Strong Earthquakes Shake Japan

[rainydaze]

Several Strong Earthquakes Shake Japan

Published: 10/23/2004


TOKYO (AP) - Several powerful earthquakes shook northwestern Japan within minutes on Saturday, toppling homes, causing blackouts, cutting water and gas and derailing a bullet train. Media reported at least two people died and more than 90 were injured.

The quakes - the first of which measured magnitude 6.8 and struck at 5:56 p.m. - were centered near the city of Ojiya about 12 miles beneath the earth's surface, the Meteorological Agency said. Ojiya is 160 miles northwest of Tokyo.

The other tremors, the strongest of which hit intermittently over two hours, also included magnitude-6.2 and 5.9 quakes. Aftershocks followed, some just as forceful, the agency said.

Media reports said the shaking in some parts of Niigata was so severe that people had difficulty standing. Buildings in Tokyo swayed several times for up to a minute.

Officials said teams had been dispatched to assess the damage and offer assistance to residents but darkness and buckled roads were hampering their efforts. They ordered residents to head for evacuation centers.

One person in Ojiya had died at a hospital after being hit by falling rocks and suffering a broken neck, NHK and Kyodo News reported. A 34-year-old man was struck by a falling wall as he fled his home in Tokamachi and later died, media said.

Sewage and water mains burst and gas and telephone services were down and about 250,000 homes had lost power, officials told Japanese media.

At least 50 people were injured by objects that had fallen from shelves in Tokamachi, according to media reports. In Ojiya, at least 20 others were reported injured, and homes in other towns and cities had collapsed, Kyodo News said.

Sewage and water mains burst and gas and telephone services were down and about 250,000 homes had lost power, officials told Japanese media.

The tremors started around dinner time and several homes were on fire, Nagaoka city disaster official Toshimoto Onda told NHK.

Ojiya city official Ei Yoshizawa said building windows had shattered, walls had cracked and books and files on shelves had fallen.

Near Ojiya, trees and soil on a hillside sheared away, burying at least five cars and injuring several people, NHK said.

The jolt triggered an automatic safety device that halted most train services, according to media reports. Railway officials said a bullet train had derailed and some of the cars had tipped to the side near Nagaoka city, in Niigata prefecture, but nobody appeared to be hurt. Another train headed to Niigata from Tokyo had jumped its tracks but there were no reports of injuries, NHK said.

The temblor came just days after Japan's deadliest typhoon in more than a decade, which left 77 dead and more than a dozen others missing.

Typhoon Tokage, the record eighth typhoon to hit Japan this year, ripped through the country earlier this week with high waves and rapid mudslides, demolishing homes and flooding dozens of communities in western Japan before losing power and disappearing over the Pacific Ocean.

Authorities said there were concerns that the shaking could cause topsoil loosened by the storm's torrential rains to slide down hillsides.

Japan, which rests atop several tectonic plates, is among the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

A magnitude-6 quake can cause widespread damage to homes and other buildings if centered in a heavily populated area.

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