Hundreds of people were killed and scores reported missing on Friday after the sixth largest earthquake in history devastated parts of Japan. The 8.9 magnitude quake 80 miles off the Pacific coast triggered a 30-ft high tsunami hurtling across the ocean, carrying ships inland and wiping out buildings like those shown here in Natori City.
The government ordered thousands of people who lived within 12 miles of a nuclear power plant in Fukushima to leave the area, after the earthquake caused the plant’s cooling system to fail.
Jenny Tamura Spragg, 33, an English teacher, said the quake struck in the middle of a lesson: “The children were in a desperate panic when we decided to tell them to hide under their desks. When I finally got under a desk myself, the thought ‘This is it, the end’ did cross my mind.”