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CNN Saturday Morning News
Fourteen Dead in Bronx Tour Bus Crash; Coverage of Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan; Nuke Meltdown Fears Rise in Japan
Aired March 12, 2011 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: In Japan, and as the sun rises, you're looking live at the destruction and the scramble to rescue survivors from a horrific earthquake and tsunami. Plus this.
As a video coming out of Japan is devastating and this is some of the most compelling. A student attending college in Tokyo captures a roof collapsed in a theater. We're devoting most of this hour to the amazing video and images captured by those who witnessed it up close. I'm talking about CNN iReporters in Japan. It is a special iReport newscast here.
And there's lots of other big news happening right here in the U.S. Look at those pictures, including a tragic bus accident in New York City that killed at least 14 people. A live reports just moments away.
I'm Don Lemon, thank you so much for joining us. Let's get you caught up on the news right now.
Let's start of course in Japan where the eyes of the world are on the devastation there. The clock is ticking to find survivors after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the massive tsunami that followed. Crews have rescued more than 3,000 people but thousands more are missing, nearly 10,000 in one town alone. Japanese media report the death toll is more than 900, but that number is expected to rise. Six million households are without power and the scramble is on to find food, clean water and other supplies. Another huge problem, ten nuclear reactors near the quake zone are simply just shut down.
An explosion around one of those reactors forced authorities to evacuate people as far as 12 miles away. Now, officials say, a pump system failure caused the blast, not the reactor itself. The crews flooded it with sea water to cool it down. We're still trying to learn about the possible radiation exposure there. Three people, by the way, chosen at random did test positive for radiation exposure at a nearby hospital.
International pressure for a no-fly zone over Libya is growing as Moammar Gadhafi seizes back more territory from the rebels. The Arab League is urging the U.N. Security Council to enforce a no-fly zone to protect civilians. Gadhafi's military is pounding the eastern oil port of Ras Lanuf and has retaken the town of Ben Jawad. Meanwhile, the Al Jazeera Network reports a cameraman was killed when gunfire opened on a car after an opposition rally.
Democrats in Wisconsin vow the fight is not over in the battle over that state's budget. Thousands are back in the streets of Madison today protesting the law's new restrictions on the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker, signed the bill into law late yesterday. He says, the changes are needed to reform the state budget.
Floods are keeping hundreds of people in New Jersey out of their homes tonight. The state's rain-swollen Passaic River is expected to crest in several areas in just a few hours. High waters have shut down highways and a state of emergency remains in effect for parts of New Jersey.
At least 14 passengers died in the bus crash in the Bronx earlier this morning. Look at that picture. The tour bus hit a pole, with such force it sliced through two-thirds of the bus. Thirty two people were on board. Eight survivors are critical and the remainder are seriously hurt. Live report coming up.
And for the rest of this hour, we want to take you inside Japan, ground zero of Friday's massive 8.9 earthquake and devastating tsunami, but now we go back to that bus crash in New Jersey and we go to CNN's Susan Candiotti joining us from the ground. Susan, what can you tell us about this horrific crash?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are horrible details about this crash. It had been coming in since this morning, Don. It happened before dawn, about 5:30 in the morning. The bus driver said that they were returning from a trip to a casino in Connecticut, going back to New York City, when the driver told police that a truck driver -- the bus driver said that a truck driver in the fast lane to his left caused him to swerve and lose control of the bus. He told authorities that he crashed into a guardrail. The bus flipped over on its side and then slammed into a stanchion, that's a thick sign post, and it almost sliced completely through the bus from top to bottom. There were many, many injuries, at least 14 people dead, 18 people injured. And when the police say that they arrived on the scene, they saw several people walking around, many of them dazed.
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CHIEF ED KILDUFF, NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT: The majority of the occupants in a bus got pushed forward into the bus, the forward third of the bus, including some of the fatalities. And we started working from the front of the bus because the bus is actually split open, getting the fatalities and getting the severely injured out.
