Page 27 - John Voss News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

There as far as the telephone lines and mobile cell phone network, transportation, what's going on there at this moment. >> reporter: well, john, obviously it's quite difficult to get exact information at this point, but we are understanding that maybe the transport links are getting a bit better. some of the airports closer to the badly affected area are starting to open up. even if it's just partially in order to get the emergency teams and then the aid agencies in, but suddenly it does seem to be alleviating somewhat. the roads though are still pretty bad, as we understand it. obviously the...

Loading up its supplies making its way. this is going to be a very significant relief operation from so many countries around the world, and from international private relief organizations, of course. >> barbara, it's john here. there's 38,000 u.s. military personnel already stationed in japan. it's a very, very big base of operation for the u.s. in the pacific. is there anything about what they are doing right now? >> well, very interesting. as we've reported throughout the day, of course, japanese commercial airports were damaged by all of this, and planes could not land, so even overnight u...

Now, we're actually south of tokyo. tokyo is south of the worst hit area. we're south of tokyo in osaka. we've had trouble with mobile phones as well, even though we're not that close to the devastated areas. it certainly is going to be a problem, not just for those trying to get in touch with loved ones but also the emergency teams and the aid agencies desperately trying to coordinate this effort. it's going to be incredibly difficult. a huge challenge for them. >> paula, it's john voss here. i wanted to you talk about this disaster response, which will be ramping up when first light comes ou...

To keep roadways and access ways open for emergency responders. >> it's john voss here. make a comparison for us. the 2004 tsunami impacted crescent city and santa cruz as well. is it worse than it was in 2004, beginning of 2005? >> this worse. i've been with the port district now since -- about the middle of 2010, and so that occurred before i was working here and my understanding is that it was a six to eight-inch tsunami wave that came in and did do some structural damage on our dock. this event, we've seen some of the surge height that have been -- that appear to be well in excess of 2 fee...

Welcome back to our coverage here on cnn of the earthquake in japan. our tokyo correspondent kyung lah has made it outside the capital and is heading to the epicenter of the earthquake with the situation there. as first light is breaking over japan, what are you seeing right now? what's the situation where you are. >> reporter: well, john, we're still about 170 miles away from sendai which is the area that most of the media focus has been on where we've seen that tsunami sweep across that region, so it's taken forever to get out of tokyo because of the massive backup on the roads. the highways...