World
Earthquake in Japan caused damage worse than initially thought
A daylight assessment Sunday found at least 50 homes destroyed in two villages, and 41 people injured across the region, including seven seriously, mostly with broken bones. The magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday west of Nagano city at a depth of 3 miles. The hardest-hit area appeared to be Hakuba, which hosted events in the 1998 winter games. At least 43 homes were destroyed there and 17 people were injured, national and local disaster agencies said. Seven more houses were destroyed in a nearby village to the north. More than 20 people trapped under collapsed houses were rescued.
I never experienced a quake that shook so hard. The sideways shaking was enormous.
Ryo Nishino, restaurant owner near Nagano, to NHK television
Fortunately, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the affected areas. All of Japan’s nuclear plants are offline following a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami in 2011 that sent three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into meltdown.
