Japan evacuation centres packed after quake
Thousands of people crowded evacuation centres today amid fears of mudslides and aftershocks after a powerful earthquake struck Japan’s northwest coast.
At least nine people were killed in yesterday morning’s quake, which toppled hundreds of buildings, cut transport and triggered a fire and spill of water containing radioactive material from a nuclear power plant.
Japan’s weather agency issued heavy rain, flooding and lightning warnings today for the area, which had been buffeted by strong rains in the days before the quake, softening the ground and increasing the likelihood of landslides, officials said.
Up to six centimetres (2.4 inches) of rain was expected by tomorrow morning in Kashiwazaki, according to the local observatory.
“The damage is more than we had imagined,” Kashiwazaki Mayor Hiroshi Aida said while inspecting damaged areas, adding that the water supply had been disrupted. “We want to restore the water as soon as possible so more people can return home.”
Nearly 13,000 people packed into evacuation centres such as schools and other secure buildings in the quake zone 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Nine people in their 70s or 80s – six women and three men – were killed in the 6.8 magnitude quake, and 19 were seriously injured.
About another 900 people suffered lighter injuries and one person was still missing, officials said.
The quake triggered a fire and a leak of water containing radioactive material at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s largest in terms of power output capacity.
The leak was not announced until the evening, many hours after the quake.
About 1.2 cubic metres – or 1,200 litres – of water apparently spilled from a tank at one of the plant’s seven reactors, and entered a pipe that flushed it into the sea, said Tokyo Electric Power Co official Jun Oshima.
Officials said there was no “significant change” in the seawater near the plant.
In Kashiwazaki city, the quake reduced older buildings to piles of lumber.
This morning, officials said a total of 342 houses had been destroyed while another 469 had been damaged.
The area was plagued by a series of aftershocks, though there were no immediate reports of additional damage or injuries from the aftershocks.
The water leak and fire at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa reactors renewed doubts about the safety of Japan’s nuclear power plants, which have suffered a long string of accidents and coverups amid deep concerns they are dangerously vulnerable in the earthquake-prone nation. The country’s 55 reactors supply about 30 percent of its electricity
The first word of trouble was a fire that broke out at an electrical transformer at the plant yesterday morning.
All the reactors were either already shut down or automatically switched off by the quake. The blaze was quelled by early afternoon and TEPCO said there was no damage to the reactor and no release of radioactivity.
But in the evening, the company released a statement on the water leak, explaining that it had taken all day to confirm the details of the accident. But the delay raised suspicions among environmentalists, who oppose the government’s plan to build new plants.
The accident comes as the government is discussing raising the quake resistance of such plants, said Aileen Mioko Smith, of the Japan-based environmentalist group Green Action.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari today told TEPCO not to resume operations of the plant before making a thorough safety check, Kyodo News agency reported.
The quake, which hit the region at 10.13am (0213 BST) was centred off the coast of Niigata.
Tsunami warnings were issued, but the resulting waves were too small to cause any damage.
As rescue crews dug through the rubble in search of survivors or more victims, focus shifted to getting food and water to evacuation centres.
Many roads were impassable, though bullet train service to nearby Niigata was resumed late yesterday.
Some 53,000 homes in the quake zone were without water and 35,000 were without gas as of today, local official Mitsugu Abe said. More than 25,000 households in the zone were without power, Abe said.
Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.
In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit Niigata, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes.
It was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2 quake killed 6,433 people in the western city of Kobe.
