KUAM-TV

Chad Ryan Desoto, 21, was held on $2 million bail on multiple murder and assault charges in the attack Tuesday, Feb. 12.

Two Japanese women were killed and 12 other people were injured when a man drove his car into a crowd in the center of Guam's tourist district and then began stabbing people at random, police said.

Court documents allege that Chad Ryan Desoto, 21, of Tamuning told police that he was intent on "hurting as many people with his vehicle initially and subsequently with his knife" in the attack late Tuesday in Tumong Bay — a major tourist attraction on the west coast of the Pacific island, which is a U.S. territory.

Desoto was held on $2 million bail Wednesday after a hearing on two counts of aggravated murder and nine other felony charges. 

All of the 14 victims but one were believed to be Japanese tourists, NBC station KUAM reported. The other was a young woman who was a high school classmate of Desoto's, police said.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry identified the dead as Rie Sugiyama, 29, and Kazuko Uehara, 81, who were stabbed. Other stabbing victims included an 8-month-old Japanese boy. 

Court documents allege that Desoto plowed through the crowd onto a sidewalk before he crashed into a store in the same complex as the famous beachside Outrigger Guam Resort. He then got out and began stabbing people randomly, authorities said in the documents.

Witnesses described a surreal scene like something in an action movie.

A.J. Smith, a Tamuning ophthalmologist, told The Pacific Daily News that about 30 seconds after the car crashed into the store, the driver jumped out with two or three knives and attacked the crowd.

"Everybody that was in the immediate area froze. Those of us farther back, we ran," Smith said. "We were so freaked out."

Kevin Quinata, who had just reported for work at the resort hotel, told KUAM: "There was blood already all over the people, so I ran and got some towels and ran back out. By the time I came back out, they had already subdued him, and it was ugly."

Guam Memorial Hospital cleared its emergency room for the influx of patients and put out a call for supplies Tuesday night, Joseph Verga, the hospital's chief executive, told KUAM. Japanese translators were brought in to help doctors communicate with the patients.

The Guam Visitors Bureau called an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss the potential impact to Guam's tourist industry, which generates $1.35 billion a year, making it the island's largest source of non-government revenue, according to the latest figures from the Guam Economic Development Authority.

"It's particularly hard-hitting because Guam is actually well-known as perhaps the safest destination in the entire region," Mark Baldyga, chairman of the visitors bureau, told reporters Wednesday.

Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo also sought to allay safety concerns, telling reporters that he had been in communication with the Japanese consulate and issuing a statement that said, "Guam values its long-term relationship with the Japanese people and we promise you that we are committed to ensuring the safety of all visitors."

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U.S. Coast Guard

A dock is seen washed up on a beach at Washington's Olympic National Park on Tuesday.

Officials on Wednesday were figuring out how to reach and then examine a massive dock that made landfall on a remote, rugged beach in Washington state. First sighted six days ago, the dock wasn't spotted again until Tuesday afternoon when a Coast Guard helicopter crew located it.

"They were out in challenging conditions looking for a needle in a haystack, and they found it," Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a statement.

The next step is to reach the site "to evaluate the massive dock for any potential invasive aquatic species that may have 'hitchhiked' while it was drifting in the ocean, to evaluate the dock’s origins, and to develop a response," Washington's Marine Debris Task Force stated.

The dock is sitting on a rocky beach inside Olympic National Park, between La Push and the mouth of the Hoh River. Officials will determine the size of the dock once they reach it.

Crew aboard the "Lady Nancy" fishing boat first sent the Coast Guard a photograph of the dock on Friday, saying it was taken about 16 nautical miles northwest of Grays Harbor, Wash.

It is not known yet whether the dock is from Japan's 2011 tsunami, but one similar to it washed ashore in Oregon last June. That 66-foot-long dock is the largest tsunami item to have made it to the West Coast so far.

Another dock was seen off Oahu, Hawaii, in September but it is also not known if that is the same one that washed ashore Tuesday.

Japan estimates the tsunami swept about 5 million tons of debris into the Pacific, and that two-thirds of that sank quickly. Some of the remaining 1.5 million tons are heading for West Coast shores.

Through Last Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had received 1,432 debris reports, of which 17 were confirmed as definite tsunami debris.

NOAA asked that anyone sighting any large marine debris report it to DisasterDebris@noaa.gov. 

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U.S. Coast Guard

What looks like a large dock is seen in a photo provided to the U.S. Coast Guard by crew of the "Lady Nancy" fishing vessel on Friday, Dec. 14.

The Coast Guard was on the lookout Tuesday for a mysterious object that could be the second dock to make landfall from Japan’s tsunami. 

Reported five days ago by a fishing crew, the object hasn't been seen again even though the U.S. Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are looking hard.

"The dock hasn't been located again since the initial report," NOAA spokeswoman Keeley Belva told NBC News. "We have been doing trajectory models, but given that the first sighting was several days ago, it becomes increasingly challenging to anticipate where and when the dock may show up."

Crew aboard the "Lady Nancy" sent the U.S. Coast Guard a photograph of the object, saying it was taken about 16 nautical miles northwest of Grays Harbor, Wash.

The Coast Guard said Monday it was broadcasting an alert to mariners but that after five helicopter searches covering 317 square miles it hadn't spotted the flat, dark object.

"There could be many factors in why it hasn't been seen," Belva said when asked if it might have sunk. "The weather has been pretty stormy and the seas have been rough. As you can see from the picture, it is hard to see even in better conditions."

The photo shows an object similar to a Japanese dock that washed ashore in Oregon last June. The 66-foot-long dock is the largest tsunami item to have made it to the West Coast.

Another dock was seen off Oahu, Hawaii, in September but Belva said it wasn't known if that was Friday's sighting.

Japan estimates the 2011 tsunami swept about 5 million tons of debris into the Pacific, and that two-thirds of that sank quickly. Some of the remaining 1.5 million tons are heading for West Coast shores.

Through Last Thursday, NOAA said it had received 1,432 debris reports, of which 17 have been confirmed as definite tsunami debris.

NOAA asked that anyone sighting the new object or any other large debris report it to DisasterDebris@noaa.gov. 

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Officials within the U.S. military are actively targeting over-boozing troops at home and abroad, but addiction specialists and service members say binge drinking remains as rampant as ever inside the armed services.

Among the new initiatives to stem the problem: The Marines, starting next year, will give random breathalyzer tests to Corps members; the Air Force and Army curbed some overnight liquor sales for U.S. military personnel in Germany; and American service members in Japan were barred from leaving their residences after consuming more than one adult beverage.

The restrictions seem to have been independently created by brass within each branch — for example, the new rules for service members in Japan follow the October sexual assault of an Okinawa woman allegedly carried out by two U.S. sailors. Still, the fresh regulations arise three months after a study commissioned by the Department of Defense found that binge drinking by active-duty troops now constitutes "a public health crisis," noting as well that drunken soldiers were cited as a problem as far back as the Revolutionary War.

"But we can do better," said Dr. Charles P. O’Brien, chairman of the panel that authored the report and director of the Center for Studies of Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania. "We have a lot of research, a lot of medication, and a lot of techniques that have been developed over the years. We don’t have to be stuck in the old ways of handling things.

"We found, though, that in the whole Army, there’s only one doctor who's trained in addiction medicine. This is a specialty where we need more people and they're not there. So, most people are not getting treated with evidence-based medicine," O'Brien told NBC News. The study was issued by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Medicine.

Worse, O'Brien said he has learned — from emails he received in recent days from active-duty personnel — that one of the study's most simple suggestions has not been implemented: that the military's health system, TRICARE, alter its rules and allow substance-abusing service members to be treated with anti-addiction medications like Suboxone.  

"We met a general who is on Suboxone but they (military doctors) are not letting other people have it," O'Brien said. "It's ridiculous ... When we briefed (military leaders in September), they expressed interest in following our recommendations. But, so far, I don't have any concrete evidence that anything has happened." 

NBC News asked the Department of Defense to list which, if any, of the panel's recommendations have been installed to date. 

"The Department of Defense appreciates the hard work of the Institute of Medicine in assessing substance abuse programs and policies in the Military Health System," Cynthia O. Smith, a DoD spokeswoman, responded in an email. "We are in the process of analyzing their findings and recommendations, but most importantly, we want to do the right thing for the Service member. If there are areas in need of improvement, then we will work to improve those areas. The health and well-being of our Service members is paramount."

Click here for more military-related coverage from NBC News.

The agency has a stated policy to "prevent and eliminate drug and alcohol abuse and dependence from the Department of Defense." The U.S. military, therefore, screens for problem drinking, provides treatment for those identified with alcohol or drug problems, and is working to "change attitudes toward binge drinking," Smith said, adding that "such abuse and dependence are incompatible with readiness, the maintenance of high standards of performance, and military discipline."

Indeed, in its analysis of boozing on military bases, the Institute of Medicine found that 47 percent of active-duty personnel engaged in binge drinking during 2008 (the most recent year for which data was available), and the authors concluded the use of alcohol and other drugs are "currently at unacceptably high levels," making it "detrimental to readiness and total force fitness." 

Military members like Marine Sgt. Thomas Brennan, who joined in 2004 and who later served in Iraq and Afghanistan, describe drinking as a staple of life in uniform. He knows of several recent drunken-driving arrests involving his Marine buddies or his former unit members, he said.  

"With the amount of recreational drinking that goes on, it’s like peer pressure times 10," said Brennan, 27. "Everybody’s drinking. The Marine Corps is a brotherhood. You want to be part of that brotherhood, and your brothers are doing it. Nobody forces you to do it but the inclination to do it is pretty strong.”

In a New York Times blog published in October, Brennan wrote that the "golden rule" among Marine officers and non-commissioned officers seems to be: "If you’re going to partake, do so behind closed doors and keep your mouth shut about it. I have heard many leaders tell under-age Marines that if they were going to drink that they should keep their doors locked and be smart about it. Only when they were caught were they told not to do it."

“I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that over the years," Brennan told NBC News on Monday. "I wasn’t perfect either. I let it go on.”

The September study on alcohol abuse within the military also chastised the armed services for allowing "ready access to relatively inexpensive alcohol on military bases." 

At Camp Lejeune, where Brennan was stationed, convenience stores contain large refrigerators stocked with domestic and imported beers, sold tax free. A six-pack of Stroh's, for example, costs about $4, he said.

On base, Marines also can purchase "Military Special" liquors, a cut-rate brand of liquor, including vodka and whiskey, that goes for about $6.50 per liter. At AR15.com, a firearms website popular with military members, one commenter described Military Special booze as: "No good for sipping, but for shots it works;" another said: "I am not sure I would clean battery terminals with that crap." 

One combat-related factor exacerbating the overindulgence of alcohol is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In September, the Institute of Medicine reported that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans diagnosed with PTSD have alcohol-abuse rates that are twice as high as those found among civilian young adult males.

Brennan was diagnosed with PTSD and said that self-medicating with alcohol caused him to suffer a "short-lived drinking problem" after he returned from Iraq.  

"You’re already depressed because of the PTSD. Alcohol’s a depressant. A lot of guys with PTSD just got angry (when they drank) and did dumb stuff, like fighting," Brennan said in a phone interview. "We had one guy throw his refrigerator off the third deck one night when he was drinking. But I don’t know if that was PTSD, or just him being a crazy drunk."

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Two U.S. Navy petty officers are in custody in Okinawa in the alleged sexual assault and robbery of a Japanese woman in an incident that could further inflame anti-American sentiment on the strategic Japanese island.

The two sailors followed a 27-year-old woman to her apartment complex where they allegedly raped and robbed her in the parking lot about 4 a.m. Tuesday, authorities in Japan said.  A third sailor who reportedly witnessed the assault was taken into custody by Japanese police and later released to the U.S. Navy, according to NBC News.

The sailors were identified as Seaman Christopher Browning and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker, both 23, of the Fort Worth Naval Air Station in Texas, The Associated Press reported.

According to Japan broadcaster NHK World, the woman told police that she was walking home when she was attacked. She said she did not know the men. She suffered a neck injury.

Under the terms of a Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Japan, Japanese authorities have jurisdiction and the authority to charge and bring the accused to trial. If convicted, the men could also be imprisoned by the Japanese.

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The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS, is conducting a parallel investigation alongside the Japanese in the event the two accused are released to U.S. Navy custody.

The two sailors in custody were on overnight leave and crewmembers on a U.S. Navy cargo plane that was in Okinawa for only a day or two while on a delivery mission, officials told NBC News.

Okinawa prefecture spokesman Susumu Matayoshi said the alleged rape “shocked all Okinawans and is unforgivable,” the AP reported.

Vice Foreign Minister Shuji Kira lodged a protest with U.S. Ambassador John Roos, who promised full cooperation with the investigation, according to the AP.

Okinawa hosts more than half of the nearly 50,000 American troops in Japan. Local opposition to the U.S. bases over noise, safety concerns and crime flared into mass protests after the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three American servicemen.

Many Japanese want to see the U.S. airbase moved off the island chain.

NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this report.

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Larry Downing / AFP - Getty Images

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, center, disembarks from his aircraft after arriving at US Yokota air base in Japan on Sunday.

TOKYO -- U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to put a second defense system in Japan aimed at protecting the country from the threat of a missile attack from North Korea, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.

The exact location of the radar installation has not yet been determined. It will be in the south of the country, U.S. officials said, but not in Okinawa.

Officials stressed that the system would be aimed at protecting the region against the threat from North Korea and is not directed at China.

The U.S. already has similar early warning radar systems on ships in the Asia-Pacific.

This second Japan-based system will allow the U.S. vessels to spread out and cover other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China seas

Panetta said the new installation would also be effective in protecting the U.S. homeland from a North Korea threat. He spoke during a press conference in Tokyo with the Japanese defense minister, Satoshi Morimoto.

Morimoto said it would not be appropriate at this time to specify a location for the new radar, and said a date for its deployment has not yet been set.

While officials insisted the radar system would not be aimed at China, the decision was sure to raise the ire of Beijing.

More China coverage on our Behind the Wall blog

The radar will "enhance our ability to defend Japan," Panetta said, adding that he would talk to Chinese leaders about the system to assure them that this about protecting the U.S. and the region from North Korea's missile threat.

"We have made these concerns clear to the Chinese," he said. "For that reason ... we believe it is very important to move ahead" with the radar system.

More North Korea coverage from NBCNews.com

North Korea has long been trying to build a nuclear arsenal, has also been working on a ballistic missile which would be able to reach the U.S. mainland. However, its long-range rocket tests have to date all failed.

Slideshow: Journey into North Korea

David Guttenfelder / AP

In this March 9, 2011 photo, a girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Launch slideshow

Japan has worked closely with the U.S. for several years on missile defense, and has both land- and sea-based missile launchers.

North Korea's ballistic missiles are considered a threat to security in the Asia-Pacific region because of the risk of conflict erupting on the divided and heavily militarized Korean peninsula, and because of the secretive North's nuclear weapons program.

The long-range rockets it is developing have been test-fired over Japan and could potentially reach the U.S.

The North conducted its latest long-range rocket launch in April, defying a U.N. ban. Pyongyang said the launch was intended to send an observation satellite into space but it drew international condemnation as the rocket technology is similar to that used for ballistic missiles.

Slideshow: Daily life in North Korea

Elizabeth Dalziel / AP

From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.

Launch slideshow

The launch was a failure and the rocket disintegrated shortly after takeoff.

Panetta is on his third trip to Asia in 11 months, reflecting the Pentagon's ongoing shift to put more military focus on the Asia-Pacific.

Territorial disputes
The defense chief is urging countries involved in territorial disputes in the region to find a way to peacefully resolve those problems before they spark provocations and violence.

Panetta's visit to Japan also included discussions with Morimoto about the deployment of V-22 Ospreys to the southwestern island of Okinawa. Tens of thousands of people have protested the hybrid aircraft's planned use, saying they are unsafe.

Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong ll

Kcna / AFP - Getty Images

A pictorial look at the North Korean leader through the years

Launch slideshow

The U.S. had hoped to have the aircraft in place as early as next month, but Morimoto said no specific date has been set on that matter, either.

The Pentagon plans to deploy 12 of the aircraft, which take off and land like a helicopter, but fly like a plane. U.S. officials have assured Japanese leaders the Ospreys are safe.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Thousands of volunteers were taking to West Coast beaches on Saturday for the 27th annual "Coastal Cleanup", and this year they have new instructions: keep an eye out for any Japanese tsunami debris.

Ocean Conservancy

This flyer is being handed out Saturday along West Coast beaches.

"DO NOT touch or attempt to remove any potentially hazardous materials or large debris items," states a field guide prepared by Ocean Conservancy, which organizes the annual, and international, beach event. 

Instead, volunteers are urged to call 911 if it's an immediate danger, or the federal tsunami removal program by e-mailing information to disasterdebris@noaa.gov. 

