ID :
169057
Thu, 03/17/2011 - 17:55
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Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/169057
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Debris clearance progressing in quake-hit areas
TOKYO, March 17 Kyodo - The search for victims of Japan's massive earthquake has gradually expanded across a wider area, with access improved by the removal of debris left by tsunami, rescue officials said Thursday, the seventh day since the quake.
Meanwhile, fuel shortages have hampered the delivery of relief supplies to shelters where survivors are staying, while also limiting the use of heavy machinery and heating appliances, they said.
The number of those who died or are unaccounted for topped 15,000 -- nearly 5,700 deaths and nearly 9,500 missing, while some 380,000 are still staying in about 2,000 shelters in eight prefectures, the National Police Agency said, based on its noon tally.
In a shelter in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, 14 people have died after they were transferred there from a hospital, according to authorities. They were being evacuated from their hospitals in the wake of the problems at the Fukushima No. 1 power station in the prefecture.
Around 2,000 recovered bodies were identified by 10 a.m. Thursday in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, of which 870 were returned to their families, while the number of partially or completely destroyed buildings exceeded 75,000, according to the NPA.
The number of people evacuating from Fukushima Prefecture to nearby prefectures is increasing amid growing fears of a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station, six days after the mega earthquake crippled it.
Niigata, Yamagata and Miyagi prefectures have accepted a total of 15,000 evacuees from outside the prefectures, local governments said, adding most of them are believed to be from Fukushima.
The United States advised its nationals living within an 80-kilometer radius of the stricken nuclear plant to evacuate as a precaution, while South Korea, Australia and New Zealand followed suit with the advisory. Singapore urged its nationals to move out of an area within a 100-km radius of the plant and Italy asked its citizens living in Tokyo or north of the Japanese capital to evacuate.
Fire trucks of the Self-Defense Forces joined Thursday evening in an unprecedented mission to direct jets of water onto a stricken nuclear reactor in an effort to cool down its apparently overheating spent fuel pool to prevent radiation being emitted. But the action had no immediate effect on radiation levels there, according to the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Yukihiko Akutsu, parliamentary secretary of the Cabinet Office, said in Miyagi Prefecture he was instructed by Ryu Matsumoto, state minister for disaster management, to focus from Thursday on livelihood support for survivors staying at shelters.
In the severely hit coastal city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate, the progress made in rubble removal has enabled the Self-Defense Forces to build roads so rescue workers can search for victims across greater areas.
Mayor Futoshi Toba said, ''There were some areas where we could not enter, but now we can go anywhere (in the city) by car.''
He added, however, ''We need fuel for heating, operating heavy machines and delivering relief goods to shelters, but we face difficulties.''
The prefectural government of Miyagi has almost completed confirming from the air the location of people cut off following the disaster and will start distributing relief materials to these areas by helicopter, one of its officials said.
Sendai Airport, which was submerged by a tsunami following the quake, was partially reopened for use by police and SDF airplanes to transport relief supplies. No decision has been taken on when commercial flights will resume.
In another development, express bus services between Sendai and Morioka as well as Morioka and Aomori were resumed Thursday, connecting all of the six prefectural capitals, including Akita, Yamagata and Fukushima, in the Tohoku region.
In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, meanwhile, Mayor Hiroshi Kameyama told the municipal task force meeting that the number of missing people in the city of 160,000 will reach around 10,000.
On Thursday, temperatures in the quake-hit areas in northeastern Japan dropped to midwinter levels, marking 5.9 degrees below zero in Morioka, Iwate, 2.7 degrees below zero in Sendai, Miyagi, and 3.5 degrees below zero in the city of Fukushima.
At a shelter in Sendai, all of the 400 survivors staying had received blankets by Wednesday. One 65-year-old woman said, however, that she had woken during the night ''due to the cold.''
As temperatures are expected to remain low in these areas through Friday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency called on residents to take care.
In the heavily damaged coastal city of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, meanwhile, elementary as well as junior and senior high schools reopened for the first time since the quake.
At prefecture-run Ofunato High School, around 250 students arrived on foot or by bicycle. First-grader Ayumi Urashima, 16, said, ''On the way to school, I met one of my friends who I had not been able to contact. We hugged each other.''
