Each day the news from Japan gets more grim, in terms of the death toll and the nuclear power plant crisis. Here’s the latest grim news: the death toll could reach 25,000:
The death toll in the double disaster to hit Japan is expected to reach 25,000, according to reports.
The number of those who lost their lives following the earthquake and tsunami currently stands at 3,676, while those missing is more than 8,000.
However, Kyodo News said the mayor of the town of Ishinomaki on the coast said the number of missing could hit 10,000.
The 10,000 figure is the same given for the missing in the port town of Minamisanriku, also in Miyagi state, which lost around half its population when it was razed to the ground by the tsunami.
Across the country some 434,000 people have been made homeless and are living in shelters.
Here’s terrifying video of the tsunami hitting Sendai airport:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwVOPo3EMFs&feature=player_embedded
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.