Japan Calls For Help Evacuating At-Risk Residents - Nhật kêu gọi sơ tán những cư dân ở vùng nguy cơ

by Rob Gifford

Nurses wear radiation protection suits at a hospital in Minamisoma city in Fukushima prefecture on March 16.

The Japanese government has evacuated most of the people within a 12-mile radius of the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The U.S. government, meanwhile, has told Americans to evacuate an area within 50 miles of the plant.

The Haramachi Central Obstetrics and Gynecology hospital is in the town of Minamisoma, right on the border of the exclusion zone. In recent days, the hospital has not just been taking care of mothers and babies, but also elderly people and anyone else who had not evacuated.

The imposition of the exclusion zone has meant that many larger hospitals in the area have closed already, and this hospital has been left to care for anyone needed any kind of medical attention. Now, it too has run out of medicine and Dr. Kyoichi Takahashi, president of the hospital, says he is going to have to close, even though strictly speaking he doesn't need to.

"Those who are leaving the town are all in tears, saying they don't want to leave. Some say it may be the last time they see us, and they're worried they might never be able to come back," Takahashi says.

There are people in the exclusion zone who want to evacuate, but are not able to because they don't have any gas to drive, he says, but the government doesn't seem to have a comprehensive plan for getting everyone out. Takahashi paints a grim picture of the situation inside the exclusion zone, saying there are still bodies of people killed by the tsunami that can't be recovered. He says his staff wants to carry on, but he thinks they just can't do it any longer.

News reports say at least two patients have died at Omachi hospital, also on the edge of the exclusion zone, from a shortage of medicine, and the hospital has almost run out of food. The military was due to transfer 90 of the 160 patients to another town Saturday.

"Most of the patients now in the hospital are in serious condition," says Keiichi Kobayashi, an administrator at the hospital. "The ones who are not so serious will leave, but it's too dangerous to move the really sick patients."

The Japanese government is mobilizing civilian and military teams to help out. Officials have appealed for help abroad in dealing with the nuclear power plant and in humanitarian efforts to help the Japanese people.

The crisis has exposed serious differences about how much Japanese people trust their government. Some feel it has not been honest about the risks from the nuclear plant, but 40-year-old Naruhito Nishikiori says his 70-year-old mother won't leave her home even though the authorities are urging her to do so.

"I know that the government is measuring radiation levels every 30 minutes, so I feel safe. I wouldn't say I'm not worried at all, but I trust our government, so I'm staying here with my mother in her home," says Nishikiori.

Though that may be the case for now, the key issue in discussions of the exclusion zone is what happens if there is a meltdown in one or more of the nuclear reactors, or if some of the spent fuel rods catch fire, as they might. Then, scientists say, 12 miles will certainly not be far enough away from the plant, but it will be too late to flee. The balance for the Japanese government is weighing the likelihood of that happening, against the logistical difficulty of expanding the zone, and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Why Japan's Tsunami Triggered an Enormous Whirlpool Tại sao động đất Nhật bản gây ra nước xoáy lớn

Why Japan's Tsunami Triggered an Enormous Whirlpool Tại sao động đất Nhật bản gây ra nước xoáy lớn

Tsunami swirls near a port in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture (state) after Japan was struck by a strong earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011.

The tsunami that hit northern Japan today created an enormous whirlpool in a harbor off the east coast of that country. According to researchers, whirlpools aren't unusual after waves of this size.

The tsunami was triggered by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan at 2:46 p.m. Tokyo time. Video footage shows a boat swirling in the massive eddy. It's not known whether anyone was on the vessel.

Based on eye-witness accounts and video in recent years, whirlpools probably occur with some regularity after large tsunamis, said Ruth Ludwin, a retired seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"Whirlpools have a big impact on the human imagination," Ludwin said. "They're very notable and very frightening. But from the perspective of the geological record, they don't leave any particular sign that has been recognized so far."

Whirlpools happen because of the interaction between rushing water and the geology of the coastline and seafloor, Ludwin said.

"Obviously there is a lot of water that is being pushed around, and it is interacting with the shape, the bathymetry, near the coastline," she said. [Album: Monster Waves]

The first images and videos of post-tsunami whirlpools came out of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Ludwin said. But eyewitness accounts from previous coastal quakes suggest that tsunami whirlpools are nothing new. One was reported in the great Lisbon earthquake of 1775, Ludwin said. The Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia have myths about a whirling wave of foam.

