Kumamoto Quake Rescue Suspended due to Heavy Rain

Minamiaso, Kumamoto Pref., April 21 (Jiji Press)--Heavy rain forced Self-Defense Forces troops, police officers and others to suspend their search and rescue operations Thursday in the southwestern Japan village of Minamiaso, where two people remain unaccounted for after earthquake-caused massive landslides. Due to fear of a secondary disaster, the search will remain suspended until the rain stops. The municipal government of Minamiaso in Kumamoto Prefecture, part of the Kyushu region, is urging residents near the collapsed Aso Ohashi bridge on a national route to evacuate, warning that the likelihood of landslides is increasing. The Japanese government will make a decision on when to resume the search operations by the SDF after consulting with related ministries and agencies. Meanwhile, power mostly went back, and registrations for disaster-relief volunteers began in Kumamoto a week after a series of powerful earthquakes began to hit the prefecture, neighboring Oita Prefecture and other parts of Kyushu, showing that the affected areas started to make moves toward postdisaster reconstruction. According to Kyushu Electric Power Co. <9508>, power supplies were fully restored Wednesday night, apart from a few heavily damaged districts. In the city of Kumamoto, the prefecture's capital, and other municipalities gas supplies to about 105,000 households had been halted, but some of them can now use gas. Local authorities hope to fully restore gas supplies by May 8. On the night of April 14, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Kumamoto Prefecture, measuring the strongest level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Mashiki and causing serious damage to the town and nearby areas. In the small hours of Saturday, Kumamoto was hit by a 7.3-magnitude temblor, which was on par with the January 1995 quake that killed more than 6,400 people in the western Japan city of Kobe and surrounding areas. Saturday's quake caused massive landslides in Minamiaso, magnifying the overall damage to the prefecture. Numerous strong aftershocks followed. The number of people who died in the series of quakes has reached 48, all in Kumamoto Prefecture. Ten people died in the prefecture apparently due to causes indirectly linked to the quakes. On Wednesday, the Kumamoto prefectural government announced that the indirect fatalities came to 11. But it corrected the number on Thursday. A male victim in Mashiki was initially believed to have died of a quake-related cause, but it was found later that his death has nothing to do with the quakes, according to the local authorities. Minamiaso and Mashiki started to accept disaster-relief volunteers on Thursday. The city of Kumamoto plans to open a volunteer center on Friday. In another infrastructure recovery move in the region, Kyushu Railway Co., or JR Kyushu, fully resumed train services on its Kagoshima Line on Thursday afternoon after a six-day suspension. Also, after the section between Shin-Minamata and Kagoshima-Chuo stations on the Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train line reopened on Wednesday, test train runs will be conducted from Saturday on the remaining section between Shin-Minamata and Hakata Station, transport minister Keiichi Ishii said. If the test runs go without trouble, bullet rain services will resume on the section later, he said. In addition, some sections of the Kyushu Expressway are expected to go back into service early next week, according to the transport ministry. At the same time, however, seismic activities are continuing in Kyushu, with some 89,000 people still taking shelter in Kumamoto Prefecture as of 1:30 p.m. Thursday (4:30 a.m. GMT), according to the prefectural government. As physical and mental burdens on evacuees are believed to be increasing, authorities are warning them of the danger of economy class syndrome and other conditions that could threaten their lives. The Japan Meteorological Agency is calling on people in affected areas to stay on alert, as there is still no sign of seismic activities calming down. Since the 6.5-magnitude quake struck on April 14, the number of earthquakes registering one or higher on the Japanese intensity scale came to 770 by 6 p.m. Thursday. "It is the first time ever that seismic activities have continued to be so active in such vast areas in inland regions in Japan," Gen Aoki, chief of the meteorological agency's earthquake and tsunami monitoring division, said at a press conference. Due to heavy rain, the agency also warned of landslides in areas in Kumamoto and Oita where soil has become soft because of the strong quakes. Rainfalls in the 24 hours to noon Friday are estimated at 100 millimeters in some areas in Kumamoto and at 60 millimeters in part of Oita, the agency said. END