Japan Starts to Restore Power After Quake Causes Record Blackout
- Power restoration begins on island of over 5 million people
- Full restoration of power could take a week after M6.7 quake
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Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido began to restore power after a strong earthquake overnight knocked out electricity throughout the entire prefecture of more than 5 million people.
The magnitude 6.7 quake that hit on the western part of the island at 3:08 a.m. cut off power to nearly 3 million buildings, and damaged a key thermal plant. One plant was brought back online just before 3 p.m. local time, restoring power to some areas after almost 12 hours of blackouts. Fully restoring electricity throughout the region could take more than a week, Economy Minister Hiroshige Seko told reporters.