Ms. Bui Thi Hong Hoa, a Vietnamese woman living in Japan, wrote about the two earthquakes in Kumamoto on April 14th and 16th.

Houses lie in ruins at the epicenter of the earthquake in Japan.

On April 14th at 9:26 PM, a magnitude 7 earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck Kumamoto Prefecture, resulting in 9 fatalities. The earthquake on the morning of April 16th at 1:25 AM had a magnitude 6 earthquake with an epicenter magnitude of 7.3, comparable to the devastating Hanshin earthquake in Hyogo Prefecture in 1995.

The Department of Meteorology and Disaster Management announced that the earthquake on April 14 was a foreshock, and the one that struck in the early morning of April 16 was the main earthquake. This earthquake continued to cause widespread destruction and casualties.

According to earthquake researchers, this earthquake is related to fault activity located over the two prefectures of Kumamoto and Ooita.

Information from hospitals indicates that the number of people injured or whose health conditions have been affected by the earthquake has reached 2,000. As of 5:19 PM on April 16th, the number of people who had to evacuate had reached 90,000.

In seven towns in Kumamoto Prefecture, approximately 105,000 households had their gas supply cut off. Meanwhile, in three other prefectures—Kumamoto, Ooita, and Miyasaki—a total of 141,000 households lost power.

Water was cut off, and where there was water, the tap water was cloudy and unusable for drinking. Many residents had to queue to receive water from rescue trucks. Kumamoto Airport suspended all flights on April 16th and 17th. Many shops and supermarkets had to close due to broken items scattered everywhere.

In Minamiaso village, a landslide buried 10 families in mud. The hot spring resort was isolated due to landslides blocking roads. Up to 1,000 people were cut off by the landslides, and rescue planes arrived to save those trapped.

Several dormitories at Toukai University had their entire first floors collapse. Rescue teams arrived to save 11 students buried in the rubble; all students were pulled from the debris, but two of them died. At another dormitory, a student also passed away.

I have some foreign students living and studying in Kumamoto Prefecture. One of them texted me: "I haven't been able to go home since yesterday and I'm still in a shelter."

A Vietnamese friend of mine who works in Kumamoto Prefecture contacted me, saying, "Yeah, I'm working on a construction project there, but it's at my new house so it wasn't damaged much."

We hope that our friends and the people of Japan in the earthquake-affected areas are safe and sound and will soon overcome this disaster.

According to KM/BBC/Lao Dong