Transcripts For CNN World One 20110317 : vimarsana.com

the race to cool down an overheating nuclear reactor, japan sends in helicopters to douse it with water. with radiation levels dangerously high water cannons are brought in to try to prevent a meltdown. it is 6:00 p.m. in tokyo, 5:00 a.m. anita rajpal. and i m in abob dab by. heading for the exit. foreign visitors, they re packing their bags. there are still some places devastated by the tsunami that no rescue teams have reached as the snow comes down. skwap s winter weather makes life even harder for the survivors. moammar gadhafi s troops gain ground from the rebels as diplomats outside libya consider a no-fly zone. but first japan s race to prevent a nuclear castastrophe. workers are using everything they ve got to try to regain control of the most badly damaged reactor. they could be exposing themselves to radiation but officials say they can t afford to pull emergency staff out of the complex. the recovery effort at the fukushima plant interred a new phase. helicopters dropping 7.5 tons of seawater on the number 3 reactor to stop fuel rods from overheating. the cooling system was knocked out the earthquake and tsunami. 180 workers are staying put to battle the threat of meltdown. the next move to use water cannons. the top priority is getting the temperature down. they re also trying to restore electric power to the plant. it has been off since friday but if they can get it back on they can restart the cooling system using seawater. meanwhile, the top u.s. official says in another reactor, 4, spent fuel rods have exposed. gregory jaczko told congress there was no water in the pool where the spent fuel rods were stored. that s led to radiation leaking out. wolf blitzer spoke with him. how dangerous is the radiation right now? folks in this vicinity of this reactor, are they in danger of dying? well, our understanding is there are very high radiation levels near some parts of the reactor site. i don t want to go too much into details but they are very high levels. meanwhile, japanese government and power company officials dispute one of jaczko s main observations and say there is water in the spent nuclear fuel pool and they ve not seen dangerous levels outside the immediate area around the reactors. this is a dangerous situation so authorities have evacuated the 20-kilometer radius forcing 200,000 people to leave their homes. no flights are allowed within a 30-kilometer radius except for helicopters sent in to drop water and people living between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant are being advised to stay indoors. other governments are widening the danger zone. the u.s. is chartering planes to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families from tokyo and other cities and the military is telling people not to get within 80 kilometers of fukushima, about 50 miles. australia said its citizens should get within the same distance, south korea s government is advising people to get further away or stay indoors and the french prime minister, nicholas car csarkozy to leave the country altogether. stan grant is in tokyo. we re hearing the americans, french, south koreans to move further away from the radius that the japanese advised its own citizens. what do they know that we don t know? reporter: well, they re drawing on the information that the japanese are providing and extrapolating interest that and coming up with their own assessments about what is appropriate for their own needs. the japanese are maintaining based on the figures they have for the radiation levels at the 20 kilometer radius it is appropriate but there is a warning for people within 30 kilometers to stay indoors and avoid coming in contact with hazardous problem. the problem with this is pinning down what the radiation levels are and the extent of risk. i spent a lot of time poring over this information day by day almost going minute by minute in the radiation readouts from inside the plant and i can tell you they fluctuate very widely depending on what part of the plant you re taking the measurement from. just as an example earlier today during the morning they took a measurement of about 4,000 millisievermicr microseiferts but dropped to 350 at the gate of the plant so you can see how that really that really swings so widely so trying to get a reading on it, how long can workers be exposed to it, what sort of potential health risks there might be, not just now but into the future makes it difficult. when you have that, uncertain data people feel that gap with their own fears and that s understandable. meanwhile, the situation at the nuclear power plant, those emergency workers are still there. what do we know about the latest in terms of how under control or not things are? yeah, right now they ve been using helicopters i think as you mentioned to drop water onto the stricken reactors and did four drops today for about seven tons of water. they do need to do way more than that but operated during 9 morning. they ve moved those water trucks in, as well. you mentioned one truck was there from the police. the military is sending five trucks in as well and they re going to be pumping more water in. it was due to begin around about now. we ll check on those and get back to you. it s interesting with that as well. initially they were going to try to draw water from the ocean but that was going to be too dangerous. they ll keep them inside the truck and pump it into. stan grant in tokyo, thank you. now, of course, earthquakes can occur anywhere in the world with little or no warning but they are more likely to occur along the earth s plate boundaries, the iaea estimates a full 20% of all of the power reactors are in area of significant seismic activity. you see the shaded areas on your map, earthquake zones. now, the dots you re seeing represent the world s 442 operable power reactors. it s difficult to imagine how one would cope but the strength that the nation has shown is remarkable and has not gone unnoticed. in australia the headline is resilience in the face of catastrophe. no looting, no whining, very little panic if any and no demands for mythical them to fix it. the stories are heartbreaking and uplifting as the best of humanity comes to the fore, catastrophe and goes on to stay the japanese s ability to overcome disaster is deeply rooted in her norm and is the norm rather than the exception. it s a central tenet of their culture and the headline in the scotsman says for a country to have survived on the pacific ring of fire to become one of the world s most tech lnologicay advanced economies would be unthinkable without a tolerance of bisque being hardwired into the system. you can see how you can help. certainly good to see those hopeful messages there. you re watching world one. a pivotal battling may be looming in libya. the coming showdown and civil war under way. as low as 4.75% at lendingtree.com. plus, get the best deal or we ll pay you $1,000. call lending tree at. today. 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[ male announcer ] fiber one chewy bars. announcer: what does it take to fly? it takes knowing we have our work cut out for us. flying brings more challenges everyday. but if you ask any of the pilots that work here: they ll say: one of the first things they learned in flight school. is that if you run before the wind. you can t take off. you ve got to turn into it. face it. the thing you push against is the thing that lifts you up. so, every challenge really, is a chance to show that even in this crazy world of : no liquids, take your shoes off cost cutting and route canellations someone in this industry still has the passenger s back. it starts with a simple hello and it ends in over three- hundred fifty destinations woldwide. and along the way we ll prove we re not just building a bigger airline we re building a better one. hello you re watching world one. i m monita rajpal in london. and i m errol barnett in abu dhabi. fighting continues to rage in libya as forces loyal to moammar gadhafi push deep into the eastern half of the country. the city of ajdabiya has come under heavy bombardment, the last major city between government forces and the rebel stronghold of benghazi. arwa damon is there and joins us now. i understand for journalists for the the new york times, four are missing. what can you tell us about the latest on the ground? reporter: hi, errol. we ve been trying to reach out to people in ajdabiya to see what the update on the situation was that it s coming under intense bombardment. fighting is continuing as far as we are aware of with colonel gadhafi s forces trying to bombard their way in. eyewitnesses were telling us about sniper positions set up inside ajdabiya instead. people naturally growing concerned and frustrated with the international community. people demonstrating yesterday in front of the courthouse in benghazi. we were walking alongside a group of women carrying a sign that said quite simply how many libyans need to die before the united nations take action. people fail to understand if the international community is continuing to see images of violence and fighting they can continue to stand by idly. there s been a lot of talk about a no-fly zone but it has yet to materialize. there is the concern that the opposition has taken this as far as they can but in the face of gadhafi ee military might, no one knows how long they ll be able to hold out. as for the fate of those four the new york times journalists, as far as we are aware their status is still missing, errol. that is arwa damon for us. you re watching world one. . for people in japan s northeast surviving friday s tsunami was just the start of the battle. translator: well, to be frank, i need a bath and stuff like that. but i know it s too much to ask. it s so cold here. we need kerosene and we need petrol. never mind. for rebuilding it s a struggle to survive. you know when to hold em. and how to fold em. and you.rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle.and go. you can even take a full-size or above and still pay the mid-size price. you can even take a full-size herwe are. [ male announcer ] and there you go, business pro. there you go. go national. go like a pro. sweet & salty nut bars. they re made from whole roasted nuts