are injured. early rescue efforts were difficult because of all of the aftershocks as you can imagine. highways in that part of japan are damaged and utility services, water, electricity, they re out for hundreds of thousands. the quake triggered a tsunami more than 23 feet high that washed over the japanese coastline, traveling about 6 miles inland. this is the largest quake in recorded history to hit japan and the seventh largest worldwide since recordkeeping first began. and at this hour, one of the government s biggest concerns is damage to a nuclear power plant in northeast japan. the plant damaged earlier today by an explosion that collapsed the roof over one reactor. well, another city in japan we are keeping a close eye on is sendai. it s so close to the epicenter of the earthquake and the heart of the disaster. and that is where cnn s international correspondent anna carren is live for us.
weigh nothing. just heartbreaking images here. certainly. seeing the fires taking place here, you have to wonder what s going on in the state of tokyo, most populated area, populated city in japan. for that we go to our abc news correspondent live in tokyo, akiko fujita, sitting there enduring the aftershocks. how many have you felt since the initial shock took place at 2:46 this afternoon on your friday? reporter: you know, i think i lost count. we are feeling one just as you re saying that. they re getting weaker as they come along. you get used to it as you sit here. we re getting new reports from nhk, the public broadcaster, and we are hearing here a siren. they have been telling people to kind of stay put. every time we feel some shaking here. are you feeling shaking right now? reporter: kind of stay in place and be careful. so, you re saying you re
we just heard from one of our partners out here that 200 people out in sendai, a major city we ve been talking about in near the epicenter of the quake, 200 people stuck in a landslide, that s from fujii tv. and we also heard that japan rail has stopped all service as a precaution. we know eight confirmed deaths so far. we heard reports of all right. we may have lost contact there with akiko. obviously, this is a developing story. you can imagine the situation she s in as details just become clear as to the extent of the damage and depth in that country. this is something obviously we re going to follow throughout the morning. please, stay tuned for america this morning as well as good morning america and all the latest at abcnews.com as we continue to cover this massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in japan. it s going to be a horrible day in that part of the country. more details to come. stay with abc news.
there in japan. good morning, are you hearing anything in terms of the damage here, i know it s still pa pandemonium and chaos, in terms of what the difference may be? reporter: this this an after shock that i m feeling as i m sitting here talking to you. you mentioned the images. the homes being washed away off the northern coast of japan. the closest city, the closest largest city is sendai. about 1 million people live there. we do know that magnitude 8.8 magnitude earthquake, tsunami is measuring 13 feet. dramatic footage that we re seeing out of nhk.
seen on television and heard over radio that at 1446 today an earthquake hit of 8.4 on the magnitude scale, centered around the shores offshore sanduku and a very strong earthquake. in the tohoku region mainly over a wide area, damage has been inflicted. i offer my deepest sympathy to the people who have suffered the disaster. regarding our nuclear power facilities, some of the nuclear power plants have stopped automatically. but so far no radioactive material or radiation has been confirmed to have been leaked to the outside. there has been no information of those lines so far. and given the situation, an emergency disaster response headquarters has been set up with myself as the head.