Tsunami warnings in a region hit by nuclear disaster in 2011 were lifted after a few hours. The damage was still being assessed, but it appeared contained.
A powerful undersea earthquake off the Fukushima region of Japan, where a tsunami a decade ago set off one of the worst nuclear plant disasters in history, shook buildings for more than two minutes late Wednesday night. Then the waiting began. Shortly after the quake hit at 11:36 p.m., the Japan Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings for the prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi, and thousands of residents, many of whom remember only too well the destruction of 2011, evacuated. “Please put out any fires,” officials in the city of Minamisoma, in Fukushima, told residents as they urged them to get to safer ground. “Please listen to the TV and radio and act calmly and accordingly.” Hours later, the warnings were lifted. Several small tsunami waves measuring perhaps 20 centimeters in height (eight inches) were reported in two communities, but they were one-fifth the size that was forecast — and tiny compared to the 45-foot wave that devastated the region in 2011. More than 19,000 people died in that catastrophe. “In a lot of areas, there was a lot of stuff thrown everywhere, like files and everything,” said Shelly Reid, a staff member at Minamisoma City Hall. “Some roads were damaged, especially along the coast. There were some landslides.” One person in Minamisoma was confirmed dead after Wednesday’s quake. The earthquake measured magnitude 7.3 — strong enough to do serious structural damage — but the magnitude 9 Tohoku quake that caused the catastrophic 2011 tsunami was hundreds of times as powerful. The epicenter of the earthquake on Wednesday was 20 miles off the east coast of Japan, and about 37 miles below the sea. “We usually don’t see a destructive tsunami until you get to around 7.
