Huge quake hits central Japan, 1 killed, 40 hurt
Pastor Dale Morgan
Sunday March 25, 11:36 AM Reuters
*Huge quake hits central Japan, 1 killed, 40 hurt*
By Chisa Fujioka
TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 jolted the
coastal area of central Japan on Sunday, killing at least one person and
injuring around 85, Japanese officials and media said.
At least nine houses collapsed, landslides were triggered and roads
buckled when the quake struck at 9:42 a.m. (0042 GMT), public
broadcaster NHK and Kyodo news agency said.
NHK said about 30 troops were to head for the site of the quake to give
assistance.
"We want to ensure the safety of residents and do our best in rescue
efforts," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.
The focus of the tremor was at a depth of 50 km (30 miles) below the
seabed off the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km (190
miles) from Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
A 52-year-old woman died in Wajima, on the western side of the
peninsula, after being trapped under a stone lantern that toppled in her
garden, officials said. Media said about 40 people were being treated in
the local hospital in Wajima for injuries.
"Sprinklers went on, some walls collapsed. It's really bad," a hotel
employee in Wajima told NHK, which showed footage of a tiled roof
collapsed into a street and broken glass.
In Nanao, a city with a population of around 60,000 on the peninsula,
ambulance services were flooded with calls to help people who had
suffered burns and injuries, Kyodo said.
TV footage showed collapsed wooden houses, tiles from roofs scattered on
narrow streets and a man digging through piles of boards from a
collapsed house in Wajima.
Anxious residents gathered outside their homes in Wajima, some holding
children in their arms.
"Books fell off bookshelves and it was the worst shaking I have ever
felt," one local official told NHK.
TSUNAMI WARNING LIFTED
Some trains were halted, people were trapped in elevators and there were
reports of power outages in some areas.
Flights were suspended between Tokyo and local airports in Ishikawa,
Kyodo reported.
A tsunami warning for waves of up to 50 cm (20 inches) issued for
Ishikawa prefecture was later lifted. NHK said small tsunami had hit in
some areas.
Electric power companies said there were no reports of irregularities at
nuclear plants in the area.
Separately, two strong earthquakes struck on Sunday near Vanuatu in the
South Pacific, Australia's geological agency reported, but there were no
immediate reports of damage.
The first, measured at magnitude 7.3, occurred two minutes before the
quake in central Japan. Vanuatu's second quake, at magnitude 7.1, was
about half an hour later.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically
active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's
earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the
Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more
than 3,000.
That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city
of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400.