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Almost 2,000 still in shelters in wake of Japanese quake

Victims of a powerful weekend earthquake in central Japan that killed one person, injured around 200, and damaged or destroyed more than 700 buildings, faced an uncertain future yesterday, as many victims remained in shelters, with few signs of when life would return to normal.

About 1,900 people spent a second night in evacuation centers as hundreds of aftershocks jolted the area following Sunday's 6.9 magnitude quake -- including two 5.3 magnitude jolts -- leaving residents stuck in shelters and hampering recovery work.

The quake struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, about 300km west of Tokyo.

The tremor demolished 57 houses. Many of the damaged or razed houses were old wooden structures with heavy tile roofs.

Electric power has been fully restored. However, some 8,700 homes still lacked running water, and troops and aid workers were distributing emergency supplies.

"My husband and I have spent two nights in an emergency shelter," said Kiyomi Tanabe, 66, whose home in the rural city of Wajima was almost completely destroyed.

"We are very tired," she said. "We could not sleep well because we are afraid of aftershocks. We don't have any gas supply, and we don't have enough water at the shelter."

Some people were taking shelter in their cars, domestic media reports said, something medical experts advise against because the cramped conditions can cause health problems including blood clots.

Rain was forecast for the region in the evening, prompting fears of landslides.

Television showed elderly people being carried to shelters by rescue workers. More than a third of Wajima's 35,000 population is aged over 65.

Past severe earthquakes in Kobe and Niigata have proven particularly traumatic for the elderly, many of whom suffered from depression when they were forced to move into temporary housing because they were cut off from their local communities.

The peninsula's centuries-old lacquerware industry, on which much of the population relies for a living, was surveying the damage to its 600 ateliers and shops.

"Ever since Japan's economic bubble burst in the 1990s, the lacquerware industry has been on the decline," said Dai Keizuka, who owns a family-run lacquerware studio established 90 years ago.

"Then this earthquake dealt us another severe blow. Nonetheless, we'll try to keep alive the traditional industry started by our ancestors," Keizuka said.
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