and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. welcome back. you re watching world one. i m errol barnett in abu dhabi. i m monita rajpal in london. these are our top stories. officials at the fukushima daiichi power plant are scrambling to prevent a nuclear crisis from getting worse. they ve used helicopters to drop tons of seawater onto the number three reactor. it has been heating up since friday s earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling system. engineers are trying to restore electric power to allow cooling mechanisms to be switched back on. take a look at these pictures. they were taken in the miyagi prefecture. that s one of the hardest hit areas of japan. the number of people known to have died there as a result of friday s disaster, that continues to rise. japan s national police agency now puts it officially at 5,429 people but there are more than 9,500 still missing today. for days now we ve been bringing you horrific images of the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami but the pictures you re about to see almost defy belief. alex thompson reached a devastated coastal town whose residents paid a heavy price for putting trust in their seawall. reporter: army aid convoys heading east over the central mountains into the quake zone this morning. several japanese have asked me what have we done to deserve an historically powerful earthquake. this vast tsunami damage and now the blizzards. with officials here now saying more than 4,000 people are confirmed dead we ve come to the east coast to see how far search and rescue for bodies has gone in this vast area of damage. our drain just can t believe what he s seeing. he was last here on holiday several years ago. translator: the tsunami reached up there. there s only five homes left up there. all the rest are destroyed. reporter: at the coast we meet hiromi and his plea to the wider world, that of so many, it s freezing. we need blankets but much more. translator: well, to be frank i need a bath and stuff like that, but i know it s too much to ask. it s so cold here. we need kerosene and we need petrol. reporter: we had seen towns wrecked, factories pulverized but never roads, bridges and the vast anti-tsunami offenses here at kamaishi smashed like they were today and hiromi explained to us what happened here six days ago. it was about half an hour after the last of the earth tremors finished, people noticed that this entire bay began simply emptying of the water, the tide went out way beyond the hulk of the red ship out even beyond the light house which you can just see sticking up in the snow. the entire bay was emptied then they describe an enormous rushing roaring sound, the tsunami approaching pushing everything before it. right up, right through this bay, the people living in the village in the corner, many of them stayed put. they never had problems with tsunami before. on this occasion things were very different. we decided to try and get there. clearly no vehicles are going anywhere near. and look at the size of these supposed tsunami defenses high enough, thick enough, long enough so everybody thought. an entire town stripped away to the elaborate foundations of houses designed to withstand earthquakes, yes, but a tsunami of this scale, certainly not. we finally reached the part of the town where local people had said many stayed believing they d be safe. family property and effects strewn around everywhere demonstrating these people s faith in the vast ramparts of their seawalls was fatally misplaced. just look at it. there is no way you could get a vehicle anywhere near this village. walking in is bad enough. there s no footprints in the snow. there are no footprints in the mud for that matter. if the buildings or any vehicles here had been checked by search and rescue teams for bodies there would be spray signs, aerosol on them to indicate that. there s nothing like that here at all. it s pretty clear this village has not been reached and there is a fairly strong smell of decay coming from the buildings behind me, particularly that garage just there. one small example in one small village of the enormous job simply to locate the bodies let alone begin clearing up this mess. nearby on the seawall, the broken seawall, the warning notice for the tsunamis survives. but how many of the people here did so? that will take some time to become clear. alex thompson, channel 4 news, kamaishi a sobering look at that coastal town and beyond those freezing temperatures and the snow that are making things for challenge, add into that winds which are now complicating the effort to cool down nuclear reactors. for more on this we ll bring in ivan cabrera, our evers at the international weather center. ivan, how are the winds and environment just adding to some of the concerns right now? well, it couldn t get worse. we re just throwing everything into the fire. it s unfortunate. the one good thing about the wind, it s twofold here, well, we have the situation where the wind is blowing any radiation offshore but it is also as you mentioned hampering the efforts to try to get those water drops on top of the spent fuel