Amid the vastness of the devastation in Japan, there were a handful of small miracles.
Shinkawa, 60, had seen his wife swept away by the tidal wave that washed his home away and sent him swirling into the open ocean clinging to debris.
He spent two days on the makeshift 10-foot raft his roof had become, trying to hail rescuers with a scrap of red cloth affixed to a long stick.
“Several helicopters and ships passed by, but none of them noticed me,” he was quoted as saying by the Kyodo News Agency.
Finally, someone on a passing naval destroyer spotted him and sent a small boat to fetch him.
When he was brought on board, Shinkawa immediately burst into tears.
Rescue teams fanned out across northern Japan early Saturday, as the latest TV pictures revealed shocking scenes of devastation in the aftermath of Friday’s powerful earthquake and deadly tsunamis.
The rush now is to establish the priorities for help — no easy task because the affected area is so large, the destruction so immense. Fifty thousand rescue personnel are being mobilized.
An earthquake of 8.9. magnitude struck off the coast ofJapan on Friday, the strongest ever recorded in the country. The quake churned up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and threatened coastal areas throughout the Pacific and as far away the west coast of the United States and South America.Fragmentary early reports of the toll indicate that hundreds of people have been killed. Japanese police officials told the Associated Press that 200 to 300 bodies were found in Sendai, a port city in the northeastern part of the country and the closest main city to the epicenter.
Walls of water whisked away houses and cars in northern Japan, where terrified residents fled the coast. Train service was shut down across central and northern Japan, including Tokyo, and air travel was severely disrupted. A ship carrying more than 100 people was swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo News reported.
The government evacuated thousands of residents near a nuclear plant about 170 miles northeast of Tokyo after a backup generator failed, compromising the cooling system, the Associated Press reported.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the disaster caused major damage across wide areas. With rescue efforts just getting under way, the full extent of injuries and damage will not be known for some time.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake reached a magnitude of 8.9, making it the most severe worldwide since an 8.8 quake off the coast of Chile a little more than a year ago. It was less powerful than the 9.1-magnitude quake that struck off Northern Sumatra in late 2004. That quake spawned a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean.
An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan today, triggering tsunamis that sent a wave filled with boats and houses toward land. Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast are under a tsunami warning. Are you in an affected area? Send an iReport.
[9:40 a.m. ET, 11:40 p.m. Tokyo] The toll in the Japan 8.9 quake stands at least 93 dead, 539 injures and 351 missing, according to Japan’s National Police. Additionally, in Miyagi Prefecture, between 200 and 300 bodies have been found following the tsunami that hit that area.
[9:37 a.m. ET, 11:37 p.m. Tokyo] 60,000 to 70,000 people were being evacuated to shelters in the Sendai area of Japan, according to Kyodo.
[9:06 a.m. ET, 11:06 p.m. Tokyo] The tsunami waves that have hit Hawaii “are not going to be a major damaging event” but will cause scattered damage, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Waves of nearly 8 feet have been reported Friday on the island of Maui.
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