Blizzard knocks out power in Japan (AFP) Updated: 2005-12-22 15:29
Record snowfall has blanketed large parts of Japan, leaving more than one
million people without power, disrupting hospitals and holding up land and air
transport.
More than 240,000 households were still without electricity around midday
after power was cut to 650,000 households in Niigata prefecture along the coast
of the Sea of Japan (East Sea) earlier Thursday.
More than 1,000 traffic lights were not functioning in the prefecture after
the fresh wave of winter weather, which has so far claimed more than 10 lives
throughout Japan, Tohoku Electric Power said.
The bullet train was stopped in sections and other rail services cancelled in
Niigata, with television footage showing stranded trains at blanketed stations.
Around 75,000 bullet train passengers were affected by delays in central and
western Japan, Jiji Press news agency said.
Niigata hospitals cancelled some operations due to the blackout with patients
given extra blankets for warmth.
"We contacted hospitals that accept emergency patients in the city and found
many of them switching to private electricity generation," a Niigata municipal
official said.
"This means electricity is used for the most urgent operations and not for
heating," he said.
A blackout also hit up to 690,000 households in western Japan, where snowfall
is rare in winter, with power largely restored by early afternoon. Pedestrians
trudged through snow shielding themselves with umbrellas in the historic city of
Kyoto.
More than 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled Thursday,
public broadcaster NHK said.
Southern city Kagoshima saw 11 centimeters (36.3 inches) of snow by early
Thursday, the heaviest in 88 years for the month of December.
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