TOKYO — Japan issued tsunami warnings for several regions after a powerful earthquake shook the country’s western coast on Monday, prompting authorities to urge those in vulnerable areas to evacuate or run to higher ground.
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The Japan Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings or advisories for almost all of its western coast after the quake, with the more urgent warnings declared in areas near the earthquake’s epicenter in central Japan. Several populous cities are in areas placed under warnings.
There were more than 30 reports of buildings collapsing in the city of Wajima in Ishikawa Prefecture, where the earthquake’s epicenter was recorded, as well as a fire in the city center, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. At least six people were buried alive in the rubble, said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a Monday news conference.
Tsunami waves with a height of about 1.2 meters, or 4 feet, were detected around the Noto Peninsula shortly after the powerful quake, at about 4:21 p.m., the Japan Meteorological Agency said, with more waves detected in the area later.
People in areas under tsunami warnings were advised to “evacuate immediately from coastal regions and riverside areas” to higher ground or designated evacuation buildings, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that more earthquakes with seismic intensities of around 7 could further hit seriously affected areas over the coming week, especially the next two to three days.
The agency initially placed the Noto Peninsula under a major tsunami warning, the most severe category, after the quake — making it the first such warning in Japan since 2011, when a devastating earthquake and tsunami killed tens of thousands of people, according to NHK. Authorities downgraded the warning hours later.
Some 33,000 households in Ishikawa and Niigata prefectures have lost power and mobile phone communications services there disrupted, Hayashi said. A fire also broke out at Shika Nuclear Power Plant in Ishikawa, but it was extinguished and had no impact on the plant’s operations, he said.
Across the Sea of Japan, authorities in South Korea said that they made four tsunami observations on its eastern coast as of 6:20 p.m., the largest of which had waves of 45 centimeters, or 17 inches.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office said it instructed authorities to prioritize human life and spare no effort in emergency disaster response.
The tsunami warnings have stoked fears across Japan, where at least 18,000 people were killed after a catastrophic March 2011 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu sent towering waves as high as 130 feet crashing into coastal towns, sweeping away cars and homes, as well as destroying multistory buildings. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake was the third-largest magnitude ever recorded in the world since 1900, according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information.
The 2011 earthquake also triggered one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, when a surge of seawater flooded electricity generators that powered the cooling system of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, compromising three reactors and eventually causing explosions that spread radioactive material.
Kasulis Cho reported from Seoul.
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