Rescue workers in Japan faced very adverse weather conditions on Wednesday as they still try to find survivors of the powerful earthquake that struck the center of the country on Monday, killing at least 73 people, according to a new preliminary toll.
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Large signs warn of possible landslides along roads that are badly damaged by subsidence or blocked by falling trees.
Authorities are urging caution due to heavy rains since Wednesday morning and their impact on Ishikawa Prefecture's Noto Peninsula, a long, thin strip of land that extends into the Sea of Japan.
Emergency vehicles find it difficult to navigate roads blocked by large rocks and uprooted trees.
AFP
“Be vigilant for landslides until Wednesday evening,” the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warned.
The Noto Peninsula and its port cities of Wajima and Suzu are now looking similar after the New Year's quake that struck mainly this region at 4:10 p.m. (07:10 GMT), reaching a magnitude of 7.5, according to the American Institute Geophysics (USGS). war zones) and 7.6 according to JMA.
Since that earthquake, several hundred aftershocks have occurred, some of them violent, and the ensuing tsunami, with waves exceeding one meter, swept away many boats that were stranded on the quays or streets along the shore.
AFP
Thousands of buildings on the Noto peninsula were completely or partially destroyed by the disaster and could still be destroyed by aftershocks, making rescue operations delicate. With every alarm, rescuers have to urgently evacuate the rubble.
Regional authorities report 73 dead and almost 400 injured, a number that is expected to rise.
“Catastrophic” situation
According to television station TBS, Masuhiro Izumiya, the mayor of Suzu, said that there were still “virtually no houses” in part of this small town at the tip of the Noto Peninsula. “The situation is catastrophic.”
According to authorities, more than 33,400 people have sought shelter in shelter centers set up in various villages, and nearly 30,000 households in Ishikawa department are still without electricity.
AFP
More than 110,000 households in Ishikawa and two other departments also lack access to running water, the Japanese government said on Wednesday.
“I am here (in an emergency shelter) because I no longer have electricity, gas or water at home. And since there are always aftershocks, my house could collapse at any moment,” Yuko Okuda, 30, a resident of Anamizu, another small town on the Noto Peninsula, told AFP.
“With a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, we should expect aftershocks for several months,” geologist Robin Lacassin, research director at the CNRS, told AFP on Tuesday.
AFP
The Ishikawa department has urged Japanese people to stop calling their earthquake-affected relatives to conserve their phone batteries for important calls.
Shinkansen, Japan's bullet trains, have been back in service in central Japan since Tuesday after around 2,400 passengers were stuck on the tracks or in stations for hours – some as long as 24 hours.
The region's highways have also reopened, making it easier to restock food and essential goods, although the condition of the roads is slowing deliveries.
AFP
“More than 40 hours have passed since the disaster. “We have many testimonies from people who need to be saved,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday after a new emergency meeting.
“This is a race against time and we continue to do our best to save lives, which is our priority,” he recalled.
Japan is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is one of the countries with the most frequent earthquakes in the world.
AFP
The Japanese archipelago is haunted by the memory of the terrible 9.0 magnitude earthquake that was followed by a huge tsunami on its northeastern shores in March 2011, a disaster that left some 20,000 people dead or missing.
This disaster also led to the Fukushima nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
This time, according to the operators, the series of earthquakes caused only minor damage to the nuclear power plants installed along the coast.