Page 5 - Is Sendai News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Are you hearing anything about the extent of the damage? i know it's pandemonium and chaos, not surprisingly, but are you hearing anything about the damage of all this may be? >> reporter: it's interesting. we were just mentioning some of the aftershocks. as i'm sitting here talking to you, we've gotten quite a lot of aftershocks since that first quake hit just before 3:00. you mentioned the images we've been seeing, these homes being washed away on the northern coast of japan. you know, we can say that the closest city, the closest largest city is sendai, about a million people living there. ...

Country of japan. right now we're hearing them report on possible damages to actually nuclear power plants in that area. as you see, the tsunami waters just roll through the countryside there taking out homes and boats and cars all along with it. you see the damage here is going to be unfolding in front of us for quite some time. >> staggering. consider this number, for example, the last big quake to strike japan was back in 1995, a 6.8 magnitude quake, 6,000 people died in that disaster. right now we're hearing various reports of 8.4 to 8.8, even to 8.9 magnitude quake. a much stronger quake ...

We are looking at incredible video coming in from nhk, the public broadcaster out here. homes have been swept away by these waves. you know, you can imagine with these images just how bad the damage will be once that water recedes. >> we're also seeing a lot of flames. from your vantage point at that abc building there, are you able to see if any buildings in tokyo there, which i know is densely populated, are you seeing any fires? >> reporter: we are not seeing any from our vantage point but we have been watching all the footage coming through japanese media reports. nhk has not confirmed at ...

Anything about the area that we're watching, just heartbreaking footage coming in where the tsunami has struck? can you tell us anything about that particular part of the country, how populated it is or any main national resources or plants happen to be in that area? >> reporter: you know, again, it's a few hours north of tokyo by bullet train. sendai city is the largest city in that area. you know, the significant amount of people that live there, obviously it's a decent size city. and the hardest hit is obviously where the tsunami is happening, northern coast. this is the extent of what we c...

The extent of damage. the powerful quake has stop bullet trains across the country and trains around the tokyo area. east japan railway company says all lines have stopped and major tokido lines all -- >> okay. taking a look there at an oil refinery fire, one of many as you're hearing. there are fires all over central tokyo. however, it is the countryside being hit the hardest with the tsunami wave. one of the biggest cities in the miyagi province called sendai, it is the most populated city there, it faces the pacific. which explains why they're being hit with a devastating amount of water. y...