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CANDIOTTI: The bus tour company says, it is cooperating with investigators on this crash and also the National Transportation Safety Board has also now arrived on the scene and they'll be holding a news conference later on tonight to update everyone on what they are finding. Back to you, Don. LEMON: All right. Susan Candiotti, thank you very much. And for the rest of this hour again, we want to take you inside Japan. We're talking about ground zero for Friday's massive 8.9 earthquake, devastating and that devastating tsunami that followed. We're going to show you what it was like through the eyes of those who lived through the horror. I'm talking about our iReporters. They all had their cameras rolling as the ground started shaking and cracking beneath them. Listen.
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MATT ALT, WITNESSED EARTHQUAKE: The ground was rolling for an extended period of time. I wasn't exactly sure what to do or where to go. I had never been prepared for anything like this. My wife and I stood outside and basically held on to the outside of our house. You couldn't even stand up. I mean, literally at the peak of these waves that were washing over the ground, you literally could not stay on your feet. You had to kind of crouch down in a ball or put your back against something so you didn't fall.
HARRISON PAYTON, WITNESSED EARTHQUAKE: The whole ground was shaking so much, it was -- it was unreal. I can't describe it. It's just -- it was -- it felt like someone was just pulling you back and forth like side to side as hard as they could.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Oh, it just blew up. Whoo, whoo! This is crazy! Whoo! Look at it. I'm back. Do you all see this? It's too much.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Oh, my God. That is the biggest earthquake to date. It is still going. Oh, my God, the building is going to fall. But it got considerably worse. I said this is the biggest one yet and then it didn't stop. And then it got a little bit worse so I went to stand outside in between the two buildings. And the clanking you hear is actually the canisters of natural gas banging against each other. And that's when I said, oh my God, the buildings, the building is going to fall. I said that just before, because it had never made that sound. It sounded like a shotgun or a freight train going off. Just boom!
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LEMON: So much more video like that, iReporters capture the devastation in Japan. We'll get their firsthand account in a CNN Special Report tonight. And remember, you can comment on any of the stories that we cover here. Just go to our blog at cnn.com/Don or you can follow us on Don Lemon CNN and twitter also on Facebook and Foursquare.com.
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LEMON: Welcome back, everyone, to our continuing coverage of the earthquake in Japan. Even for seasoned reporters, covering Japan's earthquake has been a heart-breaking assignment. Here are some of the most vivid moments so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see how far the mangled mess of these cars has actually been flung. You could 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.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Earlier on Saturday, Kan took to the air to inspect the damage caused by the massive earthquake in northeastern Japan.
NAOTO KAN, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through a 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, SHRIAKAWA, JAPAN: 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: This is the situation that has the potential for a nuclear catastrophe. And it's basically a race against time.
KAN (through a translator): We have also evacuated 20 kilometers away from the first nuclear reactors. I would like to give careful attention so that not one citizen is affected by the radiation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: A frightening piece of -- look at this. It's a frightening piece of video to show you now from Tokyo just seconds after the earthquake struck. I want you to watch this.
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 and you can hear him on the video telling his friend that the roof collapsed right where he was sitting seconds ago. We were able to talk with iReporter Aaron Lace just a short time ago and here's what he said about the earthquake and what he is still experiencing right now.
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AARON LACE, CNN IREPORTER: Well, pandemonium is actually a very good word. Basically you try to think of yourself on roller skates and the ground being marbles atop ice and you probably get yourself an idea of the way it kind of felt. It was an absolute horrific event, obviously because lives were lost, and something that I think I'm hoping that the entire world community can help in trying to help the Japanese people with. Well, actually that's a good question because actually we are still feeling it. The aftershocks are coming extremely regular, it's regularly. And because they are regular, they're coming literally every hour at least, and they're coming in doses or extremely strong. And it's, it's something that you would not wish upon your worst enemy.
