Japan Hit Again by Quakes Amid Heavy Rain

Two earthquakes struck in the Pacific Ocean off the northeastern coast of Japan,
Japan Hit Again by Quakes Amid Heavy Rain
7/31/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/120082822(1).jpg" alt="Local residents walk on a bank of the Igarashigawa River swollen with heavy rain in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, on July 30. (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Local residents walk on a bank of the Igarashigawa River swollen with heavy rain in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, on July 30. (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)" width="575" class="size-medium wp-image-1800054"/></a>
Local residents walk on a bank of the Igarashigawa River swollen with heavy rain in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, on July 30. (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)

Two earthquakes, one with a magnitude of 6.4, the other a 5.0 jolt that came a couple of hours later, struck in the Pacific Ocean off the northeastern coast of Japan, near Honshu Island.

The first struck at 3.53 a.m. the other at 5:00 a.m. [local times] respectively on Sunday, July 31, the U.S. Geological Survey [U.S.G.S.] reported.

The quakes have hit in the same region where the massive March 11 tsunami was triggered.

The U.S.G.S. website says the 6.4 quake struck about 18 kilometers east-southeast of Iwaki on Honshu Island at a depth of 43.5 kilometers, its epicenter 184 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

Bonin Islands, near Japan, also actively registered 4.6 and 4.9 on the Richter scale the same day.

There were no immediate reports of damage or tsunami alerts, though Sky News reported seven injuries.

The newswire also reported heavy rains continuing to lash northeastern Japan with the death toll rising to three in the hardest-hit region of Niigata.

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/120082572.jpg" alt="Muddy stream from the Tadamigawa River overflow after heavy rain in Yanaizu, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 30, 2011.  (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Muddy stream from the Tadamigawa River overflow after heavy rain in Yanaizu, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 30, 2011.  (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)" width="250" class="size-medium wp-image-1800056"/></a>
Muddy stream from the Tadamigawa River overflow after heavy rain in Yanaizu, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 30, 2011.  (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)
Three others are missing in Niigata and Fukushima, the latter of which was ravaged by March’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami which damaged a nuclear power plant.

Thousands remain sheltered at evacuation centers avoiding floods from the rain storm since Wednesday. Torrential rain that killed at least 59 in South Korea last week.

Since Friday, more than 60,000 people were told to flee their homes, the national Fire and Disaster Management Agency told Sky News.

Several thousands were estimated to remain sheltered in Niigata early on Sunday. In Fukushima, 1,020 were sheltered as of late Saturday, and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 2,278 houses had been flooded.

‘The rain reached a peak in Niigata and Fukushima yesterday. It is still raining hard intermittently in limited areas,’ Japan Meteorological Agency official Kenji Okada said. ‘Its focus shifted slightly south.’