• Police say 200 to 300 bodies found in northeastern coastal area
• Coast guard searching for ship carrying 80
• Blaze engulfs northeast waterfront
• Report: Train with unknown number of passengers is missing
• Evacuation order issued to thousands near different nuclear plant
• Japanese PM cites 'major damage'; calls for 'spirit of fraternity'
• Tsunami sweeps through Hawaii
• First waves from reach Oregon coast

TOKYO — A magnitude 8.9 earthquake — the biggest in modern Japanese history — slammed the island nation's eastern coast Friday, unleashing a 23-foot tsunami that swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland and prompting a "nuclear emergency."
Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii and warnings blanketed the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast.
According to police, 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of Friday's disaster.
TV footage taken from a military plane showed fires engulfing a large waterfront area in northeastern Japan. Houses and other buildings were ablaze across large swathes of land in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, near Sendai city, public broadcaster NHK showed. The city, with a population of 74,000, has residential, light industry and fishing areas.
According to reports, police told the Kyodo news agency that a passenger train with an unknown number of people aboard was missing in one coastal area.
The government ordered thousands of residents near a nuclear power plant in Onahama city to evacuate because the plant's system was unable to cool the reactor. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles northeast of Tokyo.