Somewhat on topic, and a terrible thing, Stan.
Massive 8.0 Richter quake hits northern Japan; 236 reported hurt
Friday September 26, 10:49 AM
A massive earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale rocked northern Japan, injuring 236 and forcing the evacuation of 40,000 people, officials and news reports said.
The quake, the strongest to hit Japan in almost nine years, occurred at 4:50 am (1950 GMT Thursday), some 80 kilometers off the southeastern coast of northern Hokkaido island and 750 kilometers north of Tokyo, with its focus 60 kilometers below sea-level, the Meteorological Agency said.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities but a 61-year-old man was killed when he was hit by a car while cleaning up debris from the quake, Hokkaido prefectural police said.
At least 236 people were hurt, mostly due to collapsing shelves, televisions and other furniture, while one person was injured when an express train derailed, the state-run Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) reported.
"Everything in my house fell down. A shelf hit my wife's back and that's why we came to the hospital," an elderly man told NHK.
The earthquake was the largest to hit Japan since a quake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale injured 436 in Hokkaido on October 4, 1994.
A second quake measuring 7.0 occurred in the same place at 6:08 am, the agency said, adding that at least 19 strong aftershocks had jolted the region. Further aftershocks were expected.
A fire broke out at a 30,000 kiloliter (7.8 million gallon) crude oil storage tank owned by Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd. in the coastal city of Tomakomai, Hokkaido island, a company spokesman said, but no one was injured.
The blaze appeared to be under control by around 10:00 am, he said, adding that 19 fire engines were at the site.
The Meteorological Agency issued a tidal wave warning, with waves recorded up to 1.3 meters (4 feet four inches) high, but downgraded it to a caution notice at 9:00 am, and told people not to approach the sea-shore.
Some 14,500 households also lost power from the quake, "likely caused by broken electric transmission wires," said Kenichi Hachiro, a spokesman for Hokkaido Electric Power Co. Ltd.
Traffic signals were off in some areas, while logs of wood piled at the mouth of the Kushiro River following tidal waves.
Air traffic control at Kushiro airport was disabled after the ceilings of the control tower and the passenger lobby were damaged.
Two small fishing boats capsized in coastal waters in Samani, a fishing town in southern Hokkaido, while in Erimo, on Hokkaido's south coast, empty cars were washed into the sea after tidal waves hit, Kyodo News agency said.
The central government has set up an emergency task force at the prime minister's office, disaster management minister Kiichi Inoue said.
Under Japan's quake classification system, quakes of 6.0 or above are strong enough to damage houses, trigger landslides and crack roads.
In July, a quake registering 6.2 on the Richter scale struck in Miyagi prefecture, 350 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of Tokyo, injuring more than 650 people and damaging property. Two months earlier, a quake measuring 7.0 injured more than 100 people in the same region.
On July 12 1993 a quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale near Okushiri island off Hokkaido's west coast caused a huge tidal wave that killed 230 people and injured 323.
Japan's deadliest quake in recent years was the January 17, 1995 Kobe earthquake, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, which killed 6,432 and injured some 43,800.
Most died of exposure of asphyxiation after being trapped under rubble.
Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries with thousands of tremors recorded every year. With the "Big One" statistically overdue, strict quake resistance building standards are imposed to minimise structural damage. |
