After two nights of earthquakes, flattened houses and triggered major landslides in sout.
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Matt Rivers, Junko Ogura and Yoko Wakatsuki reported from Mashiki, Kumamoto prefecture in Japan, Tiffany Ap wrote from Hong Kong.
(Kyodo News via AP). A woman covers her face at a shelter in Kumamoto, Japan Saturday, April 16, 2016. Although Japan was hit in more densely populated areas, it appears that the final human toll will be significantly smaller in Japan.
Kumamoto Prefecture has been rocked by two powerful earthquakes and aftershocks since April 14. Powerful earthquakes a day apart shook southwestern Japan, trapp.
Rescue workers save a victim from a collapsed building in Kuammoto.
With 180,000 people seeking shelter, some evacuees said that food distribution was a meagre two rice balls for dinner.
US forces will provide operational airlift support in the Japanese government’s relief efforts.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, as it is part of the seismically active “Ring of Fire”, which sweeps from the South Pacific islands to Indonesia, Japan, across to Alaska, and down the west coast of the Americas.
“We are doing our best”, Mr Abe said when challenged by the opposition over the government’s handling of the relief effort.
Overnight, rescuers digging with their bare hands dragged some elderly survivors, still in their pajamas, out of the rubble and onto makeshift stretchers made of tatami mats.
Japanese TV showed a collapsed student dormitory at Aso city’s Tokai University that was originally two floors, but now looked like a single-story building.
Sean Michael Wilson, an author of more than 20 comic books, manga and graphic novels, lives in the city of Kumamoto, a city of 740,000 people on the island of Kyushu which was hit by the quakes.
“The first natural disaster was very big”, said Osamu Yoshizumi, the senior chief of worldwide affairs in Kumamoto.
“The Philippines conveys its profound sympathies to Japan for the casualties and damage caused by the recent strong earthquakes in Kumamoto prefecture and surrounding areas”, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement.
The Kyushu region had by Sunday morning heavy rainfall caused by a major low pressure system.
The Maritime SDF is now sending the JS Hyuga destroyer to coastal Yatsushiro in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Around 63,000 households were still without electricity by Sunday afternoon.
“Rescue dogs are usually trained to react to smells of living beings, so the question of their use is still on the table considering we have passed the 72-hour window, because they can’t operate with full capacity”, said Masahiro Kobayashi, Head of Disaster Rescue Dog Network. Tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft were flying to the disaster zone after arriving at a US Marine airbase to take part in relief efforts, officials said.
“We were all shocked”, he said. Firefighters handed out tarpaulins to residents so they could cover damaged roofs, but many homes were simply deserted.
A few blocks away, 75-year-old Tokio Miyamoto said he was wary of sleeping alone in his house, so he was lugging his futon bedding every evening to an evacuation centre. “It’s a hassle, but it’s too scary to be alone”, he said.
Food aid at evacuation centers is getting thin as the damage area widens.
Three nuclear plants in the region were unaffected by the quake, but factories supplying tech and auto parts to companies like Sony Corp, Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co Ltd were shut to assess any damage.
The shutdown will progress to other plants in Japan through Friday.
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Toyota Motor Corp may see its operating profit reduced by about 30 billion yen (US$277 million) for the current quarter after a series of earthquakes struck southern Japan and disrupted parts supplies to the world’s largest automaker.
