Rain triggered fears of fresh landslides yesterday in the region hit by Japan's deadliest earthquake for nine years as exhaustion took its toll on tens of thousands in shelters and led to two more deaths.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, trading his usual suit for a relief worker's uniform, pledged to assist the victims on a tour of the worst-hit cities in the Niigata region, 200km northwest of Tokyo.
"We the government should cooperate with municipal authorities and take measures to realize people's desire to return to normal life as soon as possible," said Koizumi, who shook hands with hundreds of people sheltering at a high school.
But rain falling since late Monday dampened the mood of residents fearful of landslips. The ground has already been softened by the quakes and a season of powerful typhoons.
Police said 27 people had died and some 2,500 people had been injured since the first quake of 6.8 on the Richter scale late Saturday, which has been followed by some 400 aftershocks.
The toll has been rising as residents -- particularly the elderly -- are worn down physically and mentally.
The latest casualty, Yukichi Takahashi, 80, collapsed late Monday at a shelter in Oguni town and died of a stroke. A 91-year-old man suffered a fatal heart failure after experiencing a powerful aftershock Monday, police said.
Some 103,000 people are staying at 486 shelters after leaving their homes out of safety concerns.
Among them was Hideo Kaburaki, 45, who has spent three nights in a tent on the football ground of a high school in the rural town of Tokamachi. Classrooms are reserved for the elderly and children.
"I can hardly sleep in here. I'm catching a cold," he said, noting that the rain was making the ground muddy and temperatures were falling.
Temperatures are forecast to dip to around 5?C by early today.
"I'm totally lost about what to do next though I have to clean up my house," Kaburaki said. "I just want to take a hot bath now."
As aftershocks continued, the Meteorological Agency told residents not to approach damaged houses and warned that even light rain could trigger landslides. The quakes had caused 151 landslides by early yesterday.
In another Niigata town of Ojiya, Noriko Hiroi, 50, said she was concerned about the continuing rain.
"This may cause more landslides," she said. A landslide in her neighborhood has prevented her family from returning to their riverside house.
Work to restore electricity supply made tardy progress amid rain. Tohoku Electric Power said 30,240 houses were still out of power at midday.
The government said it was ready to compile a supplementary budget to cope with damage from the quakes and a series of powerful typhoons, including Tokage which last week killed some 80 people.
The earthquake was the deadliest to hit tremor-prone Japan since 1995, when 6,433 people were killed in the western city of Kobe.
Three people remain missing since Saturday: a 39-year-old woman, her three-year-old daughter and her two-year-old son.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese