Towards the end of last week while we were preparing for the heavy rainfall and gusts of wind that would hit us over the weekend due to Tropical Storm Gordon, Japan was violently awoken by a massive earthquake. At approximately 3:08 a.m. Thursday morning a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido. People were awoken with no idea of what was occurring, just scared and worried about what the earthquake could bring about and what aftermath it would leave behind. Just 20 minutes after the first earthquake, a smaller 5.3 magnitude quake struck. These earthquakes led to numerous landslides and many homes collapsing. Not many rescue efforts occurred right after due to very heaving rain the following 24 hours, but early reports stated that at least 9 fatalities were discovered, and 30 people still remain missing. The rescue efforts that have been occurring over the past week hope to find the 30 missing people believed to be trapped in the collapsed buildings. Prime Minister Shinzo stated that around 300 additional injuries have been reported across Hokkaido due to the earthquake. At the start of the quake, 3 million homes were left without power, and many homes still don’t have power today. Even though these two earthquakes combined led to massive death and destruction in Japan, the good news is that no tsunami was reported after. The lack of a tsunami was beneficial to the livelihood of Japan by not costing anymore lives and not creating more damage to homes, businesses, and schools. All we and Japan can ask for now is a speedy recovery, prayers for those people still missing, and hopefully a soon return to normalcy.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FIU chapter.