Japanese death toll grows, millions without running water, heat

Days after a tsunami slammed Japan’s northeastern coast, a tide of bodies washed ashore Monday as the nation continues to collect its dead following the catastrophic events Friday.

A Japanese police officer estimated some 1,000 bodies were found scattered along the shoreline in Miyagi prefecture. The official death toll now sits at 2,800 but the grim tally is expected to increase dramatically. Approximately 10,000 people died in Miyagi prefecture alone, according to the provincial police chief.

Meanwhile millions of people in the northeastern part of Asia’s richest nation are heading into their fourth straight night without food, water, electricity and heat. Conditions like these haven’t been seen in Japan since the Second World War.

Officials have run out of coffins and body bags and a crematorium near Miyagi said it’s been unable to deal with the large number of bodies. The government may start asking funeral homes for help.

Aftershocks continue to rattle the country days after the 9-magnitude quake that triggered a tsunami. It turns out Japan’s devastating quake was about 1.5 times stronger than initially thought – the force of the blast was upgraded to nine from 8.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey on Monday. That same day, a 6.2-magnitude temblor shook Japan and prompted a tsunami scare.

In Soma, one of the worst-hit towns in Fukushima prefecture, soldiers abandoned their search and rescue efforts to move residents to higher ground. The tsunami sirens turned out to be false alarms.

Search parties arrived in Soma Monday to begin digging out bodies. Thousands of people are missing. Chain saws and handpicks are being used to clear through debris, including the remnants of vehicles, homes and tangled power lines.

The Japanese government has sent 100,000 soldiers to the area.

Electricity is out in the area after several nuclear reactors were damaged in the quake and tsunami. Operators have lost the ability to cool three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Two explosions rocked the facility in three days.

Tokyo Electric Power asked residents to limit their electricity use after it pondered imposing rolling blackouts Monday.

Japan’s central bank injected 15 trillion yen (US$184 billion) into the money markets to address economic concerns. Later on Monday, the country injected an additional $61.2 billion into the financial system. Japan is the world’s third-largest economy.

Even before the disaster, Japan carried one of the biggest public debts among industrialized nations. The rebuilding effort is expected to total tens of billions of dollars.

With files from The Associated Press.

In the video below, CityNews reporter Cynthia Mulligan speaks to a group of Toronto students who returned home on Monday from a school trip to Japan.