Strong Earthquake Injures 400 in Japan

The world’s most powerful earthquake in 2 1/2 years struck Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido Friday, injuring more than 400 and knocking out power and water for hours.

The magnitude-8 pre-dawn jolt was so violent that Sachiko Katsuta was thrown back into bed when she tried to go downstairs to her restaurant, where dozens of rice bowls had crashed to the floor. The aftershocks splintered the restaurant walls and cracked the windows.

But by nightfall, Katsuta and other residents were counting themselves among the lucky and returning to life-as-usual in one of the world’s most quake-prone regions – one that managed to escape with surprisingly little damage.

“I thought for sure this was the Big One. But it looks like we got by with just a few broken dishes and windows,” said Katsuta.

There were no reports of deaths directly caused by the temblor, which struck at 4:50 a.m. Two fishermen were missing, and police suspected they may have been swept away by tsunami, or ocean waves, that followed.

A wide swath of the island suffered damage: The quake buckled roads, capsized fishing boats, and caved in part of the ceiling of the airport in Kushiro, a city of 190,000 located 890 kilometers (560 miles) northeast of Tokyo that was believed to be one of the hardest hit. Some 370,000 homes lost electricity.

In the nearby city of Tomakomai, black smoke and flames rose into the sky from an oil tank belonging to refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co. There were no injuries and the fire was contained within hours, but officials said 30,000 kiloliters, or 188,700 barrels, of crude oil was lost.

Still, experts said the damage was moderate considering the size of the quake. It had an epicenter some 42 kilometers (26 miles) beneath the ocean floor off Hokkaido’s coast, and produced horizontal shaking rather than a vertical bounce.

“My first reaction was that the damage was much smaller than what earthquakes of that magnitude are capable of doing,” said Yasuhiro Umeda, a seismologist at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University.

Umeda said the swaying felt on Friday is typically less violent and felt across a wider area. He also credited the region’s experience with strong temblors in the past as helping to prevent a disaster.

Residents were shaken but stayed calm despite some 25 aftershocks – at least one registering 7.1-magnitude – that hit intermittently throughout the day. A few scattered buildings had collapsed; most were built to withstand the rocking.

“We’ve had earthquakes here for as long as I can remember. For this one, I stayed in bed and put the covers over my head,” said Kaori Maeda, a 53-year-old elderly day care worker. “You’re better off not trying to run around.”

The quake was centered in the Pacific about 100 kilometers (60 miles) off Hokkaido’s eastern shore. It was followed by aftershocks and small tsunami, ocean waves generated by seismic activity. The highest waves recorded were only about 1.30 meter (four feet).

It was the strongest earthquake in 2 1/2 years, the U.S. Geological Survey said. On June 23, 2001, an 8.4 magnitude quake struck near the coast of Peru, killing 74 people, said Waverly Person of the USGS in Golden, Colorado.

Hokkaido government official Takeshi Matsumura said 455 people were confirmed injured late Friday. Most of them suffered minor scrapes caused by broken glass and falling objects or hurt themselves trying to flee. But as many as 28 were seriously hurt, mostly with broken bones.

Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, put the injury toll at 479.

Though not listed as a quake-caused fatality, a 61-year-old man cleaning up broken bottles after the earthquake was struck by a car and died, police said. A 58-year-old man also died while trying to sail his fishing boat to calm waters, but officials said he had heart problems and tsunami didn’t appear to be the cause.

About 41,000 people were evacuated to shelters, but by evening only 1,400 evacuees hadn’t returned home, said Hiroyuki Nakao, a local government spokesman.

A few hours after dusk, power to homes was fully restored, said Shinichi Ishide, a spokesman for Hokkaido Electric Power Co.

Located along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries. A magnitude 8 quake can cause tremendous damage in populated areas.

Earlier this month, Tokyo marked the 80th anniversary of a magnitude 8.3 quake that devastated the city and neighboring Yokohama, killing at least 140,000 people. In January 1995, a magnitude 7.2 temblor in Kobe killed more than 6,000 people.

Hokkaido is the northernmost and most sparsely populated of Japan’s major islands. A quake and tsunami on the western side of Hokkaido killed 230 people in July 1993.