Nearly a million homes suffered blackouts in Japan's northeast yesterday after a new earthquake killed three people and piled more misery on a region buried under the rubble of last month's devastating tsunami.
Nearly a million homes suffered blackouts in Japan's northeast yesterday after a new earthquake killed three people and piled more misery on a region buried under the rubble of last month's devastating tsunami.
The northeastern coast was still reeling from the destruction wrought by a jumbo 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, with tens of thousands of households without power or water. 
A protester holds a placard at an anti-nuclear power rally at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)u00a0 in Tokyo yesterday
The 7.1-magnitude aftershock on Thursday threw even more areas into disarray and sent communities that had made some gains back to square one.
Gasoline was scarce again, and long lines formed at stations. Stores that had only recently restocked their shelves sold out of basics yesterday and were forced to ration purchases again.
Matsuko Ito, who has been living in a shelter in the small northeastern city of Natori since the tsunami, said there's no getting used to the terror of being awoken by shaking. She said she started screaming when the quake struck around 11:30 p.m.
"It's enough," said the 64-year-old. "Something has changed. The world feels strange now. Even the way the clouds move isn't right."
The latest tremor the strongest since the day of the tsunami cut power to more homes, though it was quickly restored to many.
About 9,50,000 households were still without electricity yesterday evening, said Souta Nozu, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power Co., which serves northern Japan. Six conventional plants in the area were knocked out, though three have since come back online and the others should be up again within hours, Nozu said.
Despite the new aftershock, automakers announced yesterday that they were beginning to bounce back from the March monster. Toyota will resume car production at all its plants in Japan at half capacity from April 18 to 27.
The world's No 1 automaker said it remained unclear when it would return to full production in Japan.
Nissan also said it would start up domestic production at half capacity from April 11.
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9,50,000
Number of households that lost power in Japan
Debris in Hawaii
Massive floating rubbish islands of houses, cars and bodies almost 70 miles from the Japanese tsunami are causing chaos in the shipping lanes of the Pacific Ocean as it heads for the west coast of the United States. The largest 'island' of debris stretches 60 nautical miles in length and covers an expanse of more than 2.2 million square feet, according to the US Navy's 7th Fleet.
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