Several other nuclear power plants in the area have lost external power and are relying on backup generators, said a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) at a press conference currently in progress.
They chalked up their problems in the New York area to devastating flooding that, in addition to knocking out power, disabled backup generators and disrupted the underground cables that carry calls, texts and Web searches from cell towers back to the main networks.
The company nonetheless chose to build a nuclear reactor directly on the coastline and to site all of their backup generators in a location that they should have known would be placed at risk if the area were hit by a 20 foot tall tsunami.