Aftershocks also continued, with two strong quakes with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 jolting northeastern Japan and eastern Japan including Tokyo Thursday night, measuring 4 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 in parts of Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures.
Meanwhile, fuel shortages have hampered the delivery of relief supplies to shelters where survivors are staying, while also limiting the use of heavy machinery and heating appliances, they said.
The number of those who died or are unaccounted for topped 15,000 -- nearly 5,700 deaths and nearly 9,500 missing, while some 380,000 are still staying in about 2,000 shelters in eight prefectures, the National Police Agency said, based on its noon tally.
In a shelter in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, 14 people have died after they were transferred there from a hospital, according to authorities. They were being evacuated from their hospitals in the wake of the problems at the Fukushima No. 1 power station in the prefecture.
Around 2,000 recovered bodies were identified by 10 a.m. Thursday in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, of which 870 were returned to their families, while the number of partially or completely destroyed buildings exceeded 75,000, according to the NPA.
The number of people evacuating from Fukushima Prefecture to nearby prefectures is increasing amid growing fears of a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station, six days after the mega earthquake crippled it.
Niigata, Yamagata and Miyagi prefectures have accepted a total of 15,000 evacuees from outside the prefectures, local governments said, adding most of them are believed to be from Fukushima.
The United States advised its nationals living within an 80-kilometer radius of the stricken nuclear plant to evacuate as a precaution, while South Korea, Australia and New Zealand followed suit with the advisory. Singapore urged its nationals to move out of an area within a 100-km radius of the plant and Italy asked its citizens living in Tokyo or north of the Japanese capital to evacuate.
Fire trucks of the Self-Defense Forces joined Thursday evening in an unprecedented mission to direct jets of water onto a stricken nuclear reactor in an effort to cool down its apparently overheating spent fuel pool to prevent radiation being emitted. But the action had no immediate effect on radiation levels there, according to the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Yukihiko Akutsu, parliamentary secretary of the Cabinet Office, said in Miyagi Prefecture he was instructed by Ryu Matsumoto, state minister for disaster management, to focus from Thursday on livelihood support for survivors staying at shelters.
In the severely hit coastal city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate, the progress made in rubble removal has enabled the Self-Defense Forces to build roads so rescue workers can search for victims across greater areas.
Mayor Futoshi Toba said, ''There were some areas where we could not enter, but now we can go anywhere (in the city) by car.''
He added, however, ''We need fuel for heating, operating heavy machines and delivering relief goods to shelters, but we face difficulties.''
The prefectural government of Miyagi has almost completed confirming from the air the location of people cut off following the disaster and will start distributing relief materials to these areas by helicopter, one of its officials said.
Sendai Airport, which was submerged by a tsunami following the quake, was partially reopened for use by police and SDF airplanes to transport relief supplies. No decision has been taken on when commercial flights will resume.
In another development, express bus services between Sendai and Morioka as well as Morioka and Aomori were resumed Thursday, connecting all of the six prefectural capitals, including Akita, Yamagata and Fukushima, in the Tohoku region.
In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, meanwhile, Mayor Hiroshi Kameyama told the municipal task force meeting that the number of missing people in the city of 160,000 will reach around 10,000.
On Thursday, temperatures in the quake-hit areas in northeastern Japan dropped to midwinter levels, marking 5.9 degrees below zero in Morioka, Iwate, 2.7 degrees below zero in Sendai, Miyagi, and 3.5 degrees below zero in the city of Fukushima.
At a shelter in Sendai, all of the 400 survivors staying had received blankets by Wednesday. One 65-year-old woman said, however, that she had woken during the night ''due to the cold.''
As temperatures are expected to remain low in these areas through Friday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency called on residents to take care.
In the heavily damaged coastal city of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, meanwhile, elementary as well as junior and senior high schools reopened for the first time since the quake.
At prefecture-run Ofunato High School, around 250 students arrived on foot or by bicycle. First-grader Ayumi Urashima, 16, said, ''On the way to school, I met one of my friends who I had not been able to contact. We hugged each other.''
Aftershocks also continued, with two strong quakes with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 jolting northeastern Japan and eastern Japan including Tokyo Thursday night, measuring 4 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 in parts of Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures.
