A magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, at 4:27 p.m. on the 28th caused damage across the epicentral area, and overnight rescue work continued at the Aeon Mall and a paper mill into the early hours of the 29th local time. Kumamoto Prefecture announced on the 29th that two women who appeared to be in their 20s died at Aeon Mall Kumamoto.
Quoting a Kumamoto Prefecture tally at 12:48 a.m. on the 29th, NHK said 11 people were trapped under debris when a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries plant in Yatsushiro. Two of them were found in cardiopulmonary arrest. The Kumamoto Prefecture disaster response headquarters said that as of 4 a.m. on the 29th, eight people had been rescued at Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima-machi, and among them two women died and one person was in cardiopulmonary arrest. The Japanese government has not yet released a consolidated casualty count.
At Aeon Mall Kumamoto, crews worked through the night to clear the collapsed second-floor debris from an explosion. The Kamimashiki Fire Department said it rescued four people at 9:21 p.m. on the 28th and took three to hospitals, all conscious. The number rescued rose to eight by 4 a.m. on the 29th. Aeon, which operates the mall, told NHK it had received a report of a gas leak before the explosion. The specific cause of the explosion is under investigation by police and fire authorities.
At the Nippon Paper Yatsushiro plant, a chimney broke in the quake and crashed onto an adjacent building, worsening the damage. Kumamoto Prefectural Police said multiple victims were confirmed under the collapsed debris. Their survival status was not known. The National Fire Agency initially put the number buried at about eight at 10:33 p.m. on the 28th, then later revised it to 11.
In areas where intensity 7 was observed, collapses of dwellings followed one after another. Unlike magnitude, which indicates the absolute strength of an earthquake, intensity is a scale the Japan Meteorological Agency uses to quantify the shaking felt in a given area. As with this quake, the highest level, 7, makes it difficult to move or stand at will. Buildings vulnerable to earthquakes can collapse. This is the first time intensity 7 has been observed in Japan since the Noto Peninsula earthquake in Jan. 2024.
In Hikawa-cho, five to six houses collapsed. A Kumamoto Prefectural Police investigative official said on the 28th that one person died at a collapse site in Yatsushiro. In Uki, one person was trapped under a collapsed dwelling and rescue work continued late into the night. The Kumamoto City disaster response headquarters announced that 27 sections of the stone walls of Kumamoto Castle, a landmark tourist site, had collapsed.
The damage is quickly spreading to infrastructure such as regional medical facilities. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare tallied water outages, power failures, and medical gas supply disruptions at 45 medical institutions in Kumamoto Prefecture. Eleven dialysis facilities and 22 pharmacies also reported damage. Kumamoto General Hospital in Yatsushiro said it could not respond to all ambulance transfer requests due to power and water outages. Kumamoto Prefecture asked each prefecture in Kyushu to dispatch Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT).
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, about 140,000 households suffered water outages in 17 cities and towns in Kumamoto Prefecture due to this earthquake. Kyushu Electric Power Transmission and Distribution said that as of 5:45 p.m. on the 28th, about 48,000 households were without power. KDDI and NTT Docomo announced there were areas where mobile phone service was cut off due to base station outages and transmission line failures. A heat illness alert was issued for Kumamoto Prefecture along with a forecast high of 34 degrees on the 29th.
After water, electricity, and mobile communications, transportation also came to a halt. JR Kyushu said at 11:30 p.m. on the 28th that the Kyushu Shinkansen would suspend service on all sections from the first train on the 29th due to facility inspections. Sections of the Kyushu Expressway, Minami-Kyushu Expressway, and Kyushu Chuo Expressway were closed to traffic. Kumamoto Airport closed its runway.
The Japanese government deployed 3,600 Ground Self-Defense Force members for rescue and recovery. The Defense Ministry opened the Kita-Kumamoto garrison as a temporary shelter. The Japan Meteorological Agency tallied 100 aftershocks through 10:50 p.m. on the 28th after intensity 7 was observed. It also warned that in areas with strong shaking, quakes of similar scale could occur again for about a week. The Japan Meteorological Agency asked the public to stay alert for the next two to three days on the 28th, AP reported.