A chilling sense of déjà vu has descended amongst the people living in the coastal region of northeastern Japan, as a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast. This is the same region where last year’s devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant and claimed many lives. The Japan Meteorological Agency says that a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 earthquake has struck the in the Pacific Ocean off Miyagi prefecture on Friday 7th December at 5:18 p.m. (0818 GMT).
Leaving nothing to chance, the authorities have issued a tsunami warning for the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, as the epicenter is said to be at 6.2 miles (245km or150 miles south-east of Kamiashi at a depth of about 36km) beneath the seabed. Warnings claim that the tsunami could be as high as 2.19 yards. For those who were listening in to the NHK television programming this evening, apparently the station kept breaking into the regular programming to warn about a strong quake striking, and that too shortly before it occurred.
The TV announcer urged all those who resided near the coast to flee to safety and take shelter at higher grounds. Tokyo was also not spared, many buildings swayed for at least several minutes. For now the only solace is that no untoward incident has been reported from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
[via L.A.Times]