from this building, that the use of this seawater might it be their last-ditch effort and as a precaution they're asking a greater volume of people in which to evacuate?

LYMAN: I think all the signs are consistent with the fact that there has been fuel damage and there is still great concern that there will be more, potentially much larger release of radioactivity. So I think it's completely appropriate to expand the zone. They probably should have had a larger one to begin with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, that was Edwin Lyman, nuclear scientist who we spoke to earlier.

VAUSE: Some of the best images we've been getting from these earthquakes and moving and compelling have been coming from our iReporters. It seems that this earthquake and tsunami has been captured on so many devices like no other disaster before.

WHITFIELD: It's as if we've all been taken there from the moment the earthquake took place and the following tsunami. We're going to have more iReports coming up after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We have a pretty frightening piece of video from Tokyo just seconds after the earthquake struck. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN iReporter Aaron Lace was attending a graduation ceremony inside this theater when the ceiling tiles started falling. He ran outside just as the entire roof caved in. Aaron believes several people died in here, and you can hear him on the video telling his friend that the roof collapsed right where he was sitting just seconds before.

(VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It's amazing stuff. Can you imagine being on a student exchange trip during this massive earthquake in Japan? That's the situation for iReporter August Ambrister. He's a student at the University of North Carolina but is spending time in Japan to study. He joins us now to tell us what he's been going through.

And, August, you shot incredible footage of a fire at an oil refinery. Explain to us what was going on. AUGUST ARMBRISTER, EXCHANGE STUDENT: So after the climax of the earthquake subsided, me and my host family heard a great boom in the distance. We go outside and the sky turned bright orange completely for about five seconds. And we learned from the neighbors that some kind of plant blew up. And so I wanted to go see what it was. I was very curious. So I grabbed my camera and I ran towards the scene.

VAUSE: And is that fire still burning now? What's the situation there?

ARMBRISTER: It was put out last night. So they handled it very well. Explosions occurred for about one hour from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. when I believe around 8:00 or 9:00 they managed to contain the fire.

VAUSE: Where are you in relation to the epicenter? You're in the town of Ichihara, is that correct?

ARMBRISTER: I am.

VAUSE: And how far is that from the epicenter?

ARMBRISTER: It's pretty far. I would say about five hours away.

VAUSE: Even five hours away you had this massive oil refinery fire. What other damage is there and how is your part of Japan coping?

ARMBRISTER: In Ichihara Chiba, the buildings are well built. It's just the refinery is the only physical evidence you can tell of the aftershocks. But of course houses have been damaged. Insides have been just in complete disarray.

VAUSE: Very quickly explain what you were thinking when you picked up your camera and you ran towards the fire.

ARMBRISTER: Right. I really wanted to just -- it's my study abroad trip, so I wanted to make the most out of it and instead of just going back inside and watching it on TV, go there in person and see with my own eyes.

VAUSE: Right. OK, August Armbrister currently on a student exchange program there in Ichihara, a long way from the epicenter, but still you can see the amount of damage and you captured it brilliantly for us. Thank you so much.

ARMBRISTER: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: He's going to have a lot of stories to tell about his foreign exchange student experience.

VAUSE: Kind of not what he was expecting I imagine, but still, he's safe and well, which is good news.

WHITFIELD: We're glad about that. His instincts were great too.

All right, the waves that have been pounding Japan, they aren't just destructive.

VAUSE: There's some complicated science involved here and we're going to break that down straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: The quake damaged buildings hundreds of miles away. Look at this video sent by a CNN viewer in Tokyo. This is Sean Crownover's apartment in Tokyo. Sean said he felt three quakes in ten minutes and people are now worried in what they now call the long overdue big one despite this being an 8.9 magnitude.

WHITFIELD: Tsunamis are among the most devastating on earth, but how do they form and what gives them such power?

VAUSE: Let's go to Jenny Harrison joining us with a look at the science behind tsunamis.

JENNY HARRISON, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, John.

The first I want to show what we're talking about what's going on underneath the ocean on the ocean floor and also to tell you on average there are about two tsunamis that actually take place every year, and about every 15 years we see an ocean destructive wide tsunami such as this.

Here we have the two plates and we have what's called a subduction zone when one goes under the other play. All this friction and all this pressure, eventually it pops and the earthquake happens and that's transferred up toward the surface.

Now, let me show you another view of that and just show you exactly what happens thereafter because this obviously produces a wave. This is a tsunami wave. But you must bear in mind it's not just one wave. It can be a series of waves that are 10 to 45 minutes apart and this is obviously what happens.

The earthquake took place down here. The ocean moved, of course, and then we have these waves which you're in the middle of the ocean on a ship you would barely feel it but they pick up momentum. They can travel 500 miles per hour.

