Weather, Japan Earthquake | featured news

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the east coast of northern Japan Sunday, prompting tsunami advisories for several coastal regions, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

Japan's shelters are still packed, with no firm word on when evacuees may return home. Cleaning up the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl is likely to take decades and cost Japan an untold fortune.

A strong aftershock rattled Japan and officials issued a tsunami warning Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast. The warning was lifted 90 minutes later, but not before announcers on Japan's public broadcaster NHK told coastal residents to run to higher ground and away from the shore.

A tide of bodies washed up along Japan's coastline, crematoriums were overwhelmed and rescue workers ran out of body bags as the nation faced the grim reality of its mounting humanitarian, economic and nuclear crisis Monday after a calamitous tsunami....

Last week's earthquake in Japan could lead to insured losses of nearly $35 billion, risk modeling company AIR Worldwide said, making it one of the most expensive catastrophes in history.

The last-ditch move indicates that the backup cooling system in a second quake-damaged reactor has failed. Japanese officials say radiation levels at another reactor being pumped with seawater have fallen, but hydrogen gas is building in a third.

In the coastal Miyagi prefecture town of Minamisanriku, 9,500 people out of the population of 17,000 are unaccounted for, according to Kyodo News. We could hear many more stories like that in the next few days. The overall picture of the destruction remains patchy, with rescue workers unable to reach some of the worst-hit areas due to wrecked roads and tsunami warnings.

Waves generated by the quake have forced evacuations in Hawaii and tsunami warnings for the West Coast.

A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control. Tsunami warnings blanketed the entire Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast....