According to authorities, those killed in the largest earthquake recorded in Japan since 1900, an 8.9 magnitude, may exceed 10,000 in the prefecture of Miyagi, alone.

In the meantime, around 800 deaths had been confirmed so far in Miyagi and other areas in northeastern Japan, which were levelled Friday by the quake and a tsunami. there has been no word at all from the 10,000 residents of the town of Minamisanriku.

Am official in Fukushima said that about 90 percent of the houses in three coastal communities had been washed away by the tsunami.

390,000 people have fled their homes, many of them staying at the more than 1,400 emergency shelters set up in schools and community centers.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has doubled the number of soldiers sent to stricken areas. However, rescue workers are having a difficult time reaching some of the affected areas, due to many of the access roads being blocked by debris.

The Prime Minister made an announcement, saying:

I ask for utmost efforts to save the lives of as many people as possible. We will put all-out efforts into rescuing people who have been isolated.

According to a top official, a partial meltdown was already likely under way at one nuclear reactor, as the nuclear plant technicians were frantically trying to keep temperatures down at the power plant’s other units, to prevent an unfathomable disaster.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano reported today that a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex:

At the risk of raising further public concern, we cannot rule out the possibility of an explosion. If there is an explosion, however, there would be no significant impact on human health.

More than 170,000 people had been evacuated as a precaution, but Edano said that the radioactivity released into the environment so far was too small to cause any health problems.

If the nuclear power plant were to experience a complete meltdown, meaning the collapse of a power plant’s systems and its ability to keep temperatures under control, it would release uranium and dangerous contaminants into the environment and pose major, widespread health risks. On the bright(?) side, officials say it would be smaller than the Chernobyl Disaster.

Yikes.

Edano admitted to reporters that a partial meltdown in Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant was “highly possible.”

When he was asked if a partial meltdown had already occurred, Edano replied:

…because it’s inside the reactor, we cannot directly check it but we are taking measures on the assumption [that it had.]

Unit 3 at the Fukushima plant is one of the three reactors that had automatically shut down and lost cooling functions necessary to keep fuel rods working properly due to power outage from the quake. The facility’s Unit 1 is also in trouble, but Unit 2 has been less affected.

Yesterday, the walls of Unit 1 were destroyed by an explosion as operators desperately tried to prevent it from overheating and melting down.

Because the plant lost power, and with its pipes and pumps destroyed, authorities had to resort to drawing seawater mixed with boron to try to cool the unit’s overheated uranium fuel rods. Boron disrupts nuclear chain reactions.

Officials said the seawater will remain inside the unit, possibly for several months, rendering it unusable.

Per Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior policy adviser to the U.S. secretary of energy, the seawater was a desperate measure:

It’s a Hail Mary pass.

So, yesterday, as one of our greatest allies faced nuclear peril, where was The Leader of the Free World?

No, not Sarkozy.  Obama.

One word:  Fore!

ABC News’ Tahman Bradley reported:

President Obama just could not wait for spring weather to arrive.

For the second week in a row, the most powerful man in the world stepped away from the White House to hit the golf course.

Even as his administration and the U.S. military help Japan recover from a devastating earthquake, and as the world worries about Fukushima’s nuclear reactor, the president could not resist taking advantage of the 48-degree weather in the Washington, D.C., area.

The president left the White House Saturday afternoon for a short trip to Joint Andrews Base in Camp Springs, Md.

With cloudy skies, it’s not the best weather for golf, but Obama loves to spend his Saturdays on the greens. Last fall, Obama went golfing darn near every weekend.

These are never quick “work on your swing” trips; usually the president plays 18 holes, as he did last week.

And, of course, Scooter never lets a small thing like a nuclear disaster get in the way of a par-tahy.

President Barack Hussein Obama performed at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner last night.

To quote The Washington Post:

Yes, America, it’s one of those Washington dinners: Where top politicians and media elite dress up in their finest — white tie, in this case — to eat, drink and lob passive-aggressive jokes at each other, celebrity roast-style, in a way that seems pointed and mean but only serves to feed the beyond-the-Beltway suspicion that They Are All In Bed Together.

For instance:   Mr. Truce, himself, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels joked that he got his duds from:

…the bearded guy at Men’s Wearhouse. Anyone else notice, you never see him and Wolf Blitzer in the same place at the same time?

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Mitt Romney:

We have more in common than our hairstyles: We both used to think health care reform would advance our careers.

Al Hunt of Bloomberg feigning surprise that the absent Sen. Chuck Schumer would miss a chance to schmooze reporters:

It’s like Charlie Sheen missing a hooker’s convention.

So, while the world is imploding, our country’s citizens are struggling to feed their families, and Japan is in danger of a nuclear meltdown, the Leader of the Free World was out partying, doing his Rodney Dangerfield impression with the rest of the Beltway Elite.

Obama’s funniest unintentional (or possibly, intentional) snark came when the Marine Band struck up “Hail to the Chief” to welcome the president. Obama waved them off, saying:

Play that song we talked about..

And they did: “Born in the U.S.A.”

The lackadaisical manner in which this poor excuse for a President has been carrying out his duties certainly makes one wonder…