Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Two months after the disaster in Japan, nearly 15 people dead and 10 000 missing

Two months after the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, the death toll rose today to 14 thousand 949 and the missing nine thousand 880, while some 117 000 people remain in shelters, reported the National Police Agency. The natural disaster so far has left an overall figure of nearly 25 000 dead and missing, but authorities warn that the toll could be higher since they have not completed the search tasks.

The highest number of fatalities has occurred in Miyagi Prefecture with eight thousand 941 deaths, followed by four thousand Iwate and Fukushima 440 to 544 thousand, according to police quoted by Japanese television and radio network NHK. The number of missing has been declining gradually, from 17 thousand 600 who came to report on the first days after the disaster to nine thousand current 880.

These figures are due to many people who initially were reported missing had been evacuated and were in shelters or had not yet been located by rescue teams. At the same time that two months ago the earthquake and tsunami, rescue workers, soldiers, volunteers and survivors to remember the victims with a minute of silence.

After the memory of the victims, rescuers resumed their work to rebuild areas where the sea destroyed 72 000 houses and killed those who did not have time to escape to higher ground, mostly elderly. So far, there are still 25 thousand tons of debris to be cleaned after the disaster, while they build temporary accommodation for around 117 thousand evacuees are still unable to return home.

Japan's Meteorological Agency has warned that due to the magnitude of the earthquake on March 11 aftershocks still provide up to 5.0 degrees on the Richter scale. In the past two months have seen around 450 earthquakes in the earthquake of 9.0 on the Richter scale, which set off a nuclear emergency at the nuclear plant in Fukushima.

On Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the company that operates the nuclear power plant in Fukushima-1, said he detected another leak of radioactive water from the ocean floor, this time in reactor number 3 but managed to stop the flow. A company spokesman told reporters that a worker had found a filtered water in wells No.

3 reactor, near the ocean, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo. TEPCO has previously experienced a similar leak in the reactor number 2, got sealed with substances among which included the liquid glass. Since the earthquake on March 11, TEPCO had to pour water to cool reactors, but also needs to find a place to store contaminated water, part of which has leaked into the sea.

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