Japan PM visits ravaged coast

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan -- As Japan's prime minister visited tsunami-ravaged coastal areas for the first time Saturday, frustrated evacuees complained that the government has been too focused on the nuclear crisis that followed the massive wave.

Nearly every day some new problem at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant commands officials' attention -- Saturday it was a newly discovered crack in a maintenance pit that is leaking highly radioactive water into the sea.

"The government has been too focused on the Fukushima power plant rather than the tsunami victims. Both deserve attention," said 35-year-old Megumi Shimanuki, who was visiting her family at a community center converted into a shelter in hard-hit Natori, about 100 miles from Rikuzentakata, where Prime Minister Naoto Kan stopped Saturday. More than 165,000 people are still living in shelters.

Kan's government has been frantically working with Tokyo Electric Power Co. to solve the crisis at the nuclear complex, which has been spewing radioactivity since cooling systems were disabled by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that preceded the tsunami on March 11.

Late last night, the company announced that two workers were killed when the tsunami swept ashore, the first confirmation of deaths at the plant.

Saturday, nuclear safety officials announced that they had found water with levels of radioactive iodine far above the legal limit leaking into the Pacific Ocean from an 8-inch crack in the maintenance pit.

People living within 12 miles of the plant have been evacuated, but it was unclear if the leak posed any new danger to workers.

Radiation worries have compounded the misery for people trying to recover from the tsunami. Nearly 25,000 are feared dead -- 11,800 confirmed -- and in addition to those living in shelters, tens of thousands still lack electricity or running water.