obama this afternoon promising the united states is here to help. today s events remind us how fragile life can be. our hearts go out to our friends in japan and throughout the region and we re going to stand with them as they recover and e rebuild from this tragedy. there have been hundreds of aftershocks in the region. an earthquake clustering effect going on now. dozens of a significant magnitude. even testify vision anchors in that country are wearing hard hats on the set as they try to protect themselves while they work in the event of another big aftershock. our nbc news producer is live on the phone with us. where are you now and can you describe the scene? i m no tokyo, about 188 miles south of the tep center. from here, the destruction you ve been seeing on the show, but i have been taking pictures on the public broadcaster tv here. it s hopefully get a better idea of the damage. we ve hard reports of people stuck in tokyo. can you describe the downtown tok