Nuclear Fear Spikes After Third Blast; 'It's Easy to Get Overwhelmed'; 'Inspired by Egypt's Revolution'; Concern About Nuclear Reactors in Japan; Face-to- Face With Tsunami
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now, breaking news we're following -- radiation testing and fears spike to a new level in Japan after a third explosion and a fire at a nuclear power plant. A French official now says this crisis is getting almost as bad as Chernobyl, the worst nuclear plant accident ever. Every day, the enormity of the quake and the tsunami destruction becomes more painfully clear. It now seems likely to be the most expensive disaster in history -- even worse than Katrina. So how will Japan handle this enormous challenge? And more than 10,000 people are dead or missing. Stand by for the dramatic new video coming in and the personal stories of reunions and rescues, survival and loss. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Lots happening here. We're in Egypt today, also in Japan. We're following all the breaking news. CNN's Isha Sesay is joining us, as well, from CNN International. I've got to tell you, there's so much news -- I've been a reporter for a long time, but I can't remember a time when there have been so many breaking news stories of such enormity happening, Isha, at the same time.</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Wolf. No doubt about it. We are, of course, closely following the events taking place in Japan that are rapidly unfolding. But as you mentioned, you are there in Cairo with the secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, an important visit there. And many in the Arab world watching closely to see, as she meets with Egypt's new leaders -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: It's a critically important trip she's having. There's no -- by no means a done deal here in Egypt that everything is going to work out just fine. Just a little while ago, down in Tahrir Square. And I was -- I was there. There were gunfire -- there were gunshots going out, as some Coptic Christian protesters were running. There were hundreds of people running on the streets. It's still tense. We're going to have a lot more on this part of the story. What's happening in Libya right now. Gadhafi is moving quickly and moving, supposedly, even against the rebel forces in Benghazi. We have a lot more on that. But our top story, Isha, is what's happening in Japan right now and the fears of some sort of radiation -- significant radiation problems developing because four reactors or buildings around them are in trouble right now. Let's bring in Jeanne Meserve. She's following all the latest developments -- update our viewers, Jeanne, on what we know right now, because this is, potentially, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. A top European energy official compares the situation in Japan to the apocalypse. And most workers who have been struggling to control the situation left the plant when radiation outside the gate spiked up to levels that can harm human health. Those levels have now dropped. In addition to evacuating people in a 20 kilometer radius around the plant, the government is now urging people within 30 kilometers to shelter in their homes. Also, a 30 kilometer no fly zone has been put in place around the plant. There are two reactors at the Fukushima plant currently of grave concern. And Reactor Four, where there was a fire, the concern is that spent fuel rods and storage pools have been exposed. The power company is considering dropping water from helicopters to cover them back up. There was also concern that an explosion in Reactor Two on Monday night might have compromised the primary containment vessel. If that happens, that would allow radiation to escape. The U.S. Energy secretary, Steven Chu, was up until 2:30 in the morning, he says, monitoring the situation and the U.S. has experts and equipment en route.</s>STEVEN CHU, ENERGY SECRETARY: A great deal of monitoring equipment that can be used by the Japanese. It includes airborne equipment that can you put in airplanes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is to -- to monitor the radiation.</s>CHU: The radiation and --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.</s>CHU: -- the radiation release, the type of release. We also have ones that can be deployed on the ground so that we can be sure that whatever does get released, if it begins to go in the direction of major metropolitan areas, that we -- we can give people fair warning.</s>MESERVE: Why all that monitoring equipment? Well, a senior administration official says that at this point in time, there is not a clear picture of how much is being released, where it is and where that is going. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meanwhile, says the steps being taken by the Japanese parallel those that would be made by the U.S. in a similar situation -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right. We're going to have a lot more on this part of the story coming up. Jeanne, thanks very much -- Isha, I've got to say, a lot of folks in Japan are very, very nervous right now. We've heard these reports. People are not only wanting to get out of danger zone immediately surrounding these nuclear facilities, a lot of folks simply want to get out of Japan right now.</s>SESAY: Yes, we are, indeed, hearing a lot about that -- lots of anecdotal tales about people trying desperately to get out of way, as they fear that there is, indeed, an upcoming nuclear disaster. That is a fear that many have. We're waiting to get more information as the situation unfolds. We do have correspondents that there are there on the ground. They're trying to get to as many areas of the disaster zone as possible. CNN's Kyung Lah is right now reporting from Akita in Northern Japan. And she joins us now on the phone -- Kyung Lah, I know that in has been a massive deployment of military forces there in Japan, as part of the search and rescue operation. What's your sense as to how things are progressing?