TOKYO — Japan’s emperor said Wednesday he was praying for the safety of his people in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami, as the number of dead and missing rose above 13,000.
Japan’s police agency said 4,340 people were confirmed dead and 9,083 missing, broadcaster NHK reported.
But this was expected to rise, with the mayor of Ishinomaki in hard-hit Miyagi prefecture saying 10,000 people out of his city’s 164,000 population were unaccounted for.
“The number of people killed is increasing day by day and we do not know how many people have fallen victim,” Emperor Akihito said, in an historic televised address that marked the first time he has intervened in a national crisis. “I pray for the safety of as many people as possible.”
He also said he was “deeply concerned” about the “unpredictable” nature of the situation at the quake-damaged Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, where a series of explosions and fires have crippled reactor cooling systems. “I sincerely hope that we can keep the situation from getting worse,” Akihito said.
His comments came as rescue crews in the earthquake-stricken nation were battling freezing temperatures with the mercury dropping to mid-winter levels as the search for survivors amid the rubble continued.
The death toll was expected to rise as search and rescue crews may now enter coastal areas where tsunami warnings have finally been lifted, Kyodo News reported, with more than 80,000 defense force personnel and police officers being mobilized.
On Saturday, public broadcaster NHK reported that around 10,000 people were unaccounted for in the port town of Minamisanriku, also in Miyagi.
Amid a mass rescue effort there were grim reports indicating severe loss of life along the battered east coast of Honshu island, Japan’s northernmost region, where the monster waves destroyed or damaged more than 55,380 homes and other buildings, AFP reported.
The first US Marine Corps humanitarian assistance team to survey the damage to infrastructure and public health arrived in northeastern Japan on Wednesday with some 20,000 bottles of donated water, The Wall Street Journal reported.
US units will deliver critical supplies, survey the damage to critical infrastructure such as bridges and power substations, and also monitor for the spread of infectious diseases such as typhoid.
“Our job is to assess the degree of human need,” Maj. Anthony Loignon, the team leader, told the WSJ. “We work off a checklist from our headquarters, which probably came from the government of Japan.”
In an unusual move, overwhelmed police in the Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures began announcing the names of recovered bodies Wednesday, based solely on their belongings rather than a positive identification, Kyodo News reported.
A lack of running water, electricity and food continues to plague the devastated nation, with more than 500,000 people already evacuated from the worst-hit areas, according to NHK. In some of the most isolated areas, scores of people are still waiting for help and have no access to food.
The nation’s farm minister, Michihiko Kano, said Wednesday the government was ready to release rice from its stockpile of 920,000 tons (834,609 tonnes), in an effort to ease concerns about rice shortages in some parts of the country, Kyodo News reported.
Kano said the shortage being experienced was caused partly by logistical disruptions from traffic jams following the quake.
”I want to urge the public to act calmly, such as not hoarding more goods than necessary, while considering the urgent need to respond to the disaster-hit areas,” he said.
About 850,000 households in the freezing north are still without electricity according to the Tohoku Electric Power Co. while at least 1.6 million households lack running water, the government said. More than 300 water trucks were dispatched to areas where large numbers were without water, the health ministry said according to NHK.
Fuel shortages are also being felt, with officials in the Iwate prefecture only providing gasoline to emergency vehicles, while in the Miyagi prefecture, fuel at several crematoriums will soon run out, Kyodo News reported.