Death toll to top 1000 as PM expands evacuation zone around nuclear plant By Rick Wallace

 THE death toll from the massive quake and tsunami that hit Japan yesterday is expected to rise above 1000 as the first damages estimates put the bill at tens of billions of dollars.

                                                                                                                                Picture: AP Source: AP

A girl who was left inside a building is rescued in Kesennuma, Miyagi, a day after the region was struck by an earthquake and tsunami waves.

 And today Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear power plant from 3km to 10km amid fears of a radioactive leak. 

 Teams fought through the night to cool one reactor at the plant, which Mr Kan will visit later today.

 Tens of thousands of residents of Northern Japan spent the night in shelters contemplating the destruction and death as a series of aftershocks from the largest quake ever to hit Japan continued to shake the nation.

 The quake produced a tsunami felt as far away as California, where at least five people watching the waves were swept out to sea.

 In Japan, whole coastal towns lay in ruins, washed into the sea by the powerful tsunami that arrived less than hour after the magnitude 8.9 quake hit.

 Up to 300 bodies were found strewn on the coast in the city of Sendai.

 The Fukushima plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said radioactive substances could already have leaked at the facility.

 The amount of radiation reached around 1,000 times the normal level in the control room of the No. 1 reactor of the plant, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

 The discovery suggests radioactive steam could spread around the facility, local media reported.

 The agency also said radiation has been more than eight times the normal level at a monitoring post near the main gate of the plant.

 Many residents of the capital and cities throughout Japan spent the night in their workplaces as train services shut down across the country.

 The official death toll reached 185, but will likely to rise to well over 1,000, with 741 people still unaccounted for and 1800 houses destroyed in the Fukushima Prefecture alone.

 In Iwate Prefecture, the coastal city of Rikuzentakata was virtually destroyed by a tsunami wave, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. The agency has been unable to contact the city's fire department since the quake hit, according to the agency.

 A municipal official in the town of Futaba, Fukushima, said, "More than 90 per cent of the houses in three coastal communities have been washed away by tsunami. Looking from the fourth floor of the town hall, I see no houses standing."

 Mr Kan left to inspect quake-hit coastal areas in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures by helicopter this morning.

Several strong quakes, one with a magnitude of 6.7 at 3.59am, rocked an inland area on the Sea of Japan coast northwest of Tokyo, hitting Nagano and Niigata prefectures.

 Some 130 households in the village of Sakae, Nagano, are believed to be isolated due to an avalanche caused by the quake, according to local authorities.

 Four trains running in a coastal area of Miyagi and Iwate prefectures remained unaccounted for after the tsunami hit.

 It is not known how many people were aboard the trains.

 Another train on the Senseki Line was found derailed near Nobiru Station after the quake. No information was available about the fate of the passengers and crew on the train.

 No official figures have released on the damage caused by the quake but a US scholar quoted by Japan's Kyodo news agency put the likely total at "tens of billions" of dollars.

©theaustralian.com.au