日本繼續評估地震損失
Officials with Japan's nuclear safety agency said early Sunday morning there is an emergency at another nuclear reactor at a quake-hit power plant. The agency says the cooling system at the number three reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant is offline and could possibly explode, following Saturday's blast at the plant's number one reactor.
日本核安全機構官員星期天早晨說，一座受到地震破壞的核電廠中的另一個核反應堆也出現緊急狀況。該機構表示，福島核發電廠三號核反應堆冷卻系統斷電，可能會發生爆炸。此前這座核電廠一號核反應堆星期六發生了爆炸。
Reports quoting government officials say up to 160 people may have been exposed to radiation. Meanwhile, residents in the country's northeast are struggling to find food and clean water.
援引政府官員講話的報道說，多達160人可能受到核輻射。與此同時，日本東北部居民仍然缺乏食品和清潔飲用水。
Aftershocks continued to hit northeastern Japan Sunday, several days after a 8.9-magnitude earthquake and resulting 10-meter-high tsunami devastated the coastline.
里氏8.9級的強烈地震襲擊日本東北部以後導致海嘯，10米高的巨浪衝擊了沿海地區。日本東北部地區星期日仍有餘震。
VOA Correspondent Steve Herman is near the power plant. He says locals are complaining that the authorities are not giving them accurate information about the situation fast enough. "One of the things the authorities are trying to do is not have any panic spreading among people, but information about what is happening is coming out of Tokyo not Fukushima," he said.
美國之音記者赫爾曼就在覈電站附近，他說，當地居民報怨當局沒有及時向他們通報確切信息。他說：“當局要努力做到的一件事就是不讓驚慌情緒在民衆中擴散，但是有關事態的消息來自東京而不是福島當地。”
Herman says authorities still have not determined how much damage the country's coastline communities have suffered. "Japan just has countless little farming communities and fishing communites. And it is these fishing communities that have really taken the horrible hit up and down the northeastern Pacific coast. There is obviously just hundreds, if not thousands, of these types of towns and villages that have been totally or partly destroyed," he said.
美國之音記者赫爾曼說，當局仍然無法確定日本沿海社區受到的破壞和損失有多大。他說：“日本有無數小型農業社區和漁業社區。東北部太平洋延岸漁業社區經受了令人恐懼的海嘯襲擊。這裏成百上千的以漁業爲主的城鎮和村莊部分或全部遭到了破壞。”
The final death toll could range from the thousands to tens of thousands, depending on how many of these communities are gone.
這次災難造成的最後死亡人數可能會高達數千甚至上萬，要看有多少社區受到這次災害的洗劫。
VOA reporters managed to travel to Fukushima by plane, but many airports, roads and railways remain flooded or damaged throughout Japan.
美國之音記者試圖乘飛機前往福島，但是日本各地很多機場、道路和鐵路都仍在海水浸泡中或在地震中受損。
Herman says that because of this, people are scrambling to find basic necessities, even in inland areas such as Fukushima. "People are just trying to find clean water. Food supplies are running out. In the convenience stores, there are no rice balls left. There is no bottled water left. We are facing a really serious situation in the days ahead for these people that are living in areas that were only moderately damaged," he said.
赫爾曼說，正因如此，人們都在急切尋找基本生活必須品，甚至在福島這樣的內陸地區情況也是一樣。他說：“人們努力尋找清潔用水，食品供應瀕於枯竭。便利店的飯糰銷售一空，瓶裝水也早就不見蹤影。居住在這些僅受到一般破壞地區的人們，未來將面臨着非常嚴重的局面。”
Overall, analysts say Japan could have fared much worse in the disaster.
總體來說，分析人士認爲日本在這次災難中原本傷害可能更大。
Tokyo has invested billions of dollars into making the country as earthquake-proof as possible. Architects specially design high-rise buildings to flex in a quake. Tsunami warning signs and large seawalls line the Japanese coast. Even schoolchildren practice drills on what to do during an earthquake.
東京在將日本最大程度地建成抗震國家方面已經投資了數以十億計美元。建築師設計的高層建築 都有抗震功能。日本沿海築有長長的大型的防浪牆，海嘯警報信號標誌也到處可見。
However in the end, analysts say that no amount of human preparedness is foolproof against the power of nature.
不過分析人士認爲，人類不論進行了多充分的準備，最終也無法完全對抗大自然的力量。
