Japan struck by new wave of anxiety
Source: Agencies |
April 9, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
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SHOPPERS emptied store shelves, traffic snarled with stoplights knocked out and drivers waited in long lines to buy gasoline in a new wave of anxiety yesterday after a 7.1-magnitude aftershock struck disaster-weary northeastern Japan.
Nearly half a million homes were without electricity after the latest tremor, which dealt another setback to those struggling to recover from the earthquake-spawned tsunami that wiped out hundreds of miles of the northeastern coast last month and killed as many as 25,000 people.
"I feel helpless. I am back to square one," said Ryoichi Kubo, 52, who had just reopened his gas station in hard-hit Iwate Prefecture after the power outage and prolonged fuel shortage that followed the March 11 tsunami. Yesterday, he was again without electricity, his four gas pumps shut down.
Three people died and more than 130 were injured in Thursday's aftershock, the worst since the day of the massive 9.0-magnitude quake. The latest tremor largely spared the nation's nuclear power plants and there were no signs of fresh problems at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which has been spewing radiation since it was swamped by the tsunami.
Gasoline scarce
Much of northern Japan still had no power yesterday, including areas far inland, and homes were without gas and water. Gasoline was scarce.
Convenience stores sold out of basics like water and snack foods, and supermarkets switched back to rationing purchases.
In Ichinoseki, 390 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, lines of 30 or more people formed outside the Marue supermarket when it opened at 9am. Each customer was escorted through the aisles by an employee with a flashlight and a pad, who jotted down the price of each item.
About 450,000 households were still without electricity by last night, said Souta Nozu, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power Co, which serves northern Japan.
Several nuclear power plants switched to diesel generators when the aftershock hit but were reconnected to the grid by yesterday afternoon.
One plant north of Sendai briefly lost the ability to cool its spent fuel pools, but quickly got it back.
Several diesel generators had problems, though they did appear to have caused any disruptions to key cooling systems.
Cause of death
At a plant in Onagawa, some radioactive water splashed out of the pools but did not leave a containment building, Tohoku Electric said.
Those killed by Thursday's quake were a 79-year-old man who died of shock, a woman in her 60s who lost power to her oxygen tank, and an 85-year-old man whose cause of death was not specified.
Many bodies from last month's tsunami still have not been found, and many were probably swept out to sea and never will be. But as radiation from Fukushima Dai-ichi has dropped, police have fanned out to look for those who may have died inland.
Hundreds of police, many mobilized from Tokyo, using their hands or small shovels, pulled out four bodies in an hour from one small area in the city of Minami Soma. They found five bodies the previous day.
The searchers, wearing white protective suits and blue gloves, struggled to bring the remains across the rubble to vans and minibuses that would take them to the nearest morgue. Each body was carefully hosed off to rid it of radiation.
"The area is literally a mountain of debris. It is an extremely difficult task," said a police official.
Nearly half a million homes were without electricity after the latest tremor, which dealt another setback to those struggling to recover from the earthquake-spawned tsunami that wiped out hundreds of miles of the northeastern coast last month and killed as many as 25,000 people.
"I feel helpless. I am back to square one," said Ryoichi Kubo, 52, who had just reopened his gas station in hard-hit Iwate Prefecture after the power outage and prolonged fuel shortage that followed the March 11 tsunami. Yesterday, he was again without electricity, his four gas pumps shut down.
Three people died and more than 130 were injured in Thursday's aftershock, the worst since the day of the massive 9.0-magnitude quake. The latest tremor largely spared the nation's nuclear power plants and there were no signs of fresh problems at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which has been spewing radiation since it was swamped by the tsunami.
Gasoline scarce
Much of northern Japan still had no power yesterday, including areas far inland, and homes were without gas and water. Gasoline was scarce.
Convenience stores sold out of basics like water and snack foods, and supermarkets switched back to rationing purchases.
In Ichinoseki, 390 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, lines of 30 or more people formed outside the Marue supermarket when it opened at 9am. Each customer was escorted through the aisles by an employee with a flashlight and a pad, who jotted down the price of each item.
About 450,000 households were still without electricity by last night, said Souta Nozu, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power Co, which serves northern Japan.
Several nuclear power plants switched to diesel generators when the aftershock hit but were reconnected to the grid by yesterday afternoon.
One plant north of Sendai briefly lost the ability to cool its spent fuel pools, but quickly got it back.
Several diesel generators had problems, though they did appear to have caused any disruptions to key cooling systems.
Cause of death
At a plant in Onagawa, some radioactive water splashed out of the pools but did not leave a containment building, Tohoku Electric said.
Those killed by Thursday's quake were a 79-year-old man who died of shock, a woman in her 60s who lost power to her oxygen tank, and an 85-year-old man whose cause of death was not specified.
Many bodies from last month's tsunami still have not been found, and many were probably swept out to sea and never will be. But as radiation from Fukushima Dai-ichi has dropped, police have fanned out to look for those who may have died inland.
Hundreds of police, many mobilized from Tokyo, using their hands or small shovels, pulled out four bodies in an hour from one small area in the city of Minami Soma. They found five bodies the previous day.
The searchers, wearing white protective suits and blue gloves, struggled to bring the remains across the rubble to vans and minibuses that would take them to the nearest morgue. Each body was carefully hosed off to rid it of radiation.
"The area is literally a mountain of debris. It is an extremely difficult task," said a police official.
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