by Calculated Risk on 3/12/2011 07:48:00 PM

From the NY Times: Japan Pushes to Rescue Survivors as Quake Toll Rises

Entire villages in parts of Japan’s northern Pacific coast have vanished under a wall of water, many communities are cut off, and a nuclear emergency was unfolding at two stricken reactors as Japanese tried to absorb the scale of the destruction after Friday’s powerful earthquake and devastating tsunami.

... Much of the northeast was impassable, and by late Saturday rescuers had not arrived in the worst-hit areas. ... More than 300,000 people have been evacuated, including tens of thousands fleeing the zone around the nuclear plants in Fukushima Prefecture even before news that problems at one plant appeared to be escalating quickly.

Earlier on U.S. economy: Summary for Week ending March 11th