Ishinomaki , Japan ( CNN ) -- For three days , they had been waiting , waiting , waiting . They were high , dry and alive , but their patience , energy and water supplies were running low . Up to 200 people knew they could n't venture out on their own , marooned in the Ishinomaki office building after the remnants of a massive tsunami swamped the town , as it did many others in northeast Japan . When Japanese military personnel arrived , to whisk them away in boat after boat after boat -- over scores of trips , two to six people at a time -- they finally knew that survival was at hand . Still , many of their hopes and prayers remained unanswered . `` I have no words '' to describe how difficult it has been since last Friday 's 9.0-magnitude earthquake , Mutko Chiva said . `` I 'm so scared . I am panicked . '' Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Monday about 15,000 people have been rescued , according to Japan 's Kyodo News Agency . Yet such success stories -- like what happened Monday in Ishinomaki , a city of about 160,000 northeast of the hard-hit city of Sendai -- are becoming increasingly rare , as time , food and water runs out for those stuck in buildings , covered in rubble or otherwise clinging for life . Japanese TV network NHK showed video of one man canvassing the streets on his bicycle , attached to which he 'd written a sign with his wife 's name . He carried photos of her , showing them to everyone he met in a desperate attempt to find her . A business owner in Iwate Prefecture choked back tears Monday , as he came upon a worker who had survived the tsunami that had consumed his town . He told NHK that he 'd located half of his 25 employees by Monday , but could n't account for the rest . Chiva , the woman in Ishinomaki , knew that most of her co-workers were safe . She had been working alongside them , inside of the office building , when the quake struck Friday afternoon . But having no cell phone service or other means of communication , she did not know what had happened to her parents . In addition to those working inside , more people had trudged through floodwaters or otherwise sought refuge in Chiva 's building -- one of the highest in the northeast Japan town though , despite its locations several miles from the shoreline , still within the tsunami 's reach . Japanese authorities knew for some time that people were trapped inside , but could not dispatch rescue crews there due to difficulty in reaching the disaster-ravaged area and the scores of other crises competing for help . By Monday , the military began criss-crossing Ishinomaki 's streets in dozens of small rowboats and inflatable rafts , the only way to get around given the omnipresent water . One soldier told CNN that the mission of searching for signs of life in his homeland was emotionally challenging , if undoubtedly important . En route , the troops spotted one woman waving a white towel from a second-floor window . She told them she needed water , but did n't want to leave her home . The soldiers yelled to her , `` We 'll come and get you later on . Please wait . '' Some evacuated from the office building , like Chiva , ended up going to hospitals to check their health after three days of subsisting on dwindling amounts of food and water . Others said they had no desire to go home , right away -- with one man telling CNN he just wanted to go to a `` safe place . '' Many survivors in Ishinomaki and other quake- and tsunami-ravaged communities like it around Japan did n't have a choice to go home : More than 450,000 people whose homes were lost or are inaccessible are now in shelters , according to NHK . Still , heading home was a problem for tomorrow . For now , the challenge of making sense of the tragedy and coming to grips with their grief was more than daunting enough . After arriving at a Red Cross shelter , weakened survivors rescued from Ishinomaki were gently placed on stretchers and carried away . NHK showed a civil defense soldier carrying a woman into a room at the shelter . After he gingerly set her down , the woman rose to her feet with some difficulty and bowed to the soldier , telling him that she was all right . She bowed again and then collected herself to briefly tell her story , paraphrased by an NHK interpreter : . `` She had been waiting for help all night , outside . She had been washed away by the wave . ... The moment she opened the door of the house , the water flooded in . ... She grabbed hold of a tree and hung on , hung on for dear life with the water all around her . A ... floor mat floated by , and she grabbed it and held on to that . '' As the woman spoke in Japanese , the interpreter 's voice trembled in English : `` Her daughter was washed away . She was washed away , and she has not found her . '' CNN 's Cameron Tankersley , Brian Todd and Justine Redman contributed to this report .
A woman rescued from a burning building says , ` ` I ' m so scared -- I am panicked '' She , like many others , have not been able to locate loved ones after the tsunami . Rescue ##rs in Tokyo have brought in thousands of survivors in that city alone . Japan 's prime minister has said at least 15,000 have been rescued , a report says .