Rescue workers in Japan are facing very unfavorable weather on Wednesday, while they are still trying to find survivors of the terrible earthquake which hit the center of the country on Monday, killing at least 62 people according to a new provisional toll. Authorities warned of heavy rain all day and possible landslides throughout the disaster zone, the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, a long, thin strip of land that extends into the Sea of Japan .
“Be vigilant for landslides until Wednesday evening,” warned the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Some areas were made unstable by the main earthquake which occurred on New Year’s Day at 4:10 p.m. (07:10 GMT), reaching a magnitude of 7.5 according to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) and 7.6 according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
But also by several hundred other tremors felt – some also strong – since this earthquake, and the tsunami which followed with waves of more than one meter which devastated the coasts, the roads and the houses along the banks of the river. Wed. Hundreds of buildings on the Noto Peninsula were completely or partially destroyed by the disaster.
An official from the Ishikawa department, interviewed by AFP on Wednesday, but who did not wish to give his name, announced “62 deaths” and mentioned more than 300 injured, including 20 serious. This toll could rise further, because research is expected to last a long time in these rural areas with villages that are difficult to access, especially due to the state of the roads. Many people could still be trapped in the rubble of their homes, according to NHK television channel.
“Catastrophic” situation
More than 31,800 people are taking refuge in shelters, according to authorities, and nearly 34,000 homes are still without electricity in Ishikawa department. Many are also deprived of running water. Masuhiro Izumiya, the mayor of Suzu, said that “virtually no houses were still standing” in this small town at the far tip of the Noto peninsula, according to television channel TBS. “About 90% of the houses are totally or almost completely destroyed (…). The situation is catastrophic,” he added.
A woman who took refuge in a shelter in Shika, in the west of the peninsula, told TV Asahi that she had “not been able to sleep” because of the aftershocks. “I was scared because we don’t know when the next earthquake will hit.” “With an earthquake of magnitude 7.5, we should expect to have aftershocks for several months,” geologist Robin Lacassin, research director at CNRS, told AFP on Tuesday.
Shinkansen, the Japanese high-speed trains, have resumed service in central Japan since Tuesday after some 2,400 passengers spent hours – 24 hours for some – stuck on the tracks or in stations. The region’s highways have also reopened. Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan is one of the countries with the most frequent earthquakes in the world.
The Japanese archipelago is haunted by the memory of the terrible 9.0 magnitude earthquake followed by a giant tsunami in March 2011 on its northeastern coasts, a disaster which left some 20,000 people dead or missing. This disaster also led to the Fukushima nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986. No serious problem has so far been observed at Japanese nuclear power plants after the New Year’s earthquake.