A month on, and another quake hits
Source: Agencies |
April 12, 2011, Tuesday
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A STRONG new earthquake rattled Japan's northeast yesterday, killing at least two people and knocking out power to 220,000 households.
The 7.0-magnitude aftershock came just hours after residents bowed their heads and wept in ceremonies to mark a month since the massive earthquake and tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off radiation leaks at a nuclear plant.
Officials said yesterday's aftershock did not endanger operations at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, where power was cut but quickly restored.
The epicenter was just inland and about 160 kilometers north of Tokyo.
But a nuclear safety official said repeated strong aftershocks - another large quake hit last Thursday - were slowing work at the plant, and said that if one of them were to spawn a tsunami, the complex would be just as vulnerable as on March 11.
"At the moment, no tsunami resistance has been added to the plant. At the moment, there is nothing we can do about it," said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
The latest quake spooked people yet again in a disaster-weary northeastern Japan. Customers in a large electronics store in Sendai screamed and ran outside and mothers grabbed their children.
In Iwaki, a city close to the quake's epicenter, three houses collapsed and up to seven people were believed trapped. A 16-year-old girl was found dead inside, according to a police official. Three other people were rescued.
With workers still far from bringing the nuclear Dai-ichi plant under control, the bodies of thousands of tsunami victims yet to be found and more than 150,000 people living in shelters, there was little time yesterday for reflection on Japan's worst disaster since World War II.
People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46pm, the exact time of the massive quake hit a month before.
Suffering
"My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this disaster has caused the people of our prefecture," said Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima, which saw its coastal areas devastated by the tsunami and is home to the damaged plant. "I have no words to express my sorrow."
In a devastated coastal neighborhood in the city of Natori, three dozen firefighters and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead. Earlier, four monks rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for those killed.
The noisy clatter of construction equipment ceased briefly as crane operators stood outside their vehicles and bowed their heads.
At TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, hundreds of employees bowed their heads in silence.
Japan's government marked the one-month period by putting an ad in newspapers across the world - a letter from Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanking people for the outpouring of support that followed the tsunami.
The 7.0-magnitude aftershock came just hours after residents bowed their heads and wept in ceremonies to mark a month since the massive earthquake and tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off radiation leaks at a nuclear plant.
Officials said yesterday's aftershock did not endanger operations at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, where power was cut but quickly restored.
The epicenter was just inland and about 160 kilometers north of Tokyo.
But a nuclear safety official said repeated strong aftershocks - another large quake hit last Thursday - were slowing work at the plant, and said that if one of them were to spawn a tsunami, the complex would be just as vulnerable as on March 11.
"At the moment, no tsunami resistance has been added to the plant. At the moment, there is nothing we can do about it," said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
The latest quake spooked people yet again in a disaster-weary northeastern Japan. Customers in a large electronics store in Sendai screamed and ran outside and mothers grabbed their children.
In Iwaki, a city close to the quake's epicenter, three houses collapsed and up to seven people were believed trapped. A 16-year-old girl was found dead inside, according to a police official. Three other people were rescued.
With workers still far from bringing the nuclear Dai-ichi plant under control, the bodies of thousands of tsunami victims yet to be found and more than 150,000 people living in shelters, there was little time yesterday for reflection on Japan's worst disaster since World War II.
People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46pm, the exact time of the massive quake hit a month before.
Suffering
"My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this disaster has caused the people of our prefecture," said Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima, which saw its coastal areas devastated by the tsunami and is home to the damaged plant. "I have no words to express my sorrow."
In a devastated coastal neighborhood in the city of Natori, three dozen firefighters and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead. Earlier, four monks rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for those killed.
The noisy clatter of construction equipment ceased briefly as crane operators stood outside their vehicles and bowed their heads.
At TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, hundreds of employees bowed their heads in silence.
Japan's government marked the one-month period by putting an ad in newspapers across the world - a letter from Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanking people for the outpouring of support that followed the tsunami.
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