M6.8 Quake in Niigata leaves 7 Dead and 700 hurt,

Copied from Nikkei Net for those who don't have a subscription…. 

I find sometimes it is easier to know more looking in from the outside than when you are in the middle of a disaster.

I have friends and previous students who are in the middle of this disaster.

Praying and hoping they are okay….

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KASHIWAZAKI (Kyodo)– An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 rocked a wide area centering on Niigata Prefecture on Monday morning, killing seven people and injuring more than 700, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency and a Kyodo News tally.

The 10:13 a.m. quake also caused a blaze at a nuclear plant, the first fire at a nuclear plant to be caused by a quake, according to officials of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The quake caused minor tsunamis, disrupted public transportation and destroyed about 515 houses. It also resulted in widespread power failures and cuts in water supplies, as strong aftershocks continued in the area.

The four women and three men who died all lived in Niigata Prefecture and were in their 70s and 80s.

Four of the seven nuclear reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture which were operating at the time of the earthquake and automatically shut down following the quake. (I used to work here – taught English to the construction teams)

But an electric transformer outside one of the reactors caught fire at around 10:30 a.m. The fire was extinguished about one and a half hours later. No radioactive leakage has been detected.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was stumping in Nagasaki City for the July 29 House of Councillors election when the quake occurred, returned to Tokyo and immediately flew to badly-hit Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture, a city about 200 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, to inspect the damage.

''I would like to make every possible effort to restore lifelines such as roads, gas and water, because the victims are in a tough situation,'' Abe told reporters at the Kashiwazaki city government building after inspecting the area.

The government set up an emergency task force at the premier's office in Tokyo to deal with the situation and a government investigation team, led by Kensei Mizote, state minister for disaster management, also inspected the quake-hit area.

The quake measured upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in Niigata and Iizuna in Nagano Prefecture, lower 6 in Joetsu and Ojiya in Niigata, and upper 5 in Iiyama in Nagano.

The last earthquake to hit Japan measuring upper 6 on the Japanese intensity scale was one that struck Ishikawa, Toyama and Niigata prefectures in March, killing one person and leaving more than 300 injured.

Aftershocks continued to rattle Niigata Prefecture and its vicinity, with a quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 hitting the area at 3:37 p.m. The afternoon quake measured lower 6 on the Japanese intensity scale in several parts of Niigata, according to the agency.

The focus of the initial quake was located around 60 km (37 miles) southwest of the city of Niigata, about 17 km under the seabed, the agency said.

An aftershock with an intensity of upper 5 or lower 6 at the most could occur within the week, agency official Koichi Uhira told a press conference.

He also warned that some parts of Niigata Prefecture and northern Nagano Prefecture might see rain that could lead to landslides.

The quake caused minor tidal waves of 20 centimeters at most in Kashiwazaki. Port facilities in Niigata Prefecture were not affected.

On the blaze at the No. 3 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the officials said METI is checking the cause.

They also said water levels in the spent fuel pools at the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors fell temporarily following the 3:37 p.m. aftershocks, triggering warning signals. The water levels returned to normal eventually.

Among the people who died in the quake were Etsuko Nakamura, 81, Noriko Nakamura, 78, and a couple — a 76-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman — all in Kashiwazaki, as well as Kiyo Igarashi, 79, in the village of Kariwa, also in Niigata.

About 100 evacuation centers were set up in Niigata Prefecture where anxious citizens gathered. In Kashiwazaki, where many homes were damaged, about 7,000 people have shifted to evacuation areas such as an elementary school gymnasium.

But school officials seemed to be at a loss because they could not use portable toilets and pouch-packed food stored at the school due to the disruption of water supplies.

Most offices and schools were closed Monday as it was a national holiday.

A woman operating a Japanese-style inn in Kashiwazaki said, ''The quake was so fierce, I felt I couldn't stand up.'' She said her home was in a mess, with broken plates and an overturned television.

Standing in front of a collapsed two-story wooden house, Seigo Makino, 70, said, ''In the earthquake three years ago, things just fell down, but this time, the house itself is ruined…I can't think about anything now. I've got to find somewhere to live.''

Niigata Prefecture was hit by a magnitude 6.8 quake on Oct. 23, 2004, which killed 67 people and injured more than 4,800.

A 69-year-old milk shop operator said that he has to keep his shoes on in his house because of broken glasses and that people in his neighborhood are sitting on the road on straw mats because their houses have been flattened.

In Kashiwazaki, some people were buried under a collapsed apartment building but were rescued later.

East Japan Railway Co. said it halted train services on the Tohoku, Joetsu and Nagano Shinkansen lines as well as other train services. It said the Tohoku and Nagano Shinkansen lines later resumed operations.

The Joetsu Shinkansen line also resumed part of its operations.

At the Kashiwazaki station yard, the first car of a two-car train derailed but there were no injuries among passengers and crew.

Some sections of expressways were closed for checks, while more than 20 cracks and ruptures were detected on the Hokuriku Expressway. Landslides have also hit sections of many roads in Niigata Prefecture.

Niigata airport temporarily closed its runways immediately after the quake to check for damage, airport officials said.

The quake also caused power failures affecting up to around 35,000 homes in Niigata Prefecture and 21,000 homes in Nagano Prefecture. About 50,000 homes in Niigata and Nagano prefectures were affected by disruptions to water supplies, Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry officials said.

As gas pipes have ruptured in many areas in Kashiwazaki, the city government suspended supplying gas to the urban area from around 11 a.m.

Some 60 elementary, junior and senior high schools in Niigata Prefecture will be closed Tuesday due to the quake.

The agency initially put the quake's magnitude at 6.6 but later revised it to 6.8. The quake also shook the Kanto region centering on Tokyo.