At first, it was 2011 all over again.
“It really came back. And it was so awful. The sways to the side were huge,” Kazuhiro Onuki said after northeastern Japan was jolted by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake yesterday, the strongest since a devastating quake and tsunami five years ago.
“But nothing fell from the shelves,” Onuki, 68, said in a phone interview, his voice calm and quiet.
Photo: AP
Coastal residents returned home from higher ground and fishing boats to port, after tsunami warnings were lifted along Japan’s Pacific coast. The earthquake gave Tokyo — 240km away — a good shake, but was much less powerful than the magnitude 9 quake in 2011, and only moderate tsunami waves reached shore.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which leaked radiation for kilometers after the 2011 tsunami, reported no abnormalities. Decommissioning work on the destroyed reactors was suspended and the site inspected.
At least 14 people were reported injured, three with broken bones, and Japanese TV showed items scattered on the floor in a store and books fallen from shelves in a library.
On the coast, lines of cars snaked away in the pre-dawn darkness after authorities urged residents to seek higher ground immediately.
The first tsunami waves hit about an hour later. The highest one, at 1.4m, reached Sendai Bay about two hours after the quake. By comparison, the waves in 2011 were 10m to 20m high.
The evacuation appeared to proceed calmly.
It was the largest earthquake in northeastern Japan since the one in 2011 and some large aftershocks the same day.
The US Geological Survey measured Tuesday’s quake at a lower magnitude 6.9.
The Japan Meteorological Agency described it as an aftershock of the 2011 quake, which triggered tsunami that killed about 18,000 people and wiped out entire neighborhoods.
“Aftershocks could continue not only for five years, but as long as 100 years,” Kyoto University seismologist Yasuhiro Umeda said on Japanese broadcaster NTV.
In some areas, water could be seen moving up rivers, which funnel the waves to even greater heights, but remained well within flood embankments.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the utility that operates the Fukushima plant, said a swelling of the tide of up to 1m was detected offshore.
The plant is being decommissioned after 2011 tsunami sent three of its reactors into meltdown, but the site remains at risk as the utility figures out how to remove still-radioactive fuel rods and debris and what to do with the melted reactor cores.
TEPCO said a pump that supplies cooling water to a spent fuel pool stopped working, but a backup pump was employed after about 90 minutes, and the temperature rose less than 1°C.
TEPCO decommissioning unit director Naohiro Masuda said he believes a safety system shut off the pump automatically as the water in the pool shook.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS