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.
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