- Tokyo (AP) -- The world's most powerful earthquake in
2 years injured more than 300 people and knocked out power in northern
Japan, but experts said it was lucky things weren't far worse. The quake
was centered deep under the ocean, and the region it shook was well prepared.
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- Two fishermen were missing after the pre-dawn magnitude-8
quake, and police suspected they may have been swept away by tsunami, or
ocean waves, that followed.
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- (These were the official reports from the USGS:
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- 2003/09/25 19:50 M 8.0 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION Z= 33km
42.17N 143.72E
- 2003/09/25 21:07 M 7.0 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION Z= 33km
41.83N 143.51E
- 2003/09/26 06:26 M 5.6 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION Z= 10km
42.21N 144.64E)
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- Most of the injured on the northern island of Hokkaido
suffered minor scrapes caused by broken glass and falling objects.
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- The 4:50 a.m. temblor cracked roads, capsized fishing
boats, and caved in part of the roof of the airport in Obihiro, a city
of 200,000. Elsewhere, it knocked merchandise off store shelves. Kushiro,
560 miles northeast of Tokyo, was believed to be the hardest hit.
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- It forced the evacuation of 41,000 people and left some
16,000 homes blacked out. But by evening, power had been restored to all
but 2,000 homes and only 1,400 evacuees remained in shelters, said Hiroyuki
Nakao, a local government spokesman.
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- Experts said the damage was surprisingly light.
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- "My first reaction was that the damage was much
smaller than what earthquakes of that magnitude are capable of doing,"
said Yasuhiro Umeda, a seismologist at the Disaster Prevention Research
Institute at Kyoto University.
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- It was the strongest earthquake in 2 years, the U.S.
Geological Survey said. On June 23, 2001, an 8.4 magnitude quake struck
near the coast of Peru, killing 74 people, said Waverly Person of the USGS
in Golden, Colo.
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- Hokkaido government official Hidenori Hoshino said 323
people were confirmed injured as of 5 p.m., about 12 hours after the quake.
Police said 24 were seriously hurt, mostly with broken bones.
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- Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, put the injury toll
at 479.
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- Police were searching for a 69-year old man and a 66-year
old man who were fishing near the mouth of a river on the eastern coast
of Hokkaido, said spokesman Akihiro Ishikawa. Authorities believe they
may have been washed away by the waves. Their cars remained parked near
the river.
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- Black plumes of smoke and flames leapt from an oil tank
in the city of Tomakomai. The fire was contained within three hours and
no injuries were reported. Officials said 188,700 barrels of crude oil
were lost.
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- Umeda cited a pair of "fortunate coincidences"
concerning where-and how-the quake struck as reasons why the country fared
so well.
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- Unlike the magnitude-7.2 earthquake that devastated Kobe
in 1995 and was centered directly below that port city, the epicenter Friday
was relatively remote: 26 miles under the seabed 60 miles off the coast.
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- That may explain in part why tsunami waves that surged
to shore were smaller than had been feared, he said. The government had
warned residents to avoid coastal areas, but the highest waves recorded
were only about four feet.
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- The earthquake also produced horizontal shaking rather
than a vertical jolt. Umeda said such swaying is typically felt across
a wider area but is less violent than an up-and-down thudding.
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- Several observers credited the preparedness of the region,
whose residents have lived through several magnitude-7-plus earthquakes
in recent decades, most recently in 1993.
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- "If a major earthquake hit somewhere without that
kind of experience, there could be a panic," Umeda said.
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- Living in one of the world's most seismically active
nations, Japanese are drilled from childhood on what to do in case of earthquakes-including
turning off the gas, staying away from windows and knowing the location
of evacuation areas.
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- Many people secure their furniture and keep emergency
provisions, and building codes have been revised several times over the
last few decades.
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- The last major earthquake struck in 1923, killing more
than 140,000 people in a city then made mostly of wood.
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