Survivors in Japan Piece Life Together as Rescuers Dig on

Like many residents in the coastal towns flattened by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan, Ueno, masked and silent, walks in the debris of what used to be his home in Ofunato.

Around him, crushed cars and boats are jumbled with destroyed trees, utility poles and wooden building frames. Ueno hopes to find something that could help him piece together his life in memory although his home was swept away by the tsunami, the strongest ever recorded in Japan's history. To his disappointment, he found nothing.

Ofunato is one of the hardest hit towns in Iwate prefecture in the earthquake and tsunami that killed untold thousands on Japan's northeastern coast and left many more without shelter and electricity in freezing temperatures.

Survivors in emergency shelter like Ueno and his family members -- his wife, two children and parents -- are relying on a diminishing stock of food like bread and onigiri -- traditional Japanese food made from rice and formed into triangular or oval shapes.

In nearby towns, residents line up in cars outside gas stations hoping to fill the tank. Others have already snapped up food and household items in local grocery stores. The heavy snowfall in the quake-hit area on Wednesday has put additional stress on the government's relief efforts.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK said more than 100,000 buildings had been damaged, including at least 7,400 that were completely destroyed. Authorities said some 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity and at least 1.5 million households lacked running water.

International rescuers have come to Ueno and his neighbors' aid. Just blocks away from where Ueno's house used to stand, rescuers from China, the United States and Britain are combing the rubble to look for survivors.

The destructive force of tsunami has mounted fresh difficulties for the Chinese rescuers, who are better equipped to look for survivors in earthquake, not tsunami. Rescuers had to resort to makeshift tools, like golf clubs, to smash car windows to search for survivors or bodies.

"We found only a male body Tuesday morning," said Yin Guanghui, head of the 15-member Chinese rescue team working in Ofunato. With the help of a grab, the search picked up pace on Thursday.

The U.S. and British rescue teams have set up a joint command to coordinate rescue efforts. Raul Perla, coordinator of the U.S. team from Los Angeles, said they started work in Ofunato on Tuesday but have not yet found any survivors.

The unprecedented devastation is just part of the blow of the earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese government is continuing its frantic efforts to prevent a meltdown of reactors at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, after the facility's cooling systems were knocked out in the quake.

Temperatures have soared in reactors with fuel rods being exposed as the cooling water evaporated and emitting hydrogen gas and possibly radioactive material. Hydrogen explosions have rocked the containment vessels that house the reactor cores.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, said it was concentrating on restoring the power supply to reactivate the facility's crippled cooling systems.

The Self-Defense Forces on Thursday morning used helicopters to spray water on the plant's No. 3 reactor, which was feared to have leaked radioactive substance due to damage to its containment vessel.

Japanese authorities reported the Fukushima nuclear crisis as a level four accident on the 7-grade International Nuclear Event Scale, which indicates "local consequences" and a minor release of radioactive materials.

As a precaution, the Japanese government has evacuated residents from areas within a 20-km radius from the plant and advised those within a 30-km radius to stay indoors.