Japan’s Aeon shopping mall was the setting of a tragic scene when a powerful earthquake caused widespread destruction.
After the disaster, rescuers worked through the night to try to find survivors. Customers and staff began evacuating after the earthquake struck, but an explosion, possibly caused by a gas leak, collapsed part of the building before everyone could escape. At a nearby paper factory, a chimney also collapsed onto a building, where more people were still missing.
Japan builds structures specifically to withstand earthquakes, but this one was powerful enough to still cause serious damage — in fact, it could be felt as far away as South Korea. Hundreds of thousands of people were instructed to evacuate their homes, roads were torn apart, part of a bridge fell into the water, a train was derailed, and nearly 50,000 homes lost electricity. Historic sites, including a shrine and the wall of one of Japan's oldest castles, were also damaged.
Although people are already hard at work trying to recover, authorities warned that the danger did not end when the initial shaking stopped: weakened buildings, landslides, aftershocks and the possibility of further strong earthquakes could create additional risks.
Japan’s Aeon shopping mall was the setting of a tragic scene when a powerful earthquake caused widespread destruction.
After the disaster, rescuers worked through the night to try to find survivors. Customers and staff began evacuating after the earthquake struck, but an explosion, possibly caused by a gas leak, collapsed part of the building before everyone could escape. At a nearby paper factory, a chimney also collapsed onto a building, where more people were still missing.
Japan builds structures specifically to withstand earthquakes, but this one was powerful enough to still cause serious damage — in fact, it could be felt as far away as South Korea. Hundreds of thousands of people were instructed to evacuate their homes, roads were torn apart, part of a bridge fell into the water, a train was derailed, and nearly 50,000 homes lost electricity. Historic sites, including a shrine and the wall of one of Japan's oldest castles, were also damaged.
Although people are already hard at work trying to recover, authorities warned that the danger did not end when the initial shaking stopped: weakened buildings, landslides, aftershocks and the possibility of further strong earthquakes could create additional risks.