ANAMIZU (AFP) – Japanese rescuers struggled with heavy rain, blocked roads and aftershocks yesterday following a powerful earthquake that killed at least 64 people and left tens of thousands without power or running water.
Throughout the Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Honshu sirens blared as emergency vehicles tried to navigate roads blocked by rocks and fallen trees.
The Noto Peninsula was worst hit by the 7.5-magnitude quake on January 1, with port towns like Wajima and Suzu resembling war zones with roads of mud, flattened homes and sunken boats.
“I can never go back there. It’s unlivable now,” 75-year-old Yoko Demura said from a shelter in the city of Nanao where she went after her home was reduced to rubble.
“It makes me sad and I will miss it,” she told AFP.
There were “almost no houses standing” in one town in the Suzu area, said municipal mayor Masuhiro Izumiya.
“About 90 per cent of the houses (in that town) are completely or almost completely destroyed… the situation is really catastrophic,” he said.
The regional government confirmed 64 people are dead and more than 300 injured, 20 of them seriously, but the toll was expected to rise. More than 31,800 people were in shelters, and at least 200 buildings had collapsed.
Around 32,800 households were still without power in Ishikawa prefecture, the local utility said. Many cities were without running water.
“More than 40 hours have passed since the disaster. We have received a lot of information about people in need of rescue and there are people waiting for help,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after an emergency task force meeting.