The group also hopes to total up any tsunami debris found, marking those "in the 'Items of Local Concern' section — so we can compare data collected this year to historical numbers," Katie Cline, a spokeswoman for Ocean Conservancy, told NBC News. "Will we see a difference in the type of debris found? This is a question we hope to determine using the data."

Already this year, several large items from Japan's 2011 tsunami have landed on West Coast beaches — among them a boat found on Canada's Spring Island, northwest of Vancouver Island, in August; a 66-foot-long floating dock that washed onto an Oregon beach in June; and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle found on Canada's Graham Island in April. 

Japan estimates 5 million tons of debris was swept out to sea by the tsunami, and about 1.5 million tons of that is likely still in the Pacific Ocean.

Even without tsunami debris, cleanup volunteers are likely to be busy on Saturday.

Last year, nearly 600,000 people picked up more than 9 million pounds of trash during the cleanup held on 20,000 miles of beaches around the world, Ocean Conservancy said.

"We need more volunteers than ever," David Pittenger, who runs the group's trash program, said in a statement announcing this year's effort. "Last year, volunteers found enough food packaging to get takeout for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for the next 858 years."

Other items disposed of last year included 267,000 articles of clothing and more than 24,000 light bulbs, the conservation group noted.

One community that already knows what it will be cleaning up Saturday is Encinitas, Calif., where decades-old vehicle parts and other junk were recently found in the water of a protected lagoon, NBCSanDiego.com reported.

To see where cleanups are being held Saturday around the world, check out the interactive map created by Ocean Conservancy at signuptocleanup.org. 

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NASA

This satellite-based image shows Super Typhoon Sanba in the Philippine Sea on Thursday.

A storm packing 145 mph winds was bearing down on the southern end of Japan's Okinawa Island, where locals and U.S. military personnel were quickly stocking up and battening down. 

Typhoon Sanba had winds equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. (Named storms west of the international dateline in the Northwest Pacific Ocean are called typhoons, not hurricanes.)

Earlier Friday, Sanba's winds had reached 178 mph, making it a "super typhoon" in the jargon of meteorologists. That was the equivalent of a top-rated Category 5 hurricane.

After swiping southern Okinawa this weekend, Sanba is projected to make landfall in South Korea with winds still around 100 mph.

"The center will pass close to Okinawa this weekend and then Sanba, in a less-intense but still potent state, is expected to reach South Korea Sunday night or Monday," weather.com reported.

On Okinawa, the Stars and Stripes news website for U.S. military personnel was reporting that military commissaries were packed with people buying food and emergency supplies.

"We’re already seeing/feeling Super Typhoon Sanba’s most outer bands," the report stated. "If it’s sitting outside the garage, put it inside. If the garage door is still open, shut it. If the trampoline is still up, take it down."

Kadena Air Base, with 18,000 servicemen, is the U.S. facility closest to Sanba and should see winds around 60 mph.

Up to a foot of rain was forecast for the area and satellite data shows that some of Sanba's bands were dumping 3 inches of rain an hour, NASA said in a statement.

Related: Ahead of typhoon, China ships approach islands claimed by Japan

Some 80,000 U.S. citizens are on Okinawa, nearly 30,000 of them U.S. military personnel. Okinawa's total population is some 1.3 million people. 

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Oregon Parks And Recreation Dept / AP file

Mitch Vance, left, and Steve Rumrill, with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, inspect the bottom of a section of the Japanese dock that washed up on Agate Beach in Newport, Ore. in early August.

The Japanese man’s request wasn’t unreasonable. After all, Japan’s tsunami had already swept a Harley-Davidson and a 66-foot concrete dock to U.S. and Canadian shores.

Still, the mayor of a small Washington state city told The Daily World newspaper that he was surprised when he received a postcard from a 77-year-old man in Japan asking him to look out for items he lost in the tsunami a year and a half ago.

“This man felt compelled to write us, looking for what he lost,” Mayor Bill Simpson told The Daily World, based in Aberdeen, Wash. Aberdeen, a working-class coastal town known as the birthplace of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, welcomes visitors with a sign that reads, “Come As You Are.”

The postcard was addressed simply, in impeccable cursive, to the mayor’s office in Aberdeen. The letter writer, named Mr. Saito, hails from the Sapporo ward, which is 300 miles north of the epicenter of the 8.9 earthquake that devastated parts of Japan in March 2011.

