Via Japan Today, a report posted on Friday afternoon local time: 25,000 SDF, U.S. forces begin 3-day intensive search for missing tsunami victims. Excerpt:
The Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military began on Friday a three-day intensive search for those still missing three weeks after a quake-triggered massive tsunami wiped out a swath of coastal cities and towns in Japan’s northeast.
Using dozens of ships and helicopters, about 18,000 SDF personnel and about 7,000 U.S. military personnel will engage in the operation, with members of the police, the Japan Coast Guard and fire departments also taking part, according to the Defense Ministry and other sources.
The areas covered include shores that were largely submerged or remain under water and mouths of major rivers in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, which were hit hard by the March 11 tsunami, within about 18 kilometers from the coastline.
The tsunami and the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that triggered it has claimed at least 11,578 lives in 12 prefectures and has left at least 16,451 people officially unaccounted for as of Friday morning.
Many of those who remain missing are believed to have been carried offshore after the tsunami struck the Pacific coast following the quake, which occurred off northeastern Japan.
The latest search drive was timed to coincide with a spring tide that began Friday, while search efforts hit a snag in coastal areas that remain flooded. The tide, with waters ranging between high and low maximum, makes it easier to find victims when it ebbs.
About 100 aircraft and 50 ships from the SDF are to engage in the operation, with about 20 aircraft and 15 ships taking part from the U.S. military. Divers from the SDF, police, the coast guard and fire departments are also being mobilized.
However, the search will not be conducted within a 30-kilometer radius of the crisis-stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Fukushima Prefecture, which is leaking radioactive materials into the environment, according to the authorities.
