Toppled over: Police officers inspecting a collapsed building in the aftermath of an earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture. — Reuters
Hampered by bad weather and damaged roads, Japanese rescuers searched for 222 people still missing four days after a devastating earthquake as the death toll approached 100.
Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble on Thursday, but hopes of finding other survivors after the 7.5 magnitude quake on New Year’s Day were fading with rain, snow and falling temperatures forecast in the coming days.
Thousands of rescuers from all over Japan have been battling aftershocks and roads littered with gaping holes and blocked by frequent landslides in the central Ishikawa region to reach hundreds of people in stranded communities.
On Thursday afternoon, 72 hours after the quake, the two older women were miraculously pulled alive from the remains of their homes in Wajima, one of them thanks to a sniffer dog.
The port city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula was one of the worst hit, with a pungent smell of soot still in the air and faint columns of smoke visible from a huge fire that destroyed hundreds of structures on the first day.
“I was relaxing on New Year’s Day when the quake happened. My relatives were all there and we were having fun,” Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, said amid the burnt-out cars, wrecked buildings and fallen telegraph poles.
“The house itself is standing but it’s far from liveable now... I don’t have the space in my mind to think about the future,” he said.
Authorities said yesterday afternoon that 222 people were unaccounted for, down from an earlier count of 242, including 121 in Wajima and 82 in Suzu.
The death toll was raised to 94 from 92, with 464 people injured.
The dead included a junior high school boy visiting his family, reports said.
Around 30,000 households were without electricity in the Ishikawa region, and 89,800 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.
Hundreds of people were in government shelters.
“We are doing our best to conduct rescue operations at the isolated villages... However, the reality is that the isolation has not been resolved to the extent that we would like,” regional governor Hiroshi Hase said yesterday.
In the town of Anamizu, Sang and his four fellow Vietnamese compatriots have no heating or water in their damaged house. The toilet was full of bricks.
“We were cooking when it happened. We all dashed out of the house,” said the 32-year-old.
“We had no Internet connection on the day of the earthquake, but it resumed yesterday. We were able to contact family in Vietnam,” he said.
“What we need now is something to eat and drink.”
The Suzu area was also devastated, with fishing boats sunk or lifted like toys onto the shore by tsunami waves that also reportedly swept one person away.
Noriaki Yachi, 79, fought back tears after his wife was pulled from the rubble there and confirmed dead, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.
“My life with her was a happy one,” Yachi said.
Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and most cause no damage, with strict building codes in place for more than four decades.
Japan said will tap ¥4.74bil (RM150mil) of budget reserves to cover damages from the New Year’s Day earthquake disaster in its northwestern region of Ishikawa, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday.
Kishida has asked Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki to proceed with the steps needed to boost the reserve budget, he added.
Yesterday, Kishida said the Cabinet would approve the emergency funding next week as his government moves to tackle the aftermath of the earthquake.
Meanwhile, the United States said it is preparing military logistical support and aid for regions in Japan devastated by the earthquake. — Agencies
