believe them. in new hearing scheduled. shepard: let s go back to the elevator. i think it cost wsvn $2,000 an hour to fly that chopper and there it hovers. i bet ralph rayburn is up there. i used to live on the 27th 27th floor. of what? it s not the 27th floor. 27 was the number that came from the count. the 27 has nothing to do with this. first 27 people in the elevator, then four people on the 27th 27th floor. now there are four people between 15 and 16. but stuck on an elevator. shepard: highly unfortunate and i think harry how long were you stuck in the freight el rater? an hour and a half. got no chopper. ever been stuck on an elevator? i have not. and harry was stuck in the elevator and got no coverage at all.
organization, anywhere between 70 to 100. so we expect the numbers to rise as we get a better idea of how extensive the damage and the effects were of this earthquake and the tsunamis. arata, did you feel it in tokyo? reporter: i did. i m in a skri skrairp and office that s located on the 27th floor. we felt the tremor here too. it started off really slow and then it started to move sideways. the shake was so bad that it was hard to stand up. it was almost like being on a boat in a storm. and what kind of have there been aftershocks? i mean, obviously, a massive earthquake like this, there s almost always aftershocks. what have you seen or heard on japanese television? reporter: well, i lost count after like around 20 this afternoon, and they re still right now, they just reported
up to speed, if they re just tuning in. we got some perspective from this geophysicist of how huge this was. the worst earthquake ever to strike japan. and for people that are just tuning in, give us once again an idea of what it was like for you. you were right in the middle of it. you had about 30 seconds from when you got a warning on local television that this was coming to you. i mean, this was this struck about two and a half hours north. and this was headed your way. so you can give us the perspective of how this went down. right. well, as you said, there was a warning we were watching the parliamentary session on tv here. and there was a warning that popped up saying that a large earth quake was expected to hit any moment now. and about 30 seconds later, the lights in our office were in the skyscraper on the 27th floor of the skyscraper, it started to shake. it was first small, gradual, minimal, and then it started to shake quite a bit, knocking some
connect into the bay area and when you push water up into the bay and basically like the tide coming in except much for extremely it pushes water into the small streams and tributaries that drain into the bay and it pushls it, backings it up and causing it to overflow the banks in some areas. nur a waterway affected by the tides of the bay and this is a situation that they have to pay attention to. kelly huston on a busy day with you, thanks for the latest. joining me now on the phone, nbc news producer in tokyo. my old friend and colleague, you experienced the earthquake firsthand. what floor were you on in your building and what did you experience? yeah. our office is located on a 27th floor in central tokyo. what happened was i was watching the parliament on tv, the diet session and there was a warning up on the screen saying that,
tsunami waves. you have to be on the ground to get a sense of how large this is. we were talking earlier about your experience and what you were seeing on the 27th floor. caller: yeah. that s right. so we felt the tremor here. it really shook the office. some of the tapes on my desk went on to the floor. the lights were shaking. we were asked to evacuate our office. there was a whole bunch of us walking down the staircase. give me a sense because i was in the loma earthquake. the structure that i was in, the walls moved from left to right about a foot and a half. you have to be in this situation to understand how crazy it might appear and absolutely out of reality. tell me about something like that. was the light moving left to