Japan earthquakes: People urged to flee to higher ground

Japan earthquakes: People urged to flee to higher ground

Helen Anne Smith joins us now from Beijing and this is emerging to be quite a big deal Helen Anne yeah I think so it’s too early really at the moment to say just uh how major uh the damage is is going to be uh how major the tsunami that’s been warned

Of is going to be but certainly at the sense from Japanese television all the noises coming out of uh Japanese uh ministers including uh prime minister kashida is that this is very serious indeed uh and the residents should absolutely flee uh to Higher Ground take

Cover uh as soon as they can uh we understand there was a series of quakes actually that hit Japan uh throughout this afternoon starting at roughly 4:00 local time uh a couple of smaller Quakes but the big one a 7.6 uh magnitude hitting the country followed by another of other Tremors as

Well um and all the authorities are saying that this is very likely to cause relatively major uh tsunam Army uh their warning of waves of up to 5 m in that uh key province of Ishikawa uh which is the area that that they think is going to be

Worst hit but 3 meter waves relatively likely to the surrounding provinces of nikata and tuama as well so a big stretch of Coastline um likely to be hit and certainly announcements on public television in Japan saying things like look we know your homes and your livelihoods are important to you uh but

Your lives are at stake you must flee to Higher Ground as quickly as possible worth seeing as well it’s very very cold uh in that part of Japan at this time of year too so that that climate impact is is going to be pretty severe for those

People kind of fleeing their homes in potentially very very wet and damp conditions and to give you a sense as well of just how powerful this is likely to be there’s been tsunami warnings in some of the surrounding countries in Russia South Korea North Korea as well

So um I think a sense that this could really uh develop into something very very serious indeed and certainly some of the the earlier pictures we’re seeing coming out of uh Japan such as the ones we’re looking at right now uh give a sense of how serious things are already

Pictures of buildings collapsing uh buildings on fire uh things shaking in a terrifying way uh so look Lots we still don’t know um unfortunately I think this disaster has uh many hours yet to run but a sense that it could be very very serious indeed serious indeed as you say

Helen and and the Swift response from the government was quite telling yeah I think so and and as I said earlier that just the tone that’s being taken on public television in Japan um I I think says it all big red banners saying evacuate immediately uh news presenters again saying things like

Look we know your homes are important to you we know it feels difficult to leave but you must flee you must run to Higher Ground and and crucially that is across a really pretty substantial stretch of the Japanese Coast uh as well and look remember the Japanese um will have

Terrifying memories of the impacts of tsunamis of course an enormous uh earthquake of uh nine magnitude hitting Japan in 2011 remember that enormous tsunami uh that hit then killed 18,000 people uh caused nuclear milk down in in the Fukushima nuclear pump very very famously so look the people of Japan are

Very aware of this type of natural disaster they’re actually very very well prepared as a country so that early warning system uh there is certain a sense that that was in place some of the nuclear power stations in this part of Japan actually saying that they had shut

Down all operations ahead of the kind of quakes hitting because of pre-warning so look there is a sense that of all countries Japan is a well prepared country for this sort of thing however uh this is a very very big earthquake there is very little that human beings

Can do to withstand a 5 meter wave possibly larger so uh look I think a sense of uh real emergency uh in the country at the moment and as I said that is really reflective in the tone that’s being taken certainly by uh the Japanese government by the Japanese prime minister by Japanese

State television and Helen and the impact of that 2011 earthquake and tsunami lasted for many years in fact the impact is evident still today so this has the potential doesn’t it to really impact local communities hardest hit yeah absolutely um it’s the communities around uh the Fukushima area

Actually on the other side of Japan on the East Coast that were predominantly affected by that 2011 tsunami it took many many years um for communities to rebuild from the damage that was done there you know tens of thousands of people displaced by that tsunami 18,000 killed as I said that big relatively

Infamous now nuclear meltdown that happened at the Fukushima plant and there is still a pretty sizable exclusion Zone around that plant well over a decade later so it was an incredibly serious event and that memory looms very very large uh for people in Japan um there so many tens of thousands

Affected by that uh who lost their homes who lost their livelihoods and these things take time to rebuild so look although this is on the sort of opposite coast of Japan um you know people the memories of what happened back then will not be lost on any Community uh in Japan

So I think there is a real sense of of panic actually and a real sense of alarm as I said Japan is relatively as as terms of Asian countries go relatively well set up for for earthquakes they have good infrastructure they have good Warning Systems but look when you’re

Talking about a earthquake of that magnitude 7.6 when you are talking about tsunamis of potentially 5 MERS high as I said there’s not a huge amount human beings can do about that and I think some of the pictures that are already coming out of Japan at this early hour

Of buildings collapsing uh buildings on fire things shaking really terrifyingly uh I think it gives a sense of just how strong uh this earthquake was and crucially as well again the uh the sense that surrounding countries have also issued their own tsunami warnings you know cities on the eastern coast of

Russia uh South Korea North Korea have all put out their own warnings so I think that gives a sense of just how wide uh this might have been and of course always with earthquakes uh you have the risk of after Tremors you have the risk of follow-up Quakes uh and that

Will be of deep concern to the Japanese government as well at the moment so uh I think really a sense of um um emergency mode kicking in um as we speak in Japan

Pictures of buildings collapsing and catching fire have been shown on Japanese public television, after a series of powerful earthquakes hit Ishikawa and nearby areas.

Authorities are warning that earthquakes could continue to hit the country and people need to remain vigilant over the coming days.

Read more: https://news.sky.com/topic/japan-6009

#japan #earthquake #tsunami

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