This Thursday, rescue teams participated in a race against time to find what are probably the last survivors. of the earthquake that shook central Japan on Monday and left at least 84 dead and 179 missing.
Ishikawa Prefecture, on the western fringe of central Honshu Island (the country's main island), It was where the earthquake occurred and today it concentrates the main damage and all the deaths and missing people reported by local authorities.
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Towns like Wajima (27,000 inhabitants) or Suzu (14,000) They were the main focus of the military and rescue teams, since today 72 hours passed (the period after which it is considered very difficult to find survivors buried under the rubble) since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that had its epicenter a few kilometers from both cities.
Damage in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan.
Late in the afternoon, the fire service published a video with the rescue of a woman in her 80s from a collapsed house in the coastal city of Wajimathe most affected, after 72 hours after the earthquake that took place on Monday at 4:10 p.m. local time.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called for “maximum efforts” to try to find people alive in this region.
Wajima alone has 48 deaths and 93 missingwhile 23 lost their lives in Suzu and 68 of their neighbors remain missing.
Roads destroyed and hundreds of people cut off
Access problems are the other big problem for rescuers and the population, since in these two municipalities alone there are 750 people still incommunicado due to the earthquake, which raised the ground causing differences in level of four meters, has destroyed countless roads and paths.
A military ship has managed to land heavy machinery in Wajima so that these roads can begin to be repaired, according to the Kyodo agency.
At least 48 people were killed and 107 injured according to the Ishikawa Prefectural Government and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
EFE/EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON
Experts have also warned of aftershocks throughout this week and the next that could be of great intensityin addition to warning that the rains that are hitting the area could cause landslides and make rescue tasks even more difficult.
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To date, the number of injured people in Ishikawa exceeds 300, including serious and minor injuries, while throughout the prefecture, where it is estimated that more than 200 buildings collapsed, some 34,000 people remain in evacuation centers.
The fact that the earthquake occurred on January 1, when many people had traveled to the region to celebrate the New Year with their families, has meant that there are more people evacuated than normally estimated by local authorities and Reports from the NHK network speak of shortages of food, water or warm clothing in some shelters.
Planes, ships and 2,000 soldiers
Until this Thursday, Some 2,000 members of the Self-Defense Forces (Army) have been deployed in the region, in addition to 22 aircraft and eight ships for rescue activities and collection of damage information, double the resources that were initially deployed.
Cracks in the pavement on a street in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.
The Japanese government said it will use about 4 billion yen (about $28 million) in emergency funds to increase aid in Ishikawa, which includes doubling the current deployment of members of the Self-Defense Forces to 4,600 troops.
The earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula – an area known to have active faults – on Monday and had its epicenter 30 kilometers northeast of Wajima, reaching level 7 on the Japanese closed scale of 7, which focuses on the destructive power of the tremor.
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The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) considers that in a rank 7 earthquake it is impossible to stay standing and that it is only possible to move if one crawls on the ground.
This earthquake, the most devastating in Japan since the 2016 earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture (which left more than 200 dead), is the first level 7 to be recorded.
in the country since 2018, when an earthquake reached that range in a very sparsely populated area of the island of Hokkaido.
Monday's tremor forced a tsunami alert to be activated for hours of the highest category (those that are implemented when waves of more than three meters are expected), the first time this has happened in the country since the 9 magnitude earthquake that hit the northeast of the country in 2011.
That earthquake triggered a tsunami that left more than 20,000 dead and caused the partial meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl (Ukraine) in 1986.
EFE
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