Thousands
without power in Japan after earthquake kills four
Thousands
of Japanese households remained without power on Thursday as companies worked
to assess damage the morning after a powerful quake hit the northeast coast of
Japan, leaving at least four dead and nearly 100 injured, some seriously. The
magnitude 7.4 quake, which struck shortly before midnight on Wednesday and
revived memories of the March 11, 2011 disaster, also severed transport links
to the northeast, with Shinkansen bullet train service indefinitely
suspended and at least one major highway to the region closed for safety
checks. Parts of Tokyo lost power immediately after the quake, though most
regained it within three hours. But some 36,400 households serviced by Tohoku
Electric Power in northeast Japan remained without electricity by 9:00 a.m. local
time (0000 GMT) on Thursday, although the firm said it expected most will have
supply restored later in the day. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said four people
had died and that the government would be on high alert for the possibility of
further strong tremors over the next two to three days. The quake, initially
measured at magnitude 7.3 but later revised up to 7.4 by the Japan
Meteorological Agency, hit at 11.36 p.m. local time just off the coast of
Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60
kilometres. The 2011 quake and tsunami off Fukushima - commemorated
across the country less than a week ago - left some 18,000 dead. A
tsunami warning was issued but cancelled early on Thursday morning. Some areas
reported a rise in the sea level but no serious damage was immediately
reported. The 2011 disaster also set off meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant. No abnormalities were
reported at any nuclear power plants, although authorities had earlier said a
fire alarm had been triggered at a turbine building at the crippled plant.
Manufacturers were trying to gauge the potential damage to their facilities.
Renesas Electronics, the world's biggest maker of automotive microcontroller
chips, said it was checking for quake damage at three plants in Japan.
Meanwhile Toyota Motor Corp said it had cancelled the day shift at two
factories in northeast Japan after workers evacuated the plants during their
evening shift on Wednesday. The automaker said it will decide on the evening
shift later. Mizuho Financial Group Inc's main banking arm said some of its
ATMs temporarily stopped operations due to power outages, but that they had all
been restored to service. In an attempt to cover the area affected by the Shinkansen outage, All Nippon Airways
said it had added extra flights to the northern city of Sendai. There were no
forecasts of when regular rail service might be restored. Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average jumped, with no impact
seen from the quake
Source : The Jakarta Post.com (17 Maret
2022)
LIST
OF VOCABULARY
NO
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ENGLISH
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INDONESIA
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1.
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Indefinitely
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Tanpa
Batas waktu
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2.
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Suspended
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Ditangguhkan
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3.
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Prefecture
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Prefektur
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4.
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Commemorated
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Diperingati
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5.
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Affected
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Terkena
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6.
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Benchmark
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Tolak ukur
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7.
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Abnormalities
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Abnormalitas
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