Tsunami could have struck quake shelter.

One of the shelters in Monzenmachi, Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, where a tremor registered an upper 6 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 when a powerful earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula on Sunday morning, is in a sea-level area that could be hit by a tsunami, Wajima municipal government officials said Monday.

The municipal government did not stop residents from going to the shelter, which was on the list of shelters released by the government's disaster prevention headquarters, the officials said.

On Monday morning, the government moved about 200 residents to a primary school in Monzenmachi, but with more than 100 aftershocks occurring following the powerful tremor, the residents were exposed to the danger of a tsunami in their sleep on Sunday.

The Kaiso assembly hall in Monzenmachi is a wooden structure separated

The Wajima municipal government on Monday asked four people of three households in Monzenmachi in the city to evacuate as they might be isolated by landslides that could be caused by aftershocks.

According to officials of Wajima's disaster prevention headquarters, the evacuation advice, the first issued following the earthquake, was given to three people in the Uchibo district and one person in the Mine district in the mountains.

Municipal government officials immediately asked four men and women aged between 73 and 81 to leave after finding them in three houses during patrols of the area.

The officials initially cited the possible destruction of their houses as the reason for their evacuation, but two hours later, revised the reason to their possible isolation.

When the officials patrolled the area after the earthquake on Sunday, they determined that elderly residents would be safe in their homes.

Copyright 2007 The Daily Yomiuri

Source Citation:"Tsunami could have struck quake shelter." Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri (March 27, 2007): NA. General OneFile. Gale. Alachua County Library District. 18 Sept. 2009
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