Monday May 26

earthquake

thanks for all the calls and emails asking if i'm OK. the news is: i'm OK! i did not even feel the earthquake - the epicentre was off the north east coast, quite a long way away from here. i didn't know it had made international news untill I got home after some late night ramen with my work crew and found 2 messages on my phone and a couple of emails waiting for me! i was in class in tsuru when it happened, and only found out an hour later when the next students came in, full of news. but we have been getting quite a few little tremors lately, i have started to realise that those bumps and shakes i feel when i'm home sometimes are not caused by the neighbours, they are actually little quakes. here is an article from Japan Today Online:

TOKYO — A powerful earthquake rocked northeastern Japan on Monday, causing blackouts and forcing authorities to temporarily shut down highways, railways and even Tokyo's main airport, more than 400 kilometers away. Eight people were reported injured. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered 64 kms below the sea floor off the coast of northeastern Miyagi prefecture, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. Seven people were injured in Iwate Prefecture, one in Miyagi Prefecture and a house caught fire in the city of Ichinoseki, Iwate, in the quake which struck at 6:24 p.m. Felt across a broad area of the northern part of Japan's main island, the quake sent shoppers at a mall in one northern town rushing out into the streets. Some areas were suffering electricity and water outages immediately after the quake, local officials told NHK said, but had no further details. Major highways and railways were also closed as officials checked for damage. A road buckled in the northeastern city of Ishinomaki and a house in the city caught fire, said local disaster official Norio Kumagai. At least two prefectures had established emergency disaster headquarters. "The quake was felt over a very broad area," said Central Meteorological Agency official Noritake Nishibe. He said it was the strongest quake in Japan in about two years, and that aftershocks were expected. He suggested the impact of the quake might have been mitigated by its depth. NHK, which broke into regular programming immediately after the quake, reported that the earthquake was strong enough to knock people over in the city of Sendai. A fire was also reported in Sendai, but it was not clear if it was related to the quake. The quake was strong enough to shake items off shelves in several towns near the epicenter and cause tall buildings to sway in Tokyo, 420 kms to the south. Authorities at downtown Haneda airport briefly suspended takeoffs and landings to check the condition of runways, and bullet train service to northeastern Japan was also stopped. The Meteorological Agency said there was no danger of tsunami, powerful waves that can be stirred up by seismic activity. Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, puled by four tectonic plates, the huge slabs of land that cover the earth's crust. (Wire reports)