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On the Sea of Japan coast, about 65,000 people have
left their homes, as an unprecedented series of powerful earthquakes
shakes northern Japan. At least 21 people are dead and more than 1,800
have been treated at hospitals. Rescuers and supplies have sent from the
capital.
Rescue efforts are being hampered, because highways buckled or are
buried by landslides, making it impossible for fire trucks and ambulances
to reach some areas.
Rescuers from Japan's Self Defense Forces, arriving by helicopter,
called the sight below devastation of a degree they could not have
imagined.
Desperate survivors scrawled "SOS" on the ground, or marked improvised
landing sites for the choppers.
Tokyo Fire Department Disaster Response Chief Norio Aida says the
helicopters are proving to be invaluable.
He says the helicopters are the only practical way to get the most
seriously injured to hospitals.
Those in Niigata Prefecture who were lucky enough to emerge unscathed from Saturday evening's
initial quakes are enduring a series of aftershocks, many a magnitude five
or stronger.
The horizontal swaying and vertical pounding, of an acceleration
seismologists say is unprecedented in Japan, has
terrified thousands of people in the region.
Earthquake section chief Masahiro Yamamoto, at the Japan Meteorological
Agency, says this is the first time on record here so many strong quakes
have occurred in such a short period of time.
Mr. Yamamoto warns survivors to be very careful. He says the
aftershocks worsen the danger of landslides, because the ground is already
unstable from Japan's latest typhoon, which killed nearly 100 people last
week.
Many hospitals are overcrowded, with the injured being treated in
hallways and parking lots. Hospital administrators say medicines are in
short supply.
Some towns say they are in desperate need of food, water, blankets and
portable toilets.
Thousands of people are spending a second night outside, keeping warm
in front of bonfires or portable oil heaters. Their homes, if not
destroyed or severely damaged, have no heat, water or electricity.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says his government will do whatever
it can for the region.
The prime minister says he will ask Parliament to pass budgetary
measures to aid the area. Mr. Koizumi called his Cabinet into emergency
session Sunday evening. | 
