(UPDATE) Powerful Quake Rocks Hokkaido, Killing at Least 4

September 6, 2018

Sapporo- A powerful earthquake rocked Hokkaido in the small hours of Thursday, killing at least four people and leaving three others with no vital signs, while causing blackouts across the northernmost Japan prefecture, according to local authorities.

The earthquake measured up to the highest level of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, revising its initial announcement of the maximum reading at upper 6, the second-highest level.

According to the Hokkaido government, 31 people are unaccounted for. At least 192 people were injured in Hokkaido, with its capital, Sapporo, suffering damage from soil liquefaction, as well as building collapses, local authorities said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the death toll from the quake has risen to nine.

The earthquake triggered massive landslides at five places in the town of Atsuma, including the Yoshino district, town government officials said. A total of 21,000 Self-Defense Forces troops, police officers and others were mobilized in the search for missing people in the town.

The quake, which occurred in the central-eastern part of the Iburi region in southwestern Hokkaido at a depth of 37 kilometers around 3:08 a.m. (6:08 p.m. Wednesday GMT), had an estimated magnitude of 6.7, according to the meteorological agency.

It registered 7 on the Japanese scale in Atsuma, upper 6 in the towns of Abira and Mukawa, lower 6 in the city of Chitose and the town of Biratori, upper 5 in Sapporo and the city of Tomakomai, and lower 5 in the cities of Hakodate and Muroran.

The maximum intensity level was recorded for the first time ever in Hokkaido, and for the sixth time in the whole country, with the last two cases in a series of powerful quakes in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in April 2016.

Data from a seismometer in Atsuma was not available soon after the quake struck. Later, tremor was found to have measured 7 in the town, according to the meteorological agency.

Following the Hokkaido quake, the agency warned of possible aftershocks of up to upper 6 over the next week or so.

The inland quake triggered no tsunami, according to the agency. Electricity supply was cut at all of the some 2.95 million households in Hokkaido after the powerful quake.

Of the four confirmed victims, a man in Mukawa was crushed under a chest of drawers. One of the other three were in the town of Shinhidaka and two in Atsuma.

The three people in cardiac arrest are in Atsuma.

Some 2,400 people were staying at about 550 shelters across Hokkaido as of 4:30 p.m.

In Muroran, a fire broke out at a plant of a unit of Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. Co.. It was brought under control later.

According to Hokkaido Electric Power Co., the all-out power outage came as all of its thermal power plants in Hokkaido came to a halt. Of them, the Sunagawa plant was restarted at 1:35 p.m., resuming electricity supply.

With almost all traffic lights in Hokkaido not working, police are calling on residents to avoid going out as much as possible. Water supply was also cut in wide areas.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko told reporters in Tokyo, "It is expected to take more than a week before electricity is fully restored throughout Hokkaido."

Turbines and boilers at the power supplier's largest Tomatoatsuma thermal power plant, in Atsuma, were damaged by the quake, and it will take at least a week to bring it back online, the minister said.

Hokkaido Railway Co., or JR Hokkaido, suspended services on all of its train lines, including the high-speed Hokkaido Shinkansen Line, which links Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station in Hokkaido and Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori Prefecture, which faces the island prefecture across the Tsugaru Strait.

All flights scheduled to depart from and arrive at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido on Thursday were canceled as the airport's terminal building was closed due to water leaks, although no damage was found on its runways, the transport ministry's New Chitose Airport office said.

According to the secretariat of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Hokkaido Electric's Tomari nuclear power station temporarily lost external power supply after the quake. Before it was restored at the plant's all three reactors by 1 p.m., emergency diesel generators were activated to continue the cooling of the spent nuclear fuel pools.

The three reactors at the plant in the village of Tomari are currently offline, with all nuclear fuel assemblies kept in the storage pools.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Abe told relevant government ministries and agencies to do all they can to rescue victims, ensure safe evacuation of residents and restore infrastructure.

After the quake, Hokkaido Governor Harumi Takahashi asked the central government for the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces personnel.

At a ministerial meeting on Thursday morning, Abe said 4,000 SDF troops have already started work in Hokkaido and indicated a plan to increase the number to 25,000. Jiji Press