Over 100 injured in Japan after earthquake off Fukushima

The earthquake did not trigger a tsunami although it was followed by several aftershocks overnight.

As of Sunday morning, there had been no fatalities or major material damage. Anomalies were also not detected at nuclear power plants in the affected areas, the same ones that were rocked by the 2011 disaster.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a gigantic tsunami caused 18,000 deaths and disappearances and severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Saturday’s magnitude 7.3 earthquake is a distant aftershock of the 2011 earthquake.

The epicenter was located 60 km deep in the Pacific Ocean and about 60 km off Fukushima, according to the JMA. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 51 km.

“I was at home (…). The shock was so strong that I really feared for my safety,” Masami Nakai, a municipal official in the small town of Soma, in the department of Soma, told AFP on Sunday. Fukushima.

“The first tremor seemed stronger to me than what I felt” in 2011, he told Kyodo Tomoko Kobayashi, who works in a shelter in Minamisoma, in the same neighborhood.

On Sunday morning, the electricity supply was practically restored to 100%, after the previous day, nearly a million homes will be left without electricity.

So far, the main visible material damage was a landslide that damaged a road in Fukushima County. Aerial television footage also showed another landslide on a race track in a remote location.

High-speed rail links (Shinkansen) in northern Japan remained suspended on Sunday to examine the condition of infrastructure.

Japanese authorities have urged the population to “exercise extreme caution” as there may be more aftershocks in the coming days and because the risk of landslides will increase with the rains expected in the region on Monday.

“Especially in the next two or three days, there could be very strong earthquakes,” government spokesman Katsunobu Kato warned.

The government was still assessing the damage on Sunday. At present, he has reported eight damaged structures, mostly houses. Local media reported on dozens of buildings with collapsed roofs and shattered pipes.

Members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force were sent to the affected areas to distribute water to 4,800 households who were left without access to running water, Kato said.

More than 250 people took refuge in evacuation centers overnight, but most have already returned home, he added.

Japan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the most seismically active areas on earth, but it has strict construction standards so buildings can withstand severe earthquakes.