Monday, March 26, 2001

By Carlos Bongioanni, Stars and Stripes

Shannon Arledge / Special to Stripes At Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, initial assessments indicated that the most severe earthquake damage occurred at the commissary.

A powerful earthquake that buckled roads, snapped power lines, damaged buildings and killed two people in southwestern Japan on Saturday rattled Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station.

"It was wicked strong," Staff Sgt. Jerry Howard said of the 6.4-magnitude quake that struck at 3:28 p.m.

The quake, centered 38 miles below ground near Hiroshima, did not cause any fires or medical emergencies on base, said base spokeswoman Master Sgt. Constance Dillard.

Howard was home when he first heard a low rumble and then began to feel the ground shake gradually stronger until it was almost jumping, he said. As he and his family were evacuating their home, dishes, mirrors, stereo speakers and other items crashed to the floor.

"As we reached the front door, the shoe stand came down right in front of my wife and blocked the door … She was a little panicky and almost in shock seeing everything toppling in front of us," Howard said. "We never experienced one that large before."

The temblor ruptured a main water line to a base residential area, triggered 13 fire alarms, inactivated numerous elevators and disrupted service at all the base’s shopping facilities, Dillard said.

The most severe damage apparently occurred at the base commissary, which sustained about $30,000 worth of product damage, she said.

"When the earthquake hit, everything just started falling off the shelves," Dillard said.

A team of commissary workers and 10 Marine volunteers worked until midnight cleaning up the mess. The store reopened for business Sunday. So did the base exchange, which suffered about $1,700 in damage. Two small convenience stores saw more than $1,200 worth of alcohol destroyed when refrigerator shelves carrying wine bottles collapsed.

Base workers also fixed the water main Saturday.

Dillard said there was no reported damage to base equipment or aircraft. There was some "cosmetic damage" to structures that sustained surface cracks to dry walls and ceiling tiles. "But this posed no danger to anybody," she said.

Damage to the Marine base and the Japanese towns in and around Iwakuni was nothing compared to that inflicted on Hiroshima, about 430 miles southwest of Tokyo, Dillard said.

An 80-year-old woman died in Kure, about 12 miles south of Hiroshima, when she was buried under the rubble of a collapsed wall. In nearby Ehime state, a 50-year-old woman fleeing her home in Matsuyama was killed when roof tiles fell on her head. Authorities reported 123 injuries.

Broken water lines affected some 10,000 Hiroshima residents. The quake also set off several fires that gutted three homes and damaged hundreds more. Train, telephone and electrical service to the area was disrupted, and Hiroshima’s airport closed for inspection. No nuclear reactors in the quake-hit areas were affected.

The temblor was felt as far away as South Korea, more than 150 miles northwest of the epicenter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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