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LEMON: Up next here on CNN, the earth stops moving. Then comes the wall of water. We'll show you what one iReporter saw when he looked outside the window, and what a frightened mother had to say about trying to save her infant from the tsunami.
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LEMON: Dramatic video taken Friday from above Kamaishi, Kamaishi in northeast Japan as a massive tsunami swallowed an entire town. And just watching this video of the spreading water gets your heart racing. Imagine if you were on the ground there. Listen to one mother describe how she ran from Japan's fast-moving tsunami as she held her five-month-old baby.
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TOMOKO ITO, MOTHER OF FIVE-MONTH-OLD BABY (through a translator): When I got home, I had a neighbor shouting that tsunami is coming. When I got out of the house, I saw that tsunami approaching. An elementary school that is an evacuate site, was too far so I fled to a footbridge. We were soaking wet. The people who fled to the footbridge helped to keep us warm. We are all right, thanks to their help. I'm now relieved that my baby was not harmed.
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LEMON: And we have some incredible images from NASA to show you. It shows the destruction following the 8.9 magnitude quake and the tsunami. NASA's Terra satellite took this photo of Japan's northeastern coast right after the earthquake. And you can see the normal defined coastline. Now look at this image taken just moments after the tsunami slammed ashore. You can see much of the coastline has disappeared and you can also see how far the water extends inland. And this photo was taken by NASA's aqua satellite. It shows a large black plume of smoke coming from Sendai. The smoke was from a refinery fire that was triggered by the earthquake. We'll show you much, much more of these images coming up all this evening here on CNN.
And one of our iReporters is an exchange student who was in Ichihara, Japan when the disaster struck. August Armbrister was inside when he heard a massive boom in the distance. He grabbed his camera and he captured a refinery going up in a ball of flames.
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AUGUST ARMBRISTER, IREPORTER: We're going in. That's the sun setting over there. You get the sunset in the west, destruction in the east. It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Helicopters. Wow. Look at the smoke, though, it's crazy. Look at it. Look at it. Just the smoke. It happened again! Holy crap, I'm running. I'm running. Oh, holy crap. Let's go, let's go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Man, a family trip at Tokyo Disneyland, that's where they went. Turns into a roller coaster of a ride that no one was expecting. And we'll talk with an iReporter about how people reacted when that quake hit and find out what conditions are like right now in Japan as a new day dawns. And we are monitoring Japanese television right now where you can see the images of destruction. These are live reports, live pictures from the news being covered there. Look at the people on the street, bodies being covered.
Much, much more coming up on the devastation in Japan just moments away here on CNN.
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LEMON: We want to check your top stories right now on CNN. It could be days before hundreds of people in New Jersey can return to their homes. Heavy rains have swollen rivers and caused widespread flooding. Some residents report water up to five feet high in their homes. States of emergency remain in effect for parts of the state, although high waters are beginning to recede in some areas.
At least 14 passengers died in this bus crash in the Bronx. It happened earlier today. The tour bus hit a pole with such force it sliced through two-thirds of the bus. Thirty two people were aboard. Eight survivors are critical and the remainder are seriously hurt. The bus driver says a truck cut him off, causing him to hit a guardrail.
Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi is regaining more ground against rebel forces even as the Obama administration voices support for a no-fly zone over Libya. The White House praised today's vote by the Arab League calling on the U.N. Security Council to enforce a no-fly zone. The Arab League says, that's needed to protect civilians as fighting rages.
An Italian Appeals Court heard testimony today from witnesses called on behalf of imprisoned American Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend. She's a former exchange student now serving a 26-year prison term. She was convicted in 2009 of killing her roommate. Today's testimony was designed to refute a trial witness who placed Knox and her boyfriend at the scene of the crime.
This year's NFL season is officially at risk. League owners have locked out the players in a dispute over how to divide the NFL's $9 billion in annual revenue. The players have decertified their union, and ten of the league's top players have filed suit against the owners in federal court, accusing them of anti violating -- of violating antitrust laws. Owners and players broke off negotiations yesterday, just hours before their contract expired.
