Aftershocks keep quake-hit Japan peninsula on edge

Wajima (Japan), Mar 26: Aftershocks jolted the west coast of central Japan today, keeping residents on edge one day after a strong earthquake killed one person, injured nearly 200 and flattened homes.

Yesterday morning's 6.9 magnitude quake, which struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km (190 miles) west of Tokyo, destroyed houses, buckled roads, triggered landslides and cut off water and electricity supplies to thousands of homes.

A 5.3 magnitude tremor, one of some 175 aftershocks, struck early on Monday and officials warned that more could occur.

About 2,600 people spent the night in evacuation shelters and many other residents slept in their cars.

''The aftershocks are scary, so I spent last night in an evacuation centre,'' said 83-year-old Kiyo Kawaguchi, surveying the damage to her home in the rural city of Wajima, one of the hardest hit areas.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary panel in Tokyo that 68 houses many of them wooden with heavy tile roofs had been completely destroyed and another 164 half demolished.

Public broadcaster NHK, however, said a total of 455 homes had suffered partial damage from Sunday's tremor and that more than 10,000 households lacked running water.

About 30 troops were sent to the area to assist and an emergency relief team of firefighters was searching through the rubble of collapsed houses to see if any victims were trapped.

Shogoro Hashimura, 81, hid under a table at the office of his sawmill in Wajima when Sunday's quake struck.

''When I looked outside, my truck was trapped under the rubble and woodchips and lumber were strewn all over,'' he said.

''I want to do something about my collapsed mill, but I can't until the aftershocks stop.''

Early Warning

The woes of Wajima's elderly residents, many of whom live alone, highlighted the vulnerability of Japan's ageing population when disasters strike.

''What is most important is to exercise extreme vigilance concerning the elderly,'' said an editorial in Asahi newspaper.

Japan's Meteorological Agency, using an early warning system that detects smaller tremors before a main quake hits, issued a tsunami alert on Sunday about 100 seconds after the quake, about two minutes faster than previously, an agency official said.

The tsunami warning was lifted the same day after small waves hit some areas.

The agency was also able to send an ''emergency earthquake flash'' to monitors about 50 km (31 miles) from the focus about five seconds before the strong quake rattled the region.

But hard-hit Wajima failed to receive the warning before the tremor struck because it was too close to the focus, he said.

The agency plans to use the system, in place for tsunami warnings to a limited number of subscribers since October, for earthquake announcements starting later this year.

Electricity was restored to most homes after power outages yesterday affected around 160,000 households.

Noto airport on the peninsula reopened after cracks on the runway were repaired, and local train services were also back to normal, NHK said.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, which accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Reuters

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