Japan Hit by Deadly Earthquake, Adding to Summer of Environmental Misery

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TOKYO — A powerful earthquake struck Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday, causing millions of homes to lose power and leaving two people dead and 38 missing after a landslide crushed multiple houses.

The quake, which toppled some small buildings and cut electricity to all three million houses in the prefecture, came just days after the largest typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years ripped through the country’s southwest, killing 11 and closing Japan’s third busiest airport for several days.

In Hokkaido on Thursday, rescue workers were struggling to get to the homes crushed by a mudslide in the towns of Atsuma and Abira after the quake, which struck just after 3 a.m. Japan’s weather service reported its preliminary magnitude was 6.7.

A nuclear plant in Tomari, in Hokkaido, lost its main power but a backup generator was cooling its spent fuel pools. Hokkaido Electric Power, the company that operates the plant, said it had not detected any changes in radiation levels around the plant.

The cutoff of electricity also caused the shutdown of rail services in Hokkaido.

Thursday’s quake was the strongest to hit Hokkaido, which has a population of just under 5.5 million people, since 1996.

A part of the ceiling at the island’s main commercial airport in Chitose caved in and fire broke out at a petrochemical factory in the port town of Muroran. Rail and air traffic was disrupted.

The quake comes during a season of natural disasters for Japan. In July, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan, followed by heat waves that took an additional 130 lives.

Hokkaido’s governor, Harumi Takahashi, requested assistance from the military, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said 4,000 troops were dispatched immediately and up to 25,000 could be sent to the northern island to help search and cleanup efforts.

Makiko Inoue and Hisako Ueno contributed research.



Source : Nytimes