At least 73 people are now known to have died in the quake that hit Japan on New Year’s Day as search for more bodies continues at Ishikawa, the epicentre and other parts affected by the quake.
According to a spokesperson for Ishikawa Prefecture, an unknown number remain missing, as authorities continue searching for those trapped under rubble or in cut-off areas.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi yesterday said 70 people had been rescued overnight and officials were rushing to meet a request to deploy rescue dogs. The number of missing people was still being counted, he said.
The quake shook the Noto Peninsula, located on the western, more rural side of central Japan, triggering tsunami alerts, fires and collapsed buildings. Photos across the region showed entire multi-story buildings had fallen on their side, burned structures and rubble where houses once stood.
Infrastructure damage remains a major challenge, Hayashi said Wednesday. Roads in and around the peninsula are blocked, though some routes are being cleared for vehicles to deliver food and essentials to the impacted areas, he said.
For some, the quake brought back memories of the 2011 Tōhoku 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant. It left more than 22,000 dead or missing, most of them from tsunami waves, with the long-term impact still felt to this day.
While the extent of the damage from Monday’s quake is still being assessed, the death toll and levels of destruction appear to be far from that wrought by the 2011 disaster in a country long used to earthquakes and where building codes, even in more remote areas, are strictly adhered to.
At its centre, the remnants of its old marketplace are still smouldering, as if an explosion had just erupted, wiping out an area the size of a football pitch.
A fire broke out when the New Year‘s Day earthquake hit, and spread instantly, incinerating the wooden stalls and some surrounding homes. Twisted fragments of corrugated iron are scattered among the ash. Firefighters are still combing the smoking debris, checking for unextinguished flames.
Throughout the town, people‘s traditional wooden homes lie splintered on the ground, collapsed; not made to withstand Japan‘s endless earthquakes.
Other areas on the remote Noto Peninsula on Japan‘s west coast, where the quake struck, are also isolated. Further north, the town of Suzu is inaccessible by road, and the scale of the destruction is unclear.
According to the town‘s mayor, Masuhiro Izumiya, almost none of its houses are standing. Around 90% are completely or almost completely collapsed, he said. A small tsunami struck the city one minute after the quake. Food and aid are arriving by boat, but local officials say they were having to go door-to-door to check for survivors.
More than 30,000 people are still in shelters, with some towns lacking water, electricity and internet connection. One woman, sheltering at the evacuation centre in Wajima with her injured husband, said even at the centre there was not enough food and water, and the queues at the only open shop snaked down the road.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, announced plans to multiply the number of military and rescue personnel providing relief. He has admitted that rescue efforts have been hindered by the extreme damage to the roads.