The number of missing people appears to have been massively overstated, at least based on this one estimate. The real number is not clear.
Heartbreaking: While the death toll remains in the low hundreds right now (officially) it seems sure to spiral much higher.
According to the Kyodo News Agency, via BBC, the official missing persons tally is around 88,000.
It's well known that a lot of people are simply stranded in the cities, including Tokyo, and in many cases the people are probaby safe. It's not clear how they're included in the number.
A dam in Japan's northeast Fukushima prefecture broke and homes were washed away, Kyodo news reported on Saturday, after the biggest earthquake in the nation's history wreaked death and havoc.
Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake -- the seventh biggest ever recorded -- generated a monster wall of water that pulverised the northeastern city of Sendai, where police reportedly said that 200-300 bodies had been found on the coast.
At least 337 people were killed in the massive earthquake and following tsunamis, police and press reports said.
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The government declared an atomic power emergency as officials rushed to secure key nuclear facilities in the affected regions.
Hours after the quake struck with devastating force, TV images showed huge orange balls of flame rolling up into the night sky as fires raged around a petrochemical complex in Sendai.
A massive fire also engulfed an oil refinery in Iichihara near Tokyo.
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