152 People Injured in Sat. Quake in Japan

Tokyo, Feb. 15 (Jiji Press)--A powerful earthquake that mainly hit the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan on Saturday night has injured a total of 152 people in nine prefectures in Tohoku and the Kanto eastern region, it was learned by Monday. The quake measured upper 6, the second-highest level on Japan's seismic intensity scale, in some municipalities in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, both in Tohoku. In Fukushima, 81 people were hurt in the quake. Of them, a 67-year-old woman in the city of Koriyama suffered serious injuries after falling down the stairs at her home. A total of some 70 evacuation centers were opened in the prefecture, and about 200 people temporarily took shelter at the facilities. Water supply was disrupted at some 2,800 households in the Fukushima town of Shinchi, and Self-Defense Forces troops are working to cope with the situation at the request of the Fukushima prefectural government. Progress is being made in the water restoration work. Fifty-two people were injured in Miyagi, including a woman, 84, in the city of Higashimatsushima, who broke her thigh bone after falling from a bed. Water outage hit some Miyagi municipalities, including the town of Yamamoto. Nineteen people were confirmed to have suffered injuries in Yamagata, Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures. A woman in her 80s in the city of Higashimatsuyama in Saitama fell and broke her right thigh bone. In the city of Kimitsu in Chiba, a woman in her 80s broke her leg after falling. The Japan Meteorological Agency said that tsunamis of up to 20 centimeters were observed at a port in the Miyagi city of Ishinomaki at 1:44 a.m. Sunday (4:44 p.m. Saturday GMT). According to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. <9501>, water overflowed from the spent fuel storage pools at the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors of its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station and from the pool at the No. 1 reactor of its Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant. But the incident will cause no safety issues because the water remains inside the reactor buildings, the firm said. There has been no report on major problems at Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s <9506> Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi and Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tokai No. 2 nuclear plant in Ibaraki, both of which are offline. Due to the earthquake, a massive landslide occurred on the Joban Expressway in Fukushima, on the section between the Soma Interchange in the city of Soma and the Shinchi Interchange in the town of Shinchi, according to the land ministry. No one was confirmed to have been injured in the landslide. According to TEPCO, power outage occurred at a total of more than 800,000 households in its service areas following the quake. Electricity supply to the households was restored by Sunday morning, TEPCO officials said. Power outage in Tohoku Electric's service areas has almost been resolved, officials of the company said. East Japan Railway Co. <9020>, or JR East, suspended train operations on many of its lines mainly in the Tohoku region on Sunday. JR East said that it would take about 10 days before services resume on all sections of its Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line. Extensive damage was confirmed, such as at least 20 electricity poles breaking on the section between Shin-Shirakawa Station in Fukushima and Furukawa Station in Miyagi on the Shinkansen line, according to the company. Services were fully canceled Sunday between Nasushiobara Station in Tochigi and Morioka Station in Iwate Prefecture. The section is expected to be closed for the time being. On Sunday, only about one train per hour was operated between Nasushiobara and Tokyo Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line. On the same day, services were canceled from the first trains on all sections of the Akita Shinkansen Line, which links Tokyo and Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan. On Sunday, the suspension of Shinkansen services affected about 21,300 people, according to JR East. Train operations returned to normal on Monday on conventional lines of JR East, such as the Tohoku, Joban and Uetsu lines, after a suspension. The Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen lines operated normally on Sunday. According to East Nippon Expressway Co., or NEXCO East, regular traffic is still closed on both directions between the Soma Interchange in Fukushima and the Watari Interchange in Miyagi on the Joban Expressway. Transport minister Kazuyoshi Akaba told a news conference Monday that he will take steps so that the landslide-affected section will be reopened by the middle of this week. Japan Airlines <9201> and All Nippon Airways operated extra flights to and from airports in the Tohoku region and used larger aircraft on some routes on Sunday, following the suspension of services on JR East's Tohoku Shinkansen Line. The two major airlines are keeping the measures in place on Monday. END