Mr. Saito wrote the mayor that he had lost his “collected surveyed amounts’ library cards.”

“To your seashore areas, have you been observing the floated materials?” Mr. Saito asked. “If you find some, please let me know any news.”

Harley-Davidson motorcycle swept away by Japan tsunami to be preserved in museum

In Washington state, the Department of Ecology estimates that 5 million tons of debris was swept into the Pacific Ocean -– 70 percent of which immediately sank.

That still leaves 1.5 million tons, most of it mundane plastic, Styrofoam and junked refrigerators. The Daily World reported that garbage from one cleanup effort in June filled the beds of 70 pickup trucks.

The Guardian of London reported that a research vessel that journeyed into the debris this summer returned predicting that it was bound for the West Coast. The garbage plume was dispersed and measured between 1,000 and 2,000 miles wide.

Rachel La Corte / AP file

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, right, listens as Lynn Albin of the Department of Health describes the Geiger counter readings she's getting from a piece of Styrofoam found on the beach in Ocean Shores, Wash. in June. Officials say that there has been no radiation detected from items that have washed ashore.

There have been remarkable finds, such as a 20-foot fiberglass boat that washed ashore in Washington, the motorcycle still in its crate from the Miyagi prefecture, the ghost ship that appeared, unmanned and unmoored, off the coast of Alaska. A soccer ball belonging to a teenager whose family had lost everything arrived in Alaska. The ball, on which was written the 16-year-old’s name, had been a gift from his teacher and his classmates when he switched schools seven years ago.

Rachel La Corte / AP

Common marine debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami include plastic and Styrofoam.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Agency is collecting data on the debris; the agency website says that radiation experts do not believe the debris is radioactive.

There’s more debris to come, according to The New York Times; oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer said he expects most of the debris to make landfall in October.

What washes ashore may also serve as a grim reminder of the 3,000 people who went missing in the tsunami, Ebbesmeyer said at a symposium in Port Angeles, Wash., according to the Peninsula Daily News.

“We’re expecting 100 sneakers with bones in them,” he said. “That may be the only remains that a Japanese family is ever going to have of their people that were lost.”

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National Park Service / AP

Crews search for four Japanese climbers on Alaska's Mount McKinley on Saturday.

Crews have suspended efforts to recover the bodies of four Japanese climbers killed in an avalanche on Alaska's Mount McKinley, the National Park Service said Sunday.

A two-day ground search of the debris path from the avalanche turned up clues Saturday indicating the likely location of four deceased climbers, a Denali National Park spokeswoman said.

A mountaineering ranger lowered himself into the same crevasse that the party's one survivor fell into. The ranger probed through avalanche debris 100 feet beneath the glacier's surface and found a broken rope that matched that of the Japanese team. He began to dig further, but encountered heavily compacted ice and snow debris.

"Due to the danger of ice fall within the crevasse, it was decided to permanently suspend the recovery efforts," the park service said in a press release.  

Rangers also now say that the avalanche, which happened at approximately 11,800 feet on the West Buttress, occurred early Wednesday morning, not Thursday. The lone survivor, 69-year-old Hitoshi Ogi, reached a base camp to report the avalanche Thursday afternoon. He suffered only a minor hand injury.

The climbers were part of a five-member Miyagi Workers Alpine Federation expedition. All were from the Miyagi Prefecture in Japan, the park service said.

Those killed were identified as Yoshiaki Kato, 64; Masako Suda, 50; Michiko Suzuki, 56; and Tamao Suzuki, 63.

National Park Service / Reuters

A rescue worker and dog search the debris field from the deadly avalanche.

The climbers -- three men and two women -- were descending and roped together at the time of the accident. Ogi was the last person on the rope, and thus was the closest to the surface when the team fell into the crevasse, said park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin.

Mount McKinley, also referred to as Denali, is the tallest peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,320 feet. The McKinley climbing season runs from late April until early July. Typically, 1,200 to 1,300 people attempt the peak each season.

There have six climbing fatalities on McKinley this season, according to the park service. Since 1932, a total of 120 climbers have perished on the mountain, 12 due to avalanches. This week's four avalanche fatalities were the first to occur on the popular West Buttress route.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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