Tokyo Govt. Reviews Damage Estimate From Possible Earthquake Beneath Capital
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government estimates that an earthquake beneath the capital could kill more than 6,000 people and trigger other disaster-related deaths in the following weeks and months.
The metropolitan government's disaster-prevention panel on Wednesday reviewed its earthquake damage estimate for the first time in a decade.
The panel said a magnitude 7.3 quake directly beneath the southern part of central Tokyo would cause tremors registering 7, the highest on the Japanese seismic scale, in 11 wards, including Koto and Edogawa.
About 60 percent of Tokyo's 23 wards would register upper 6 or higher.
If the quake occurred at 6 p.m. in winter, with wind speed at 28.8 kilometers per hour, about 82,200 buildings would completely collapse and another 112,200 would burn down in fires.
The panel concluded that about 6,150 people would die and more than 93,400 people would suffer injuries.
The number of estimated deaths is about 3,500 fewer than 10 years ago.
Metropolitan officials attribute this to buildings being made more quake-resistant over the past decade.