26 Injured as strong quake rocks Niigata Prefecture and nearby areas

June 19, 2019

Tokyo--A powerful earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.7 rocked the central Japan prefecture of Niigata and nearby areas on Tuesday night, leaving a total of 26 people injured.

No death from the quake has been reported.

The temblor, which occurred at around 10:22 p.m. (1:22 p.m. GMT), registered upper 6, the second highest level on Japan's seismic intensity scale, in the city of Murakami in the prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

A tsunami of 10 centimeters was observed in the city of Niigata, the capital of the prefecture, while small tsunamis were reported in locations including the island of Sado in the prefecture.

The agency issued tsunami advisories for Niigata Prefecture, the neighboring northeastern prefecture of Yamagata and the Noto area of Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan. They were lifted shortly past 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The earthquake logged lower 6 in the Yamagata city of Tsuruoka, and lower 5 in Kashiwazaki, a city in Niigata Prefecture, the Yamagata city of Sakata, and the city of Yurihonjo in Akita Prefecture, north of Yamagata.

It occurred at a depth of 14 kilometers off the Sea of Japan coast in Yamagata, the agency said.

The 26 injured people are in Yamagata, Niigata and Ishikawa prefectures, and the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi, including 17 in Yamagata and four in Niigata. In Murakami, a man in his 70s suffered an injury in his right leg when he was evacuating.

In Niigata and Yamagata prefectures, the number of people who took shelter totaled up to some 830 by Wednesday morning.

All evacuation advisories have been lifted.

According to Tohoku Electric Power Co. <9506>, blackouts occurred at a total of 9,232 households in the cities of Tsuruoka, Sakata, Murakami and Niigata after the earthquake. Power supply was restored at all of the households later.

No abnormalities were reported at nuclear plants in areas hit by the quake, including Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture and Tohoku Electric's Onagawa plant in Miyagi.

According to East Japan Railway Co. <9020>, or JR East, services on the Tohoku, Joetsu, Yamagata, Akita and Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train lines were restarted by the early hours of Wednesday after they were halted following the temblor.

All of the five Shinkansen lines are operating normally on Wednesday.

Among railways other than the bullet train lines, operations have been suspended on the section between Murakami and Sakata stations on JR East's Uetsu Main Line.

Some sections of the Yamagata Expressway and the Nihonkai-Tohoku Expressway were closed, but went back into service by Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, part of National Route 345 has been closed because of rock falls.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told government officials to act quickly to assess damage from the earthquake while working together with local officials to support affected people. He also called for timely disclosure of related information to the public.

At a press conference Wednesday morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that all government agencies and ministries concerned will join forces to take all possible measures under the leadership of the prime minister's office.

The meteorological agency called on people in affected areas to be alert for an earthquake of a similar intensity for the next week or so.

According to the Yamagata prefectural government, all 37 elementary and junior high schools in Tsuruoka, and two elementary schools in Sakata canceled classes for Wednesday. The day's classes were called off also at all 23 elementary and junior high schools in Murakami.

With some locations in Yamagata and Niigata prefectures having rain on Wednesday, the meteorological agency warned of possible landslides in areas where the ground became soft due to the earthquake.

About 200 people took shelter at a gym in the Fuya district in Murakami.

"I couldn't sleep last night, because there were aftershocks," Emiko Morohashi, 57, one of the evacuees, said. Morohashi returned to her home on Wednesday morning.

Takiko Hirakata, 63, who lives nearby, said that upon returning from a shelter, she found some roof tiles of her house falling off. Hirakata said that she asked repair workers to fix the roof, but was told that they do not know when they will be able to come to her home because they are bombarded with repair orders. Jiji Press