Largest aftershock kills 4, unsettles quake survivors

SENDAI, April 8 Kyodo -
The strongest aftershock since last month's devastating earthquake that struck Miyagi Prefecture and elsewhere late Thursday night killed four people and left 141 others injured, police and hospital officials said Friday.
The 11:32 p.m. quake, registering a revised magnitude of 7.1, was the first to measure in the upper 6 level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 since the March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern and eastern Japan.
The aftershock unsettled many people who had taken refuge at makeshift shelters since being displaced by last month's disaster.
No new abnormalities have been reported at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant or the nearby Fukushima Daini as a result of Thursday's quake. At the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi, however, small amounts of radioactive water spilled from pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods after the strong jolt, the nuclear safety agency said.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said cooling functions were lost for up to 81 minutes for the spent fuel pools at the Higashidori and Onagawa power stations, both operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co., following the quake.
External power supply was also cut at the Higashidori nuclear power plant and a spent fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture, temporarily forcing them to use backup generators.
The four people who died during and after the aftershock included a 63-year-old woman in Obanazawa, Yamagata Prefecture, who apparently died when her medical ventilator lost power in a blackout that followed.
The three other dead include a 79-year-old man in Higashimatsushima and an 85-year-old man in Ishinomaki, both in Miyagi Prefecture. But the Miyagi prefectural government said that the deaths of the two who were hospitalized at Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital and the earthquake are remotely related.
The remaining victim was a 74-year-old woman in Matsushima whose death was confirmed at a hospital Friday after she fell off the veranda of her home during a blackout after the quake.
Of the 141 injured, 93 were in Miyagi Prefecture, followed by 13 in Iwate, 11 in Yamagata, nine in Aomori and Fukushima, and six in Akita, the National Police Agency said.
A tsunami warning was issued in some areas along the Pacific coast shortly after Thursday's quake, but was lifted early Friday.
There were emergency calls about fires and gas leakages, according to local police and fire departments, while the quake resulted in the closure of all expressways in Miyagi Prefecture and the suspension of most train services in the Tohoku region.
The aftershock temporarily left more than 4 million households without electricity in all six prefectures in the Tohoku region, including those already without power, with traffic lights out in parts of Miyagi until Friday afternoon.
''There are no TVs or radios available due to the blackout. All of us are worried,'' said Takeo Sato, 70. He was among residents staying at a sports arena in the tsunami-ravaged Miyagi town of Minamisanriku, all of whom dashed outside when the quake hit.
At a public gymnasium in the town of Onagawa, power went down shortly after the quake, and firefighters guided people outside.
''I was surprised, but the jolt wasn't as big as the one before. I'm rather worried about the sea,'' said Fumie Yoshida, 37, a worker at a Sendai supermarket, where bottles of soft drinks and other products were left scattered across the floor by the quake.
A shinkansen train was stopped by Thursday's quake inside a tunnel in Aomori Prefecture, with 15 passengers aboard, but all were rescued early Friday, East Japan Railway Co. said. Service remained suspended all day on some sections of the Tohoku shinkansen line because of problems restoring power and ongoing safety checks.
While strong aftershocks have continued since the March 11 quake, the latest one registered the highest so far on the Japanese seismic intensity scale.
The death toll from the March 11 quake and the tsunami it triggered was 12,750 in 12 prefectures as of 4 p.m. Friday, while 14,706 remain missing and 4,380 are injured, the National Police Agency said.