About 590,000 people have been evacuated in Japan over the last three days following the devastating earthquake and tsunami there on Friday, the United Nations said Sunday.

At the same time there is growing anxiety about the reactors in a number of nuclear power stations, it added.

"About 380,000 people have been evacuated from the tsunami and earthquake affected areas and are being sheltered in 2,050 evacuation centres. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) authorities have also evacuated another 210,000 people living within a 20 km (12-mile) radius around the Fukushima nuclear power plants," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on the rescue operation.

Rescue teams from all over the world --from the United States, Switzerland, Australia and Mexico among many nations--are being deployed to help the huge numbers of victims and find those missing.

But, OCHA said, the rescue operations were "hampered by continuous aftershocks, tsunami alerts and fires."

"Many areas along the northeast coast remain isolated and unreachable by emergency services. To date, 3000 people have been rescued."

Thousands of people are still reported missing after the tsunami unclenched by the quake, which according to the United States Geological Survey had a magnitude of 8.9, the strongest in Japan's history and probably responsible for more than 10,000 deaths.

"A seven-member UNDAC (UN Disaster and Assessment) team has arrived in Tokyo," OCHA said. "The team will assist the government of Japan's efforts and coordinate the international Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams, as well as assist with assessments and environmental hazard analysis."

"The main humanitarian needs are food, drinking water, blankets, fuel and medical items which the government and private sector in Japan are urgently mobilising and sending to the affected areas.

"The government says 2.6 million households are without electricity and nearly 3.2 million people are running out of gas supplies. This is critical as it is winter in Japan and the temperature is dropping to one degree Celsius overnight," OCHA said.

It added that "1.4 million people also have no access to water. Hospitals are reportedly coping with the number of patients. One hundred and forty five of the 170 designated emergency response hospitals in Japan are now fully functioning."

earlier related report
Japan to deploy 100,000 troops on quake aid
Tokyo (AFP) March 13, 2011 - Japan will double to 100,000 the number of troops on rescue and relief missions after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast coast, the government said Sunday.

Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told a meeting of his ministry's emergency headquarters that he had received the order from Prime Minister Naoto Kan, a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Police said Sunday the death toll from the disaster was nearing 900. Along the hard-hit east coast of Honshu island, where the monster waves struck, more than 12,250 homes and other buildings were destroyed or damaged.

earlier related report
People turn ever more to the web in times of crisis
Hong Kong (AFP) March 13, 2011 - The earthquake off the coast of Japan and the resulting tsunami has proven, yet again, how the Internet offers an information lifeline to the world in a time of crisis.

The Internet was designed so that US military communications could withstand a nuclear war, but is proving equally resilient in the face of natural disasters and even seismic shifts in global politics.

As the waves smashed into the Japanese coastline following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake 130 kilometres (80 miles) east in the Pacific ocean on Friday, a tsunami of images was also soon hitting the web.

In scenes worthy of any Hollywood disaster movie, a massive wave was shown rolling in from the sea, and one of the most watched and shared videos was of water slowly engulfing the city of Sendai's airport.

Small aircraft, cars and trucks were shown scattered amongst the shattered debris of buildings like an unruly child's toy box.

And what looked like prefabricated factory units were shown floating under a bridge as drivers spun their cars and trucks around to try to outrun the waves.

Nearly five million people tuned in to video sharing site YouTube on Saturday to watch one raw, unedited video of the wave chewing away at Japan's coastline. Several other videos had notched up between three and four million hits.

Hundreds of people commented on the videos across the web and shared information, from social network giant Facebook to micro-blogging site Twitter -- as well as local, Japanese language websites.

And the Internet also functioned as a virtual crisis centre as sites such as Google's people finder service helped locate loved ones and offered help and support to survivors.

As the floodwaters subsided, worried friends and relatives leapt onto their computers to find information about people who had not been heard from since the mighty wave crashed ashore.

Google's person finder service had notched up more than 81,000 records of people leaving messages seeking information on friends and family by 0300 GMT Sunday.

The site was updating, in English and Japanese, by the hundreds every few minutes.

A random search of the common Japanese surname "Sato" brought up hundreds of results, many of them for people living in Sendai -- the city that faced the brunt of the thunderous body of rolling water.

Gunduzhan posted a message seeking Aki Sato, a dentist from Sendai who studied at Ohu University in Koriyama. A photo of the pretty young woman was also posted on the site.

"Looking for Aki Sato," the post read. "Last heard from after earthquake but before tsunami."

Another post seeking Fatima Sato had some good news -- "Mom is ok. She is on her way home."

The international and Japanese Red Cross also set up a similar site.

And micro-blogging site Twitter was updating every second with messages of good will, of condolences and offering aid.

A service was being shared on Twitter allowing people the chance to donate to the Red Cross via text message, the donation being added to phone bills.

Some tweets were posted by international celebrities such as the American singer Lady Gaga, who launched a bracelet to support the relief effort.

She asked her legion of fans -- whom she calls "Little Monsters" -- to buy a bracelet on her website saying, "We Pray for Japan," for donations of $5 or more. All proceeds will go to relief efforts, she said.

Useful links:

The English version of the Red Cross website was being set up at www.icrc.org/eng/familylinks-japan

The English version of the Google friend finder service can be found here: japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

Facebook's Japan tsunami page can be found here: www.facebook.com/#!/japan.tsunami.2011

YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4w27IczOTk&feature=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSSssHxm4Y&feature=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm2Hr-1l1MM&feature=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80CH_XkpSCE&feature=