After typhoon, quake jolts Japan
6.6-magnitude temblor hits northern island of Hokkaido after worst storm in 25 years
TOKYO— Rescuers rushed to help survivors after a strong earthquake jolted Japan’s Hokkaido island, only days after the worst typhoon in 25 years hit the country. Japan’s Meteorological Agency recorded the 6.6-magnitude quake at 3:08 a.m. with the epicenter about 65 kilometers southeast of the island’s main city of Sapporo. Officials expected the death toll to mount.
TOKYO— Rescuers rushed to unearth survivors after a strong earthquake jolted Japan’s Hokkaido island, even as the country tried to recover from the worst typhoon in 25 years earlier in the week.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the 6.6-magnitude quake hit at 3:08 a.m. at a depth of 40 kilometers, with its epicenter about 65 km southeast of the island’s main city of Sapporo.
Multiple landslides
The 6.6-magnitude temblor triggered multiple, large-scale landslides in the sparsely populated countryside, which was also hit by the edge of Typhoon “Jebi” on Monday.
“We will do our best to save lives,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said as officials expect the death toll to rise with about 40 people still missing.
Rescuers in Atsuma town were using small backhoes and shovels to search for survivors in tons of soil, rocks and timber from steep mountainsides that collapsed and crushed homes and buildings.
Nothing similar in 51 years
“There was a sudden, extreme jolt. I felt it went sideways, not up-and-down, for about two to three minutes,” said Kazuo Kibayashi, 51, a town official at hard-hit Abira town,
“It stopped before shaking started again. I felt it come in two waves. I am 51, and I have never experienced anything like this. I thought my house was going to collapse,” he added.
Moments after the initial quake, an aftershock measuring 5.3 rocked the area, and dozens more aftershocks followed throughout the night and into the morning.
Residents of the island’s main city of Sapporo were shaken from their beds when the earthquake struck, knocking out power and leaving nearly 3 million house- holds without electricity.
The island’s only nuclear power plant, which was offline, switched to a backup generator to keep its spent fuel cool, and nuclear regulators said there was no sign of abnormal radiation.
Airports and roads on the is- land were closed, and trains were idled by the outages.
In the meantime, authorities sent power generator vehicles to hospitals, while troops deployed water tanker trucks to residents over until electricity and tap water come back online.
Widespread impact
To the north, in the scenic town of Biei, residents lined up outside of supermarkets and convenience stores, quickly clearing shelves of water, toilet paper and food.
“Only a few cartons of instant ramen were left,” said Mika Takeda, who lives in the town of 10,000. The one local gas station was limiting customers to only 20 liters of gas, she said.
Local media said the dead also included an 82-year-old man who fell down the stairs at his home during the quake and that around 130 people had sustained minor injuries.
More to come
“I urge people in areas shaken by strong quakes to stay calm, pay attention to evacuation information ... and help each other,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.
The meteorological agency also warned that “large quakes often occur, especially within two to three days [of a big one],” and residents should “pay full attention to seismic activity and rainfall and not to go into dangerous areas.”
The national meteorological agency warned that more bad weather could be on the way for Hokkaido, urging people to be vigilant for landslides, high tides and heavy rain.—
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