Japan: Supermarkets Stormed After Announcement of Possible “Mega-Earthquake”
Panic among the public, empty store shelves, and emergency kits, canned goods, and bottled water are being snapped up in e-commerce
Japan should prepare for the possibility of a “mega-earthquake.” The warning was issued by a team of Japanese experts following magnitude 6.9 and 7.1 tremors that shook the islands on August 8 and 9. Following the warning, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided to cancel his trip to Central Asia, from where he was scheduled to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, as well as Mongolia. “As the prime minister with maximum responsibility for crisis management, I have decided that I must stay in Japan for at least a week,” Kishida told reporters.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake caused some buildings to collapse, and at least 13 people were injured by debris in the Asian country’s southwestern provinces. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) immediately activated a tsunami warning for areas near the earthquake’s epicenter. Some minor waves hit the port of Nichinan City, where they reached 20 centimeters in height, later reaching 40 centimeters in the port of Aburatsu.
But according to experts, the worst is yet to come. Kishida further stated that the public was “very concerned” about the alert, which was based on a new system developed after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in 2011 that triggered the tsunami and nuclear disaster at Fukushima and killed 18,500 people. “The probability of another strong earthquake is higher than usual, but that doesn’t mean it will happen,” the JMA tried to calm public opinion as thousands of people stormed supermarkets to stock up on necessary essential food items as quickly as possible.
Demand for so-called “disaster kits” surged as supermarkets displayed posters apologizing to shoppers for shortages of many products blamed on “media reports of an impending earthquake.” Many outlets have rationed the sale of bottled water – a maximum of three one-liter bottles per customer – due to “very unstable supply.”
Competent Japanese authorities have calculated that the next large and destructive earthquake could strike the country in the next 30 years with a 70-percent probability.
