Powerful earthquake collapses buildings, puts Japan on tsunami alert

TOKYO – A powerful earthquake shook Japan’s western coast on Monday, collapsing buildings, burying some residents and sparking evacuation warnings amid fears of a tsunami.

The 7.6 magnitude earthquake erupted off the Noto Peninsula about 4:10 p.m. local time and created tsunami waves with a height of 3 to 4 feet within the first few minutes, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

By Monday night, Japan had dropped its highest-level tsunami alert but still had advisories in effect for the western coast, and told coastal residents not to return home as deadly waves could still come, the Associated Press reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that in the initial hours after the quake, it measured dozens of smaller earthquakes nearby, including nine with magnitudes of over 5. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the initial quake to have a magnitude of 7.5, and detected 11 more with a magnitude of 5 or higher over the next 12 hours.

The Japanese agency warned that more earthquakes with seismic intensities of around 7 could hit seriously affected areas over the coming week, especially within the next two to three days.

Almost all of Japan’s western coast, including several populous cities, was placed under tsunami warnings or advisories initially, with the more urgent warnings declared in areas near the earthquake’s epicenter in central Japan. People were advised by the Japan Meteorological Agency to “evacuate immediately from coastal regions and riverside areas” to higher ground or designated evacuation buildings.

There were more than 30 reports of buildings collapsing in the city of Wajima in Ishikawa Prefecture, where the earthquake’s epicenter was recorded, as well as a fire in the city center, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. At least six people were buried alive in the rubble, said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a Monday news conference.

Some 33,000 households in Ishikawa and Niigata prefectures lost power and mobile phone communications services there were disrupted, Hayashi said.

A fire broke out at the Shika Nuclear Power Plant in Ishikawa, but it was extinguished and had no impact on the plant’s operations, he said. The major tsunami warning for the Noto Peninsula was the first time that the most severe category of warning had been issued in Japan since 2011, when a devastating earthquake and tsunami killed tens of thousands of people, according to NHK.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office said it had instructed authorities to prioritize human life and “spare no effort” in emergency disaster response.

Across the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, authorities in South Korea said a tsunami measuring under 1 meter (3.3 feet) reached the east coast, Reuters reported. Tsunami warnings were also issued in North Korea and parts of Russia’s Pacific seaboard.

The tsunami warnings stoked fears across Japan, where at least 18,000 people were killed after a catastrophic March 2011 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu sent towering waves as high as 130 feet crashing into coastal towns, sweeping away cars and homes, and destroying multistory buildings. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake was one of the five largest recorded in the world since 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The 2011 earthquake also triggered one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, when a surge of seawater flooded electricity generators that powered the cooling system of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, compromising three reactors and eventually causing explosions that spread radioactive material.

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Cho reported from Seoul and Johnson from Washington.

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Video: An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 hit central Japan on Jan. 1, prompting officials to issue warnings to multiple regions.(REF:parnasssm,REF:riegerj/The Washington Post)

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