Japan Earthquake Death Toll Exceeds 100, Hundreds Still Missing
Editor
7 January 2024 00:38 WIB
Mudslides, boulders and road cracks left dozens of remote communities in Ishikawa prefecture isolated. In Wajima's Fukamimachi district, helicopters from the Self-Defence Forces airlifted at least 14 residents to safety, according to a Reuters witness.
SLEEPING IN CARS
While the displaced have packed Wajima's evacuation centers for food, water, and other basics, some residents are opting 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 center, 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 took a rest 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 through early Monday, which could trigger secondary disasters, such as landslides.
Seismic rumbles continue, with an earthquake of intensity 5 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 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."
REUTERS
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