pools there that are or are not exposed. we don t know yet but we ve got to continue that work and hard to do so with the way the winds are. this is for the folks on the ground. keep in mind, we have hundreds of thousands of people without power across northern japan and temperatures are going subfreezing with the windchill makes it feel even colder so there are some very uncomfortable folks out there and, of course, outside it will be downright dangerous. wins are gusty at 50 to 60 kilometers hampering the efforts with the nuclear power plant but also any kind of offshore wind, any westerly component to the wind we can have will be better for the folks at the ground near the site there. take a look at some of the totals. upwards of 18 centimeters of snowfall to the west, higher elevation here so that produces a higher snowfall amount. towards sendai we ve been generating one centimeter, enough to cover the ground there and make for the workers that are out there searching and going through that rubble just almost an impossible job just because of the snow that s on there, you can t tell what s beneath you. snow will continue but we ll change our pattern. this low will move off to the north and east and big blue h will move in and the zow westerly wind will be a good thing, but as that feature comes on in, we are going to be talking about much milder temperatures, in fact, the temperatures are going to go even above average. we ve going to go from 3, guys, to 11 by the time we get into saturday and that s welcome news indeed. back to you. ivan, thank you very much. you re watching world one. the homeless and the heartbroken, evacuation centers run short on supplies but high on emotions as survivors wait for news of their loved ones just ahead here on world one. - a farewell long awaited. good night, stuffy. 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[ male announcer ] wells fargo. together we ll go far. pure. and also delicious. like nature valley. granola bars made with crunchy oats and pure honey. nature valley 100% natural. 100% delicious. you re watching world one. i m monita rajpal in london. and i m errol barnett in abu dhabi. our top stories for you, japan is alead as officials scramble to prevent a nuclear crisis from getting worse using helicopters to drop seawater on the roof of number three reactor. cooling it is the top priority and engineers are trying to restore power to the plant. it s been shut off since the earthquake struck on friday. these pictures were taken in the miyagi prefecture, one of the areas worst hit. the number of people known to have died as a result of friday s disaster continues to rise. japan s national police agency says more than 5,400 people have been killed and 9,500 are missing. we re following events in libya where government soldiers pounded the city of ajdabiya with air strikes and artillery. you see ajdabiya is the last stronghold between colonel gadhafi s forces and the heart of the rebellion in benghazi. diplomats at the u.n. are still discussing the possibility of a no-fly zone over the country. members say they expect to see a draft resolution soon. libya s deputy u.n. ambassador who split from the gadhafi regime said the libyan ruler would commit genocide against rebels if the international community did not intervene. all right. let s move back to events unfolding in japan. the crisis right now under way at the fukushima nuclear plant. now, the focus is on stopping temperatures rising and the number three reactor using helicopters and water cannons right now basically anything that they believe can make a difference. tom foreman looks at the damage and challenges ahead. reporter: this is the closest picture we ve had up until this point of what is essentially the battleground against the reactors. look at the extent of the damage. damage to the superstructure and metalwork in here, damage to the piping down here. you can see one of the challenges that these workers are facing is even if they can get electricity and water flowing in, how do you get it where it wrongs? how do you keep it in here. it s like pouring water into a cracked teacup. the overall picture of what happened. if you look at these reactors, number one over here has had a tremendous amount of damage, hydrogen explosion. possible damage to the container itself. number three, the one we were looking at a moment ago, an exexplosion there, a possible structural tear, important to note this is the only one that has plutonium in it in addition to uranium which makes it more dangerous and here s reactor number four, the one we ve been talking about so much. they ve explosions and fires there and the real issue continues to be these rods right up in here, the spent storage rods and whether or not they have been exposed with no water on them, nothing to protect them at all from the emmentes, if that s the case, if this water level has in fact as u.s. officials think completely drained off you re talking about tremendous amounts of radiation coming out from here. radiation so hot you saw the helicopters flying over earlier trying to drop water on it, we measured it. they re roughly between 60 