meltdown. authorities are evacuating 3,000 civilians, all near the plant. more on that in a second. joining me first on the phone with more is barbara hancock. she witnessed the quake firsthand. thank you for being with us. you re welcome. sean: i got to imagine this is one of the scary moments in your life. tell us what happened. i was in a meeting at the tokyo american club. it was about 2 been 45, it was about 2:45, started out as a normal quake for here became more violent. we got up, walked to the door some of us got under the take, some stood in the doorway. waited until it passed then taken out by the staff. congregated in the front with the rest of the people that were taken out of the building. and continued to experience several large aftershocks. sean: it is devastating we you look at the images here
could trigger a complete meltdown. authorities are evacuating 3,000 civilians, all near the plant. more on that in a second. joining me first on the phone with more is barbara hancock. she witnessed the quake firsthand. thank you for being with us. you re welcome. sean: i got to imagine this is one of the scary moments in your life. tell us what happened. i was in a meeting at the tokyo american club. it was about 2 been 45, it was about 2:45, started out as a normal quake for here became more violent. we got up, walked to the door some of us got under the take, some stood in the doorway. waited until it passed then taken out by the staff. congregated in the front with the rest of the people that were taken out of the building. and continued to experience several large aftershocks. sean: it is devastating we
more than 240 are dead the death toll is expected to exceed 1,000. some fear it could be higher. japanese officials have more than rescue and recovery on their hands. japan was forced to clear a nuclear emergency for five reactors after the quake blew out the cooling systems at two nuclear power plants. radiation levels have reportedly surged and the pressure inside the reactors rising to 1,000 times their normal levels. officials have ordered a wide area of evacuation. the affects are being felt here in the united states as tsunami warnings spread across the pacific. high waves hit hawaii, evacuations were ordered for cities up and down the west coast. joining us by phone freelance reporter gavin blair. this is a massive quake. these images are frightening. tell us what happened. reporter: it was about 2:45 friday afternoon, the quake started, as many quakes that do hit japan started, didn t seem anything out of the ordinary. the situation became more violent. and the sway
this latest one caused any additional damage or injuries as we take a look at the video coming in over the last 24 hours or so. hundreds of people are now confirmed dead, thousands of still missing. after the initial quake that trigger that had deadly tsunami. a badly damaged roads are making rescue attempts nearly impossible in some ports of northeastern japan. authorities are saying they just can t reach an area along the coast where up to 300 people were killed. and making matters worse officials are concerned at this hour about two of the country s nuclear plants, five reactor units, two of them and they re in a state of emergency. all five reactors suffering cooling problems after being shut down following the quake and pressure inside of them is now said to be at dangerous levels. authorities also detecting eight times normal radiation levels outside one of the facilities. nearly 14,000 people living near the plants have been evacuated. you can only imagine what they