like being down in manhattan. my staff, all my guys are stranded in the office. tom, director of a youth academy. tom, we ll check in with you in a little while. stay safe. keep us up to date on what s happening. give us the personal perspective on life in tokyo after this devastating earthquake. hawaii and other parts of the pacific are bracing to be hit by tsunami waves that have already hit japan. tsunami sirens were sounded in coastal areas being evacuated now in hawaii. schools are open for people who need somewhere to go right now. we re on the phone with the c.e.o. of the american red cross chapter in hawaii. hello. what can you tell us, cora lee? we are taking this tsunami threat very seriously. we had a practice last year where it didn t come to pass, but everyone listened
there s still fires that are blazing out of control all over the place. tokyo, the surrounding states to it. i was watching on your broadcast some of the pictures. you had an airport that was up there. that was actually the airport that is a very, very new airport that was built, that s right on the ocean line there. that s why it was so devastated. we re showing the video that came into our newsroom a little while ago. you can see the pacific ocean in the background and the tsunami wave and this is mid wave, you can see if you re looking at h.d., screen left, part of the runway still not covered. don t exactly know where any of the airplanes are. maybe there was a bit of a warning. how long was the warning, tom, between the time the earthquake hit at 2:46 p.m. local time and it was an 8.9 magnitude. largest that started there in japan. how much warning between the earthquake hitting and the tsunami hitting did the people have to get out of way? yeah, well, i know it s in
prayers out to close allies in japan, you can guarantee a plan is being put in place to help with search and rescue and support of any type. the good news is all of our elements, installations and men and women are accounted for in japan, which means they can go forward and be very aggressive in helping our allies as they deal with this horrible tragedy. god forbid they have to help us too depending on what happens in hawaii or the west coast in the u.s. it is a minute past the top of the hour, probably time to update folks who are tuning in. a powerful tsunami spawned by the largest earthquake in japan s recorded history slammed the eastern coast of japan sweeping away cars, homes and people. widespread fires are burning along the coastline. there s a report that at least 17 or dead, but surely that number will go up and it will go up considerably, shaourg into the hundreds. the magnitude 8.9 quake was followed by at least 19 after shocks, most of them magnitude 6.0. dozen
degrees above where they should be. we do have snow in the five day forecast. i ll let you know when that arrived coming up. now to today s top story. four young children rushed to the hospital after an overnight fire. flames broke out around 4:00 this morning along 40th avenue in maryland. sarah simmons is on the scene and joins us with an update. what is going on? reporter: the latest we have right now is that the four children are still in the hospital. two of them are twin girls, two of them we understand are in extremely critical, grave condition as the fire chief described to us. two of the others who are age 5 and 9 are upgraded to serious condition, which is good news from earlier todthough, this happened just before 4:00 this morning. if you take a look at photos we received from a nearby neighborhood, this is how severe the damage was to that house and how intense the flames were. manufacturers told us when they arrived that the parents had been able to get ou
with internal security threats. like major knenadil malik hasan the suspected shooter. and a race for the late ted kennedy s seat, a toss-up, martha coakley going from a lead to a statistical dead heat, from her republican challenger scott brown and if you watch politics you know that is a biggie. at this hour, new concerns relief workers in haiti may need more security. united nations peacekeepers in port-au-prince are warning that anger amongst the haitian people is rising. because the aid is not being distributed quickly enough and there are major obstacles, destroyed roads, and that means workers are unable to reform the areas and the threat of violence is keeping them from other spots and also destruction of the main prison in port-au-prince and the red cross is reporting that a majority of the 4,000 inmates there are now roaming the streets. there are reports of some of them being armed and the efforts to get supplies to the victims is getting a big push from the u.s.