Oklahoma is under a state of emergency this weekend. Out of control grass fires have destroyed dozens of homes all across the state. Gusting winds and dry conditions are fueling the blazes. Several schools and hundreds of homes are being threatened.
And all this hour, we're giving you an unprecedented look at the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan. And we're showing you what it was like through the eyes of our iReporters caught in the middle of all of that chaos. Christopher Marrs was at Tokyo, Disneyland when the quake struck. He joins us now by phone from Yokosuka, the navy base there where he is staying with his family. Christopher, we're glad that you're OK. Can you please give us a play-by-play of what you felt?
CHRISTOPHER MARRS, IREPORTER: Well, the earthquake was much different than anything I've been through before. I was in a 7.2 in California on Easter and this one just kept going and going and getting stronger and stronger. There's actually two videos. The second video where there's not as many people around was the bigger quake and it was taken maybe like 30 seconds after it started, because I originally planned that, you know, put the video up because me and my sister were separated and I was going to videotape to try to locate her once the quake was over.
Then the second one was the aftershock, which is also pretty big. So it's pretty terrifying. And it's also terrifying when you don't know what everybody is saying because it's all in Japanese.
DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Christopher, you sound a little emotional. Are you tired, emotional? What's going on with you?
MARRS: I've been up for quite a long period. I mean probably since the earthquake we were stranded at Disneyland and then we couldn't get out of the park and we finally got to the park and we got to the Sheraton Hotel but we couldn't go to our room. And then they were limited on food. and they finally, you know, opened up the buffet line like at 3:00 in the morning. And then we got a little bit of sleep. and it's just been non-stop. We had to get back to the base so we left about 1:00 this morning in a cab and drove like two hours because a lot of the trains were down from that point to where we're at because it's about a two-hour difference.
LEMON: You are surrounded by children, so tell us what families were doing around you to comfort and to keep their kids safe.
MARRS: Well, you know, I think all the adults around me, including the Disney staff, was very calm and collected. I think we're all more emotional now than we were then. But we just tried to act like nothing was really going on. You know, we were just at Disneyland just taking a little break. So I think you could kind of see that in the video. There is a lot of crying, but it's not, you know, hysterically.
LEMON: All right, Christopher, listen, take care of yourself. I know it's emotional and you've been up for a long time. Please be safe. Again, we're glad you're OK. And get back to us if you get any more information. We appreciate it. I want to go now to live pictures in Japan. It's showing the tsunami and the earthquake aftermath. I want you to look at this. This is from Japanese television. This is the way that they're covering here. We tell you, it's just after 7:00 in the morning, about 7:32 in the morning there in Japan, and they have been covering this. Obviously, this is their top story, no doubt. The people who do have power are able to see this but millions don't.
They're showing the graphic here now. These are the graphics now of the most devastating spots where it was hit and they're showing where it came ashore and exactly what happened. We want to continue with this because they have been showing cars that are just floating, people who had to stop on the street and had to run, to try to run for their lives as this water approached. But again, we want to continue to monitor this and look at what's going on.
Again, this is Japanese television, 7:32, as you can see in the top left of your corner, that's the time there from TV in Japan. Just stay with us -- there we go. There's another live picture from another Japanese television station. You can see just the devastation, obviously, that came -- that's where that wave came ashore from the ocean there. And this is NHK. But again, NHK World, and that's Japanese television.
Just before we came to this, we saw some amazing pictures coming out. All this hour, we've been showing you what our iReporters were witnessing and just some of the most amazing video captured by people who were in the middle of this at the time. But again, millions of people, of course, are without power there so they're not able to see this. Many of them don't have transmission. Of course, they are wondering about many others, hundreds if not thousands who are missing, four train cars and all of the above. Again, that is Japanese television anchor there.
