A powerful earthquake jolted northwestern Japan late Tuesday, causing minor injuries to 21 people and a brief evacuation of coastal homes until the risk of a tsunami passed.
Store floors were littered with goods that fell off shelves, and roofs of homes showed bare spots where tiles had shaken loose. But business was returning to normal Wednesday morning, with trains mostly running as usual and electricity restored to thousands of homes that lost power temporarily.
Japan's Meteorological Agency said the earthquake struck off the western coast of Yamagata about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the city of Sakata. It was fairly shallow, about 14 kilometers (9 miles) below the sea's surface. Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage.
More than 1,500 people took shelter at evacuation centers in Murakami city and elsewhere in Niigata prefecture, but many of them left Wednesday morning to check their homes. Public broadcaster NHK showed people using flattened cardboard boxes as mattresses to sleep on in a school gym. Many others, including children, were still awake and sitting against the walls.
At least 15 people were injured after a magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck Japan’s northeastern region late Tuesday, authorities said Wednesday.
The Meteorological Agency warned of potential landslides and the collapse of houses, and said there was a chance of more quakes of similar levels hitting Yamagata and Niigata prefectures over the following week. It also forecast rain in part of the region on Wednesday.
Nine people were injured in Yamagata, four in Niigata, and one each in Miyagi and Ishikawa prefectures, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
The quake, which occurred at around 10:22 p.m. off the coast of Yamagata Prefecture, prompted the Meteorological Agency to issue tsunami advisories for coastal areas of Yamagata and Niigata prefectures and the Noto area in Ishikawa Prefecture. The agency estimated the possible tsunami’s height to be as much as 1 meter.
It was the most powerful temblor in Japan since last Sept. 6, when a deadly quake registering 7 on the intensity scale rocked the town of Atsuma in Hokkaido.
Tuesday’s strong quake also hit Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture with a lower 6. A lower 5 was recorded in Yurihonjo, Akita Prefecture, in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture and in Nagaoka and Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. said about 5,000 households were experiencing a power outage in Yamagata Prefecture while 2,800 were without power in Niigata as of 11:50 p.m.
Some highways and roads in Yamagata and Niigata prefectures were closed because of fallen rocks.
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