Trains halted, ratings injured due to Japan cleans up after strong quake in Fukushima
14 February, 2021
Trains were halted above a broad swath of northeastern Japan on Sunday (Feb 14) after more than 100 people were injured in an earthquake that appeared to be a great aftershock from the devastating quake that strike the area in 2011.
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck shortly before midnight about Saturday and cracked walls, shattered windows and tripped a landslide on Fukushima, the area closest to the epicentre.
The Japan Meteorological Firm said the quake was believed to be an aftershock from the 9.0-magnitude Mar 11, 2011 earthquake that tripped a tsunami and the world's worst nuclear incident found in 25 years. The company warned of aftershocks for many days.
The quake shook properties in Japan's capital Tokyo a huge selection of kilometres away.
Though hundreds of thousands of buildings lost electricity soon after the quake, which struck at 11.08pm (10.08pm Singapore period), power had been restored to most by Sunday morning.
Thousands of households remained without water, though, and residents prearranged with plastic material jugs to get water from trucks.
The power outages didn't affect the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines that arrived on Friday for inoculations that are to start this week, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a Sunday morning news conference.
At least 104 persons were injured, NHK national television said, including more than a few who suffered fractures, but there have been no reported deaths.
A staff member of library tries to restore books once they fell from book shelves by a strong earthquake at Iwaki City library on Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Hidenori Yahiro, 56, an owner of a bar, cleans up broken bottles and cups at his bar after a solid quake found in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture Japan, February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato
There is no tsunami, no reports of irregularities at any nuclear plants. NHK reported that about 160ml of drinking water possessed leaked from a put in fuel pool area at the Fukushima Dai-Ni reactor but that presented no danger.
The quake revived memories of the 2011 monster quake, which devastated a broad swath of the Pacific coastline and killed nearly 20,000.
Shinkansen bullet train company to much of northern Japan was suspended because of harm along the tracks. Service along one series was not expected to come to be restored until at least Tuesday.
Earthquakes are normal in Japan, among the world's most seismically dynamic areas. Japan accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
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