But we're going to continue to follow this developing story here on CNN. Again, the clock is ticking to find survivors. 8.9 magnitude quake hitting. It is the worst in recorded history for Japan. Much, much more on this coming up on CNN. We'll continue to monitor that video for you and those feeds.
Many railways in Japan were shut down after this quake and it was stranding tens of thousands of people who were unable to get home. I want you to take a look at the train system around Tokyo. Each of those black lines that you're about to see -- there they are -- is a rail line. Many were shut down so the tracks and the electrical equipment could be inspected for damage. Some lines resumed operations on Friday evening. Many did not. There's also a high- speed bullet train that's run between Tokyo and Sendai, the area most affected by the quake. Millions of people in Japan rely on trains to get to work every day and there are reports of some of them missing. Again, we'll follow.
One of our iReporters was there when the Owano (ph) train station in Tokyo had to shut down its trains. The iReporter is a medical student from Switzerland traveling in Japan. He says everything was relatively calm, considering the circumstances. You know, it wasn't just the rail system impacted by the powerful system. Richard Dong sent in this is report. Look at the video. He was sitting in the Delta Lounge of Tokyo's Narita Airport, when the quake struck. He said part of the ceiling fell, glasses and cups hit the floor, lights were swinging back and forth, and people scrambled under tables.
Let's listen for a bit.
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LEMON: It's unreal. Again, that's from our iReporter Richard Dong in the Tokyo airport.
You know, Friday's drive home was anything but normal for our next iReporter. Rush hour traffic mixed with an 8.9 earthquake makes for some pretty incredible video. We'll show it to you next.
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LEMON: Welcome back to our continuing coverage here. This new video just into CNN. Look at the video. This is from Japanese television. All you have to do is look at it. Can you imagine? The destruction is unbelievable. Debris there from buildings, cars strewn about. Look at the coastline, what happened. Remember Banda Aceh? That was terrible. This, though, we have seen nothing like it. We have told you about the rail system and the trains. There's one train car right there that's in the water. Some are believed to still be missing, the people who live there walking amidst the rubble and devastation. If you live there, would you know what to do, where to turn? How do you tell your child? That lady there walking with that child, what do you say to her? Look at the images of the water rushing in.
Again, that's new video coming in to CNN. People on their roofs, reminiscent of Katrina, waving flags for help, and sheets. And there's the military, overwhelmed by this devastation, obviously not enough people there to cover and to rescue every single person. Those are roof rescues, again, and rescues reminiscent here of what happened in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina. People praying. The shoreline, again, devastated. Most of the buildings there were toppled. And the ones that survived, that did stand, are probably inhabitable, will have to be taken down and rebuilt again. A highly populous area. Imagine all the people inside those buildings.
And look at this. The water, of course, destroying many things and causing fire and smoke. And we heard about the nuclear power threat there as well from the explosion at an energy plant. Unbelievable. New pictures coming in to us, to CNN, from Japan of the devastation there. We'll continue to monitor them and bring them to you live here on CNN. Again, it is almost 8:00 in the morning, 7:40. The sun is coming up and they're getting a new look at the destruction and devastation, the fire, the smoke, and dealing with what most people have not had to deal with. Again, we'll bring you more of those pictures.
We're going to move on right now and talk to you about something that we talk about often here on CNN, people doing great things. Heroes are needed in Japan, but we have a story to tell you now about the hero, one in Indonesia, where doctors can deliver your baby and then keep the child until you pay your hospital bill. Does it sound crazy? But this week's "CNN Hero," Arizona native, Robin Lemm, has come up with a solution, offering free birthing services to poor women. Take a look.
(CNN HERO)
LEMON: And remember all of this year's heroes, the "CNN Heroes," are chosen from people that you tell us about, so to nominate someone you know is making a difference in your community, go to CNNheroes.com.
As you can imagine, a lot of heroes will be coming out of this devastation in Japan, and we will be reporting on that as well.
