Toll of disaster

September 16, 2011 at 1:04AM

TOLL OF DISASTER

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami laid waste to large parts of northeastern Japan and triggered the country's worst nuclear accident. Here are facts and figures on the disaster:

Earthquake: Registered 9 on the Richter scale, the strongest ever in Japan.

Death toll: More than 15,600 people in quake and tsunami.

Housing: About 100,000 houses destroyed, 500,000 damaged.

Evacuations: 85,000 people remain in emergency shelters, down from a peak of 130,000.

Damage estimate: $220 billion, excluding the nuclear crisis.

Nuclear-related costs: $1.3 billion to stabilize reactors; $5 billion in compensation to those affected.

Health monitoring: All 2 million inhabitants of Fukushima prefecture will have regular checkups for the long term.

Radiation: The area around the damaged plant might remain uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. The government has said radioactive material is still leaking from reactors 1, 2 and 3.

Source: Deutsche Press Agency

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