2nd earthquake of day shakes northern Japan (AP)

TOKYO – Two strong earthquakes rattled northern Japan on Thursday, but neither caused any apparent damage or a tsunami.

A magnitude-6.1 quake struck Thursday evening south of the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

It hit about 465 miles (750 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo and 19 miles (30 kilometers) below the sea surface. The agency did not issue a tsunami warning.

About 3,900 households in the towns of Erimo and Samani lost electricity shortly after the quake, but power was restored about an hour later, according to the Hokkaido Electric Power Co.

The shaking was not felt in Tokyo, though a morning quake was.

That magnitude-6.0 temblor struck just off the coast near the nuclear power plant damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The two shakings are believed unrelated and did not affect the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant or other nuclear plants in the region.

The March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami wiped out large parts of Japan's northeastern coast and left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. The twin disasters also triggered a nuclear crisis, forcing about 100,000 people to flee their homes due to leaking radiation.

Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim. About 90 percent of the world's quakes occur in the area.

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One man dead as storms cut through northern Wisconsin (Reuters)

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – One man died as storms and a suspected tornado roared across northern Wisconsin on Friday night, cutting off power to around 2,000 homes, the Wisconsin Division of Emergency Management said.

"At around 5 p.m. we had an apparent tornado in the Wausaukee area. We have one fatality," said Lori Getter, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Division of Emergency Management. She identified the person who died as a middle-aged man.

She said that the storm had downed a number of trees and power lines in Marinette county and that some damage was also reported in nearby Menominee county. Some 2,000 homes were without power but the storms had passed.

The storm came three months after a massive tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri, and killed 155 people in the deadliest tornado to hit the United States in more than 60 years.

(Additional reporting by John Rondy. Writing by Cynthia Johnston. Editing by Peter Bohan)

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Wyoming joins Northern Rocky states seeking disaster aid (Reuters)

CODY, Wyoming (Reuters) – Governor Matt Mead asked on Tuesday for a presidential disaster declaration in Wyoming to free up federal funds to repair roads and bridge damaged by harsh winter weather and flooding.

Mead became the third governor in the Northern Rockies to seek such a declaration stemming from floods, landslides and washouts during a spring and early summer marked by runoff from heavy rains and the melting of a record mountain snowpack.

Damage to public infrastructure, including highways, bridges and sewer treatment systems, is projected to run in the millions across Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Citing figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mead said damage in Wyoming alone was estimated to total more than $4 million, with the cost of emergency repairs to highways and interstates put at an additional $2.8 million.

Any general disaster declarations in the state would be granted by President Barack Obama county by county. Mead also asked the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare farm disasters in two counties.

Earlier in the season, a presidential disaster was declared in Montana, where severe storms and flooding on tributaries of the Missouri River racked up an estimated $8.6 million in damage. A presidential disaster declaration was approved for Idaho in May for damage pegged at $4.4 million.

Jeff Kitsmiller, meteorologist in Montana for the National Weather Service, said La Nina, a weather pattern characterized by colder ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, was behind the harsh weather in the Rocky Mountain West.

"It's an almost historic La Nina. For the Northern Rockies, that results in a lot of winter snow and spring rain," he said.

La Nina, also blamed for this year's devastating tornadoes in the Midwest and elsewhere and for a severe drought in the southwestern United States, has left snow in high elevations of the Rockies at levels Kitsmiller described as "off the charts" in some spots.

He said forecasts show the La Nina pattern could make a comeback in the region this winter.

"We'd see a lot more of the same: more snowfall, more precipitation," he said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)

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