Tokyo, Jan. 2, (dpa/GNA) – A series of severe earthquakes on the west coast of Japan has claimed the lives of at least 48 people and caused considerable destruction.
A tsunami warning issued the previous day for the entire west coast of Japan was cancelled by the National Meteorological Agency on Tuesday but the disaster is not over.
“The search and rescue of people affected by the quake is a battle against time,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a crisis committee.
Alongside the deaths, well over 100 people suffered injuries – some of them severe – as a result of the first particularly violent quake on New Year’s Day in the Noto peninsula area, which had a magnitude of 7.6.
It struck shortly before nightfall on Monday and was followed by dozens more aftershocks. Tidal waves around 1 metre high hit the coast. At dawn on Tuesday, thick layers of brown mud lay on the roads in some places.
Rescue operations have been made more difficult by the considerable damage.
Numerous houses have been destroyed or have fallen victim to fires. Roads have been torn up or partially blocked by landslides. Trees have also fallen.
In the hard-hit town of Wajima in Ishikawa Prefecture alone, more than 200 homes and businesses burned down.
“At first I thought the quake was of the usual magnitude,” a 50-year-old resident of Ishikawa told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. “But soon after, there was a vertical quake and the house collapsed.”
His 79-year-old mother, who was in another room, was almost buried under the house. They spent the night in a tent on a hill and then moved to an emergency shelter, they said.
Around 100,000 people were told to get to safety during New Year celebrations. Tens of thousands of people are in emergency shelters.
A similar number of households lost power in wintry temperatures and water pipes burst. Thousands of army personnel, firefighters and police officers from all over the country were sent to the disaster region on the relatively remote Noto peninsula.
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and his family cancelled their traditional New Year’s appearance before the people on Tuesday. They were heartbroken and hoped that efforts to save lives would progress as quickly as possible, the media quoted the Imperial Household Agency as saying.
The emperor and members of his family greet tens of thousands of subjects behind glass panes at the Chowa Den Palace on January 2. It is one of the rare opportunities for the people to get so close to the palace.
While initial clean-up work began, the tremors continued. The national weather authority warned of further strong tremors for the rest of the week, especially this Wednesday.
In March 2011, a magnitude 9 quake triggered a massive tsunami that devastated large areas in the north-east of the country and killed around 20,000 people. A meltdown occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The Far Eastern island kingdom of Japan is one of the countries in the world most at risk from earthquakes.