TOKYO: As snow hampered rescue attempts, the dead toll from Japan’s New Year’s Day earthquake increased to 161 from 128 overnight, according to officials on Monday.
Authorities in the central Ishikawa region affected by the 7.5-magnitude earthquake said that the number of unaccounted-for individuals has decreased from 195 to 103.
Buildings were toppled, a large fire was started, and tsunami waves more than a meter high were caused by the shock waves.
There have been thousands of rescuers called in from all around Japan, and the estimated 1,000 landslides and blocked highways caused difficulties for them in their work.
The area has been covered in snow for the past two days, which has made the job even more difficult.
Against the odds, a woman in her 90s survived five days under the wreckage of a collapsed house in the city of Suzu on the hard-hit Noto Peninsula before being saved on Saturday.
Rescuers could be heard yelling to the woman, “Hang in there!” in police footage from the rainy scene that local media released.
“You’re gonna be OK!” they shouted. “Stay positive!”
Not all were that lucky. A 52-year-old father who had lost both his parents-in-law and his 21-year-old son in the town of Anamizu was waiting to learn about the whereabouts of his wife, his other three children, and more family members.
“I desire their survival. That I could be left alone is unimaginable,” he said to NHK.
For the more than 28,800 individuals residing in 404 government shelters, the winter weather is also expected to make things worse.
The regional government issued a warning that heavy snow could lead to more structures collapsing under the weight of their weight, and that continuous rain has increased the risk of new landslides.
In several of the isolated peninsula’s settlements, at least 2,000 people have been cut off by damaged roads, and some of the estimated 1,000 landslides are also impeding the passage of relief supplies.
This indicates that supplies of aid have not arrived quickly enough in areas experiencing power and water disruptions.
In the larger Ishikawa region, over 20,700 families did not have electricity on Sunday. Over 66,100 homes lacked access to water.
He claimed that the military has dispatched small contingents of soldiers on foot to each of the remote communities.
Additionally, according to Kishida, the government has “deployed various police and fire department helicopters” to reach them.
Japan has hundreds of earthquakes a year, most of which are benign due to stringent building regulations that have been in place for more than 40 years.
However, many buildings are older, particularly in rural places like Noto where aging populations are growing quickly.
The devastating 2011 earthquake that rocked the nation, killed about 18,500 people, caused a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima facility, and set forth a tsunami still unsettles the nation.
