A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the shore of Fukushima, Japan on Wednesday night, prompting a tsunami warning, shaking houses, and momentarily knocking off electricity. According to the Associated Press, two people have died as a result of the violent earthquake.
The location is located in northern Japan, which was ravaged by a terrible 9.0 earthquake and tsunami 11 years ago, which also resulted in nuclear plant meltdowns and the release of enormous amounts of radiation, rendering certain areas uninhabitable.
Two individuals were murdered, while 94 others were injured, including four seriously, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. According to Kyodo News, a man in his 60s died in Soma City, Fukushima, after falling from the second storey of his house while attempting to flee, while a guy in his 70s panicked and suffered a heart attack.
The Japan Meteorological Agency also dropped its low-risk recommendation issued early Thursday along the beaches of Fukushima and Miyagi. In Ishinomaki, some 390 kilometres (242 miles) northeast of Tokyo, tsunami waves of 30 centimetres (11 inches) hit the coast.
The quake’s magnitude was increased to 7.4 from 7.3, and its depth was increased from 60 kilometres (36 miles) to 56 kilometres (35 miles).
Broken walls of a department store building tumbled to the ground, and shards of glass were strewn over the roadway near the main train station in Fukushima city, the inland prefectural headquarters. Roads were fractured, and water gushed from subterranean pipes.
Furniture and appliances were also shattered to the floor in Fukushima residences. Cosmetics and other items from convenience stores toppled from shelves and were strewn over the floor. An electric pole nearly toppled in Yokohama, near Tokyo.
According to an Associated Press storey, personnel at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility whose cooling systems failed following the 2011 accident, detected no irregularities at the site, which was in the process of being decommissioned.
A fire alarm went off in the turbine building of the No. 5 reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, according to Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, although there was no real fire. Water pumps for the spent fuel cooling pool at two of Fukushima Daini’s four reactors momentarily stopped working, but were eventually restarted. The Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, which survived the tsunami of 2011, is also scheduled for decommissioning.
According to the Tohoku Electric Power Co., which serves the region, over 2.2 million homes were temporarily without electricity in 14 prefectures, including the Tokyo area, but power was restored in most places by the morning, with the exception of about 37,000 homes in the hardest hit Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures.
The earthquake struck eastern Japan, including Tokyo, causing buildings to wobble severely.
The majority of East Japan Railway Co.’s train services have been halted for safety reasons, according to the company. Later, several local trains resumed service.
Long lineups developed outside key stations as commuters waited for trains to resume service late Wednesday, but trains in Tokyo resumed normal service Thursday morning.
The tremor caused a Tohoku Shinkansen express train to partially derail between Fukushima and Miyagi, but no one was wounded, said to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
He told reporters that the administration was examining the magnitude of the damage and that it will do all possible to help with rescue and relief efforts.
“Please take immediate measures to preserve your life,” Kishida wrote on Twitter.
Authorities were hurrying to evaluate damage, said to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. “We’re doing everything we can in terms of rescue operations and prioritising people’s lives,” he added.
For the next week, he advised inhabitants in the impacted areas to exercise particular vigilance due to the possibility of strong aftershocks.
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