Minamisamriku, Japan decimated by wall of water
Megan Towey is a CBS News producer based in Miami. She's currently on assignment in Japan. MINAMISAMRIKU - As our drive continued northward toward Minamisamriku, we began to see more damage and a greater impact on local residents. Shingles were missing from rooftops and entire walls had caved in under the force of the earthquake. Everywhere we went shops were closed and the electricity was out in the middle of the day.
And then there were the lines. A few of the larger supermarkets on the main road were open and hundreds of people were queued outside trying to buy water and food. Transportation was another issue. On the off chance you could find a gas station that actually had fuel to sell, cars were lined up, sometimes for miles, waiting.
Complete Coverage: Disaster in Japan
Even our own crews had difficulty. We tried for an hour to coordinate a gas drop to some of our colleagues who had run out of petrol. We battled against poor cell and blackberry service for some time to set up a rendezvous point only to discover our van ran on diesel, while they needed regular octane. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way to ask the most basic questions first.
Tokyo calm belies Japan's nightmare
Upon arriving in Minamisamriku, we witnessed the full extent of the devastation. What had once been a thriving town now lay in ruins. Less than a dozen structures were even recognizable as having once been homes, offices or shops. Everything else was a jumbled mass of splintered lumber and broken glass.
The earthquake hadn't destroyed this once picturesque town; rather it was decimated by the wall of water that raced into the narrow valley when the tsunami roared ashore.
Heading to Japan's Ground Zero - slowly
Everywhere we went, people looked shell shocked - as if they had been through a war. And in many ways, it looked like they had. When the powerful waters receded, the town looked like a bomb had gone off there. With so many friends, relatives and neighbors missing or dead, survivors are now left to sift through the shrapnel for their scattered possessions and, they hope, some sense of closure.