Then what happens as this actually gets closer to the shore, the wave slows down and as it slows down, it also gathers height. It almost feels the ocean floor. That's when it begins to slow and begins to also as I say get better in its strength. We've gone to the current temperatures there.

But as I say, that is basically what happens when it comes to a tsunami how it is actually operated. And as I say, John, they happened maybe twice a year on average, and about every 15 years we see a widespread destructive tsunami such as this.

VAUSE: OK.

WHITFIELD: This was colossal. Nobody wants to see this occur within the next time span at all.

VAUSE: Remember a time when we never even talked about tsunamis, and now all the time.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it seems like these kind of natural disasters are happening with more frequency.

VAUSE: With more frequency, yes.

WHITFIELD: Survivor stories and pictures are indeed getting out.

VAUSE: Coming up next, we want to take a look at these powerful images of what people in Japan are now living through.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: U.S. troops stationed in quake-prone areas are trained to react if the ground starts to shake. Watch this from an air base in northern Japan.

This is inside a training classroom at Misawa air base in northern Japan. Everyone hit the deck as you saw and took cover. According to an Air Force statement no one on base was hurt but some buildings were indeed damaged.

And so with thousands of people still missing in Japan, a lot of people with family and friends there are going online to actually search for loved ones.

VAUSE: Reggie Aqui is here with us once more to tell us about the tools they're using including Google people find. It's amazing how this works.

REGGIE AQUI, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It is and progressed in the next year or so because we saw this most recently in the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand and we also saw it more than a year ago in Haiti.

All you do is search for people find in Google. It's a simple interface but look at this -- 67,800 records so far. These are people who are looking for someone who is missing or have information about someone to share with the rest of the world.

When you click on one of those, I just typed in a common Japanese name Watanabe. What you'll see more than 100 records for the name. It is rather heartbreaking to look at this because you see a lot of statuses like unspecified, someone seeking information about this person. When you click you get more information about that particular person, another picture, a description what they look like.

The good thing is that there are some examples of people who have been found and people who have said they've survived, I know where they are. So that is some hope at least for the people of Japan at this point.

I also what to show you a couple of iReports we just got in. This one from Jessica Tekawa showing us what some of the stores look like. This is a convenience store called the 100 yen store in Tokyo. You see on some shelves nothing at all. Look at this one here. No bread. She said many stores don't have water. This is going to be a major concern over the next few days.

And I'm going to end it here. When I first looked at this, I had to look twice because this looks like the coast of Japan, doesn't it? You see the boats destroyed in the harbor. This is actually California. It's coming from Crescent City, California. It looks to be one of the hardest-hit parts of the U.S. coast. This is in very northern California. That iReporter sending this is a Alan Ruse (ph). We thank him for that.

Japan experiencing the most devastation but it is important to know there are areas on the west coast that was affected.

WHITFIELD: Reggie, appreciate that.

So right now it's the middle of the night in Japan.

VAUSE: We'll show you their day in pictures, coming up next.

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VAUSE: Turning to other news now, the Arab League is throwing its weight behind a no-fly zone over Libya. The league unanimously backs it and wants the U.N. Security Council to impose it. Officials say the Libyan government has lost legitimacy because of its fight against the rebellion.

A no-fly zone can't come fast enough for the rebels. Libyan forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi are hitting the key oil port city of Ras Lanuf and they're hitting it hard. France and Europe support it but other leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel are skeptical about military intervention.

The struggle for political freedom in Yemen is running up against heavy opposition. These pictures come from Friday, but Saturday saw more clashes between police and protesters. Witnesses say security forces opened fire on the crowds, a claim the government denies. Two protesters were reportedly killed.

WHITFIELD: So we can talk endlessly about what happened when the quake hit Japan. But nothing can be compared with seeing the stark images and hearing the painful words of those who actually survived it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see how far the mangled mess of these cars have actually been flung. You can feel the weight and the force of the water.

RYAN MCDONALD, WITNESS: The biggest problem right now we have is there's no food anywhere. This is what I had for dinner 12 hours ago. I have had nothing to eat since then. I had some orange juice. This is all I've had in 12 hours.

HANCOCKS: Earlier on Saturday, Kan took to the air to inspect the damage caused by the massive earthquake in northeast Japan.

NAOTO KAN, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (via translator): We will do our best to try to rescue all survivors and people who are isolated, especially today because every minute counts.

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are 13 people buried alive. There are children among the missing. The hope is from these rescuers is that they may be in their houses, maybe trapped in a void. But as you can see there, that mud and dirt is heavy. It is wet. This is a massive challenge.

(MUSIC)

ROBERT ALVAREZ, INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES: This is the situation that has potential for a nuclear catastrophe. And it's basically a race against time.

KAN (via translator): We have also evacuated 20 kilometers from the first nuclear reactors. I would like to give careful attention so that not one citizen is affected by the radiation.

(MUSIC)

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