日本继续评估地震损失

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.

日本核安全机构官员星期天早晨说，一座受到地震破坏的核电厂中的另一个核反应堆也出现紧急状况。该机构表示，福岛核发电厂三号核反应堆冷却系统断电，可能会发生爆炸。此前这座核电厂一号核反应堆星期六发生了爆炸。

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.

援引政府官员讲话的报道说，多达160人可能受到核辐射。与此同时，日本东北部居民仍然缺乏食品和清洁饮用水。

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级的强烈地震袭击日本东北部以后导致海啸，10米高的巨浪冲击了沿海地区。日本东北部地区星期日仍有余震。

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.

美国之音记者赫尔曼就在核电站附近，他说，当地居民报怨当局没有及时向他们通报确切信息。他说：“当局要努力做到的一件事就是不让惊慌情绪在民众中扩散，但是有关事态的消息来自东京而不是福岛当地。”

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.

美国之音记者赫尔曼说，当局仍然无法确定日本沿海社区受到的破坏和损失有多大。他说：“日本有无数小型农业社区和渔业社区。东北部太平洋延岸渔业社区经受了令人恐惧的海啸袭击。这里成百上千的以渔业为主的城镇和村庄部分或全部遭到了破坏。”

The final death toll could range from the thousands to tens of thousands, depending on how many of these communities are gone.

这次灾难造成的最后死亡人数可能会高达数千甚至上万，要看有多少社区受到这次灾害的洗劫。

VOA reporters managed to travel to Fukushima by plane, but many airports, roads and railways remain flooded or damaged throughout Japan.

美国之音记者试图乘飞机前往福岛，但是日本各地很多机场、道路和铁路都仍在海水浸泡中或在地震中受损。

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.

赫尔曼说，正因如此，人们都在急切寻找基本生活必须品，甚至在福岛这样的内陆地区情况也是一样。他说：“人们努力寻找清洁用水，食品供应濒于枯竭。便利店的饭团销售一空，瓶装水也早就不见踪影。居住在这些仅受到一般破坏地区的人们，未来将面临着非常严重的局面。”

Overall, analysts say Japan could have fared much worse in the disaster.

总体来说，分析人士认为日本在这次灾难中原本伤害可能更大。

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.

东京在将日本最大程度地建成抗震国家方面已经投资了数以十亿计美元。建筑师设计的高层建筑 都有抗震功能。日本沿海筑有长长的大型的防浪墙，海啸警报信号标志也到处可见。

However in the end, analysts say that no amount of human preparedness is foolproof against the power of nature.

不过分析人士认为，人类不论进行了多充分的准备，最终也无法完全对抗大自然的力量。