The massive earthquake topples telephone poles. Exchanges burn to the ground. Communications facilities are silenced, and the Tokyo-Yokohama region is cut off from the world. The world learns of the disaster and appeals for help when a ship moored at Yokohama sends a wireless transmission that is received by stations in Choshi and Wakayama. The news is sent from the Iwaki radio terminal to Honolulu, is also picked up in San Francisco and then is reported in U.S. newspapers. Relief supplies are sent from all over the world and play a major role in the recovery effort.