Awwal 17, 1432 H / April 21, 2011, SPA -- Japan officially sealed off a wide area around a crippled nuclear power plant early Friday to stop tens of thousands of residents from sneaking back to the homes they quickly fled and are enduring a long, uncertain wait to return, AP reported. Fearing they might not see their homes and belongings again for at least six months, evacuees raced into the deserted towns Thursday before the ban took effect to grab whatever belongings they could cram into their cars. «This is our last chance, but we aren't going to stay long. We are just getting what we need and getting out,» said Kiyoshi Kitajima, an X-ray technician, who dashed to his hospital in Futaba, a town next-door to the plant, to collect equipment before the order took effect at midnight. Nearly 80,000 people were hurriedly evacuated from a 12-mile (20-kilometer) zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant on March 12, after an earthquake and a tsunami destroyed its power and cooling systems. The evacuation order had no teeth, and people began increasingly returning to check on the remains of their lives. Some had stayed all along. -- SPA
