NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - 19
AP PHOTO/JOHN MINCHILLO
INTERNATIONAL
NOTO TEMBLOR
THE STRONGEST EARTHQUAKE TO
STRIKE JAPAN IN MORE THAN A DECADE
PRODUCES WIDESPREAD DAMAGE AND
CHALLENGES FOR REPONDERS
A
powerful New Year's Day earthquake on the
Noto Peninsula in Japan destroyed homes,
sparked fires, flooded businesses, and set off
a weeks-long effort to find survivors trapped
within the ruins of their homes.
The 7.6 magnitude quake, the strongest to hit Japan in more
than a decade, raised the ground by 13 feet in some areas and
shifted it laterally by more than three feet, scientists said, causing
extensive damage.
As of January 18, 232 fatalities had been reported; 1,200
people were injured, and 22 were still missing, according to
officials in Ishikawa Prefecture, which encompasses the Noto
Peninsula on the northern coast of the Japanese mainland.
Forced evacuations for tsunamis, cold weather, landslides, and
more than 600 aftershocks-some nearly as powerful as the initial
tremor-complicated and delayed rescue efforts throughout the
region, home to one of the oldest populations in Japan. While a
major tsunami never materialized, a sizable surge did inundate
structures and businesses along the coastline, the government said.
Firefighters and Japanese Army personnel searched the
debris for several days in hopes of finding people alive. On
January 6, five days after the quake, rescuers pulled a woman
in her 90s from under her collapsed two-story home. Despite
being injured and hypothermic, she was conscious and talking,
the New York Times reported. Several rescued victims later died
in the hospital, however, including an 89-year-old woman who
was pulled from the rubble 72 hours after the quake.
In addition to collapsed buildings, responders throughout the
region also had to contend with fires, which are common in the
aftermath of earthquakes. One fire, sparked by downed power
lines, raced through a centuries-old market in the fishing city of
Wajima, on the peninsula's northern tip. Within hours, nearly 200
wooden shops and houses in the market had been reduced to ash.
The rest of Wajima, which had about 27,000 residents, didn't
fare much better. The city " is destroyed almost beyond recognition "
with " buildings and houses toppled into nearly every
street, " according to an NBC News journalist, who toured
Wajima six days after the disaster.
On January 2, the day after the earthquake, a Japanese
Coast Guard plane on its way to deliver supplies to the devastated
peninsula collided with a Japan Airlines passenger plane
on a runway in Tokyo. The fiery incident, which was caught on
video, killed five of the six people aboard the cargo plane. All
379 people aboard the burning commercial airliner escaped
and survived.
-Jesse Roman
NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 19
http://www.NFPA.ORG/JOURNAL
NFPA Journal - Spring 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Spring 2024
Contents
NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - 1
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - 3
NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - Contents
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