Recovery efforts were yesterday under way in northern Japan after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off Fukushima on Saturday night, leaving more than 100 people injured and causing temporary power outages across the region.
At least 146 people were injured, but no deaths were reported, public broadcaster NHK said.
Energy companies witnessed no damage to nuclear power units in the region. About 13 thermal power plants in Fukushima and Miyagi stayed offline after the earthquake, with some expected to restart yesterday.
Photo: AFP
The earthquake hit the Tohoku region, 220km north of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, adding that it was an aftershock of the massive tremor on March 11, 2011, triggering a tsunami that led to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant meltdown and left about 19,000 people dead or missing.
Citing Tokyo Electric Power Co, NHK reported that there was a minor overflow of water from the pool that stores used nuclear fuels at the Fukushima nuclear power plants, but no uncontrolled radiation activities were seen.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a press conference that no incidents were reported from nuclear power plants.
Photo: AFP
More than 830,000 households in the Tohoku and Kanto regions experienced power outages, but supply resumed in most areas by yesterday morning.
Telecom NTT Docomo Inc said some of its service areas in Tohoku were affected, but operations had returned to normal as of yesterday.
Several areas in Fukushima are still without water supply, a local newspaper reported.
East Japan Railway Co said some of its high-speed bullet and local train services would remain suspended until today due to damage to electrical lines.
The Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line would need 10 days to resume its full service, NHK reported.
East Nippon Expressway Co said it had closed a line connecting Fukushima and Miyagi due to a landslide. Local media reported no injuries from the landslide.
While the quake did not trigger a tsunami, residents preparing to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2011 disaster said they were frightened by Saturday’s jolt.
“I was at home... The shaking was so strong I became truly afraid for my physical safety,” said Masami Nakai, a municipal official in Soma city in northern Fukushima.
Images posted online showed a vehicle crushed by a rock lantern in the car park of a Shinto shrine, while another showed broken glass and items thrown from the shelves at a shop.
Authorities were assessing the impact of a landslide on a highway, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said, and aerial TV footage showed another landslide at a remote race circuit.
The government reported partial damage to eight structures, mostly houses, while local media said dozens of buildings had suffered broken ceilings and broken water pipes.
Kato warned residents about the possibility of strong aftershocks in the next week and further landslides due to heavy rain forecast.
“Particularly for the next two to three days, there might be very strong earthquakes,” Kato said.
Tomoko Kobayashi, who works at a traditional inn in Fukushima’s Minamisoma City, told Kyodo news agency that “the initial jolt felt more powerful than the one I experienced in the Great East Japan Earthquake” of 2011.
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