A landslide caused by Friday’s earthquake in Suzu city, Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, Saturday May 6, 2023. AP
Authorities are still assessing the damage on Saturday, May 6, after a powerful earthquake hit central Japan that killed at least one and injured 29.
The 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck Ishikawa Prefecture at 2:42 p.m. (0542 GMT) on Friday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). She initially estimated the magnitude at 6.3.
As of Saturday morning, at least fifty-five aftershocks have been recorded since the initial tremor, according to the agency. She further warned of the danger of landslides in the area.
Landslides and destroyed buildings
Residents inspect their house for collapse after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake that struck the previous day central Japan in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, May 6, 2023. STR/ AFP
“Our employees are assessing the damage caused by the earthquake,” an official from the city of Suzu in the hardest-hit department of Ishikawa told Agence France-Presse. Two people trapped in a destroyed building were rescued, he added, and about fifty people were given emergency shelters at schools and town hall.
Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno reported a death to the media on Friday. The victim died after falling from a ladder in Suzu on the Sea of Japan coast, a local crisis management official said. The number of injured was revised upwards by the national crisis team on Saturday.
Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed destroyed or damaged wooden houses in the city with broken windows and smashed roofs. A sagging section of the mountain could also be seen.
The earthquake in places reached level 6+ on the Japanese Shindo scale, which has 7. For its part, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.2 and l ‘is located slightly offshore, while the Japanese agency placed the epicenter on the mainland.
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Frequent earthquakes
Located on the Noto Peninsula, the city of Suzu was hit by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in 2007, injuring hundreds and damaging more than 200 buildings. Earthquakes are common in Japan, which lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity spanning Southeast Asia and the Pacific Basin. In March 2022, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 occurred, mainly in the east of the country, and killed one person.
A building is pictured the day after it collapsed after the earthquake in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, May 6, 2023. STR / AFP
The archipelago has strict building standards to allow its buildings to withstand severe shaking. Emergency drills to prepare for a major earthquake are organized regularly.
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But Japan is haunted mostly by the memory of the March 11, 2011 magnitude 8.9 earthquake off Japan’s northeast coast. The terrible quake triggered a tsunami that was the main cause of the high death toll with nearly 18,500 dead or missing.
The ensuing nuclear accident at the flood-hit Fukushima plant, which melted the cores of three out of six reactors, forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate and rendered entire communities uninhabitable for several years.
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