Authorities reported on Tuesday that the mortality toll from the powerful earthquake that devastated portions of central Japan on January 1 had surpassed 200, with slightly more than 100 still unaccounted for. The toll from the Japan earthquake surpasses 200.
Families were celebrating New Year’s Day on the Noto Peninsula, Japan’s main island, Honshu, when a magnitude 7.5 earthquake destroyed and toppled structures, started fires, and removed infrastructure.
After eight days had passed, tens of thousands of rescuers were forced to contend with poor weather and blocked roads to clear the rubble and reach the nearly 3,500 people still stranded in isolated communities.
Read more: The United States and China conduct rival exercises in the contested South China Sea.
Tuesday, regional authorities in Ishikawa reported that 202 individuals had been formally identified as deceased, an increase from the 180 confirmed earlier in the day; 102 remained unaccounted for, a decrease from 120.
Following the update of central databases on Monday, the number of missing persons tripled to 323. Most of this increase was attributed to the severely damaged region of Wajima.
Since then, however, “many families have informed us that they can confirm the safety of the individuals (on the list),” according to Ishikawa official Hayato Yachi, who spoke with AFP.
As of Monday, relief efforts were complicated by heavy snow in certain areas. As a result, approximately 400 government shelters housed nearly 30,000 people, some of which were overcrowded and struggling to provide adequate food, water, and heating.
Approximately 60,000 households lacked access to flowing water, while 15,600 were without electricity. An estimated one thousand landslides have been triggered by days of precipitation that have deteriorated road conditions.
Tuesday, during a daily government meeting for disaster relief, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida directed ministers to “continue tenacious rescue operations and make efforts to resolve the state of isolation (of communities”).
According to Yoshimasa Hayashi, a senior government spokesman, Kishida recommended secondary evacuations to regions beyond the quake-affected area.
Five days after being rescued on Saturday, a woman in her nineties managed to survive beneath the rubble of a collapsed home in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa prefecture.
“Remain inside!” Rescuers could be heard yelling for the woman in police footage from the wet scene obtained by local media and distributed.
Monday found 52-year-old Naoyuki Teramoto inconsolable over the discovery of the remains of three of his four children in the town of Anamizu; not everyone was so fortunate.
“We were discussing a trip to the renowned hot spring resort of Izu,” he told NTV, “after his daughter passed the high school entrance exam.”
Hundreds of earthquakes strike Japan annually, but the vast majority do not result in damage due to the country’s stringent construction codes, which have been in effect for over four decades.
However, numerous structures are older, particularly in rural communities that are aging swiftly, such as Noto.
A monster earthquake that struck the nation in 2011 and caused a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima power plant left approximately 18,500 people dead or missing and provoked a tsunami haunts the country.
