2 killed in latest quake to hit Japan, 130 injured
TOKYO, Japan
The quake late Thursday was the strongest tremor since the March
11 jumbo and did some damage, but it did not generate a tsunami and
appeared to have spared the area's nuclear power plants. The
Fukushima Dai-ichi complex -- where workers have been frantically
trying to cool overheated reactors since they lost cooling systems
last month -- reported no new abnormalities. Other facilities
retained a connection to the grid or switched to diesel generators
after the 7.1-magnitude quake knocked out power to much of the
area.
Many people in the area have lived without water and electricity
for nearly a month, and the latest tremor sunk more homes into
blackness: In total, around 3.6 million households -- about 60
percent of residents in the area -- were dark Friday, said Souta
Nozu, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power Co., which serves
northern Japan.
Five conventional plants in the area were out, and it was not
clear when power would be restored, he said.
Matsuko Ito, who has been living in a shelter in the small
northeastern city of Natori since the tsunami, said there's no
getting used to the terror of being awoken by shaking.
"I was almost as scared as much as last time," said the
64-year-old while smoking a cigarette outside. "It's enough."
She said she started screaming when the quake struck around
11:30 p.m.
"Something has changed," she said. "The world feels strange
now. Even the way the clouds move isn't right."
Thursday's quake initiated a tsunami warning of its own, but it
was later canceled. Two people were killed, fire department
spokesman Junichi Sawada reported Friday. A 79-year-old man died of
shock and a woman in her 60s was killed when power was cut to her
oxygen tank. More than 130 people were injured, according to the
national police agency.
The temblor's epicenter was in about the same location as the
original 9.0-magnitude tremor, off the eastern coast and about 40
miles (65 kilometers) from Sendai, an industrial city on the
eastern coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was
strong enough to shake buildings for about a minute as far away as
Tokyo, about 200 miles (330 kilometers) away.
At a Toyota dealership in Sendai, most of a two-story show
window was shattered, and thick shards of glass were heaped in
front of the building. Items fell off store shelves and a large
automated teller machine crept across the floor at a FamilyMart
convenience store.
Police directed cars through intersections throughout the city
on Friday because traffic lights were out. Small electrical fires
were reported.
While the city is far enough inland that it largely escaped
tsunami damage, people there lived without regular services for
weeks. Within an hour of Thursday's quake, they rushed convenience
stores and cleared shelves of ice, water and instant noodles --
items that were in short supply after the bigger quake.
The operator of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi plant
said there was no sign the aftershock had caused new problems
there. Workers briefly retreated to a quake-resistant shelter in
the complex and suffered no injuries.
After the March 11 quake knocked out power in the region, the
wave flooded the plant's diesel generators, leaving the complex
without any electricity. Workers have been struggling to stem a
tide of radiation since, using makeshift methods to pump cooling
water into the reactors. That work continued uninterrupted after
the latest quake, according to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial
Safety Agency.
Other facilities along the northeastern coast remained connected
to a power source Friday, and the agency said they were all under
control. Backup generators kicked in at two -- Rokkasho and
Higashidori.
At a third north of Sendai -- which has been shut down since the
tsunami -- one of three power lines was supplying electricity, and
radiation monitoring devices detected no abnormalities. The Onagawa
power plant's spent fuel pools briefly lost cooling capacity, but
it resumed because a power line was available for electricity.
"It's the way it's supposed to work if power is lost for any
reason," said David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety
project for the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists.
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