TEXAS STORM

Storms Batter Texas With Wind and Hail (associated press)

GAINESVILLE, Texas (AP) - Storms battered eastern Texas with wind up to 100 mph and hail the size of baseballs, damaging buildings and slamming parked airplanes into one another at an airport. When you have winds from 80 to 100 mph it can do damage similar to that of a tornado,'' said Jesse Moore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

That can do some very, very big damage. No major injuries were reported in the storms late Friday and early Saturday, authorities said. Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged, and some areas still lacked power Saturday afternoon, said Kay Lunnon, spokeswoman for the city of Gainesville, near the Oklahoma border. Hangars were damaged at the Gainesville Municipal Airport, and the high wind shoved airplanes parked outside, said Airport Director Matt Quick. About 15 planes were damaged at the airport, where about 70 aircraft are based, Quick said.

To the south in Waco, the storms destroyed a home and damaged other buildings, authorities said. Two homes were damaged in Coldspring, north of Houston. No injuries were reported in either place, and the weather service did not confirm that tornadoes caused the damage.

About 4,000 customers lost power in the Houston area, where streets flooded but no serious damage was reported, authorities said. In Liberty County, northeast of Houston, officials reported damaged homes and toppled trees.

Moderate quake jolts Japan, no reports of damage 43 minutes ago

TOKYO (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.4 jolted central Japan on Sunday, but the Meteorological Agency said there was no risk of a tsunami and national media said there were no immediate reports of damage.

The Meteorological Agency said the epicenter of the tremor -- which occurred at 1:10 p.m. (0410 GMT) -- was 10 km (6 miles) under the sea off the coast of Shizuoka prefecture, around 120 km west of Tokyo.

In the coastal city of Atami -- a famous hot spa resort -- the earthquake measured a lower five on the seven-point Japanese intensity scale, which measures ground motion, the agency said.

A quake with that reading can cause hanging objects to swing violently, windows to break and cause damage to less earthquake-resistant house. But NHK television quoted the Shizuoka fire department as saying there were no immediate reports of damage.

High-speed Shinkansen bullet trains were running as usual, although some regular trains in the area were operating at a slower speeds, NHK said. Kyodo news agency quoted Chubu Electric Power as saying the earthquake had had no effect on the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above.

In October 2004, a quake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region of northern Japan, killing 40 people and injuring more than 3,000. That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400.