Thousands of survivors of a powerful earthquake in southwestern Japan spent July 31 in crowded shelters or slept in cars as they faced shortages of water, electricity and fuel and punishing summer temperatures that stoked fears of heat-related illness.
The death toll rose to 34, the Kumamoto prefectural government said, as rescuers raced to find those still missing after the quake triggered a mall explosion, toppled a factory chimney and flattened homes.
Hundreds of homes remained without power as of July 31, down from thousands of households originally affected, as officials worked to restore electricity. Tens of thousands more remained without tap water.
The magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on July 28. As search operations entered a fourth day, it wasn’t known how many people remained missing and the scale of the damage to homes across the region was still unclear.
Officials said 34 quake-related deaths had been confirmed, with one more death still under investigation. Dozens of people were injured.
THOUSANDS ARE WITHOUT WATER AND POWER AS HEAT SOARS
About 800 households were without electricity, according to the regional power company, while Kumamoto authorities said over 79,000 homes remained without water. More than 9,000 people were staying in shelters, where power sources were being added to provide air conditioning.
Fuel has also become scarce as power outages disabled gas stations and quake damage disrupted deliveries from other regions. Many have resorted to sleeping in their cars, but with the fuel shortage, they struggle to keep the air conditioning running in sweltering temperatures.
Japan’s weather agency and the Ministry of the Environment issued an extreme heat alert for Kumamoto city on July 31 as temperatures peaked at 97° F, after stifling 95° F heat on July 30.
Hirokazu Sato, who lost his home in the earthquake, said he and his wife and three children would remain in their car until they could move into temporary housing.
“I don’t know how soon I’d be able to move in,” said Sato. “We need to have the air conditioning on throughout the day and night, which uses up gas.”
Kumamoto is also a major industrial hub, and there are concerns that the quake could possibly disrupt semiconductor and auto-parts supply chains for months to come.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a global chip giant that operates a fab in Kumamoto, said it temporarily evacuated workers from the facility after it experienced strong shaking from the earthquake. The company said all personnel were safe and operations were gradually resuming after post-quake inspections found the structure was sound, although detailed inspections and impact assessments were still underway.
SEARCHES CONTINUE, WITH THE NUMBER OF MISSING UNKNOWN
Japanese officials had described July 31 as a crucial point for rescue efforts as some experts say survival chances decline after the first three days.
With search dogs, rescuers continued looking for survivors across the Kumamoto area, including at the collapsed Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima, one of the hardest-hit sites. The complex was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened.
Fumika Ono was shopping at a mall with her older sister when the ground shook so fiercely she lost her balance and ducked. Children began screaming and goods scattered on the floor.
The 19-year-old was among the crowd of shoppers who managed to escape safely.
The company said about 3,000 shoppers were evacuated to a parking lot before an explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some staff remained working. The mall’s second floor collapsed, trapping people.
At the site, seven people were confirmed dead, and 11 had been rescued, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo. Authorities didn’t say how many were still missing.
Japanese media footage of the mall showed that part of the ceiling had caved in, and metal pieces and other debris were scattered about as helmeted and masked rescue workers searched the area.
Kiyoshi Matsunaga, 74, who lives in the mall’s neighborhood and was at a supermarket just a few blocks away, said Tuesday’s quake reminded him of a deadly quake 10 years ago that hit Kumamoto and killed 50 people.
He stopped in his tracks when the shaking began while he was pushing his cart toward a cash register. Things scattered from the shelves. He could not move, he recalled.
“I was frightened,” he said.
Japan is one of the most quake-prone nations in the world.
In the Nuyamazu district, a pair of temple gates at a 16th-century Buddhist temple collapsed. They had just been repaired five years ago.
Yuki Kiyozumi, deputy chief priest at the temple, recalled how she had to crawl on the floor because the shaking was so violent. She had just returned home from a meeting and was about to feed her cat.
“I don’t even know if or how we can rebuild them again,” she said, while cleaning up damaged ornaments and furniture.
Meanwhile, a search operation had ended at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in the nearby Yatsushiro area where a chimney collapsed in the quake, Kihara said. Searchers rescued 11 people there, while nine others were confirmed dead.
Smaller-scale searches continued on July 31 at the sites of collapsed houses in badly hit towns in southern Kumamoto. Authorities haven’t supplied a firm figure for how many people are missing.
OFFICIALS ASSESS DAMAGED HOMES AS SOME BULLET TRAINS RESUME
In the town of Hikawa, one of the most badly damaged parts of Kumamoto, officials said more than 800 of the town’s 4,500 homes were destroyed or damaged. Many residents slept inside their vehicles in parks, at the town hall parking lot, or outside their homes.
Some were without water or electricity, while others were scared to sleep indoors. Among them was Ayako Sudo, a woman in her 70s who was sleeping in her car with her husband.
“Since it’s a wooden house, the shaking is really intense,” Sudo said. “Even when the earthquakes are small, it shakes, and it brings up this feeling of fear. So I think I’d really prefer somewhere that feels safe.”
Sudo slept in her car for two weeks before, after a powerful quake that shook Kumamoto in 2016.
“It’s exhausting,” she said. “We’ve been sleep-deprived in the car.”
Meanwhile, Shinkansen bullet trains resumed between Kumamoto and Fukuoka to the north but with reduced services, according to Kyushu Railway Co., while those connecting cities down south to Kagoshima were still suspended.
Local trains in quake-hit areas, mainly in southern Kumamoto, were still suspended due to quake damage.
