Two people were killed and more than 90 injured in the massive earthquake that shook much of eastern Japan and caused a tsunami warning, authorities said. According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, one person was killed in the Fukushima region and a second in nearby Miyagi.
Residents and officials in the north-east of the country are still trying to assess the damage at dawn on Thursday after the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck just before midnight. A tsunami warning for waves of up to one meter in parts of northeastern Japan was lifted after authorities reported water levels up to 30cm higher than normal in some areas. Minor tremors continued to hit the region overnight and early Thursday morning. The first reports of damage appeared relatively mild, in a country with strict building codes designed to protect against the devastation of frequent earthquakes, and officials said there were no anomalies at nuclear power plants. “We are doing our best to assess the extent of the damage,” government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters overnight.
The quake struck at a depth of 60 kilometers (37 miles) off the coast of Fukushima and was preceded minutes earlier by another strong 6.1-magnitude quake in the same area, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.
About two million homes lost electricity in the capital and elsewhere immediately after the earthquake, which was gradually restored overnight. About 35,600 homes in the Miyagi and Fukushima areas are still without electricity this morning, electric company Tepco said. The Japanese nuclear authority said no anomalies were detected in the Fukushima plant which melted in 2011 when the tsunami hit, while the pumps for the cooling pools of some reactors temporarily stopped but resumed. work shortly after.
Some damage was reported, including the collapse of a stone wall at the Aoba Castle site in Sendai City and the Shinkansen bullet train derailed north of Fukushima City. There were no injuries in the derailment, but 75 passengers and three staff on board were trapped for four hours before they could get off the train.