Page 36 - Debris Fields News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

People were, knew where to look. these are debris fields that have been carried great dista e distance, miles even by the water and then as the water left, been deposited there so even if you know where people live in a town, that's not where you're going to find their bodies if they've perished. their bodies may be miles away underneath, you know, 15 feet of debris. so what search and rescue teams are finding is that in a lot of these areas it is extraordinarily slow going. they don't have in many cases real heavy earth-moving equipment, debris-moving equipment. they're probably not enough ca...

In order to just clear out a lot of the debris that we're seeing. the debris fields, gary, in these areas, are so deep. it's going to require a lot of equipment before we even know the full death toll. >> not only that, anderson, but here, we're in the middle right now of a tremendous snowstorm. there's a near blizzard. 12 or 13 inches of snow on the ground. it's very cold, very windy. they can't do any work out here right now. even if they can go outside or go to their homes to see what's going on, they don't want to leave right now because the conditions are so inclement. >> it was interesti...

What should we do next? there didn't seem to be a clear plan now that you've lost your home, there's no heat, it's really cold, and what's the next step? it's interesting to watch people be very calm. i think japanese people have a reputation of being calm and centered but the questions i was being asked started to indicate people were worrying about what is the next step. >> there's growing anxiety. a credibility gap over the nuclear issue and the public statements being made about that, and the realization of this is going to take weeks and weeks anldz months and months in order to clear out...

Of course, the money isn't what we're worried about. right now certainly, the numbers of dead just seems to be growing, anderson. where do people think that ends up when they finally tally the thousands of people who are at this point just missing? any order of magnitudes, to the sense of tragedy, how big this becomes? >> reporter: you know, officials really haven't said -- there was one police official in myagi prefecture who said it would go into the tens of thousands. no one knows. it's frustrating to not have a greater sense of this. when you actually go into areas that have been hard hit ...

And they don't know where they're going to go after this. >> and for evacuees, there's the nuclear issue, but really for people who are homeless right now in dealing with the aftermath of the tsunami, that's the main focus. >> they're focussed on trying to find fuel, water, food. and a similar thing to what gary said. people were asking us, so what are you hearing? what do you know? what should we do next? there didn't seem to be a clear plan now that you've lost your home, there's no heat, it's really cold, and what's the next step? it's interesting to watch people seeming to be very external...