Emergencies - Death toll continues to rise after earthquake in Japan
The death toll from a series of strong earthquakes on the west coast of Japan has risen further. At least 30 people died in the hard-hit Ishikawa prefecture, Japanese television station NHK reported on Tuesday. The meteorological authority lifted a tsunami warning issued the previous day for the entire west coast of Japan. The tremors caused considerable damage. Around 100,000 people were urged to seek safety during the New Year celebrations.
The first particularly strong earthquake reached a magnitude of 7.6 shortly before nightfall on Monday afternoon. The epicenter was in the Noto peninsula area of Ishikawa. At dawn, the emergency services tried to assess the full extent of the destruction and search for survivors. "The search and rescue of people affected by the quake is a battle against time," said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a meeting of the crisis management team on Tuesday. More than 46,000 people in the prefectures and Toyama were still evacuated on Tuesday.
Damage complicates the work of the emergency services
Thousands of army personnel, firefighters and police officers from all over the country were dispatched to the worst-hit area on the relatively remote Noto peninsula. However, rescue work was hampered by badly damaged and blocked roads. One of the airports in the region had to be closed due to cracks in the runway. Numerous houses collapsed or fell victim to fires, roads were torn up and tens of thousands of households lost power.
Several people suffered injuries. In the hard-hit town of Wajima in Ishikawa, more than 200 homes and stores caught fire the day before, according to local media reports. Low flames were still blazing in places on Tuesday morning and firefighters were still in action. Thick smoke hung over the area. Around 1,000 people were accommodated at an airbase in Wajima and provided with blankets, water and food, the government announced. Footage from the NHK television station showed a seven-storey building in Wajima lying on its side.
Quakes continue
While the emergency services assessed the full extent of the destruction and began initial clean-up operations, the series of quakes continued. The weather authorities had issued a strong warning for Ishikawa the previous day for a possible five-metre tsunami, which was later lifted. Lower tsunami warnings were initially still in place for all other coastal regions in the west. Several tidal waves of around one meter in height hit the coast. At daybreak on Tuesday, thick layers of brown mud lay on the roads in some places.
The tremors triggered landslides and trees fell onto roads. Several boats lay keel up in harbor basins. There were reports of burst water pipes. The government in Tokyo set up a crisis team and the armed forces were called in to provide disaster relief in Ishikawa. The meteorological authority warned of further strong quakes during the week, especially in the first two or three days after the particularly severe tremor on New Year's Day.
In March 2011, a magnitude 9 quake triggered a massive tsunami that devastated large areas in the north-east of the country and killed around 20,000 people. A meltdown occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The Far Eastern island kingdom of Japan is one of the countries in the world most at risk from earthquakes.
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Source: www.stern.de
