Four Fires and more than 10K dead in one town alone

Police think more than 10,000 dead in one Japanese town alone

NYT:

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the country’s crippled nuclear power grid, announced a series of rotating blackouts to conserve electricity — the first controlled power cuts in Japan in 60 years.

The death toll was certain to climb as searchers began to reach coastal villages that essentially vanished under the first muddy surge of the tsunami, which struck the nation’s northern Pacific coast near the port city of Sendai. In one town alone, the port of Minamisanriku, a senior police official said the number of dead would “certainly be more than 10,000.” That is more than half the town’s population of 17,000.

4th reactor now on fire at nuke plant in Japan

UPDATE: From Kyodo News:

NEWS ADVISORY: Radiation of up to 9 times normal level briefly detected in Kanagawa
11:37 15 March

BREAKING NEWS: Radiation 400 times annual legal limit measured near No. 3 reactor

Top story on the NYT site:

Holy Shit. Read this earlier  NYT story.- it's a mess, and it's out of control.