Japan disaster dead, missing toll tops 18,000: Police

[Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa]

Japan disaster dead, missing toll tops 18,000: Police
By AFP
Published: March 19, 2011

The number of people confirmed as dead or listed as missing by Japan's national police agency tops 18,000. PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO:

The number of people confirmed as dead or listed as missing by Japans national police agency topped 18,000 on Saturday, eight days after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck.

There were fears of a far higher death toll from the disaster that wiped out vast residential areas along the Pacific coast of northern Honshu island.

The national police agency said 7,197 people had been confirmed dead and 10,905 officially listed as missing, a total of 18,102, as of 9:00am Saturday (0000 GMT) as a result of the March 11 catastrophe.

Hopes of finding many more survivors amid the rubble have diminished amid a cold snap that has hit Japans northeast, covering much of the disaster area in snow earlier this week.

The death toll has surpassed that of the 7.2-magnitude quake that struck the western Japanese port city of Kobe in 1995, killing 6,434 people.

The March 11 quake is now Japans deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 142,000 people.

The latest police figures for people missing do not include local reports from along the tsunami-hit coast of vast numbers of people unaccounted for.

The mayor of the coastal town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture said Wednesday that the number of missing there was likely to hit 10,000, Kyodo News reported.

On Saturday, public broadcaster NHK said that around 10,000 people were unaccounted for in the port town of Minamisanriku in the same prefecture.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/134916/japan-disaster-dead-missing-toll-tops-18000-police/

 

[Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa]

Japan tsunami was at least 76 feet high: report

Japan tsunami was at least 76 feet high: report
By AFP
Published: March 18, 2011

Sendai airport is flooded in this still image taken from video March 11, 2011. PHOTO: REUTERS
OSAKA, JAPAN:

The tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan in the March 11 earthquake was at least 76 feet high according to a Japanese study, the Yomiuri daily said on Friday.

The Port and Airport Research Institute recorded the massive tsunami in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture that swept away an entire town.

Japans biggest-ever tsunami was recorded at 38.2-metres high in a massive 1896 earthquake.

An official with the institute said that without the coastal levee that did not exist in 1896, the latest tsunami was likely to be the biggest ever to hit Japan.

The study was conducted Friday using global positioning system GPS and measuring instruments.

The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan said that at least some 400 square kilometers of land were flooded in the March 11 tsunami.

The figure may be revised upward as the survey using aerial photos has yet to analyse 20 percent of the affected area.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/134456/japan-tsunami-was-at-least-76-feet-high-report/

 

[Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa]

Toll from Japan disasters over 7,700

Tayo Kitamura, looks down at the wrapped body of her mother Kuniko Kitamura, after Japanese firemen discovered the dead woman inside the ruins of her home in Onagawa, northeastern Japan. AP Photo

TOKYO: Japans police agency says 7,700 are dead and more than 11,600 are missing after last weeks earthquake and tsunami.

A week after the disasters devastated the northeast coast, the National Police Agency said Sunday that 7,700 people died and 11,651 were missing.

Some of the missing may have been out of the region at the time of the disaster.

In addition, the massive power of the tsunami likely sucked many people out to sea. If the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is any guide, most of those bodies will not be found.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/20/toll-from-japan-disasters-over-7700.html