Japan redoubled its efforts this Friday to find the 240 people still missing since New Year's Day, when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the center of the country. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called in a news conference on Thursday that every effort should be made to save as many lives as possible, “even beyond 72 hours after the disaster,” after which the survival rate drops sharply, emergency personnel said. This decisive lead ended on Thursday afternoon (early morning in mainland Spain). The death toll now stands at 94, according to the latest count published by the Kyodo News Agency this Friday afternoon.
A total of 4,600 soldiers from the Japan Self-Defense Forces have joined the search operations on the Noto Peninsula (Ishikawa Prefecture), which have been complicated by enormous damage to roads and infrastructure, landslides, rain and subzero temperatures. With them, the total number of rescuers rises to 7,000. Authorities said 156 people were rescued, including an elderly octogenarian who spent three days under the rubble. There are more than 40 reports of victims still trapped under collapsed buildings, Kyodo Agency reported on Friday. The same media reports that 240 people remain missing.
General view of a destroyed shopping area in Wajima (Japan), this Friday. Hiro Komae (AP)
The central government plans to allocate 4 billion yen (24.6 million euros) from reserve funds to strengthen its response, although this number could rise: the full extent of the damage is still unclear, with access to some transport routes blocked and the Communication is still interrupted.
Roads in very bad condition
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Doctor Shunsaku Kohriki, who has worked in other emergency situations, told Portal: “Compared to other disasters, the access roads to Wajima are in very poor condition and I think it is taking longer than usual for help to arrive.” .) Realistically, the evacuees will have to live in very harsh conditions for some time,” he explained. About 33,000 Ishikawa residents who were evacuated on January 1 are still spread across 370 shelters where food and water are running low, Wajima Mayor Shingeru Sakaguchi was quoted as saying in local media.
Three days after the earthquake, 30 communities remained inaccessible and about 780 residents were completely isolated, Ishikawa Prefecture authorities said Thursday afternoon. Local media warn that material aid has arrived in droves. An estimated 30,000 households in the region have no electricity and 80,000 have no running water, while at least 200 buildings have collapsed or been damaged. The government has promised to provide supplies proactively rather than waiting for official requests from local authorities.
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 30 kilometers east and northeast of Wajima township on the Noto Peninsula. Monday's 7.6-magnitude quake reached level 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale, the highest in the system. Ishikawa, Niigata, Toyama and Yamagata prefectures issued evacuation orders for more than 50,000 residents.
The strong tremors also forced authorities to issue a “major tsunami alert” along the western coast of the Japanese archipelago, from Hokkaido (north) to Nagasaki Prefecture (south). It was the first time since the 2011 disaster caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident. After a few hours, the alert was downgraded to “tsunami alert” and completely lifted the following day. In Wajima harbor, the tsunami caused waves one meter high, although it was initially expected to be up to five meters high.
A rescue team works on a collapsed house following the January 1 earthquake in Wajima Municipality this Friday, January 5, 2024. FRANCK ROBICHON (EFE)
The northern part of the Noto Peninsula, the most affected area after the January 1 earthquake, has been experiencing notable seismic movements since December 2020. As of last month, 506 tremors were reported with a seismic intensity of at least 1, the smallest quake that humans can detect. Experts quoted by Japanese media believe that one of the causes is water and steam rising under high pressure from deep underground, which triggered a magnitude 6.5 earthquake in May last year in which one person died . 49 were injured and 200 houses collapsed.
Takuya Nishimura, a professor of geodesy at Kyoto University's Disaster Prevention Research Institute, told Asahi Shimbun: “Although the mechanism of the earthquake is similar to previous earthquakes in the Noto Peninsula, I never thought it would happen. There is one of such great strength.” “It is almost the strongest that has ever appeared on the coast of the Sea of Japan.”
In 1983, a tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the central coastal areas of the Sea of Japan killed 104 people. A decade later, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off southwest Hokkaido and a subsequent tsunami killed 230 people. Since the last earthquake was close to these magnitudes, Nishimura believes that a fault may have moved outside the main zone of the seismic swarm.
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