Tokyo (CNN) -- Thousands of Japanese settled -- perhaps indefinitely -- into shelters as the government scrambled to avert a nuclear disaster and foreigners sought to get out of the disaster-struck nation.
Foreign nationals formed long lines at the Tokyo immigration office for permits to temporarily leave and the U.S. Defense Department Thursday authorized the voluntary departure of some relatives of servicemembers stationed in Japan.
The potential number of U.S. military evacuees is "in the thousands," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said, adding that the authorization only applies to family members living on the island of Honshu -- site of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant -- and will not cover those who are simply visiting.
The United States has also authorized $35 million in humanitarian assistance for Japan, Lapan said, and the U.S. military is sending a nine-member team specializing in responding to nuclear and biological hazards to advise the Japanese government. The team can assess radiation damage and advise on clean-up, among other capabilities.
But for thousands of Japanese, homeless and panicked, comfort sprouted from small things Thursday.
In the hardest-hit parts of the country, thousands of people, many of them frail and elderly, settled into shelters not knowing when, if ever, they might be able to leave.
They cherished the ordinary. Standing in line for lunch. Or arranging the few belongings they salvaged before water washed away their homes.
Out there, each passing hour claimed more lives. More than 5,000 people were dead, the National Police Agency said, and nearly 10,000 were missing since Friday's monster 9.0-magnitude quake unleashed a tsunami.
The government tried furiously to cool off nuclear reactors in its latest bid to avert a nuclear disaster. Helicopters, fire trucks and police water cannons dumped water on the No. 3 reactor at the quake-ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Fears of a nuclear crisis plunged stocks in Japan Thursday. The Nikkei 225 index, the most prominent measure of stocks traded in Tokyo, was down as much as 454 points, or 5%, before rebounding and ending a nervous trading day down 131 points, or 1.4%.
Japanese forces made four helicopter passes in about a 20-minute span Thursday morning, dropping 7.5 tons of seawater each time on the facility's No. 3 reactor in order to cool its overheated fuel pool. Video of the operation aired on NHK showed that only one of the loads appeared to drop directly on the building. Gusty winds dissipated much of the water carried by the other three helicopters. Experts believe steam rising from that pool, which contains at least partially exposed fuel rods, may be releasing radiation into the atmosphere.
But hours later, the Tokyo Electric Power Company -- which runs the plant -- said the efforts would continue throughout the night in order to keep the reactor and its adjacent spent fuel pool from overheating.
A Japanese government spokesman, Noriyuki Shikata, tried to allay fears of an imminent meltdown. "We have not seen a major breach of containment" at any of the plant's troubled nuclear reactors, he said.
A meltdown occurs when nuclear fuel rods cannot be cooled and the nuclear core melts. In the worst-case scenario, the fuel can spill out of the containment unit and spread radioactivity through the air and water.
That, public health officials say, can cause both immediate and long-term health problems, including radiation poisoning and cancer.
About 200,000 people living within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius of the plant have been evacuated; those living 20 to 30 kilometers from the site have been told to remain inside. Authorities also have banned flights over the area.
Several countries, including the United States, have called for a broader range. U.S. troops, in the country to help with relief efforts, have been warned not to get within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the plant.
The town of Minamisoma, about 25 kilometers away from the plant, was eerily quiet, its streets empty and stores shuttered.
"People have not evacuated. They are staying at home," said Koichi Shiga, who owns a hotel there. "There was a ration of 10 liters of gas, and I saw a long line of people."
But the nuclear fears have spawned an exodus from the nation's capital.
The U.S. State Department said Thursday it will charter planes to evacuate about 600 family members of diplomatic staff -- and arrange the departure of private citizens from affected areas.
RELATED TOPICS
Kosuke Deura, a 19-year-old Tokyo resident, said he would like to leave if the situation gets worse.
"But I am a student, and I don't have a lot of money," Deura said Thursday. "So I can't leave here."
Tokyo resident Ayana Suzuki said she couldn't watch the news anymore. Instead, she rented a heap of comedies. Maybe, she thought, they would make her laugh again.
"Food and water (aren't) delivered to disaster areas," Suzuki, 20, said, referring to the wiped-out infrastructure in Miyagi Prefecture. "I'm really upset not to help."
Aaron Lace, a Canadian who fled Tokyo for Bangkok, said panic was making food shortages acute. And in some places, rescue efforts were hampered by snow.
Meanwhile, the constant threat of more earthquakes -- and hundreds of strong aftershocks -- do little to calm rattled nerves.
"I'm really concerned ... we still don't know exactly when the next big quake is going to happen," Kyohei Kiyota, who lives outside Tokyo, said Thursday. "It is really scary. To prepare for the next quake, we have to know about it."
Suzuki said she's optimistic more survivors will surface, that her compatriots would continue to handle adversity with steady demeanor.
She believes the Japanese people would get through this. She believes they would come back from zero.
Posts
