Helen Mirren: Japan: One week later

A week after a 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami leveled large swaths of northeastern Japan, effects of the disaster are still rippling across the country and the world. Misery of the victims continues unabated, as shelter, food, water, and fuel have become dear. A nuclear facility crisis has both troops and workers scrambling to keep the situation from getting worse, while foreign governments are urging their citizens to evacuate. -- Lane Turner (25 photos total)

Momoko Onodera prays at an evacuation center as she talks about her husband who died in the tsunami on March 18 in Kesennuma, Japan. A potential humanitarian crisis looms as nearly half a million people who have been displaced by the disaster continue to suffer a shortage of food and fuel as freezing weather conditions set in. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

An elderly woman and a relative are reunited at a center for displaced persons in the devastated town of Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture on March 18 one week after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the northestern coast of Japan's main island of Honshu. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images) #

A two-month old baby evacuated along with his parents from the town of Okuma, Fubata district in Fukushima prefecture where the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, is given a bath by a volunteer, Junko Sakamoto in Koriyama city in Fukushima prefecture on March 18. (Go Takayama/AFP/Getty Images) #

Victims from an evacuation center relax as they take their first bath since an earthquake and a tsunami hit the area in Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture on March 18. The bath house was reopened, offering free baths to people. (Reuters/Kyodo) #

A man looks for a relative at a community center used as a shelter in the tsunami-damaged town of Otsuchi on March 18. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images) #

A man checks lists of evacuees at an evacuation center in Rikuzentakata March 18. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters) #

Evacuees eat instant noodles for lunch at a shelter in Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture on March 18. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images) #

Evacuees rest in a shelter, 60 km from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, in Koriyama on March 18. (Ken Shimizu/AFP/Getty Images) #

A man takes a look at pages from his own family photo album that he discovered in the wreckage a week after the disasters hit Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture on March 18. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images) #

A man collects water from a canal in the tsunami-devastated town of Otsuchi on March 18. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images) #

People queue to buy gasoline at a destroyed village in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture March 18. The shutdown of a fifth of Japan's nuclear power capacity and nearly a third of its refining capacity following last week's killer quake and tsunami has resulted in a fuel shortage in the country. (Lee Jae-Won/Reuters) #

Japan Defense Forces officers and survivors roll drums of heating oil in Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture, March 18. (Reuters/Kyodo) #

Aiko Musashi carries personal belongings from her destroyed home on March 18 in Kesennuma. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

People cook outside their home in the tsunami-damaged town of Otsuchi on March 18. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images) #

A woman walks across a bridge in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18. (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images) #

A survivor walks through debris in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture March 18. (Aly Song/Reuters) #

Dozens of coffins are pictured on the floor of a hall in the town of Rifu in Miyagi prefecture on March 18. The official number of dead and missing after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened Japan's northeast coast a week ago has topped 16,600, with 6,405 confirmed dead. (JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images) #

Radiation scanning crews check each other's levels as they change their work shift at a screening center in Koriyama in Fukushima prefecture, 60 km west of TEPCO's striken Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, on March 18. (Go Takayama/AFP/Getty Images) #

Officials scan people for radiation, 60 km west of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, in Koriyama on March 18. (Ken Shimizu/AFP/Getty Images) #

A rescue worker walks through rubble in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18. (Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images) #

A rescue worker searches through debris in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on March 18. (Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images) #

An airline staff member attempts to calm people rushing to buy flight tickets at a ticket counter in Narita International Airport on March 18 in Narita. (Koki Nagahama/Getty Images) #

Lights are turned off during rolling blackouts in Misato City, Saitama Prefecture on March 18. Tokyo Electric Power Co has announced rolling blackouts after its power generation was cut due to damage to its Fukushima Daiichi power plant, where it is struggling to prevent reactor meltdowns. (Reuters/Kyodo) #

A satellite image shows damage to the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant at the town of Okuma in Futaba district in Fukushima. Teams of Japanese workers and troops on March 18 battled to prevent meltdown at the quake-hit nuclear plant as alarm over the disaster grew with more foreign governments advising their citizens to flee. (DigitalGlobe/AFP/Getty Images) #