Japan Prime Minister: Worst crisis since World War II

By Chico Harlan and Rick Maese
Sunday, March 13, 2011; 10:38 AM

TOKYO, JAPAN - Along hundreds of miles of Japan's northeast coastline, entire towns are swamped and concern is increasing among survivors and aid workers about dwindling supplies.

Two days after a massive earthquake and the resulting tsunami turned a strip of Japan into wreckage, the hardest-hit areas still don't have enough of what they need, according to those in shelters. There's not enough food, not enough water and no heat. And there are not enough resources to quickly reach - or even contact - the tens of thousands who remain missing.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the disaster the country's biggest crisis since World War II. Kan said that along coastal areas workers are having a "hard time" distributing food. The government was exploring the possibility of delivering food by sea or air, given the problems with roads en route to the north.

One Red Cross official said that at the Pacific coast town of Ishinomaki, the local hospital feared it was about to run out of food and milk for babies. Most gas stations along the main roads heading north from Tokyo still have gas - but the lines for it snake around for several blocks. Japan's chief trade minister on Sunday warned of upcoming power outages, even in Tokyo. Amid all this, Japan has mobilized 100,000 troops - twice the number previously planned - who are racing to rescue those in the towns that were swept away.

(More here.)