A huge tsunami hit several cities of north eastern Japan after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck Japan’s north eastern coast. The tsunami swept homes, cars, boats and bridges which immediately caused panic and turmoil among residence. Video footages show a massive wave sweeping everything on its way and ruining hectares of farmlands.
The United States Geological Survey recently stated that the quake originated 373 kilometers away from Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Noato Kan expressed their sympathy to the people and promised that the government will immediately conduct all rescue efforts in order to lessen the casualties.
According to authorities, as of 4:30 pm EST, around 5 people were killed in the small prefecture of Fukushima alone. Authorities expect for the worst, as the casualties will surely increase as time pass by. This prompted authorities to request everyone near the area to immediately evacuate to higher grounds to avoid being swept by the terrifying tsunami.
As of the moment, almost 19 countries all across the world have already issued tsunami alerts more specifically nearby countries like the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, and most especially Hawaii. In fact, Hawaii authorities said that waves as high as ten meters can hit their country.
The quake continued for several minutes and numerous aftershocks continuously shocked adjacent Japan cities such as Tokyo. All public transportations such as trains and subway traffic were immediately shut down. In the prefecture of Chiba, firefighters tried to put out the fire of several oil refineries devoured in fire. Approximately 4 million families were affected by complete power shut down in adjacent prefectures and cities.
According to some residents, this recent quake is considered as one of the worst earthquakes in Japan for the last 20 years. This 8.9 quake followed a 6.3-magnitude tremor which struck the prefecture of Honshu a day earlier.
Quakes are normal in Japan and usual tremors shake citizen each day. But according to some citizens, nobody expected that today’s quake will be this catastrophic. This event recorded as the 5th strongest quake in the entire human history, the 1st was in Chile were a 9.5-magnitude quake ruined the entire country.
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