Japan earthquake death toll exceeds 100, hundreds still missing

The confirmed death toll from the New Year’s Day earthquake in Japan reached 110 on Saturday as a search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings entered a sixth day.

The scale 7.6 earthquake hit the west coast, demolish groundwork and breaking power links to 22,000 homes in the Hokuriku region. Rain hampered efforts to sift the rubble for survivors as more than 30,000 evacuees awaited aid.

The number of confirmed dead was 110 by 4pm on Saturday, up from 94 the previous day, the Ishikawa government website showed. More than 200 people are still missing after the deadliest quake in nearly eight years.

As the toll crossed 100 Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that “I am keenly aware of the extent of the damage caused.”

The figure is the maximum since a toll of 276 in earthquakes in 2016 in the southwestern areas of Kumamoto, a score that includes related deaths.

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Kishida told government officials to speed up emergency efforts to restore trunk roads ripped up by the earthquake so that rescue and relief activities could be increased.

Japan’s Self-Defence Forces are set to strengthen the number of rescue workforce by 400 to 5,400, with road distractions among the difficulties hindering the delivery of relief supplies.

Mudslides, boulders and road cracks left tons of distant societies in Ishikawa region isolated. In Wajima’s Fukamimachi district, helicopters from the Self-Defence Forces airlifted at least 14 residents to safety, according to a Reuters witness.

Freelance cameraman Masao Mochizuki, 73, stood in a long queue outside a supermarket in the regional city of Wajima after it re-opened on Thursday, waiting to buy necessities.

“It is such a help that they have managed to re-open,” Mochizuki told Reuters after buying a box of heat patches, blue plastic sheets to cover broken windows and a pair of shoes to protect against glass shards that litter the floors of his home.

Mochizuki added, “But I don’t see the road to reconstruction just yet,” while his voice cracked with emotion.

While the replaced have packed Wajima’s evacua-tion centres for food, water and other basics, some residents are choosing to sleep in their cars.

The Jan 1 quakes destroyed the wooden home of Yutaka Obayashi, 75, and wife Akiko, 73. But after a night spent in a makeshift evacuation spot in a community centre, they decided to go home and sleep in their tiny passenger vehicle.

“People’s eyes make me very nervous,” Obayashi told Reuters, as his wife rested in a reclined seat in their car. “I just don’t like living with many people around me.”

Weather officials warned of the chance of heavy snowfall in the region from late Sunday over early Monday, which could cause secondary disasters, such as landslides.

Seismic rumbles continue, with an earthquake of intensity five on Japan’s seismic scale in the town of Anamizu early on Saturday.

Ayuko Noto, a priest at Wajima’s Juzo shrine, whose history dates back 1,300 years, has also chosen to sleep in his car along with family members, even though their house withstood the quakes. That way they hope to protect themselves from further major quakes and possible tsunami waves.

“Aftershocks are still continuing,” said Noto, 47. “We are choosing our car over our house so we can flee right away in case another major one strikes.”

Asked how long they would continue doing that, she replied: “I just don’t have an answer to that.”—AFP