page_title: 2004 Chūetsu earthquake
section_title: Damage
hierarchical_section_title: 2004 Chūetsu earthquake / Damage
caption_attribution_description: English: JR East 200 series Shinkansen set K25 derailed on a viaduct in Nagaoka City while on the "Toki 325" service during the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake that occurred on 23 October 2004 日本語: 新潟県中越地震で脱線した上越新幹線とき号。（長岡市で撮影）
context_page_description: The Chūetsu earthquakes occurred in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, at 17:56 local time on Saturday, October 23, 2004. The Japan Meteorological Agency named it the "Heisei 16 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake". Niigata Prefecture is located in the Hokuriku region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The initial earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6 and caused noticeable shaking across almost half of Honshu, including parts of the Tōhoku, Hokuriku, Chūbu, and Kantō regions.
context_section_description: As late as November 3, the 39th fatality attributable to the earthquakes occurred as perceptible aftershocks continued. 68 dead and 4,795 injuries were reported in Niigata Prefecture. Over one hundred thousand people fled their homes. The earthquakes caused houses to collapse in Ojiya and damaged thousands in the area. 
  For the first time in its 40-year history, a Shinkansen train derailed while in service, the train being too close to the epicentre to be halted by the automatic UrEDAS earthquake detection system. Eight out of ten cars of the Toki 325 service (a 200 Series Shinkansen train) derailed on the Joetsu Shinkansen line between Nagaoka Station in Nagaoka and Urasa Station in Yamato; no injuries were reported among the 155 passengers. The railbed, bridges and tunnels were all affected. East Japan Railway Company (JR East) stopped all trains in Niigata Prefecture, including the extensively damaged Joetsu Line, Shinetsu Main Line, Iiyama Line, Tadami Line and Echigo Line. Part of Nagaoka Station appeared ready to collapse as a result of an aftershock, but after a brief closure, the station reopened. 
  The section of the Joetsu Shinkansen between Echigo-Yuzawa Station and Tsubame-Sanjo Station closed. Buses transferred passengers between the two operating sections of the line: Tokyo Station to Echigo-Yuzawa Station and Tsubame-Sanjo Station to Niigata Station.
  On December 27, 2004, service resumed on all remaining parts of the Joetsu and Iiyama Lines reopened. On December 28, 2004, the Joetsu Shinkansen also reopened, the last to do so.
  Japan Highways closed all expressways in Niigata Prefecture. Closures affected the Kanetsu Expressway and the Hokuriku Expressway. As of November 4, the Kanetsu Expressway remained closed between Nagaoka Interchange and Koide Interchange. This segment reopened on November 5.
  Landslides and other problems forced closure of two national highways, National Route 8 and National Route 17, as well as several prefectural roads. This isolated several localities, including nearly the entire village of Yamakoshi, which was then a village in the district of Koshi but since merged with and became part of the city of Nagaoka. On July 22, 2005, the government lifted the nine-month-old evacuation order for 528 of the 690 affected households.
  The earthquakes also caused a landslide that partially buried three vehicles. A young boy was rescued from one of these vehicles, but his mother and sister perished. (Recent typhoons had waterlogged the soil, making landslides more likely.)
  The quake broke water mains. Extensive electric power, telephone (including cellular telephone) and Internet outages were reported. The cellular telephone system suffered from direct damage to relay stations, as well as depletion of battery back-up power supplies in as little as a day.
caption: Derailed Joetsu Shinkansen train several days after the earthquake
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