Apela Colorado, Ludwin's colleague with the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network in Hawaii, has identified a petroglyph in southeastern Alaska that seems to show a whirlpool in the body of a sea monster. In an abstract presented at the 2006 meeting of the Seismological Society of America, Colorado and Ludwin describe the native myths about that monster. According to ancient tales, they wrote, the creature "inundates canoes, makes the salt-water boil, swallows fishermen, pushes fish into a cave, and creates a canoe passage by flopping across a spit."

Saif al-Islam Muammar Al-Gaddafi the future for Libya

Saif al-Islam Muammar Al-Gaddafi the future for Libya1

Saif al-Islam Muammar Al-Gaddafi the future for Libya2

Libya Under Missile Attack - Li-bi bị tấn công tên lửa

GUY RAZ, host:

From NPR News, this is special coverage of the military situation in Libya. I'm Guy Raz.

The United States and its allies at this hour are engaged in Libya.

President BARACK OBAMA: Today, I authorize the Armed Forces of the United States to begin a limited military action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect Libyan civilians. An action has now begun.

RAZ: That's President Obama speaking this afternoon in Brazil.

In Libya, French warplanes took the lead today in launching attacks against the forces of Moammar Gadhafi. The strikes were intended to stop Gadhafi's march against rebels in the eastern part of the country, near the city of Benghazi. Then came cruise missiles launched by American and British forces. More than a hundred of those missiles rained down, targeting Libyan air defenses.

European, American and Arab leaders met in Paris earlier today to discuss how to coordinate an intervention. Meanwhile, Gadhafi sent troops backed by tanks into the country's second largest city, the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

We'll start today with NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman who is in the studio with me. Tom, what do we know about the military campaign at this point?

TOM BOWMAN: Well, as you say, it started with the French taking on Libyan troops around Benghazi, the last rebel stronghold in the east and it was followed quickly by cruise missiles being fired by warships, British and U.S. warships in the Mediterranean, 110 cruise missiles, each have 1,000-pound warhead, taking out the radar sites, the missiles sites of Moammar Gadhafi so they can implement that no-fly zone. They wouldn't be able to fly safely through Libya without being targeted by these missiles.

RAZ: How could Moammar Gahhafi respond to this? I mean, this is a pretty big campaign now, more than 25 countries involved and presumably will get bigger over the coming days. I mean, how could he respond to these attacks?

BOWMAN: Well, one way he could respond is terrorism. I mean, clearly, he's been linked to terrorism in the past. The last time the U.S. took part in a military operation was in 1986 when there's Libyan complicity in the La Belle discotheque bombing in Berlin, which killed two U.S. soldiers and injured many others.

And two years we had the Lockerbie bombing, which Libyan agents took part in more than - nearly 200 people were killed in that bombing over Scotland. So there's concern particularly about terrorism. Also, he has a good amount of mustard agent, mustard that he could use either against rebels or against civilians. He - western hostages, he could play that card as well. So there were a lot of concerns here about what he could do now that he's cornered.

RAZ: Tom, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was not too keen on imposing a fly zone. Of course you remember just a few weeks ago at a congressional hearing he said, let me be clear, this is a military intervention. It seemed like he was also staking out his position here.

BOWMAN: Absolutely. He talked about loose talk of a no-fly zone. He think - he thought that people really didn't realize what this meant. He said it meant going to war. And, again, taking out those radars and missile sites that we're seeing right now.

But the question is, will this be enough? If you start that no-fly zone, and the U.N. resolution said no-fly zone plus all measures to go after Libyan forces. Will this be just the beginning?

Now, Gadhafi isn't overthrown, you could chop the country in half. You get a Benghazi on one side with the rebels, Tripoli with Gadhafi on the other. And then there's going to be a question of what do you do now? Do you arm the rebels? Do you send ground troops in? U.S. has said no ground troops. But, again, this could go on for a long time.

RAZ: That's NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman who's following the latest on this story. We'll be hearing from Tom in the coming hours. Tom, thanks.

BOWMAN: You're welcome.