Smoke billows from fires raging at the port in Tagajo, Miyagi prefecture on March 13, 2011 following a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The colossal 8.9-magnitude tremor sent waves of mud and debris racing over towns and farming land in Japan's northeast, destroying all before it and leaving the coast a swampy wasteland. Authorities battled a feared meltdown of two nuclear reactors, as the full horror of the disaster emerged on the ravaged northeast coast with thousands feared dead. AFP PHOTO / TORU YAMANAKA