and 100 meters above this. that s how high they have to be away because this radiation would potentially be lethal at 60 to 100 meters so the simple truth is as we look at this, the one of the real fears is we simply have such a hot zone in terms of radiation that it s hard for the people who are trying to fight it to even get close if they get close, they can t stay there long and it s difficult to fight an enemy if you can t get up next to them and engage the balanttle. that s tom foreman. you see them plastered on the walls, notes for survivors looking for their loved ones. the chances of finding anyone else alive are dwindling. we have an update. i think, todd, that s where this catastrophe really hits home. it s the human face of this disaster when you see people looking at those lists looking for the names of their loved ones. reporter: that s right, monita and it is increasingly likely they ll never hear from their loved ones because we re with urban search and rescue teals coming through the hardest hit areas and the likelihood of finding survivors keeps dwindling. we just came from a town called unosumai on an inlet a little north of here at 40 miles north of here on the east coast of japan and the entire town was leveled. the entire town is gone. most places in japan they can claim that some neighborhoods survived. some sections escaped the wrath of the tsunami. not here. we just came from it and we ll send footage shortly but there is nothing left. some people who got out got to higher ground are coming back looking shell-shocked picking through their belongings and maybe starting to get their minds around what happened but in the towns we ve gone to these teams have not found any survivors. the pictures, they pretty much describe what badly decimated and devastated they are and the overwhelming task that is ahead of the workers. describe for us what they are having to go through, these people as they try to get into these towns to look for family members. reporter: well, it is very treacherous. it s treacherous under normal circumstances but complicated by the weather. it started snowing over the last few days. that makes it more treacherous for the workers to try to get inside the collapsed structures and navigate piles of rubble when there is a huge film of snow on it, it could cover a crevice and you step in it and you go ten feet down. that s a problem here at this point. what they have to do typically is go into a house that is structurally not sound ar a building two or three or four stories high and climb through it at great risk to themselves. but they are determined to check any void, any potential room where people could be sheltering because that is an opportunity for rescue. voids in buildings and have to check every one. that s what they re doing checking every void or every pocket of every building they come across. you have teams from the uk, united states, two teams plus the teams from china and japan and all of them are dividing up the cities in grids and checking, you know, row by row, street by street, it is painstaking work and dangerous work and unfortunately so far they have not found anyone alive. brian todd, thank you. and there are more heroes working in japan. imagine being part of the very small team working to get the japanese nuclear reactor under control where everyone wondering are they putting their own lives in danger? we re going to bring in our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. you have workers who are getting very close to possible radiation leaks. reporter: yeah, there s no question, errol and this whole idea these workers are in there putting out fires, trying to stop explosions, turning valves, it s remarkable work and you re right, the radiation levels within the plant obviously the highest of all. we ve only gotten an idea of the levels outside of the plants or gates. those are some of the numbers given to us but inside the plant where the workers are working who knows what they re being subjected to. there are a few different devices people can use to get an idea of how much, a device like this that will give you rads per minute reading and this device over here which can measure all sorts of different radiation including alpha, beta and gamma but it s very hard to protect yourself in a situation like there. there s certain devices, things that can help, this is a hazmat suit, for example, i don t know how well you can see it but it s just a suit but won t protect against some of the most potent forms of invisible radiation. they may wear masks, as well but it only offers a little protection from the work they re having to do so it s remarkable. here in tokyo, you know, some distance away now, radiation levels hav increased. yesterday they were measured in the air at about 20 times normal but it s safe to say that that is still a very safe level, not dangerous as far as human health goes, errol. well, sanjay, for people who may have been exposed to radiation and are trying to flee what happens to radiation already in the body because the government at one point was passing out iodine tablets to help people break down the substance so once exposed, what is someone s outlook? reporter: well, you know, there s sort of different principles, obviously the idea of evacuation putting yourself some distance between the source is going to be a simple yet important principle. decreasing the time of exposure then certainly trying to shield yourself in some way even getting inside a building can help. if you know you ve been exposed or imminent chance of exposure taking the potassium iodine pills can help in terms of preventing or reducing the risk of developing thyroid cancer. you take the tablets which are a stable iodide. it fills your thyroid with a stable one and when the radioactive iodine comes in it cannot infiltrate your thyroid gland. there s other things to consider, as well. the radioactive particles eventually because of their weight will fall to the ground, cows can eat the grass that s been contaminated. the radioactive particles ka get concentrated in the milk so that can be a source of contamination. i don t want to put the cart in front of the horse. the basic is take your potassium iodine and you have to evacuate. we don t know how much radiation has been exposed there in northeastern japan. sanjay gupta live for us from tokyo. thanks. you re watching world one. still to come, the aftershocks, a nuclear crisis, and a desperate urge to get out. stay with cnn. but you can stille to a fixed rate as low as 4.75% at lendingtree.com, where customers save an average of $293 a month. call lending tree at. today. na, na-na, na [ men ] hey, hey, hey goodbye [ flushing ] [ both ] na, na. 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[ all ] hey, hey, hey good-bye welcome back. you re watching world one from abu dhabi and london. japanese stocks are lower today over fears of a nuclear crisis in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. my colleague pauline chiou in hong kong joins me for more with an analysis of how the markets look and how it s impacting the value of the yen today, pauline. errol, the story about the yen was definitely the talk of the business world today. a financial fallout continues to follow the crisis still unfolding in japan. early thursday morning in the wee hours of the morning, the japanese yen hit its strongest level against the dollar since world war ii and that was $1 to 7625 yen surpassing its highest level set back in 1995. now, right now the yen is trading against the dollar at 79 yen to the dollar. it s still broken past that 80 high yen mark, sort of the psychological barrier, a super strong yen is a big issue. exporters want a weaker yen and that s because japanese companies sell most of their products overseas. when they bring their earnings back home and convert them back into yen, a weaker yen means they make more in profits. now, take a look at what s been happening so far this week since monday, march 14th. the lower the line, the stronger the yen is to the dollar and it s been gradually getting stronger throughout the week and then you see this big dip which symbolizing a big surge in the yen. now, this happened at around 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time wednesday, early thursday morning. this is when the yen surged. we ve spoken to several experts and asked why this happened. they believe this happened because many investors had taken high dollar yen positions and that means when the yen strengthened to that important 80 yan mark i just mentioned it actually triggered a surge of automatic buy orders which is what we see here which is a major surge in the strength of the yen. how did the nikkei react? it closed down nearly 1 1/2% which is pretty good considering at one point it had fallen nearly 5% and that occurred on the news japan would make another cash infusion. as for the stocks in stomach of japan s main exporters. let s take a look at household auto names. toyota, nissan, honda, they were all done between 1% to 2% so still in negative territory but much better than how they were performing earlier in the week. and markets across asia, the rest of asia also reacted to the latest developments in hong kong, in japan rather. hong kong, the shanghai composite and australia all closed down between 1% and 2%, the kospi was the only index that managed to eke out a gain just fractionally in posterity. errol? yeah, really just representing all that uncertainty there in the japanese and asian markets. pauline, thanks very much. monita? errol, let s broaden this out. joining us from tokyo is andy paul mer, senior vice president at nissan, one of japan s biggest carmakers. thanks for being with us. we saw our colleague in hong kong talking about the surge and record strength of the yen and the kind of impact i d like to know, what s happening at nissan and what kind of impact it has on exports. well, obviously it s a tough time. clearly our priority has been to secure first and foremost the safety of our all of our employees and we have relatively good news there. after that, of course, we ve been trying to make sure our supply trains are up and running and able to produce cars. good news today we managed to produce our first cars out of kushu and are basically producing