By
The Associated Press
KURE, Japan - Aftershocks rattled southwestern Japan yesterday as residents began picking up the pieces following a powerful earthquake that killed two people and damaged the region's infrastructure.
The magnitude-6.4 temblor struck southwestern Japan on Saturday afternoon, collapsing buildings, snapping power lines and severing water mains. The quake shook windows as far away as South Korea.
Aftershocks continued to jolt the region sporadically yesterday, including a magnitude-4.7 tremor last night that was strong enough to momentarily disrupt bullet train service. No new damage was reported, however, and local utility companies continued work restoring electricity and water.
Hiroshima, 430 miles southwest of Tokyo, was the hardest hit of seven southwestern states that recorded heavy seismic activity. Twenty-one people remained hospitalized in Hiroshima state, police said.
By last night, the quake's toll stood at two killed and 174 injured. An 80-year-old woman died in the town of Kure when she was buried under rubble. In nearby Ehime state, a 50-year-old woman fleeing her home was killed by falling roof tiles.
A total of 5,070 buildings in southwestern Japan sustained some damage, the Home Affairs Ministry in Tokyo said.
About 120 people living in and around the bustling metropolitan city of Hiroshima had to leave damaged homes, said Masayoshi Yatsu, a spokesman for the government's disaster prevention office.
In Kure, a town of old-fashioned wooden houses and narrow winding streets about 12 miles south of Hiroshima, residents cleared away rubble to let cars pass and lined up outside relief centers for water and vinyl sheets to patch broken roofs. About 10,000 homes remained without water yesterday.
"I've never been so scared in my life," said Kure resident Hatsue Michinaka, 84, said as she swept up debris from a collapsed wall.
Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. It straddles three tectonic plates, the huge slabs of land that cover the surface of the Earth.
Saturday's quake was centered off the coast of Japan and relatively deep under the sea, some 40 miles below ground, which may have softened its impact.
In October, a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck a largely rural area in Tottori state, northwest of Hiroshima. No one was killed but at least 120 people were injured and some 2,000 homes damaged.
Some 6,000 people died when an earthquake devastated the western Japan port city of Kobe in 1995.
