Number of dead, missing in Japan on the rise

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TOKYO, Japan – Almost a week after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the National Police Agency says the number of dead and missing has surpassed 15,000.

Rescue teams are now able to reach some of the places hardest hit after the double disaster, but the snow, sleet and cold continues to take its toll. While crews are still hoping to find survivors, in reality it has become more of a recovery mission. Red sticks are being used to mark where bodies have been found.

“It’s worth it for these guys to pick through every inch, make their way through the downed power lines over all the objects into the spaces because the stakes are enormous,” said CNN reporter Brian Todd. “But there is opportunity, there are voids seemingly everywhere you look – a possibility for rescue.”

Todd describes the scene as “tons of mud. You’ve got downed power lines and the weather obviously has turned very, very bad and risky for these crews.” In some places, debris is piled 20 feet high.

At the same time, survivors from coastal villages which were almost entirely wiped out are having a difficult time leaving the area.

“Even with no sign of life, seemingly nothing to come back to, people keep coming back. There’s a couple over there picking their way through this rubble,” Todd added.

Hundreds of thousands of other survivors are crammed into shelters, most of which do not have heat. The walls are plastered with photos of missing people.

One 83 year old woman spoke of losing her home, but she was able to out-pedal the tsunami wave on her bike even though she was terrified.

“You could imagine the trauma that people are going through, having lost family and livelihoods and then constantly going through the aftershocks … constantly being re-traumatized as tsunami warning alert sirens are going off,” John Saunders with the Canadian Red Cross told 680News from Japan.

Meanwhile, streets remain empty in Tokyo, as people are either staying inside or fleeing over radiation fears. The lights are off to avoid massive blackouts. 

We are also hearing what the 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11 sounded like on the ground. The Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics in Spain recorded it. The sounds had to be accelerated 16 times just to make them audible to humans. Click on the “earthquake” play button to listen (courtesy of: Laboratori d’Aplicacions Bioacustiques).

Robin Gill with Global News arrived in Japan near Tokyo the day after the earthquake, and says the aftershocks are really unsettling. “I’m not used to it; it feels like vertigo. You feel a little dizzy… it’s like this low rumbling underneath your feet,” she says.

There have been hundreds of aftershocks since March 11th, some more than a magnitude-6.0. The situation is deteriorating so much, the Obama administration has authorized the first evacuations of Americans out of Japan, saying it will charter planes to help US citizens — mainly family of government personnel — wishing to escape elevated radiation levels in the country. France has followed suit.

Canada, meanwhile, said enough commercial flights are still available. However, the Harper government is moving Canadians out of danger zones using two chartered coach buses.

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