The day after what was the worst quake to hit the Asian island in a quarter century, most residents cannot stop talking about how much worse it could have been.
The U.S. Geological Survey gave the magnitude as 7.4. The quake collapsed buildings and created a tsunami that washed ashore on southern Japanese islands. At least 9 people died, officials said.
Officials say 1,370 homes were completely or partially destroyed. Many of the houses in that western coastal region of the main island are aging and wooden. Some 30,000 people are in shelters.
The state news agency Xinhua said the quake had a magnitude of 6.2. It reportedly damaged water, electricity, transport, communications and other infrastructure in the mountainous region.
A series of devastating quakes has taken thousands of lives and left thousands more homeless. Aid specialists say the Taliban lacks the equipment and experience to help the survivors.
Survivors of the Sept. 8 earthquake return to devastated villages. "This was our paradise," says a 74-year-old woman. "Everyone in this village is like family to me, and our family is now shattered."
Morocco's earthquake last week hit thousands of people who live in traditional villages in the Atlas Mountains. NPR followed rescuers and saw just how hard it was getting to people in need.
The golden retriever, part of a Swedish rescue team, helped find 18 people alive under the rubble in Turkey earlier this year. He searched this week for the last missing person in a Moroccan village.
Remote villages in the Atlas Mountains are among the hardest hit by Friday's earthquake that killed more than 2,100. Crews are struggling to reach communities amid aftershocks and damaged roads.
At least 820 people died, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the quake's epicenter, and another 672 people were injured, Morocco's Interior Ministry reported Saturday morning.
Camps in Syria have become overcrowded in the northwest of the country after the February 6 earthquake. NPR talks to Dr. Mego Terzian of Doctors without Borders about his assessment of the situation.
It's a supersoup during this humanitarian crisis. Easy to make, it warms the displaced, fuels rescue crews and comforts residents traumatized by the disaster.
Turkish authorities say a magnitude 6.4 earthquake, followed by a magnitude 5.8 tremor, struck the Antakya region around 8 p.m. local time Monday. The quake was also felt in Syria.
As Turkey's leaders promise a swift start to reconstruction efforts in the earthquake zone, attention is also turning to Istanbul — and whether Turkey's largest city is ready for a major quake.
