Quake in Japan’s Kumamoto Kills 13; Search for Missing Continues

Kumamoto, July 29 (Jiji Press)–Police, firefighters and Self-Defense Forces personnel continued search-and-rescue operations on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan the previous day. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that the death toll from the earthquake had reached 13 as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, including cases whose connection to the disaster was still being investigated. While many calls for rescue assistance have been received across the prefecture, the full extent of the damage has yet to be determined, and the prefectural disaster response headquarters is working to assess the situation. The earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.1 occurred at around 4:27 p.m. on Tuesday, registering a seismic intensity of 7, the highest level on Japan’s scale, in the city of Uki and the town of Hikawa in Kumamoto. The cities of Yatsushiro and Kumamoto in the same prefecture recorded an intensity of upper 6. According to the prefectural headquarters, three people were confirmed dead and five others were in cardiac arrest as of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. After the earthquake, an explosion occurred at retail giant Aeon Co.’s Aeon Mall Kumamoto shopping facility in the town of Kashima in Kumamoto, causing part of the facility’s second floor to collapse. About 200 people had been evacuated from the facility before the explosion. Eight people who had been trapped were located and brought out of the shopping mall building. Of them, two women in their 20s were later confirmed dead and one person remains in cardiopulmonary arrest. Authorities said there are more people trapped inside the building, and search efforts are focused on areas where rescuers have received responses to their calls. At Nippon Paper Industries Co.’s plant in the city of Yatsushiro in Kumamoto, a chimney collapsed, trapping 11 workers. Two of them were pulled from the site in cardiopulmonary arrest, while two others sustained serious injuries and the remaining seven are still unaccounted for. Numerous houses collapsed in the prefecture. A total of 465 shelters were set up and 9,872 people have been evacuated from their homes. Fire departments received 677 emergency calls, including 291 requests for dispatches in response to fires and other incidents. Water outages have affected at least 56,000 households in municipalities such as the cities of Uki, Uto and Yatsushiro as well as the town of Hikawa. In addition, the towns of Kosa and Mifune are expected to experience water service interruptions due to declining reservoir levels. Power outages have impacted around 36,700 households. With daily high temperatures forecast to reach 35 degrees Celsius or above in the coming days, authorities have urged residents to take precautions against heatstroke. Kumamoto Prefecture also experienced earthquakes registering the maximum seismic intensity of 7 on April 14 and April 16, 2016. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that earthquakes of up to seismic intensity 7 could occur over the next week and urged residents to remain vigilant. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]