</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's really been tough for the last 24 hours, Isha, primarily because of the weather. It's been very rainy, cold. It's also been heavy snow in certain parts of the coastal area. So that -- that has really slowed down some of the search and rescue operation. What the -- what they're also waiting for, those military people that you're talking about, they need to wait for the water to recede. But because it's been raining, they haven't been able to do that. The reason why they need that water to go away is because they do believe that bodies may be under that water. There are so many reports of people who are missing. You mentioned the number of dead, that being around 3,000. Well, that number is certainly expected to climb, because there are so many parts of this coastal area that rescuers</s>SESAY: And, Kyung, to focus in on the situation with those shelters, where it's my understanding that at least 450,000 people are in shelters right now, what do we know of the conditions there? Because we know that people are struggling with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel.</s>LAH: I do have to tell you that in these shelters that I have been at, they are very clean. They are running pretty well, especially if you consider that these have been set up by community members and the Red Cross. Food has been primarily donated by community members. It is a massive community effort. It is coming from the ground up, not from the top down, as of yet. And so it's been really extraordinary to see. In these classrooms, if you just stepped in there, you truly see all of the goodwill of Japanese culture at work. People are sharing what they have. If there's only enough food to go around for four people, those four people will split it among six to make sure everyone is fed. So the -- the benefit here is that this disaster has happened in a culture that is egalitarian, that is kind to one another and really truly wants to get back on its feet.</s>SESAY: Kyung Lah reporting there from Akita, Japan. Kyung, appreciate it -- and, Wolf, to toss it back to you, that is, indeed, a point that's being made over and over again, that it is Japanese culture that largely accounts for this lack of a breakdown in social order that we're seeing -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, so far. All right, let's -- let's stay on top of the situation, Isha. I want to go one of the areas hardest hit by this disaster. Our own Brian Todd is traveling with U.S. search and rescue teams as they hunt for survivors.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here in the town of Ofunato, which was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. You see some of the rescue workers there going into that very unstable house. These guy are very courageous. They go into these structures all the time knowing that they could come down at any minute. The devastation here is really kind of hard to put into words, but you can see just endless whole blocks of nothing but rubble. And this is what these guys have to come and try to sift through to find people alive. I'm going to show you one stark contrast. You can see up that hill. That's what high ground down in a tsunami. It can save those structures, save the people in them. But of course, down here, they just almost didn't have a chance. Just on the other side of these buildings is an inlet that comes in from the ocean. So it kind of funneled the tsunami waters in here. And rescue workers tell us that it -- that it made the waters even stronger -- just incredible force that game through that funnel, through that inlet and just swept over this entire area. I'm here with Chief Chris Schauf of Virginia Task Force One. Chris, when you come upon a scene like this, how do you guys even get started? How do you not get overwhelmed with all this?</s>CHIEF CHRIS SCHAUF, AMERICAN RESCUE WORKER: You know, if you look at it in the big picture, it is easy to get overwhelmed. The way that we break it out by sticking with search teams, groups and breaking it down into small coordinates and small grids, it makes it easier for the guys and girls to focus on their jobs while they're here, so you can move from grid to grid instead of city to city. That would be too much and too much to process.</s>TODD: And you have other teams here helping you. And you're kind of cordoning off parts of the city, right?</s>SCHAUF: We do. It's been cordoned off, this particular location between us, L.A. and the U.K. are here. We've divided into seven coordinates or seven quadrants. And we're working in the lower three here. And then we've broken that down further by search groups and rescue teams that are working here.</s>TODD: All right, well, Chief, good luck. Thanks for doing this.</s>SCHAUF: Thank you.</s>TODD: One thing that Chief Schauf has told us is that what they count on a lot in these situations, not only for the canine teams that are just over there -- they're swarming around here, also, by the way. The dog teams are very impressive. They can find people alive in the rubble, but they also count on friends and relatives kind of waving at them, pointing to people, you know, who may be inside these structures, may be under these rubble piles. But Chief Schauf told me something that was pretty daunting a moment ago. In a situation like this, he said, there may be whole families that have gone missing. So, of course, no one is looking for them.</s>BLITZER: Brian Todd, thanks very much. It's hard to believe what a tsunami can do to a 4,000 pound car -- until you see Anderson Cooper's report. It's an amazing report -- Isha.</s>SESAY: And we'll dig deeper on Japan's nuclear emergency, the actual danger and how it compares to past nuclear accidents.