Japan earthquake, tsunami kill hundreds

Updated at 9:55 a.m. ET

TOKYO - A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds 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.


Japanese police say 200 to 300 bodies were found in Sendai, the closest major city to the epicenter. Earlier, police confirmed at least 60 people had been killed and 56 were missing. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of Friday's disaster; extensive search and rescue efforts were still just getting underway.

Special section: Earthquake in Japan

A Japanese coast guard official said a search is under way for a ship carrying 80 dock workers that was swept away by the tsunami. The vessel was washed away from a shipbuilding site in Miyagi prefecture, close to the earthquake's epicenter.


Hawaii, entire Pacific, under tsunami warning


The International Atomic Energy Agency said Japan had closed four nuclear power plants as a precaution. A state of emergency was declared at one of the plants after its cooling system had a mechanical failure. Thousands of residents around the plant were ordered to evacuate. Trouble was reported at two other nuclear plants as well, but there was no radiation leak at any.





The quake was the strongest ever recorded in the highly seismically active archipelago, Japan's meteorological agency said. The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in Tokyo and its vicinity, which killed more than 140,000 people, registered 7.9.

The most serious earthquake of the past several decades struck near Kobe in January 1995, killing more than 6,000 people and measured only a 6.8.

Japan has strict urban building codes requiring buildings to withstand even the most massive quakes and has prepared extensively for major earthquakes like Friday's. But the toll of any quake -- in damage and in lives -- is unpredictable, depending on timing, location and the presence of older buildings that don't meet modern earthquake standards, among other factors.

Matt Alt, an American living in Tokyo, told "The Early Show" on Friday morning that the quake lasted less than a minute, "but it felt a lot longer than that."

Alt and his wife rushed out of their home as the temblor struck. "The undulation of the Earth was so powerful we had to hang onto the outside of our house," he told CBS News. "This was nothing like I've ever experienced."

Adam Ezard, a British expatriate, said he and his colleagues rushed out of their office building with each powerful aftershock. Ezard and other witnesses said telephone lines were down or overloaded and attempts to reach loved ones were unsuccessful.


















The first waves were expected to hit Hawaii about 1400 GMT (9 a.m. EST) Friday, and could reach more than 6 feet, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.














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