- Title: JAPAN: Japan quake reminds Tokyo of potential disaster
- Date: 27th March 2007
- Summary: COMPUTER MONITOR SHOWING PAST BIG EARTHQUAKES OCCURRED IN JAPAN
- Embargoed: 11th April 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA75OR1T6WJQZCXQNIPQTEHC8N1
- Story Text: Victims of a powerful weekend earthquake in central Japan that killed one person and destroyed hundreds of homes faced an uncertain future on Tuesday (March 27), with few signs of when life would return to normal.
About 1,900 people spent a second night in evacuation centres as hundreds of aftershocks continued to jolt the area following Sunday's 6.9 magnitude quake, which struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km (190 miles) west of Tokyo.
The tremor demolished 57 houses and seriously damaged more than 700 others, many of them old wooden structures with heavy tile roofs. More than 200 people were hurt, although most injuries were minor. Electric power was fully restored but some 8,700 homes still lacked running water, and troops and aid workers were distributing emergency supplies.
Meanwhile, the unexpected strong quake reminded people of the potential disaster that could happen anywhere in Japan at any time.
Despite efforts by Tokyo to prepare for a powerful earthquake, thousands are likely to die in a tremor that experts say could hit one of the world's biggest cities at any time.
"The official estimation said that there is a 70 percent chance of upper 5 earthquake which is as strong as Noto quake in the next 30 years in and around Tokyo. This warning has been frequently announced by the government and most of people know it." said Hiromichi Tsuji, assistant professor of earthquake research institute at university of Tokyo, one of the world's leading quake research centre.
Forecasts of casualties in a major quake in Tokyo vary wildly.
A January estimate by the city government put the number of dead at a few thousand, while a 2004 study by insurer Munich Re said hundreds of thousands could die and damage would run into trillions of dollars.
On the outskirts or old cities like Tokyo's downtown Asakusa city, large areas of tightly packed wooden houses remain vulnerable to tremor and fire, although many such homes have been replaced with concrete buildings in recent years, meaning casualties would likely be far lower than in the capital's last major earthquake some 84 years ago.
"I am so scared. We can't escape from earthquake which we never know when to happen." said local resident 85-year-old Fumiko Yoshida.
"I heard It could happen in next 30 years. I rather hope to be dead before it would occur. It is so frightening." added another resident 66-year-old shunsuke yoshida.
The Great Kanto earthquake of Sept. 1, 1923, killed more than 140,000 people, many being burned to death in fires set off as the tremor hit while they were cooking lunch.
A Tokyo government proposal released in January calls for the ratio of quake-proof buildings to be raised from 76 percent to 90 percent, or 100 percent along major roads, to try to halve the number of casualties.
"The most important thing to minimize the damage is to strengthen housings up to quake-proof and to construct systems to make people evacuate whenever tsunami happens." Tsuji said.
Despite government publicity campaigns, one of the biggest problems officials say they face is individual apathy.
In a survey this year of survivors of the 1995 Kobe quake in which about 6,400 people died, Kyodo news agency said it found 70 percent had not got around to securing items of furniture to the walls -- a precaution that experts say could save many lives.
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