Atsuma, Japan was hit hard from an earthquake that struck the island of Hokkaido before dawn on Thursday of last week. The quake registered a magnitude of 6.7 and triggered dangerous landslides that knocked out power on the whole island of approximately 5.5 million people.
Following the Hokkaido Electric Power Company, roughly 3 million households on the island lost power initially, though half of those households had been restored by Friday. Full repairs to the island’s principal power plant could take several more days.
According to Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency, the death toll from the quake and resulting landslides has amounted to 39 individuals, though two people still remain missing. Those injured counted 641 and 2,544 people were still taking safety in evacuation centers.
Search rescuers continued to dig through the debris left by the landslides, even using search dogs to look through the torn-up earth.
The town of Atsuma is a small community of about 4,600 on the ocean known for surfing. It was a mere four miles from the epicenter of the quake. Recently, Japan has faced several natural disasters, including flooding, typhoons, earthquakes, landslides, and heatwaves.
Sources: CNN, USA Today, Indian Express