from the stock we have and the challenges for us right now are making sure our supply chain is in good shape and that s occupying every waking hour right now. what does that tell me a little about what that entails in terms of the supply trade. you get some of the supplies also from china but in terms of getting these parts into the country, obviously the whole country is in an emergency situation right now. getting all of that production back into normal mode must be extremely difficult. it is. it is. speaking from nissan, we ve created if you like an emergency bunker on thea eighth floor of building and have hundreds working there 24/7 contacting with suppliers to open those supply chains up, see what kind of capability they have and obviously making sure our factories are capable of producing cars. the good news is we managed to start production in kushu today and we ll there will be another forgoer on sunday. the problem for us is securing continuity of supply and, you know, there s a lot of issues, some of our suppliers have been hit by the tsunami, gives us some issues and some of our suppliers even exist within the nuclear exclusion zone so obviously we re working with them to see whether we can take parts from another location, can we bring parts into the country from other locations? it s tough, but it s what nissan and the japanese car industry does best. what kind of impact is this going to have on your output in the long run? in the long run, hopefully, hopefully nothing, in the short run, of course, it s creating problems day by day and what kind of impact that will have depends over the next few days how quickly we can get that supply chain up, our factories bar two, all of the car all of the assembly factories will be ready to run by sunday but basically it s the supply chains which is our greatest challenge, number one. of course, number two is making sure we can get our people to the factories, that relies on the transportation system and, number three, is making sure we ve got electrical supplies which obviously we re working with the government to try to protect that supply. all right. andy palmer, thank you very much for being with us. good to know most of your staff are okay and safe and we wish you the best of luck in this. i appreciate that. thank you very much. world one will be right back. welcome back. you are watching world one. i m monita rajpal in london. and i m errol barnett in abu dhabi. we re approaching 6:00 a.m. in new york. 7:00 p.m. in tokyo. our top story takes us to japan where officials at the fukushima daiichi power plant are scrambling to prevent a major nuclear crisis from getting worse. the latest plan, using helicopters to drop tons of seawater mainly on the roof of the plant s number three reactor. plant owners say cooling that facility is the top priority. engineers are also trying to restore power to the plant. the power supply has been cut since the quake struck on friday. of course, the chatter online has been focusing on japan and our top trending stories, of course, focusing on japan at three, global hawk i a lot of interest in the unmanned aircraft. the u.s. military is sending the drone up to help assess damage from the air, previously they used it over haiti over the earthquake struck just over a year ago. at number two, emperor akihito, people showing appreciation after his rare address on national television yesterday. it is the first time that emmer per akihito has spoken to the public at a time of national crisis. at number one, fukushima prefecture, authorities have evacuated the entire area within 20 kilometers of the damaged power station. there is a lot of discussion about that online where people are trying to understand the situation there. for more on all the top stories and links to ways you can help, do head to facebook.com/w1. cnn. you are watching world one live. i m monita rajpal in london. and i m errol barnett in abu dhabi. thanks for joining us. i want to give you another look at some of the latest pictures we re getting in from japan taken in miyagi where japanese soldiers are making their way across a sea of devastation and debris. this is world one on cnn. right now on this american morning, japanese military helicopters dumping water on to the daiichi nuclear plant s damaged reactors. as they expand the evacuation zone around the plants to 50 miles, the state department says chartered flights will be made available to hundreds of americans in affected areas. a stunning report about prescription drug addiction. it says in one major city, one out of every eight adults is now taking the powerful painle killer oxi co-done. why the late night host couldn t stop saying thank you to tiger. all that straight ahead following every breaking development of what s happening. now you have snow on top of an already complicated and difficult rescue effort following all that all straight ahead on this american morning. like new chicken poblano with tender white meat chicken, crisp veggies, in a savory cheddar sauce. new from lean cuisine. should i bundle all my policies with nationwide insurance ? 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