421 injured in Japanese quakes

Refrigerators and washing machines jumped away from walls, cabinets came crashing down and rooms were carpeted with broken glass as three powerful earthquakes injured 421 people, knocked out power grids and set off mudslides across rain-soaked northern Japan today.

“I just grabbed my kids and held on tight,” said Yoshiko Takaki, a young mother taking refuge with her two toddlers in a school gymnasium in Yamoto, a small town near the epicentre. “I thought the whole house was going to fall apart.”

Collapsed walls, shattered windows and a house that broke in half testified to the violence of the earthquakes.

Authorities warned that aftershocks and heavy rains could bring more waterlogged embankments and hillsides rumbling down.

Takaki’s family was among more than 1,000 people in Miyagi prefecture (state) forced from their homes by the burst of seismic activity that began shortly after midnight and rattled this region of rice paddies and two-lane roads throughout the day.

Areas of Miyagi were left without power or water for much of the day after the most powerful of the earthquakes – registering a preliminary magnitude 6.2 - jolted the area early in the morning.

A tremor measuring 5.5 had struck seven hours earlier, and another followed several hours later registering 5.3. The government’s meteorological agency reported more than 600 milder aftershocks continuing into the night.

National police said 421 people were reported injured, 27 seriously, and at least 1,000 homes were damaged.

But no deaths were reported, and most of the injuries were cuts and bruises caused by falling objects.

The toll may have been limited by increased preparedness among residents in a region that was hit by a more powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake just two months earlier.

Takaki said she had removed heavy furniture from her bedroom – where she took cover with her children this morning – after the temblor in May, which injured about 150 people.

In the neighbouring town of Kanan, two people were pulled alive from a house that was buried in a mudslide, and authorities braced for more downpours tomorrow.

“The big concerns are the rain and aftershocks,” said Jun Aizawa, a town official. “Our top priority now is getting emergency supplies to evacuation centres.”

Three hundred soldiers from Japan’s Self Defence Forces were mobilised in the emergency effort. Olive-green trucks and jeeps rumbled through the streets carrying water and blankets.

The latest quakes were centred at shallower depths than the one in May – and were more frightening for some who experienced both.

“It didn’t shake. It was more like, wham – right beneath us,” said Sachie Akama, 51, another Yamoto resident.

Authorities closed roads to check for cracks and landslides. Train service was disrupted on several lines, stranding thousands of passengers.

Shiro Akama, Sachie’s 83-year-old father, stared up from his mattress on the floor of the gym where he had been evacuated. Cuts marked his forehead where a chest of drawers had toppled over and hit him.

“At least nothing will fall on me here,” he said.