Hundreds of casualties from Japanese quake
Nine deaths, others missing as country hit by latest in string of natural disasters
SAPPORO, Japan — At least nine people died Thursday when a powerful earthquake on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido triggered dozens of landslides that crushed houses under torrents of dirt, rocks and timber, prompting frantic efforts to unearth any survivors.
Officials said at least 366 people were injured, five seriously, and about 30 people were unaccounted for after the magnitude 6.7 earthquake jolted residents from their beds at 3:08 a.m.
Nearly three million households were left without power by the quake — the latest in an exhausting run of natural disasters for Japan.
It paralyzed normal business on the island, as blackouts cut off water to homes, immobilized trains and airports, causing hundreds of flight cancellations, and shut down phone systems.
In the town of Atsuma, where entire hillsides collapsed, rescuers used small backhoes and shovels to search for survivors under the tons of earth that tumbled down steep mountainsides, burying houses and farm buildings below. The area’s deep green hills were marred by reddishbrown gashes where the soil tore loose under the violent tremors.
Twenty-eight people remained unaccounted for in the town, Mayor Shoichiro Miyasaka told public broadcaster NHK.
“We will carry on searching for them,” he said.
Miyasaka said the town had emergency meals for up to 2,000 people and more than 500 had sought refuge in its emergency shelters.
The landslides ripped through some homes and buried others. Some residents described awakening to find their next-door neighbours gone. “The entire thing just collapsed,” said one. “It’s unbelievable.”
The island’s only nuclear power plant, which was offline for routine safety checks, temporarily switched to a backup generator to keep its spent fuel cool. Nuclear regulators said there was no sign of abnormal radiation — a concern after a massive quake and tsunami in March 2011 that hit northeast Japan destroyed both external and backup power to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, causing meltdowns.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the quake’s epicentre was 40 kilometres deep. But it still wreaked havoc across much of the relatively sparsely inhabited island. Many roads were closed and some were impassable. NHK showed workers rushing to clean up shattered glass and reinstall ceiling panels that had fallen in the region’s biggest airport at Chitose.
Japan is used to dealing with disasters, but the past few months have brought a string of calamities. The quake came on the heels of a typhoon that lifted heavy trucks off their wheels and triggered major flooding in western Japan, leaving the main airport near Osaka and Kobe closed after a tanker rammed a bridge connecting the facility to the mainland.
The summer also brought devastating floods and landslides from torrential rains in Hiroshima and deadly hot temperatures across the country.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that up to 25,000 troops and other personnel would be dispatched to Hokkaido to help with rescue operations.
In the prefectural capital of Sapporo, a city of 1.9 million, the quake ruptured roads and knocked houses askew.