Soledad O'Brien in Japan

Several photos via Soledad O'Brien's Facebook page from her time reporting in Japan on the tsunami, earthquake and resulting nuclear crisis.

A Japan Earthquake Interview With Soledad O'Brien

Photo: Junghun Park-CNN

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien is in Japan, where she is covering the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear events that have devastated that country.

Kam Williams did an interview with Soledad via cell phone to share her eyewitness perspective.

Here are a few excerpts -

Soledad has covered Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami/earthquake in Indonesia in 2004, and the Haiti earthquake, so making comparisons is logical.

"I’m sure there are plenty of people already relocated. But the scope of the damage varies. For instance, some towns are just gone. In that case, the inhabitants who survived have to move because the village doesn’t exist anymore. However, there are some cities where there are evacuation centers, so people won’t have to leave. They’ll be able to rebuild or have other options. But I do know that they’ve started shipping in family tents and structures for use as shelters in areas that were really hard-hit.

I think the emotions are always the same. It’s a real sense of sadness and palpable loss. The scope of it is always overwhelming to me. And I’m always awed by the power of a natural disaster, say, to deposit a large boat on top of a building. I’ve covered numerous tsunamis, yet I’m always stunned by something like that, no matter how many times I’ve seen it before.

For me, my motivation is to tell the people’s story well, and to be part of a team that’s parachuting in to do just that. With the first few disasters I covered, I found myself asking, “Where is God?” “How does God allow small children to be swept out of their parents arms in the middle of a tsunami?” And thanks to shooting the special “Almighty Debt,” I had a chance to spend a lot a time with some pastors who really helped me a lot with sorting that out. Now, I see it less as a question of faith, and more as just my job."

Soledad O'Brien in Japan

Soledad O'Brien left March 12 with CNN crew members for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami devastated areas of Japan.

Arriving Sunday (our time) she posted "230am and just arriving in Sendai. We leave after 2 hrs of sleep to head north to see damage at first light."

Soledad has been reporting during the evening Anderson Cooper 360 program and throughout the day.

On 3/15, she reported online that she was "Close to Akita--very snowy.
Brutally cold here--really miserable for evacuees. Little food water and no heat and power"

Soledad with Paul Fales

O'Brien filed this Reporter's Notebook report (see video on site) about reuniting an American in Japan with his family.

American Paul Fales was one of the first passengers off the ferry from Oshima. A slight man of 25, he looked pale, cold and anxious as he made his way off.

He'd ridden out the massive earthquake in the elementary school where he was an assistant English teacher. High ground protected the students when the tsunami rushed in, and he was back in Kesennuma to see how his apartment had survived. In spite of the debris around him, he was confident.

"I think it will be fine, really," he said. But that short walk would prove challenging — the streets impassable and filled with water, debris and mud. A roof fell into the center of another street, and we couldn't get around it. We turned back again...

the story continues