This is unrelated to Gackt news- but as a fan of Japan, the culture, the history and the people, I follow Japanese news very closely, and I'm saddened to report that another earthquake has struck Japan, killing (as of 1:03 pm central time here in the states on the 16th of July 2007) 7, and injuring hundreds more.
My heart goes out to the families and friends of those lost or injured, and to those who suffered the loss of their homes or places of work due to the quake.
Today, Japan was hit by 2 quakes. The first happened in Niigata prefecture, destroying many houses and bridges and injuring at least 800 people. The second quake, registered at 6.8 magnitude (being called a quake, not an aftershock), killed at least 7 people and injured many more.
The 7 confirmed deaths were four women and three men all between 70 and 80 years old.
The effects of the earthquake had buildings shaking on their foundations as far as Tokyo. Over 2,000 people were evacuated from Kashiwazaki. The second quake caused the closing of transit from Tokyo to North / Northwestern Japan... and the closing of a top nuclear plant.
The plant (the world's largest plant in terms of power output capacity) was said to have leaked 315 gallons of water... the water contained a tiny amount of radioactive material and is believed to have flushed into the Sea of Japan.
There was also an electrical fire that took a few hours to contain.
This Quake follows a Quake that occured Late March, Early April of this year- which resulted in 1 death and hundreds of injured.
The last major quake to hit the capital, Tokyo, killed about 142,000 people in 1923, and experts say the capital has a 90% chance of suffering a major quake in the next 50 years.
In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit Niigata, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes. It was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2 quake killed 6,433 people in the western city of Kobe.
Japan is the world's most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occuring at least once every 5 mintues according to news sources.
Again... my heart goes out to the people of Japan, and their families and friends of those who suffered from this earthquake.
-Ara-
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