2024-01-02 05:56:26
Many infrastructures were destroyed following an earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture (Japan), on January 2, 2024. AP
Calm had not returned in the early morning of Tuesday, January 2 on the coast of the Sea of Japan, where aftershocks followed one another – more than 150 since the powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake and tsunami waves that occurred the day before and whose initial reports show six deaths and around fifty injured in several departments – Ishikawa, Niigata and even Fukui and Gifu. Several people are believed to be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings. The toll would, however, be limited thanks to the effectiveness of warning messages and construction standards in force in the Archipelago.
Tsunami alerts, which did not cause damage, were lifted overnight from Monday to Tuesday, but the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) continues to call for vigilance on the coast from Hokkaido, to north, to the island of Kyushu, in the southwest. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces (FAD, the Japanese army) to the disaster areas, despite “access made difficult due to cut roads”. Aid and basic necessities will be transported by air or sea.
“Very significant damage has been confirmed, including numerous casualties, collapsed buildings and fires”said Mr. Kishida. “We must race against time” to save lives, he added.
INFOGRAPHIC THE WORLD
Daybreak revealed the extent of the damage. Kanazawa, capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, closest to the epicenter, suffered a landslide. Houses have collapsed and the walls of its castle are damaged.
The most affected towns would be those on the Noto peninsula, a few dozen kilometers north of Kanazawa. In the port of Wajima, a fire destroyed around fifty buildings in neighborhoods near the Kawaharata River, known for their old houses and the market that sets up there every morning to sell seafood caught at night. The six-story building housing the offices of Goshimaya, a manufacturer of lacquerware, a local specialty, collapsed. A city hospital must treat some of the injured in the parking lot.
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Wajima also experienced the highest tsunami wave. Measured at 1.20 meters, it reached the port around ten minutes after the most powerful earthquake. Waves, which did not exceed a few tens of centimeters, were observed on a large part of the northern coast of the Archipelago, and as far as those of Russia and the Korean peninsula.
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