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LEMON: We have been monitoring the developments in Japan really all day long, and we will all evening long. These are new pictures, again, that are coming in from Japanese television. I just want to -- I can't even believe what I'm seeing. Look at all the damage and destruction that took place in Japan. The clock is ticking there to try to find survivors.
I'm just going to let you look at these pictures and I'll talk about what's going on. We know it was an 8.9 magnitude quake and then a tsunami that followed. They have rescued, so far, as we look at this, more than 3,000 people. Thousands are still missing. 10,000, we're told, in one town alone. Japanese media reporting now the death toll is more than 900, but the number is expected to rise because some places they haven't even gotten to yet because there's so much debris, there's so much water. Six million households without power.
And the scramble is on, of course, to find food, clean water, other supplies. The U.S. sending some help and relief as are other countries.
But if you had no idea or you imagined the devastation in Japan, this just shows you it's probably worse than anyone had even thought, as these new pictures come in and, again, as sunrise comes up. This is the second day of sunshine there and they're going to find more. Because as I said, there are places that they haven't gotten to.
Look at these people on the roof. These are the people who did survive. When you think about all the -- how much water came in, there are a lot of people who didn't make it. Those who could run up to a roof, ran up to a roof, some of them were rescued by emergency workers, by the military, but there's not enough people to help all of those who are in need and to simply rescue everyone. This whole country is overwhelmed.
All this hour, we have been showing you the amazing video coming in from our iReporters who were on the ground when it happened. You saw the video of the young man, one of our iReporters, Chris, who shot it while he was at the airport. And I have to tell you now, these are live pictures. This is a rescue in progress.
If we have the sound, just a little bit, we know it's Japanese television but can we hear it a little bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED JAPANESE CORRESPONDENT: The helicopter is now flying away from that house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: They just hoisted someone off the roof.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED JAPANESE CORRESPONDENT: A resident was rescued by a helicopter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And again, these are live pictures now from Japanese television and they are going between their streams. This is off of a balcony. Look at that. Just -- I mean it's like timber. And I'm going to tell you, in the coming days -- I would imagine that this is probably tape now, but that was a live helicopter rescue. But in the coming days, we're going to see more of this as they get to those areas where they have not been able to get to. And as they get to those areas that are not media centers and are not metropolitan areas where they don't -- look at this, new video. And pardon me if, at points, I'm a little choppy because I'm getting information from my producers as they are guiding me through this new video. They're monitoring it in the control room.
Look at this new video coming in. Is there some sound on this, guys? No. No sound, OK.
But again, these are reports that are coming in from Japanese television. Anything that we have planned for you here on CNN is -- there's nothing better because really shows really what's going on there. And, of course, Japanese television can cover it better than us because they are there on the ground. And as our folks start to move into the country -- many of them are -- we'll be able to get more reports like this and some of our own images here on CNN.
This has caused fires. It's caused an issue concerned with a nuclear power plant. People exposed to radiation. They're not exactly sure how many people really, and how bad it is, and they're handing out iodine tablets and trying to help people there. There are children walking around in suits, contamination suits. And I'm hearing from people here. , it's so tough to see these images. But this is real, folks.
We'll continue to follow it, get more video in and get more live pictures. We have some breaking news to tell you about as well on the other side of the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back to CNN's coverage of the devastation in Japan. Breaking news into CNN. We told you about the threat of radiation contamination from one of the facilities there, a nuclear facility power plant. This is just in. I'm going to read it right of the wires. It says, "A meltdown may be under way at one of the Fukushima's Daiichi power reactors." There's two, remember. That's an official with the Japanese or Japan's "nuclear and industrial safety agency told CNN today. A meltdown is a catastrophic failure, a catastrophic failure," -- that's what we're hearing -- "of the reactor core with potential for widespread radiation release. The director of the agency's international affairs office expressed confidence, however, that the efforts to control the crisis would prove successful."
