[siren] bill: that almost looks not real. it s surreal. almost looks like miniatures or something you would have in your bathtub. it looks like a movie. and that street level shot of the water moving in, i just think about just the utter fear that people must have experienced. bill: we had. people witnessing it, who were seeing that. bill: we heard the people above watching one town, you know, they were crying and wailing. you work your whole life to get a house and possessions and all of a sudden a wave comes and takes them away. when i saw this stuff, i calculated how far my house is away from the ocean on long island. okay. if the tsunami hits, is it going to come and get me? look at it sendai which was
look at it sendai which was in the first video, that is a city of a million people. that s bigger than san francisco. that is about the size of san diego, california. can we as a nation ever imagine? we can after hurricane, but just a town getting wiped away like that. bill: we can imagine it because we saw it in katrina and those people down there had their houses, they thought they were safe behind the levies and all of a sudden boom, those watters come over and their whole lives are swept away. we in the united states have experienced that kind of pain as well. maybe have a greater appreciation and understanding of what the japanese people are going through because of that. bill: i hope so. one thing we can t see is the radiation stuff that we talked about culture a little earlier on which is undefined to us. by the way, that 50-mile radius that the u.s. government is warning about, that reaches almost to sendai. almost to sendai in the north. bill: all right, dagen, tha
in crowded shelters right now facing long lines for food and fresh water. the entire time there, having an agonizing wait for news of missing family and friends. but amid the ruins of sendai, people who know they re lucky to be alive and be together. reporter: in a tsunami disaster this massive she is learning the small gestures matter most. food and water she says from someone she barely knows. sato lost everything in the tsunami that hit sendai. she learned from these before and after satellite images in the newspaper that her home was destroyed. i never imagined a tsunami could do this, she says, saying she lives inland about two miles from the ocean. she is one of the hundreds of new residents of shitiko elementary school.
shelters there in japan right now. here s cnn s kyung lah with more from sendai. reporter: in a tsunami disaster this massive mari sato is learning that the small gestures matter the most. food and water, she says, from someone she barely knows. sato lost everything in the tsunami that hit sendai. she learned from these before and after satellite images of the newspaper that her home was destroyed. translator: i never imagined a tsunami could do this, she says, saying she lives inland about two miles from the ocean. she is one of the hundreds of new residents of this elementary school. this is the youngest, only 3 weeks old. her father says he s numb and can t seem to put her down ever since he and his wife fled from the debris that flattened their
nearly 2,000 people confirmed dead. who knows how many more bodies rescue crews could find here in he remote areas in the coming days, weeks. but enormous poorts of the country have no power, no basic utilities and 500,000 people are sleeping in shelters because their homes are simply gone. cnn s kim la is in sendai. reporter: in a tsunami disaster this massive, marisato is learning the small gestures matter most. food and water, she says, from someone she barely knows. sato lost everything in a tsunami that hit sendai. she learned from this before and after images that her home was destroyed. i never imagined a tsunami could do this, she says, saying she lives inland about two miles from the ocean. she is one of the hundreds of new residents of this elementary