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RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate Pref. (Kyodo) Survivors of last month's tsunami began moving into temporary housing Saturday in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, becoming the first Tohoku disaster evacuees to do so. The new residents of 36 prefabricated units built on the grounds of a junior high school brought their belongings from the shelters after winning a highly competitive lottery involving 1,160 groups of applicants last week. Eiki Kumagai, 43, expressed delight at moving into a unit together with his wife and their two children. "I'm happy. . . . My next step will be to look for a job," he said. He used...

38-meter-high tsunami triggered by March 11 quake: survey TOKYO, April 3, Kyodo A tsunami that hit a coastal city in Iwate Prefecture after the March 11 massive earthquake is estimated to have reached 37.9 meters in height, a field survey by a researcher at the University of Tokyo showed Sunday. The tsunami measured in the Taro district in the city of Miyako was higher than the domestic record of 38.2 meters marked in the city of Ofunato in the prefecture in the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Earthquake Tsunami, according to Yoshinobu Tsuji, associate professor at the Earthquake Research Institute at the...

Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the US military continue a large-scale operation to find those still missing in the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. The 3-day joint search began on Friday. It covers the Pacific coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. Authorities say 53 bodies had been recovered as of 3 PM on Saturday. An estimated 15,540 people are listed as missing in the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, bringing the number of dead or missing to more than 27,000. The toll is expected to rise as search operations are not being conducted in areas 20 kilometers around the...

We just had a very strong earthquake which fiercely rocked and rolled the main Island of Honshu in Japan. TV broke with news on all channels IN ADVANCE OF EARTHQUAKE, warning people to "get ready". 8:43 a.m. local time Saturday (just about 10 minutes ago). 7:43 p.m. Friday Eastern Time. Then, sure enough, the long, rolling shaking began, and increased in intensity. I estimate the shaking to have gone on for at least 45 seconds. It hit here at 8:45 a.m. It literally gave us 2 minutes to prepare. I have never experienced an advance earthquake warning. The epicenter is...