Army troops and other rescuers yesterday rushed to save scores of trapped residents after a pair of strong earthquakes in southwestern Japan killed at least 35 people, injured about 1,500 and left hundreds of thousands without electricity or water.
Rainfall was forecast to start pounding the area soon, threatening to further complicate the relief operation and set off more mudslides in isolated rural towns, where people were waiting to be rescued from collapsed homes.
Kumamoto Prefecture official Riho Tajima said the death toll stood at 22 from the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that shook the Kumamoto region on the southwestern island of Kyushu early yesterday. On Thursday night, Kyushu was hit by a magnitude 6.5 quake that left 10 dead.
Photo: AP
Japanese media reported that nearly 200,000 homes were without electricity and that drinking-water systems had also failed in the area. Television footage showed people huddled in blankets, sitting or lying down shoulder-to-shoulder on the floors of evacuation centers. An estimated 400,000 households were without running water.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that 1,500 people had been injured in the quakes. Tajima said that 184 people were injured seriously and that more than 91,000 people had been evacuated from their homes. More than 200 homes and other buildings were either destroyed or damaged, she said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed concerns about secondary disasters as forecasters predicted rain and strong winds later in the day. With soil already loosened by quakes, rainfall can set off mudslides.
Photo: AP
“Daytime today is the big test” for rescue efforts, Abe said.
Landslides have already cut off roads and destroyed bridges, slowing down rescuers.
Police received reports of 97 cases of people trapped or buried under collapsed buildings, while 10 people were caught in landslides in three municipalities in the prefecture, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
Kumamoto Prefecture has been rocked by aftershocks, including the strongest with a magnitude of 5.4 yesterday morning. The Japan Meteorological Agency said that the magnitude 7.3 quake early yesterday might have been the main one, with one from Thursday night a precursor.
The quakes’ epicenters have been relatively shallow — about 10km — resulting in more severe shaking and damage. National broadcaster NHK said as many as eight quakes were being felt per hour in the area.
Suga told reporters that the number of troops in the area was being raised to 20,000, while additional police and firefighters were also on the way.
He urged people not to panic.
“Please let us help each other and stay calm,” Suga said in a nationally televised news conference.
Kyushu island’s Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan, erupted for the first time in a month, sending smoke rising about 100m into the air, but no damage was reported.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority reported no abnormalities at Kyushu’s Sendai nuclear plant.
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