lines, our photographer and i were going to stop at the hotel only to find out the hotel was closed, it wasn t safe there and we continued on here to benghazi and this comes that s rebels continue to give up mile after mile. muammar qaddafi is just pounding them with his heavy artillery and tanks and is coming with his air force, largely a psychological effect that s bombing raids continue, but i can tell you from being on the ground, with these rebels, when the bombs fell, it s not a place you want to stick around. just went off next to the checkpoint and we don t know if anybody is injure, unbelievable. the second day they ve hit the checkpoint and you can see the smoke is coming across, and everybody now, running for cover. and it was just five minutes or so ago, we were down at this check pointed and moved back here, for safety. and got another air attack, earlier muammar qaddafi bombed this area and the bomb just got dravid and anti-aircraft fire is going up now and the plane is
sheltering and might be even more problems for the people here in japan that have been feeling a lot of woes right in the last couple of days. rick: you said a lot of people are leaving or trying to. where are they going? reporter: well, this is the problem, rick, because the roads are wiped out, and, transportation is very difficult. traffic jams, backing up, there are shelters, further inland, again, we are here along the coast, where the bulk of the damage has occurred. but, they are moving away, and we entered, of course this area, through tokyo and tokyo took a lot of hits, but it is a functioning metropolis, able to absorb some of the folks that can leave this embattled area, right now and right now, this place is in bad, bad shape. rick: greg palkot is live for us in the northeastern part of japan, greg, thanks very much.
a serious melt down. and relief efforts are now kicking in, about 50,000 japanese troops are involved, we have been seeing helicopters going over us right now. and, the international community getting involved, the 7th fleet is getting involved, and the ronald reagan aircraft carrier, is steaming in this direction, and, as well as other ships, the international community pitching in, in this effort which is now a race against time. rick, this country had seen earthquakes a lot and seen tsunamis a lot but haven t seen anything quite like this. i haven t seen anything like that, either, except one time and that was the huge tsunami and the next days we ll move closer into the area and the scenes there, absolute devastation and one more note here, sunday morning you might be hearing sirens in the background and i m looking at the local school here, smoke coming from that school, and a fire there, and, a place where refugees have been coming, and
been seeing as we have been traveling around the country, the effect of the earthquake itself. cracks in roads, and buildings damaged, as well. and, the death toll, rick, continues to climb and officially put between 1300 to 1700 and, we have spoken to locals and tens of thousands are missing and, the death toll is expected to climb and the whole area, has a dead zone in other ways, electricity and water are out and a real problem for the people here and a lot of people are leaving, as you noted, too, rick the real concern, about 75 miles further up north, the coast, the fukushima nuclear plant, that has been the scene of damage caused by friday s quake and the cooling system of the plant has been damaged and yesterday we saw an explosion, a release of radioactivity, and, about a 12 mile exclusion zone around the plant right now, and we are seeing evacuations, which is a concern and the concern is
and 20 sunk and eye witnesses said there want much they could do except watch the destruction play out before their very eyes. the biggest problem was to get to the boats, as they were broken away. you know, i mean, there are plenty of people around, to do that. but it was, the harbor there was a high danger. reporter: let s take to you hawaii. the governor there, has declared a state of disaster. the big island, specifically, suffering most of the damage. specifically in the north and northwest shores. reports of at least 12 homes damaged or destroyed from the tsunami surge in addition to extensive flooding and boats being watched away. thousands of tourists evacuated yesterday from their hotels and moved to higher ground. you mentioned the two coastal cities, back here in california, specifically, up in the northern part of the state, near the oregon-california border and that area hit hard, and crescent