Again, this is uncharted territory because they haven't had anything like this happen.
Meantime, a second reactor at the same facility, as we've been telling you about, failed shortly after 5:00 a.m. on Sunday there. The Tokyo Electric Power Company said, this is according to TV Asahi, that the company, the power company said it was having difficulty cooling the reactor and may need to release radioactive steam in order to release the pressure. We reported that to you at the top of in broadcast.
Meantime, the crisis with the two reactors followed the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that struck northern Japan on Friday.
Again, this is our breaking news here on CNN and they're calling it -- this meltdown, a catastrophic failure of the reactor core. A meltdown may be under way at one of the Fukushima's nuclear power reactors. And that's according to an official in Japan.
More breaking news on CNN after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Breaking news here on CNN and it involves really exposure to radiation from a nuclear power plant. As we get more information on that and our Chad Myers gets ready, let's look at some of the pictures of the new video out of Japan. It's unbelievable. It's from Japanese television, the very latest.
Are these live pictures or is this tape? This is tape.
Again, this is a shoreline that we have been looking at there. And then we've been looking at all the pictures, just the rubble and devastation, and the second day really of daylight there.
In the meantime, let's bring in CNN's Chad Myers.
Chad, we've been talking about what's going on there, especially as it comes to possible exposure.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. LEMON: This is a failure, a possible failure. They said that would be really catastrophic if that does happen. What's going on? Show us where it is and tell us about the issues.
MYERS: It's a failure to keep the rods in the reactor cool enough, because they were supposed to have diesel generators backing up power to keep the pumps running to keep the water flowing through the reactor. Well, about an hour after the earthquake, the tsunami actually killed the diesel generators. So, all of a sudden, the generators didn't work anymore. So they went to back-up battery power. That lasted about eight hours. They trucked in as many batteries as they could to try to keep the water running.
Zoom now. This is the nuclear power plant. We're going to zoom out and show you how close this was to where all of these earthquakes are. There have literally been almost 200 earthquakes out here in the trench here, just to the east of Japan. The shake happened, and then there was another shake and then, all of a sudden -- there were four shocks to this earthquake. We always hear about aftershocks. But there was an earthquake two days ago that was a 7.2 as a foreshock. They knew things were going and they knew there was a potential for more earthquakes, but they didn't realize that the 7.2 was going to be foreshadowed by an 8.9 later on.
So the nuclear power plant -- you have to think about this. Almost like you have a reactor and the entire reactor is sitting there like a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Don't worry about the word microwave. But it's popping one kernel at a time. That's OK. That's how you want a reactor to work. It hearts the water, the water turns to steam, the steam turns the generator and you get power. But what's happening or could potentially be happening is take that bag of popcorn and pop every kernel at the same time. You're at a supercritical phase where, if you can't cool this down and you can't stop this reaction, you're in a very, very dangerous place.
LEMON: Chad, listen, stand by. As we talk about this, I want to go live to Japanese television, NHK. They're showing right now what life is like there for people who are in Japan. We've seen some new pictures, Chad, from the street.
One question, Chad, I want you to ponder as we talk about these live images that are coming from our affiliate -- I imagine this is tape but we're monitoring Japanese television live, I should say. People are asking me on Twitter how many people live near these nuclear reactors, what's the population, what goes on there, and what's the possibility of exposure? But hold that thought.
MYERS: At least 30,000. Keep going.
LEMON: All right. OK, and as we leave you in just a minute from this hour, let's look at the very latest images that are coming out of Japan.
Look at this. This is the way they're covering it there. That was inside an assembly meeting. You saw the inside of an airport --
(SHOUTING)
LEMON: The inside of a hospital. This is as the wave came ashore and they were covering it from a helicopter. Just unbelievable images that we're going to continue to talk about. The devastation really untold here.
That's it for me. I'm going to hand it off to my colleague in Washington now who is going to take over for a few hours, CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Wolf, take it away.
