In damaged nuclear plant's shadow, mayor pleads for food, fuel

Told to stay indoors, the residents of one Japanese city near a quake-damaged nuclear plant are now grappling with widespread shortages and appealing for help from outside.

Minami Soma, a city of about 70,000, lost at least 253 people to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Another 1,200-plus are unaccounted for, and about 50,000 people have evacuated since the disaster and the ensuing crisis at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi power plant, 25 km (16 miles) to the south, Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai said.

Those left are now struggling with a "substantial lack of supplies" complicated by the city's location in the 30-km radius surrounding the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, he said.

"Many people here are left without transportation," Sakurai said in a video appeal for citizen volunteers posted online last week. "They can hardly get any supplies delivered to their homes. We regret to say this, but we have to ask volunteers to act at their own risk." (read more)