The biggest earthquake on record to hit Japan rocked the northeast coast today, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that killed hundreds of people and swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships and cars.Up to 300 bodies were found in the coastal city of Sendai, media said. NHK television said the victims appeared to have drowned. The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch f coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly.
Some 3,000 residents living near a nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, were told to evacuate but the government said no radiation was leaking. It said the vacuation was a precaution after a reactor cooling malfunction.Other nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down after the 8.9 magnitude quake, while one refinery was ablaze. A major explosion hit a petrochemical complex in Miyagi prefecture after the quake, Kyodo said.
Political leaders pushed for an emergency budget to help fund relief efforts after Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked them to “save the country”, Kyodo news agency reported.Stunning TV footage showed a muddy wall of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near Sendai, home to one million people and which lies 300km northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbour wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.
The quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, sparked at least 80 fires in cities and towns along the coast, Kyodo news agency said.A ship carrying 100 people had been swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo said. One train was unaccounted for.In Tokyo, residents who had earlier fled swaying buildings jammed the streets trying to make their way home after much of the city's public transportation was shut down.
Electronics giant Sony Corp , one of the country's biggest exporters, shut six factories, as air force jets raced toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the damage.
“I was terrified and I'm still frightened,” said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka area. “I've never experienced such a big quake before.”Some nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down and a refinery and a major steel plant was ablaze.
Cabinet ministers were meeting about nuclear issues after media reports said the government would declare a nuclear power emergency, which occurs if there is confirmation of
radioactivity leaks or a reactor cooling system breakdown.Around 4.4 million homes were without power in northern Japan, media said. A hotel collapsed in the city of Sendai and people were feared buried in the rubble.Electronics giant Sony Corp , one of the country's biggest exporters, shut six factories, Kyodo reported, as air force jets raced toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the damage.
The Bank of Japan, which has been struggling to boost the anaemic economy, said it would do its utmost to ensure financial market stability as the yen and Japanese shares fell.The Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued alerts for
countries to the west and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and Peru.There were several strong aftershocks. In Tokyo, buildings shook violently. An oil refinery near the city was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat.
Ships lifted from the sea
Stunning TV footage showed the tsunami carrying the debris and fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million. Ships in
once coastal area were lifted from the sea into a harbour where they lay helplessly on their side.Sendai is 300km northeast of Tokyo and the epicentre at sea was not far away.
NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.Thick smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed nd cars were turning around and speeding away.
Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves carried cars across the runway at the airport.“The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks,” Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo.“It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago.”The quake struck just before the Tokyo stock market closed, pushing the Nikkei down to end at a five-week low. Nikkei futures trading in Osaka tumbled as much as 4.7 percent in reaction to the news.
Great Kanto quake
The quake was the biggest since records began 140 years ago, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about US$10 billion.
Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands during the quake. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.
Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds watched and pointed to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, “They're still shaking!”, “Are they going to fall?”
Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.“The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn't believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo.”The US Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 24km and located the quake 129.6km east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.9.
Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people.Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Source - Reuters
Political leaders pushed for an emergency budget to help fund relief efforts after Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked them to “save the country”, Kyodo news agency reported.Stunning TV footage showed a muddy wall of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near Sendai, home to one million people and which lies 300km northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbour wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.
The quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, sparked at least 80 fires in cities and towns along the coast, Kyodo news agency said.A ship carrying 100 people had been swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo said. One train was unaccounted for.In Tokyo, residents who had earlier fled swaying buildings jammed the streets trying to make their way home after much of the city's public transportation was shut down.
Electronics giant Sony Corp , one of the country's biggest exporters, shut six factories, as air force jets raced toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the damage.
“I was terrified and I'm still frightened,” said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka area. “I've never experienced such a big quake before.”Some nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down and a refinery and a major steel plant was ablaze.
Cabinet ministers were meeting about nuclear issues after media reports said the government would declare a nuclear power emergency, which occurs if there is confirmation of
The Bank of Japan, which has been struggling to boost the anaemic economy, said it would do its utmost to ensure financial market stability as the yen and Japanese shares fell.The Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued alerts for
countries to the west and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and Peru.There were several strong aftershocks. In Tokyo, buildings shook violently. An oil refinery near the city was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat.
Ships lifted from the sea
Stunning TV footage showed the tsunami carrying the debris and fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million. Ships in
NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.Thick smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed nd cars were turning around and speeding away.
Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves carried cars across the runway at the airport.“The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks,” Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo.“It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago.”The quake struck just before the Tokyo stock market closed, pushing the Nikkei down to end at a five-week low. Nikkei futures trading in Osaka tumbled as much as 4.7 percent in reaction to the news.
Great Kanto quake
The quake was the biggest since records began 140 years ago, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about US$10 billion.
Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands during the quake. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.
Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.“The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn't believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo.”The US Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 24km and located the quake 129.6km east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.9.
Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people.Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Source - Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment