9 people killed in Japan earthquake
Print Edition
AFTERSHOCKS rattled southwestern Japan yesterday after a strong earthquake the night before killed nine people, injured at least 1,000 and cut power and water across the region, forcing the temporary shutdown of several factories.
By afternoon, more than 130 aftershocks had hit the area around the city of Kumamoto in the wake of the magnitude 6.4 quake on Thursday night. Officials said the frequency was tapering off but the risk of further strong aftershocks will remain for about a week.
While the size of the initial tremor was much lower than the magnitude 9 quake that struck on March 11, 2011, starting a massive tsunami and nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, the intensity was similar because it struck on land and at a much shallower depth.
“We managed to huddle into a space, that’s why we were saved,” a man told NHK national television after he and his family were rescued from their collapsed house two hours after the quake hit.
“We’re all safe, that’s what counts.”
More than 44,000 people initially fled to schools and community centers, some spending the night outside after the first quake hit about 9:30pm. Roads cracked, houses crumbled, and tiles cascaded from the roof of the 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle in the heart of the city.
Among those pulled from the wreckage was an eight-month-old baby girl, wrapped in a blanket and passed hand to hand by firefighters. Several hospitals had to evacuate patients.
Japanese stocks ended down 0.4 percent, with the impact of the quake limited to shares in regional firms whose business might be directly affected, while several manufacturing companies, including Honda, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric and tire maker Bridgestone, suspended operations at factories in the area.
More than 3,000 troops, police and firemen were dispatched to the area from around Japan, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said more would be sent if needed.
Most of the dead came from Mashiki, a town of about 34,000 people near the epicenter of the quake, where firefighters battled a blaze late on Thursday. Daylight showed splintered houses under tiled roofs and an apartment building whose ground floor was pulverized, where two people died.
“I want to go home, but we couldn’t do anything there,” a boy at an evacuation center told TBS television as he bounced a baby in his arms.
Though the intensity of Thursday’s quake on the Japanese scale matched that of the March 2011 quake that left nearly 20,000 dead, the absence of a tsunami helped keep the death toll down.
Service on the Shinkansen superfast train in Kyushu was halted after a train derailed, and highways were closed after some sections collapsed. About 12,200 households were without electricity as of noon yesterday, while 58,000 lacked water.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said there were no irregularities at three nuclear plants on the southern major island of Kyushu and nearby Shikoku.
The 2011 quake temporarily crippled part of Japan’s auto supply chain, but some companies have since adjusted the industry’s “Just in Time” production philosophy in a bid to limit any repeat of the costly disruption.
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