Japan disaster: Fears Death Toll Could Exceed 20,000 as Nuke Crisis Looms

[tekisui]

Source: Herald Sun

UPDATE 9.44am: JAPANESE police have lifted the official number of dead and missing after a devastating earthquake and tsunami to nearly 13,000, but there are fears it could top 20,000.

The number of confirmed dead from Friday's twin disasters stood at 4314, while the official number of missing hit 8606. A total of 2282 people were injured in the disaster.

But reports continued to come in which indicated that the final toll could be much higher.

The mayor of the coastal town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture said yesterday that the number of missing there was likely to hit 10,000, Kyodo News reported.

more: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/japan-earthquake-new-explosion-rocks-fukushima-nuclear-power-plant/story-fn7zkbgs-1226022801346

[malaise]

1. Truthfully they don't even know how many people were killed

If the numbers are under 50,000 then it is clear that tsunami warnings after quakes are ingrained in Japanese culture because they had very little time to escape that ferocious water.